Posted on 12/11/2015 3:44:47 PM PST by jazusamo
Anti-establishment Republicans are up in arms over talk of a brokered Republican Party convention.
Ben Carson warned a brokered convention would "destroy" the GOP, while supporters of Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) expressed dismay that party leaders would take part in meetings considering the possibility.
"This is clearly their contingency to stop Trump and Cruz at all costs," Iowa radio host Steve Deace, who is supporting Cruz for president, told The Hill. "These people would rather lose elections than lose control of the party. And they'd rather have Hillary in the White House than someone the GOP base actually wants."
The Washington Post reported Thursday that party leaders -- including supporters of GOP presidential candidates Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio - met privately to discuss the possibility of a brokered convention, ostensibly to derail the hopes of a candidate deemed unelectable by party elites. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Preibus attended the meeting at a Washington restaurant, though they did not speak at it, according to the Post.
The meeting follows months in which Trump has dominated the GOP race. Carson and Cruz, two other candidates that some Republicans believe would be weak in a general election, are also near the top of polls, though Carson has been fading.
Trump's rise in particular has unnerved the GOP establishment, which worries his candidacy could sink Republican hopes of holding the Senate. Trump courted controversy this week by calling for a temporary ban on Muslims traveling to the United States, a position rejected by every other GOP candidate that polls show has support from the Republican electorate.
Supporters for insurgent candidates view the private discussions as desperation from terrified establishment figures, and believe it will only serve to harden their supporters. Carson's campaign was already fundraising off the report by mid-afternoon on Friday.
"Dumb. Big mistake. They just poured gasoline all over the fire," said Jeffrey Lord, a former Ronald Reagan administration official who supports Trump for president.
"I get that you need to have contingency plans in place, but this looks like they're trying to rig the game and it just feeds the narrative that the establishment is completely out of touch with the base."
Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski had a short message for the RNC:
"Play the game out in front of us," he told The Hill, adding that he's not worried about a brokered convention because "every piece of data shows that [Donald Trump] is the clear front-runner."
The speculation that party leaders are privately discussing what to do if an outsider is on course to land the nomination provided fresh evidence to some of the disconnect between base conservatives and establishment Republicans.
"The Republican establishment is playing with fire if they take any action that is perceived to harm the winners of caucus and primary states," said Adam Brandon, CEO of the conservative activist group FreedomWorks.
"If that's what they are planning or doing, they may inadvertently set the stage for independent presidential campaigns and further damage an already fractured relationship with many conservatives and Republican voters, which is why insurgent candidates are thriving in the first place."
Supporters for Bush and Rubio attended the meeting, according to the Post, and officials from those campaigns did not respond to requests for comment.
The RNC pushed back strongly Friday against the characterization that some within the party are plotting a takeover at the convention.
RNC spokesman Sean Spicer said the discussion about the potential for a brokered convention was merely "cocktail conversation" over the nuts and bolts of the race.
"There was a dinner where the subject was how the delegate process works," Spicer said Friday on CNN.
"We walked through the delegate selection process, what states were going on what date, how each state handled the delegate process, and at the end we took a series of questions," he said. "It's really nothing more than that."
Spicer argued that it wasn't suspicious that supporters of Bush and Rubio were on hand, noting that Priebus's days are filled by meetings with representatives from all the campaigns, as well as conservative pundits, consultants and advisers from all corners of the party.
Still, some say the optics of the meeting are bad for the national party, which is once again seeking to stamp out a fire that has sprung up over its handling of the primary process.
Fair or not, the alleged discussion about a brokered convention will confirm the suspicions many in the base have harbored for a long time, which have helped to fuel the rise of Trump, Carson and Cruz.
"It's completely counter-productive if it looks like Republican power-brokers are trying to orchestrate this," said former Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who is supporting Bush for president.
Gregg said the party may be headed to a contested convention - not to ambush an outsider, but because it will be difficult for one candidate in the huge field of contenders to lock down a majority of delegates ahead of the convention.
The party needs to have the infrastructure and processes in place to handle that scenario, but it's unhelpful to plan for it in a way that could be perceived as putting a thumb on the scale, Gregg argued.
"It's something Priebus has to plan for, but he needs to be careful who he's discussing it with," Gregg said. "The days of party boss politics are over and have been over for a long time. People will have a negative reaction to anything that has a whiff of that kind of backroom dealing."
Supporters for establishment Republicans running for president mostly rolled their eyes at the controversy, saying it was an example of outsider candidates looking to stoke outrage over the byzantine rules governing the GOP nominating process.
"This is getting totally blown out of proportion," said Katie Packer Gage, a veteran of Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign whose consulting firm is assisting Rubio's efforts in Michigan.
"The idea that the Illuminati within the party is coming down from on high to decide who will be the nominee is ludicrous," she continued. "Ben Carson needs to call someone versed in parliamentary procedures to explain to him how this all works."
While some Republicans say the huge field makes it more likely that the party could face its first contested convention since 1976, there is still broad skepticism from many quarters that that's where things are headed. Many believe the eventual nominee will emerge once the primaries turn to winner-take-all contests on March 15.
"This is just a story that turns up at points in the cycle when there's no definition to the race," said former New Hampshire Attorney General Tom Rath, who is supporting Ohio Gov. John Kasich for president. "This idea that there will be a stampede on the floor is very romantic but I don't see it happening."
A spokesperson for Chris Christie's campaign declined to weigh in, other than to say that the New Jersey governor is only focused on winning the nomination outright. That was the general message coming from campaign operatives in private conversations with several other campaigns.
"Here's the bottom line," Spicer said. "Republican voters will choose the delegates that go to the convention in Cleveland next July. Those people will decide the nominee."
That all depends on your definition of "Republican". Trump has much more in common with those Republicans who are the "base" of the party, who have a majority of Republican voters. The "Republican" East Coast Minority (actually "Democrats Lite"), of course, hates Trump, and, as of now, they control the purse strings and rule-making.
If Trump runs, and especially if he wins, a tide of coat-tail riders acceptable to the "base" will be swept into office, displacing both self-identified Democrats, and the "stealth Democrats", who will have their hot little hands torn away from their current sinecures.
Full disclosure.....I am NOT a Republican. I have been (and am) registered as an "Independent" (and am a strong conservative) since I first signed up to vote (back in the late 1960's)
With Cruz gaining, I’d think the conservatives should be in good shape unless the Mitch McConnells of the party do something to stop Cruz or Trump from ceding their votes to the other in the event of a brokered convention. I don’t know what Carson would do if he has enough votes to make an impact by then - whether Trump has burned his bridges with Carson or not.
All in all, Cruz is the smartest in not burning bridges.I’m hoping the Donald is just putting on a show with his jabs at Cruz, because the ticket that will win both the primary and the general includes Trump and Cruz, and they both do well to not eat the other in the quest to decide which is the VP and which the P on that ticket.
Hey, the GOPE party “leadership” tell us who is electable and who isn’t. That’s how it is, that’s how it always has been......yeah has been....
And we’re supposed to believe they were just meeting for a civics lesson on how primaries go.
They REALLY think we’re stupid.
The Mitt Romney gal was the exact opposite of Trump - oozing the “anybody who doesn’t accept the status quo is bat-shit crazy” smugness. I think these people have no clue that we see through the media lies.
I’ll be perfectly happy voting third-party and letting the eGOP/DNC destroy itself.
Dont forget to add GOPe pissboy Marco Rubio to the list of party sellouts. Looking and listening to the little puke makes me almost as sick as looking at Hillary.
Rebellion IS on!
I thought Trump did the perfect deal with the Brett Baier/Megyn Kelly styled RNC trap.
He trapped them right back. He agreed if they agreed.
He would support the nominee, if the RNC played fair with him.
“Playing fair” gets to be defined by no one, but TRUMP.
Marvelous. Smart deal.
You are so right.
The GOPE has joined forces with all the wrong people to take out TRUMP. This includes various assignments for the principal players.
The Clinton machine is to push the narrative that Cruz will be the nominee, before the first vote is cast, and in spite of his poor performance in national polls.
The GOPE is to mess with the delegate allocation and flame up as much negative foreign commentary against TRUMP as their office can muster. Democrats will help.
Thank you!!!!
Yes, the suggestion that "we sharpen our weapons" dovetails nicely with the "imagery" of insurgency...
The issue for GOPe is not what is going on. The issue is what it looks like is going on. GOPe got this way living inside the Beltway spin cycle where some sort of space-time warp leads them to think that this logic is going to convince anyone. It fools those who want to be fooled - i.e. the GOPeers themselves.
Oh, I think there is a strong argument to the contrary - blowing up the party is a winning bet no matter how you look at it.
Forgetting the complaints, the unfairness, and everything that this article highlights about the GOP-E, let's just look at that little snippet above.
What the hell do they know about who is or is not electable?
They were absolutely wrong on: Reagan (they opposed him tooth and nail), Ford, Bush 41, Dole, McCain, Romney.
If fair and square we settle on Trump, Cruz, Carson or any other the others, then that person will get pushed over the top. Don't they understand yet that they lose the PRECINCT LEVEL whispering campaign when they lose their base???
Yep, they don’t want Trump to be electable. They really, really don’t but that doesn’t make him unelectable and they know it. LOL!
If nothing else all this kerfuffle puts the GOPee on warning.
try this brokered manipulations crap and there will be hades to pay.
Fixed; a statement that demonstrates the general disdain insiders feel for the unwashed. They can't even see it in themselves. At least the 'smoke filled room' dealers of the past knew what they were about.
We gave them the House then the Senate and they think that they can hold them without us.
Idiots, all.
And what a coincidence that Yeb and Rubio were in attendance while all of the others were not.
I quit the Republican party the day that Boehner was reelected as Speaker. In Maryland we have a closed primary so I should rejoin them to vote in the primary to give Trump as many delegates as possible.
There are probably many more in this situation. For those that are; rejoin at least for this primary election.
A brokered convention is one where no one has enough delegates committed to him/her to be nominated on the first ballot. It has been nearly 100 years since there was a truly brokered convention. In 1932 Franklin Roosevelt emerged as a compromise candidate. In the infamous 1922 Democratic convention, when the “Wets” and the “Drys” battled 102 ballots were cast before a relatively unknown candidate was chosen, John W. Davis of WV. This was because 2/3 of all the delegates were required for nomination.
It is highly unlikely that the Republican convention will end in a brokered convention. Why?
1. There are simply no “power bosses” anymore. The last was Richard Dailey in Chicago in 1968. There is no one who commands large numbers of delegates.
2. By the late Spring this candidates will be sorted out. I believe that the three remaining will be Trump, Cruz, and Rubio. Even if there is a desperation on the part of the establishment to nominate Rubio the delegates won't be there. In 1964 there was a desperate attempt to deny Barry Goldwater the nomination. But the votes just weren't there.
3. If Trump “runs the table” I personally think that the establishment Republicans will find a way cozy up to him. They despised Reagan, but when it became obvious that he was going to be the nominee and gain the levers of power in the party, the country club Republican found a way to fall in line. I think this will happen if Cruz emerges as well.
Anyway, that is my two cents worth. With needing just 50% of the delegates it is extremely hard to find a scenario where the leaders can throw their weight behind someone who has not proven himself in the primaries. There are just too many primaries, unlike the days when most delegates were chosen by the few leaders.
Me too. I am so sick of these mealy mouthed buffoons saying one thing and doing the opposite.
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