Free Republic 2016 Caucus Open Discussion Thread LXXVI

Free Republic ^ | 3 April 2016 | Windflier

[Windflier]

DO NOT VOTE ON THIS THREAD.

This is the nightly DISCUSSION thread for the ongoing 2016 Free Republic Caucus. Per caucus rules, no comments are allowed on the caucus thread itself - hence this open chat thread.

If you'd like to vote in the caucus, please look in the sidebar for the link, or check downthread here.

Thanks, and let 'er rip!

Windy

[Windflier]

FR Caucus discussion ping

[DoughtyOne]

Results: 2016 04/03 on forum

Cruz, Kasich, Rubio, & Trump

[DoughtyOne]

Good evening

[Windflier]

Outside of Texas and Oklahoma, aren’t all of the Cruz wins, caucus states?

On the flip side, I can’t think ot a single Trump state that wasn’t a straight primary vote.

[DoughtyOne]

That’s pretty much my take on it as well.

The caucuses are pretty much run by party insiders. The GOPe doesn’t want Trump, so they hope to keep him from the 1237 delegates.

The other side will argue open primaries are allowing Democrats to influence our nominee. They may be right. On the other hand, we wanted blue dog Democrats.

It’s a strange situation.

[Nextrush]

Its tough call time for me and I’m considering voting for Trump here in Pennsylvania on April 26th even though I’ve sent Cruz money and don’t wish him ill or hate him.

I think Ted’s becoming a tool of the GOPe and he needs to take on some tough issues like balancing the budget for starters.

One Trump delegate has come out from the phoney baloney ‘uncommitted’ delegate election process of the Pennsylvania GOPe in my congressional district, so I can support him, too.

I know a lot of the candidates so I guessed him as a Trump guy. I was right.

I have to decide who the other two candidates in my district for delegate I will vote for.

Trump may get ‘bound’ delegates (14) picked by the GOPe for winning the popular vote, but he needs real delegates committed to him all the way for the fight ahead in Cleveland.

In the maze of the ‘uncommitted’ candidates on the ballot in each congressional district for delegates, there are committed Trump supporters.

[Red Steel]

Hawaii, Kentucky, and Nevada come to mind as caucus wins for Trump.

[Lonely Bull]

Free Republic Caucus 2016 Discussion Threads ping list.

To join or leave this list, or for questions and comments, please reply to Lonely Bull (private replies and mail welcome). You will receive a routine daily ping to the discussion threads as long as these caucus threads continue. Each discussion thread will contain links to results and older threads.

Today's voting thread: Free Republic Caucus 2016 04/04

Please reserve the voting thread for votes (and follow the rules given there); please do not post ping-related correspondence in the voting thread. Thanks for your interest!

[Lonely Bull]

Table 1: Free Republic Caucus 2016 threads, most recent 15 days

Date	Voting thread	Discussion thread	Results [on www.hotr.us]	Sequence no.
4/04	[link]	[link]	[available later]	76
4/03	[link]	[link]	[link]	75
4/02	[link]	[link]	[link]	74
4/01	[link]	[link]	[link]	73
3/31	[link]	[link]	[link]	72
3/30	[link]	[link]	[link]	71
3/29	[link]	[link]	[link]	70
3/28	[link]	[link]	[link]	69
3/27	[link]	[link]	[link]	68
3/26	[link]	[link]	[link]	67
3/25	[link]	[link]	[link]	66
3/24	[link]	[link]	[link]	65
3/23	[link]	[link]	[link]	64
3/22	[link]	[link]	[link]	63
3/21	[link]	[link]	[link]	62

Table 2: tables with older threads

Dates	Table	Sequence nos.
3/16 - 3/30	[link]	57-71
3/09 - 3/23	[link]	50-64
3/02 - 3/16	[link]	43-57
2/24 - 3/09	[link]	36-50
2/17 - 3/02	[link]	29-43
2/10 - 2/24	[link]	22-36
2/03 - 2/17	[link]	15-29
1/27 - 2/10	[link]	8-22
1/20 - 2/03	[link]	1-15

[Windflier]

“Hawaii, Kentucky, and Nevada come to mind as caucus wins for Trump.”

Thanks. My brain is on information overload in this primary.

[BigEdLB]

Alaska and Hawaii are reversed

[nopardons]

Yes, so the next set of states are NOT at all “Cruz friendly”.

[nopardons]

Cruz can’t get any crossover votes, so HOW does he and his supporters still believe that he cam beat any Dem nominee?

[Nextrush]

I see a lot of geographical concentrations in this election.

For example, I see the territory north and east of Washington DC as “Trump Country” and with New York on the 19th and Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island, Maryland and my own Pennsylvania the 26th as very fertile ground for Trump.

PA has its tricky, dirty, rigged delegate rules, but Trump can get at least 200 more delegates out of the region as I see it.

Cruz will do well in the smaller mountain states out West with their conventions as in Colorado and Wyoming in the weeks ahead picking up another 35-40 delegates.

[DoughtyOne]

Thank you. I’ll correct that in the morning.

[enumerated]

I’m from PA too, and a Trump supporter who wants his vote to count on April 26. I’m surprised to learn how much I don’t know about the delegate selection process in my state and elsewhere even though I’ve already voted in 10 PA presidential primaries in my life!

I know there are 71 delegates and that 54 are unbound. I understand what ‘unbound’ means and that there are 3 per district, but I don’t know the following:

In past presidential primaries I recall simply voting for my candidate. When I pulled the lever, was I really voting for three delegates from my district at the same time, that were preselected on the ballot, without realizing it? Are there a bunch to choose from and I can choose 3 from among them?

Even though they will be unbound, do they at least verbally declare who they plan to vote for? If I contact the local Republican committee person, is he supposed to furnish me with information regarding which delegates may be informally pledged to a certain candidate?

Will the delegates’ votes at the convention become public information so they can be held accountable for how they vote?

Sorry about all the questions. I’ve been hearing about certain campaigns having a better ‘ground game’, or built in support from the party establishment, and picking up more delegates even though they lost the primary. I just want my vote to count, and if Trump wins in PA or in my district, I want him to get the delegates fair and square, rather than another candidate who is better at gaming the system.

Thanks!!

[Nextrush]

Many of the local GOPe elected officials, operatives etc. are telling the media they will support ‘whoever wins their district’ with lots of qualifiers and but’s squeezed in afterwards.

In my district, the 4th, one candidate told the media flat out he supports Trump and was recruited by the Trump campaign as a delegate candidate.

I was contacted about being a Cruz delegate running in this system.

THERE IS A SEPARATE ELECTION IN EACH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT WHERE YOU GET TO PICK UP TO THREE NAMES.

This separate delegate election system has served the GOPe of PA well over the years with local elected officials of the GOPe winning races by name recognition alone.

The Republican Pennsylvania delegates end up being a bulwark against conservative or outsider candidates.

This system meant 90 percent of the delegates ending up supporting Gerald Ford over Ronald Reagan in 1976 even after Reagan picked Richard Schweiker, a Pennsylvania US Senator, as his running mate ahead of the final vote.

[enumerated]

Thanks!

I guess I will have to do some digging in my district (13th) to find out if any are outspokenly for Trump, or can be trusted to vote for the district winner.

I looked on DonaldjTrump.com for some guidance and clicked on Pennsylvania. All I got was a ‘get involved’ button that asked for a bunch of contact information.

I was interested in your comment about one delegate candidate saying he’d been recruited by the Trump campaign.

If the Trump campaign is out there in the various districts recruiting people, I would think they would have a guide on DonaldjTrump.com for each state and district, showing which three delegate names they recommend you vote for when you vote for Trump.

[Nextrush]

Get connected to Trump’s campaign at the website and hopefully they will send you an email to help before the election.

I hope they direct mail voters, even robocall before the election in each congressional district.