By snoadmin
Cal State Long Beach may have a say in the ongoing competition for the democratic presidential nomination this year – physiology professor Rajen Anand was elected April 13 as a delegate pledged to Sen. Hillary Clinton for California’s 46th Congressional District, which includes the CSULB campus.
Anand has been very active in the Democratic Party and has been a delegate in the Democratic National Conventions of 1988, 1992, 1996 and 2004. He also served as a delegate for Michael Dukakis in 1988, and for Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996.
“He has been a Democratic Party activist for as long as I’ve known him,” said Kenneth Gregory, a retired professor from the department of biological sciences at CSULB and friend of Anand’s. “He’s always been interested in local and national politics. I think he’s an excellent choice as a delegate to the national convention.”
There were only two slots of delegates for Hillary Clinton to be filled in the 46th District – one male and one female, plus a male alternate. Anand took the male slot.
“In every district you elect one man and one woman,” Anand said. “Thirty-six percent of delegates will be Hispanic. Nine percent will be Asian. The Democratic Party is a much more open party, and the delegation is also very diverse.”
The 241 delegates chosen in California’s 53 congressional districts will attend the Democratic National Convention this August in Denver and vote on the nominee for the President of the United States.
The convention will seat a total of 4,049 delegates from all over the U.S., with a nominee needing at least 2,025 votes from the delegates in his or her favor to become the presidential candidate for the Democratic Party. Anand will be casting one of those deciding votes.
“There were 21 candidates that were fighting for two seats, but it varies,” Anand said. “In some caucuses, there are thousands of people voting. Luckily, in my caucus there weren’t many.”
Anand has been a faculty member with CSULB since 1970, and has served as the chairman of the communicative disorders department and as the founding chairman of the physiology department.
Anand plans to retire in June and move to Washington D.C. to be with his wife.
