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Title: Tennessee GOP accused of removing Trump delegates
Source:
HotAir
URL Source: http://hotair.com/archives/2016/04/ ... d-of-removing-trump-delegates/
Published: Apr 3, 2016
Author: Jazz Shaw
Post Date: 2016-04-04 06:15:28 by Tooconservative
Keywords: None
Views: 2955
Comments: 23
It’s been over a month since the Tennessee GOP primary, which took place on March 1st, so one might imagine that the wrangling over their participation in the national convention in Cleveland would be well in our rear view mirror. One would be wrong. The final tallies produced Trump as the winner in that primary with roughly 39% of the vote, with both Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio also beating the state’s 20% threshold to qualify for delegates. That translates to a total of 33 delegates for Trump, 16 for Cruz and 9 for Rubio. Easy enough, right? Well.. not quite. Those are the numbers, but at the end of the voting we didn’t know all the names. The delegates assigned from each congressional district (3 each) were selected by the voters and they are all presumably dedicated to their candidates. But because of the strange way Tennessee (along with most of the other states) breaks up their delegate allocation, they only accounts for roughly 30 of them. The remaining 28 delegates, allocated based on the state-wide vote, are divided into two groups of 14 each. By the state party rules, those names are selected as follows: (emphasis added) So 14 of the names were determined by the primary election… all well and good. But then we come to the final 14 who are “appointed by the Executive Committee with the consent of the respective Presidential campaigns.” Those appointments took place yesterday. Trump, as the winner, was supposed to get seven of those delegates and his campaign submitted names for each slot. But when it came time for the final selection, things took a turn and the Trump people are not happy. Some of the names they submitted disappeared and were replaced by folks who are being described as distinctly “anti-Trump.” (The Tennessean) Morris said two of the pro-Trump at-large delegates supported by the campaign, but now taken off the list, are Republican state Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, and Mark Winslow, former chief of staff of the Tennessee Republican Party. Both men were delegate candidates in the March 1 primary. Morris said Ketron is now slated to be an alternate delegate and that Winslow is no longer even on the list. For a selection process that was supposed to take place with the “consent” of the candidates, that sounds a bit off tone. I checked with some of the locals and got similar responses to these which were tweeted by state senator Frank Nicely. — Sen. Frank Niceley (@SenFrankNiceley) April 2, 2016 — Sen. Frank Niceley (@SenFrankNiceley) April 2, 2016 — Sen. Frank Niceley (@SenFrankNiceley) April 2, 2016 The standard line coming out of Tennessee seems to be that “all the rules were followed” and they are reminding everyone that Tennessee requires the delegates to vote for the candidate they are bound to on the first two ballots, so what’s the problem, right? Well, we’ve already heard that everyone is preparing for a convention which could go far deeper than that, with as many as a half dozen ballots possible. In fact the RNC is making detailed preparations for just such a possibility. So what kind of position will Donald Trump be in if, on the second or third ballot, a bunch of his delegates turn out to be people who are just waiting for the chance to bail out and support someone else during the horse trading which is predicted to take place? Let’s face it… even if this is all “according to the rules” this just looks bad. And it gives Trump’s voters all the excuse they need to claim that the game is rigged and bail out on the general election or even look at a third party run which will assure victory for the Democrats. We’ve already got Roger Stone promising “Days of Rage” in Cleveland over the perception of dirty dealing. Roger Stone, who left the Trump campaign in August, tweeted several times Friday evening about his plans, announcing a “Stop the Steal March on Cleveland” and calling on supporters to get to the city for the convention in July. This apparently is a situation which isn’t unique to Tennessee. There are hot spots around the country where the byzantine convention rules are in the spotlight. This weekend’s convention in North Dakota is already being described as a process of freezing out Donald Trump after the voters were given no voice in delegate selection. Colorado and Pennsylvania are already under similar scrutiny. And all of this is only the warm-up act to when the GOP rules committee meets prior to the convention in Cleveland. The media is focusing a spotlight on that process and will be watching like a hawk to see if the rules are shifted at the 11th hour in a way which makes it easier to shut The Donald out after a couple of ballots. It’s too late to talk about reforming the system this year because the cards are largely dealt already. But given the state of both the party and the nation as a whole these days, it’s not at all difficult to imagine these sorts of close, contentious races taking place in 2020 and beyond. There’s got to be some way to clean up the process and avoid a repeat of this soap opera. We can leave Trump, Cruz and all the rest out of the question and admit (I hope) that everyone who chooses to run should at least know the rules they are competing under before the game begins. In the meantime, I remain very concerned that the sort of tricks we’re seeing in Tennessee and other states will simply fuel the fires of resentment among a significant portion of Republican primary voters and create an easy glide path for the Democrats. None of this was much of an issue when we had relatively clear winners in place before heading to the convention, but those days may be at an end. Even if we’re “following the rules” in each case, it’s time to admit that the rules smell to high heaven and will continue to cause problems unless they can be cleaned up significantly. The 28 (10 at-large, 18 bonus) At-Large delegates are bound to Presidential candidates based on the results of the primary. Half are elected in the primary and half are appointed by the Executive Committee with the consent of the respective Presidential campaigns. When determining “half” divide the total number of At-Large plus bonus delegates by 2. If there are fractional delegates, round up the number of delegates appointed by the Executive Committee and round down the number of delegates determined by the Primary. [Article IX. Rule C. Section 2.] “A few of those names are still on there,” [Trump campaign state director Darren] Morris said. “Most of them are not. Most of them are very anti-Trump people. In fact, I’ve been told a few of them are very much anti-Trump and they’re there to do the bidding of the RNC.” Important to remember #TN delegates are required by law to vote for their candidate on first two ballots. #CruzCrew https://t.co/Xx4ShBJnma You are talking to someone with a seemingly limitless capacity to find something to "raise Hell" about. #ChooseCruz https://t.co/K5J3P8hsvH No matter how you slice it. There will be a majority of "anti-establishment" delegates at the Convention #NotWorried https://t.co/IGoa66zzEW A former adviser for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump said Friday he is planning massive “days of rage” protests outside the Republican convention in Cleveland if the party tries to “steal” the nomination away from Mr. Trump.
Poster Comment:
Just a snapshot of how one state determines delegates. Also, Cruz scored commitments of 18 of 25 ND delegates yesterday. North Dakota does not vote for presidential primary candidates at all. They just select 25 unbound delegates.
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AoS was offering this today, seems to fit in with this story.
| Denver Post: Ted Cruz wins first 6 Colorado delegates, Donald Trump shut out. Per CNN, "The state GOP opted not to hold a traditional presidential preference vote for 2016 and instead directly elects 21 delegates at a series of seven congressional district-level meetings, which began Saturday. An additional 13 delegates will be selected at the state convention next Saturday in Colorado Springs."
CNN: North Dakota delegate hunt looks good for Cruz. Cruz's team, both surrogates and the candidate himself, put considerable effort into the ND GOP convention. His was the only camp to provide a list of delegates to support, neither Kasich nor Trump provided their supporters with one. Word is that Team Cruz landed 18 out of the 23 names they wanted. Congressman Kevin Cramer (Heritage scorecard: 48%) endorsed Trump and lobbied for delegates on his behalf.
NBC: Trump, Cruz Work to Block Kasich From Ballot at Open Convention. "While Trump and Cruz are locked in a bitter battle, aides to both men tell msnbc it is in their mutual interest to keep Kasich off the ballot. The convention rules control who is on that ballot -- and thus eligible to win the nomination."
Politico: "Sore-loser laws" will prevent Trump from running as third party if he doesn't win GOP nomination. "He doesn't have the option of running as a third-party [candidate]," the Texas senator told Wisconsin radio host Charlie Sykes. "Quite a few states across the country have what are called sore-loser laws, that once you run as a Republican and lose, you don't get to then turn around and file on the ballot as an independent, so that will not be an option available to him." |
No word yet on whether Cruz has managed to knock Kasich off the Montana ballot.
#2. To: All (#0)
Headlining Drudge this morning from WashExaminer:
Cruz snaring Trump's Arizona delegatesDavid M. Drucker (@DavidMDrucker)Sen. Ted Cruz is out-hustling Donald Trump and looks set to ensure many Arizona delegates will defect to him in a convention floor fight. The Texas senator, who ever since Iowa has played a stealthy ground game in contrast to Trump's chaotic populism, is taking steps to snatch the Republican presidential nomination from The Donald at the convention in July. The New York businessman easily won last month's Arizona primary taking 47 percent to Cruz's 25 percent, scooping up all 58 of the state's delegates. That's nearly 5 percent of the 1,237 Trump needs for the nomination, and they're tied are to him on the first ballot. But Cruz, exploiting deep opposition to Trump among grassroots Republicans, has been far more active in Arizona than Trump, insiders say. He's recruiting candidates for the available 55 delegate slots, that along with the other three delegate positions filled by party leaders, would be allowed to vote for him in a multi-ballot contested convention. "Cruz, out of all the campaigns, has the most folks on the ground and has been the most organized," Michael Noble, a Republican consultant in Arizona who is neutral, told the Washington Examiner on Friday. "Trump has no real organization in Arizona," added GOP strategist Sean Noble (no relation) in an email exchange. "Cruz will get most/all Arizona delegates on second ballot." The Cruz campaign has been exceptionally skilled at grassroots organizing, a talent that lends itself to winning delegate elections in precincts, counties and states across the country. That was on display in North Dakota over the weekend, where Cruz topped Trump to win 18 out of 25 available slots in elections held at the state GOP convention in Fargo. In a telephone interview, Cruz's top Arizona organizer, Constantine Querard, was cautiously optimistic about the progress his team was making in fielding delegate candidates that would be loyal to Cruz. That team includes Republican legislator David Livingston, the majority whip in the state House of Representatives. Livingston said team Cruz is engaged in a furious round of phone calls, texts, emails and meetings as it attempts to place loyal delegates. The Phoenix-area Republican indicated that he would be thrilled with Cruz candidates winning 55 percent of the available delegate slots, but said the final results might be closer to splitting the delegation 50-50 with Trump. Flipping 29 of delegates out of 58, Livingston suggested, would be a major victory for Cruz. "We have a better ground game than [Trump does] in Arizona," he said. "They have some good people too, but we have some really, really good people and I'm hoping that when we get to the state convention that gives us a real competitive advantage." Querard said the Cruz campaign's Arizona strategy includes expanding the senator's reach beyond loyalists. Cruz aims to recruit delegate candidates that support Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who has since suspended his presidential campaign — basically anyone who opposes Trump. That might include Trump supporters who are having second thoughts after observing recent missteps and reviewing the latest polls that show him getting shellacked by Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton. "We're looking for either Cruz supporters or those who recognize that, to win in November, we need Sen. Cruz," said Querard, who is based near Phoenix. "The effort is there, the organization is there, the support team is there. We're not quite to halftime yet; call me back after next Saturday." The state GOP chairman, and the Republican National Committee man and woman lead the Arizona convention delegation. The remaining 55 delegates will be elected by grassroots Republicans from around the state in a series of local elections scheduled to occur over the next several days. Activists will formalize the slate in an election to be held on April 30 at the state GOP convention in Mesa. Trump led Cruz in the overall delegate hunt 736 to 463 ahead of Tuesday's Wisconsin primary. Cruz is favored to win there, and could cut Trump's lead by 42 delegates. In doing so, Cruz would make it more likely that July's nominating convention would be contested, as it would become harder for Trump to win a decisive majority of delegates before the primary season concludes in early June. Kasich trails with 143 delegates, but might yet be a factor in Cleveland. In Arizona, Trump has the support of state Treasurer Jeff DeWit and Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, among other well known Republicans. Trump's delegate operation is being led on the ground by Thayer Verschoor, an ex-legislator and former executive director of the state party. Reached by phone on Friday, Verschoor referred inquiries to another Trump campaign leader in Arizona, Charles Munoz, who did not return an email requesting comment. |
#3. To: TooConservative (#2)
#4. To: TooConservative (#1)
Wonder if Rand took his old Buddy Ted aside and offered some advice. Ron Paul supporters were very good at the delegate herding IIRC.
For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)
#5. To: redleghunter (#4) (Edited)
Cruz is a total political nerd, one of those student body president types. So he didn't need anyone to point this stuff out to him. He's probably been boning up on contested convention procedures since he was, like, 11 years old. Like Paul Ryan, who says he's read every federal budget every year, beginning to end, since his mid-teens. These guys are not your average kids.
#6. To: Fred Mertz (#3) (Edited)
Hillary will win it all.The Bilderbergs anointed her.
She appeared to be annointed in 2008 as well. Until that uppity upstart cleaned her clock in delegate math and superdelegates. Hell, even Rupert Murdoch gave her $1 million. It leads me to wonder if FNC's lovefest with Trump is a way to hand the WH to Hitlery.
I'd worry less about Bildy influence and more about Murdoch/Ailes and their Trump News Channel.
This place is dead.
I miss sneakypete too but I see little change other than him getting banned.
#7. To: TooConservative (#5)
Cruz is a total political nerd, one of those student body president types. So he didn't need anyone to point this stuff out to him. He's probably been boning up on contested convention procedures since he was, like, 11 years old.
Hasn't everyone?
A government strong enough to impose your standards is strong enough to ban them.
#8. To: TooConservative (#0)
everyone who chooses to run should at least know the rules they are competing under before the game begins.
The rules were not locked away in a vault - The Donald simply couldn't be bothered to learn them nor even hire someone who would. Pride goeth before a fall.
A government strong enough to impose your standards is strong enough to ban them.
#9. To: ConservingFreedom (#7)
Hasn't everyone?
All joking aside, Cruz really is that legal/political nerd, just as I described.
#10. To: ConservingFreedom, misterwhite, A K A Stone, redleghunter, SOSO, sneakypete (#8)
The rules were not locked away in a vault - The Donald simply couldn't be bothered to learn them nor even hire someone who would. Pride goeth before a fall.
Trump has just finally hired one delegate manager. He actually needs at least a dozen to cover that work. And Ben Carson is just inept at it. Carson went to ND to plead for Trump. Cruz went there himself. And Cruz gets 18 of 23 unbound ND delegates as a result. How was that being "sneaky" or "underhanded". As Andy Warhol said, 90% of life is just showing up. And Cruz showed up. Trump didn't.
Cruz has 200-300 experienced delegate managers spread through the state GOP apparatuses. And he's been getting them ready for their roles for over a year. This is part of the Cruz plan for a Deep Campaign.
Trump can cry about it all he wants but this is exactly like his loss of Iowa to Cruz. Trump was pouting over Megynn Kelly and skipped that debate and tweeted and fumed to the cameras. As a result, he missed a chance to really take the wind out of Cruz's sails. But he missed his chance due to his fit of pique with Megyn Kelly. Yeah, she was obviously the one Trump needed to focus on.
Trump has hamstrung himself repeatedly by refusing to hire adequate staff, refusing to fund the staff he does have (by buying them commercial voter data and giving them enough money to run a full complement of field offices), by failing to hire some campaign pros to lock down pro-Trump delegates to fill the pro-Trump delegate slots for the first and second convention ballots.
The upshot of this is that, due to his own carelessness and refusal to spend a little money on it, Trump has guaranteed that he cannot be nominated by the GOP convention unless he can win the nomination on the first ballot.
After the first ballot, the states who only bind delegates for the first vote will be free to vote for someone else. And this is why Cruz wants to put his people into those Trump delegate slots, even though they must vote for Trump on the first ballot.
So after the first ballot, all those Trump delegates from those bound-for-first-ballot states will magically turn into Cruz delegates and Cruz gets more votes, but probably not enough votes to clinch the nomination.
But then comes the third ballot. Now the Cruz delegates are like prisoners who were freed who then break their buddies out of "Trump Delegate Prison" from the states that bind their delegates for the first two convention ballots will become free to join their fellow-Cruz delegates.
So from the first to the third convention ballots, Trump's number inevitably drops sharply and Cruz's total goes up, pretty proportionally. All because Trump was too stupid to play the game to win, to have a real campaign that knows how to lock in their delegates.
#11. To: TooConservative, sneakypete (#10)
#12. To: TooConservative, ConservingFreedom, misterwhite, A K A Stone, redleghunter, SOSO, sneakypete (#10)
I was warning everyone about Cruz'ground game before Iowa. Cruz began preparing for this election since 2012. As for standardizing rules ,good luck with that . The best the RNC can do is threaten state Republican committees with penalties for not complying with rules they try to dictate ;like their threat against Florida in 2012 over holding an early primary .
"If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools." Plato
#13. To: tomder55 (#12) (Edited)
I was warning everyone about Cruz'ground game before Iowa. Cruz began preparing for this election since 2012.
I think he began preparing when he was 11 years old.
Lots of these guys have lived their whole lives with becoming president in mind. Rubio, Jeb Bush, Bill Xlinton, GHW Bush, Biden, they have coveted the presidency from an early age. And to win the WH, you have to want it bad.
like their threat against Florida in 2012 over holding an early primary .
They penalized FL in 2008 and 2012 by refusing to recognize half of their delegates as punishment for jumping the gun on the calendar and also making themselves winner-take-all. Now FL got moved way back and is proportional. They did seat the FL delegation in full and let them vote because McStain and Romney both had plenty of delegates to spare so the penalized half of the FL delegation would have made no difference.
More interesting this year is the SC delegates. Some of them are already chafing at Trump reneging on his pledge. They want to go to court to overturn their status as delegates legally bound to vote for Trump. However, a SC court cannot order around the RNC during the Cleveland convention. Even is a SC court unbound them, the convention chairman would still record their votes for Trump. The only way the SC delegates get off the hook would likely be if they scored a court victory to unbind themselves in SC and then appealed to the RNC convention rules committee to recognize them as officially unbound. This is because the RNC has rules that all delegates must be counted as voting for the candidate they were pledged to on the first (and possibly second) ballots. So if SC delegates won unbound status in a SC courtroom, the convention chairman will still record their votes on the first ballot as Trump votes. And there is no appeal. The SC delegates would have to get the convention committee to officially recognize them as unbound.
As with Florida, the RNC won't do anything until after June 8. If Trump has, for instance, 1286 delegates (unlikely). The 50 SC delegates have won a court victory in SC recognizing them as unbound as far as SC law goes. Then they would appeal to the convention committee to recognize them officially as unbound because of Trump breaking his legal oath to SC that he would support the GOP nominee. So the convention rules committee recognizes all 50 SC delegates as unbound and they all flip to Cruz or Kasich.
And that is how Trump could still lose the nomination even if he has as many as 1286 delegates.
#14. To: Fred Mertz (#11)
You forgot to include the riots into the analysis.
I assume it's a straightforward vote-riot-vote-riot-vote-riot sequence.
#15. To: TooConservative (#14)
I assume it's a straightforward vote-riot-vote-riot-vote-riot sequence.
hmmm has Trump been seen near the Hofbrauhaus lately ?
"If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools." Plato
#16. To: TooConservative, ConservingFreedom, misterwhite, A K A Stone, redleghunter, sneakypete (#10)
All because Trump was too stupid to play the game to win, to have a real campaign that knows how to lock in their delegates.
Trump was never in this to win but rather to assure that Hillary wins. Do you really believe that Trump made a stupid error, that his people (e.g. - Corey Lewandowski who among other things briefly worked for the Republican National Committee in 2001 as Northeast legislative political director, Ed Brookover who previously as political director for the Republican National Committee) are stupid? I don't.
Trump is a shill for Hillary. He has already destroyed any chance for the REP nominee to win in the general election. Now he is working on the total fracturing of the GOP and its demise just even as a viable loyal opposition party.
потому что Бог хочет это тот путь
#17. To: SOSO (#16)
Do you really believe that Trump made a stupid error...
Why not? We saw Carson, a very bright guy, make a lot of elementary mistakes throughout. Even pros like Bush and Walker and Rubio made plenty of errors in their races.
#18. To: SOSO (#16)
Trump was never in this to win but rather to assure that Hillary wins. Do you really believe that Trump made a stupid error, that his people (e.g. - Corey Lewandowski who among other things briefly worked for the Republican National Committee in 2001 as Northeast legislative political director, Ed Brookover who previously as political director for the Republican National Committee) are stupid? I don't.Trump is a shill for Hillary.
Very plausible.
A government strong enough to impose your standards is strong enough to ban them.
#19. To: SOSO, sneakypete (#16)
Trump is a shill for Hillary.
Yep.
"We (government) need to do a lot less, a lot sooner" ~Ron Paul#20. To: TooConservative (#17)
Do you really believe that Trump made a stupid error...Why not? We saw Carson, a very bright guy, make a lot of elementary mistakes throughout. Even pros like Bush and Walker and Rubio made plenty of errors in their races.
I don't recall that they were of the kind based out of ignorance of how the delegate roundup works. Trump has no such experience but he has savvy advisors who do. But it is possible that he did not take the advice of his people because he didn't want to spend more of his money and his ego told him that he didn't have to as delegates would simply be drawn to his personal magnetism.
The power of Trump compels you!! The power of Trump compels you!!
потому что Бог хочет это тот путь
#21. To: hondo68 (#19)
LOL. The view never changes.
потому что Бог хочет это тот путь
#22. To: SOSO (#20)
I don't recall that they were of the kind based out of ignorance of how the delegate roundup works. Trump has no such experience but he has savvy advisors who do.
No. He finally hired just one guy. He needs a dozen. A hundred would be better.
He needs to counter Cruz and his Deep Campaign organization which has already metastasized in the state GOP organizations.
#23. To: TooConservative (#22)
He needs to counter Cruz and his Deep Campaign organization which has already metastasized in the state GOP organizations.
He needs to go away. But even that won't do it. The REP Party is toast.
потому что Бог хочет это тот путь
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