Posted on 04/26/2016 6:13:16 PM PDT by Celerity
I see in a few counts that there are "Superdelegates" assigned to Cruz this evening.
Where did I miss this ? Does the Republican party have superdelegates now ? Am I missing something ?
Could they be PA’s unbound delegates?
Cruz got his ass kicked so bad tonight he should be forced to pay back delegates.
It should be clear to everyone that Cruz would not win the swing states. Without the swing states, Hillary is our next president.
I see a few “explanations” out there, but they seem to be served on a soft-shell.
And I think that whenever these things are explained, they seem to miss the root of the situation and only describe the leaves on that tree.
They are described in most articles and papers as “senior delegates, who like the Democratic super delegate are also office holders for the GOP. They do not have the ability to operate autonomously”
That explains nothing. Like who’s damned idea was this ? And you can’t tell me that the GOP would copy the DNC just for fun.
The DNC designed superdelegates to prevent another McGovern communist. It worked in 2008 when Hillary won the superdelegates, but Pelosi ultimately screwed all of America when Hillary gave up the post to Obama for seemingly no damned reason.
The GOP should not have superdelegates.
While Democrats will have more than 700 “superdelegate,” nominators unbound by primary or caucus results when their summer convention starts, there will be far fewer free agents at the Republican gathering.
A combination of state and national party rules decide how many delegates vote and how their tallies are allocated at the conventions. Most delegates are “won” by candidates duing caucuses and primaries, with some states giving all of theirs to the party’s winner, some apportioning them and still others applying a combination of the two systems.
The Democrats have a total of 4,762 delegates this cycle, including 712 superdelegates who can pledge their vote to whomever they want and can change their minds if they wish. Superdelegates typically include Democratic Party officials, governors and other lawmakers. Frontrunner Hillary Clinton says she has already locked down 457 superdelegates, which combined with her regular delegates, gives her 1,058, compared to 451 for her opponent Bernie Sanders.
The Republican party has about half the number of total delegates — 2,472 — and a relative handful of truly unpledged or “unbound” delegates — 298 — going into the Republican Convention. In addition, there are a small number of delegates who were won by Gov. Jeb Bush and Ben Carson in Nevada, New Hampshire and Virginia before they dropped out of the race. Those delegates are free to pledge to other candidates now.
Another basic and pretty good simplified explanation of the Republican Party Rules.
The "super delegates" I think they mean are the few honorary kind of slots a state might opt for. This requires context....
Each state's republican party can write its own rules on how to select the delegates the state is allowed to send, but they must do so within guidelines set by the national party. Among these national party guidelines is a new rule this cycle where if a delegate is selected as part of a "presidential preference poll" then that delegate must be "bound". In other words, if people are checking candidate's names instead of delegate names the delegates that represent those people are required to vote for the candidate on the first ballot. But there are some delegates not chosen this way, like Colorado that decided to avoid this rule and have voters vote for the delegates by name. Pennsylvania today is has a mix where some delegates are from a preference poll and others are voted for by name. I think there are a few delegates that are not voted on by regular Republicans but kind of decided by the muckity-mucks that run the state Republican party, and they are unbound and unpledged and can vote how they want. I don't think there are many of them, but I think this is what people call "super delegates" for the Republican side.
I am not sure about this, so if somebody knows better, please feel free to provide better info.
“And you can’t tell me that the GOP would copy the DNC just for fun.”
The Republicans used to use the caucus system a lot more prior to the early 1970’s. The dems too. The dems switched to doing more primaries, and the Republicans followed them shortly thereafter. Not sure the Republicans should be following the dems in anything that they do.
For the “super delegates” - I haven’t hear that term used by the GOP, but I know that from Washington State, three people from the top leadership of the state GOP go as part of our 44 delegates as unelected delegates - and I’m not sure if they have to declare a candidate or not before they go.
Although we ALSO have a primary vote, and our elected delegates need to vote the winner of that on the first ballot - but after that they are open. I’m not sure if the 3 top GOP people are bound to the primary winner or not. I would think so - but not sure.
The GOPe does not like us conservatives being active in the party. They want us to just shut up and do the grunt work.
“I’m not sure if the 3 top GOP people are bound to the primary winner or not. I would think so - but not sure.”
The Washington State delegation to the Republican National Convention in 2016 include:
11 At-Large Delegates and 11 Alternate At-Large Delegates
3 Delegates and 3 Alternate Delegates from each of 10 Congressional Districts, or a total of 30 Congressional District Delegates and 30 Congressional District Alternate Delegates.
3 automatic Delegates: Washington State Party Chairman, Washington State National Committeeman, Washington State National Committeewoman
The 11 At-Large Delegates and the 30 Congressional District Delegates, a total of 41 Delegates are bound by the Primary Election results on the first ballot at the National Convention under present rules.
The 3 automatic Delegates are not bound by the votes in the Primary Election.
I think there are three from each state, basically for the top elected officials.
Some delegates are indeed super people. :)
The GOP doesn’t have super delegates they have unbound delegates, most of whom will vote for Trump in the first ballot. This will start to leak into the media spin, give it two to three weeks.
Thanks for that detailed explanation, and with the 3 not bound by the primary. And excuse my ignorance - so the “at-large” can be from any district then?
Ok, this is a fantastic demonstration of this new system.
Calling the Automatic Delegates “superdelegates”. It’s plain to see that the term was only coined because it’s the only thing that the birdbrains at CBSNBCCNNABC could spoon feed the blithering idiots that they speak “at” everyday.
When I saw the word, I immediately placed it along the same lines as Inhofe’s McGovern superdelegates - Created to prevent the party from reaching it’s ultimate Communist conclusion, and I reversed it to think: “These guys must be here to prevent the Republicans from reaching it’s ultimate conclusion of a republic”
Just comparing the two concepts put a bad taste in my mouth.
These Automatic delegates are NOT new. It’s just that before no one was talking about them.
Thanks for your time and clarification, I appreciate it.
“And excuse my ignorance - so the “at-large” can be from any district then?”
Yes, the Delegate-At Large and Alternate Delegate-At Large may come from any Congressional District. They are typically recruited from the ranks of the Republican Party officials and election volunteers who are deemed to be deserving of meritorious recognition for their work and/or financial contributions to the Republican Party and/or candidates favored by the members of the various Republican local, state, and national committees. In this election cycle many of the Delegates-At Large were handpicked for election at the county conventions and legislative district conventions by the Republican chairmen, committee members, and Precinct Committee Officers (PCO) for their past meritorious service and support of the GOPe candidates, John McCain and Mitt Romney, and for their present support of Ted Cruz.
These party officials have almost entirely filtered out the delegates who supported Trump, Bush, Rubio, Carson, and other candidates at the precinct caucuses, county conventions, and legislative district conventions. Consequently, Ted Cruz is just about the only candidate who has any delegates who are being allowed to go onwards to the Washington State Republican Party Convention despite the popularity of Donald Trump among the Republican voters. Voters are showing up at the local Republican Party headquarters asking for Trump yard signs and bumper stickers, but the Trump campaign has not yet supplied any to the Republican Party headquarters. Instead, the Ted Cruz yard signs and bumper stickers are available at the Republican Party headquarters, but the demand is so small most of the Ted Cruz material is still sitting there unwanted.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.