Not really, political support and arm-twisting was normal in Primaries before WWI and ELECTIONS. The bulk of the delegates were chosen at thousands of small gatherings of party faithful around the country...country and state conventions. Caucus. Sometimes just a vote of the county or precinct board.
I'd appreciate it if you could share the quote from Gingrich if you have it handy.
This would be something I disagree with him on.
I’ll have to go back and check. I believe it was some article here tagged to Newt posted on Wednesday or Thursday from a stop in IL after the AL/MS primaries.
Paraphrasing, but I believe the contention of his was too many states with too many different rules favoring the establishlishment, along with the contention that liberal states, and more significantly, the liberal areas of the liberal states get more than an equal chance of choosing the nominee based on delegate allocation.
I remember reading it and agreeing. If Romney didn’t have the Mormon background that’s been allowing him to win some rural Western states, just about every county he’s won is a county he doesn’t have a prayer of carrying in the General Election. The assumption by the GOP-e is that conservative dissent will fall in-line.