Trump's Saturday delegate disaster (South Carolina and Colorado)

The Politico ^ | April 9, 2016 | Eli Stokols and Kyle Cheney

[2ndDivisionVet]

In Colorado and South Carolina, the GOP's embattled front-runner had another very bad day.

Donald Trump’s struggle to win loyal delegates to the Republican National Convention grew even more desperate on Saturday, with crushing losses in Colorado and South Carolina that put victory at a contested convention further from his grasp.

Trump, who handed the reins of much of his campaign this week to strategist Paul Manafort in an effort to shore up his operation before the nomination slips away, was swept out of delegate slots up for grabs at Colorado’s state convention. Adding to his woes, he picked up just one delegate of six on the ballot in South Carolina. The most painful result, though, may have been Trump’s failure to capture two of three slots in his strongest South Carolina congressional district.

In fact, Trump lost five of the six delegate seats on the ballot in South Carolina’s 3rd and 7th congressional districts. Ted Cruz nabbed a delegate in the 7th district, while another, Alan Clemmons, remained uncommitted despite Trump’s dominant finish there in the state’s Feb. 20 primary. (The Manhattan billionaire won 43 percent of the district’s vote, to Cruz’s 20 percent and Kasich’s 6 percent.) Cruz also won two of three delegates in the 3rd district, while a third — Susan Aiken, a supporter of Marco Rubio — will go to the convention as an uncommitted delegate.

At the same time, Trump so far has been swept in Colorado, which unlike most states chooses its delegates indirectly, through a series of caucuses. Cruz, who has had a team working the state for months, received a thunderous ovation in Colorado Springs at Saturday afternoon’s chaotic GOP assembly as he announced his preliminary delegate haul while Trump’s bare-bones operation struggled to get organized.

After firing the organizer initially put in charge of Colorado last week, Trump’s team hired Patrick Davis, a GOP operative from Colorado Springs, to put together a slate in an effort to win some of the delegate slots to be elected by just fewer than 4,000 party activists at Saturday’s assembly. Heading in, Cruz had already swept the seven assemblies held in the state’s congressional districts, each of which elect three delegates, giving him 21 of Colorado’s 34 elected delegates – a majority – before ballots hit the floor at the state convention.

"We have beaten Donald Trump," Cruz told supporters packed into the World Arena.

Trump’s last-minute organizing effort did not go well. The leaflet his campaign handed out listed a slate of 26 delegates. But in many cases the numbers indicating their ballot position — more than 600 delegates are running for 13 slots — were off, meaning that Trump’s team was mistakenly directing votes toward other candidates’ delegates.

When the balloting results were announced Saturday evening, Cruz picked up the 13 statewide at-large delegates chosen during Saturday’s convention, with the final three appointed automatically by the Colorado Republican Party, giving him all 34 of Colorado's elected delegates (Trump did win six of the 34 alternate spots).

“Cruz had the crowd eating out of his hand when he spoke,” said Kelly Maher, a GOP operative based in Denver.

It’s an extension of a losing streak for Trump that threatens the mogul’s odds of winning the Republican nomination at what is increasingly likely to be a contested convention in July. Trump is close to falling short of enough support in the state-level primaries and caucuses to clinch the nomination outright, meaning his fate would be determined by delegates in Cleveland.

Yet Trump’s thinly staffed operations, even in the states he carried easily in February and March primaries, have left little organization behind to support delegate candidates. In addition to the congressional-district routs in South Carolina and Colorado, he’s been dealt setbacks in Indiana, North Dakota, Tennessee, Louisiana, South Dakota, and Georgia. Massachusetts is also shaping up as a delegate battleground, despite Trump’s dominance of the popular vote there.

Trump has primarily lost delegate races to Cruz, whose superior organization, months of preparatory work and resonance among the GOP’s activist base has helped him consolidate support in the insider-oriented battle for delegates. Trump has begun mobilizing for a delegate push in recent days, empowering Manafort, a veteran of past convention battles, to lead his effort, but the 67-year-old lobbyist and political consultant is still playing catch-up.

Trump dominated South Carolina’s Feb. 20 primary in a much more crowded field, earning the obligatory support of all 50 of the state’s convention delegates on the first ballot at the national convention, set to be held in Cleveland. But if Trump falls short of clinching the nomination on a first vote, these delegates will become “unbound” on a second ballot, free to support the candidate of their choice.

Trump’s lone South Carolina delegate on the day, Jerry Rovner of Pawleys Island, said he’d stick with Trump so long as it looked like he had a shot to win the convention on subsequent ballots. But he said he’s open to backing Cruz as well, though he won’t consider any other candidate, even new entrants into the contest at the convention.

“The people that put the work in, that’s who I’m gonna support. I’m going to start with Donald Trump and I’ll stay with him,” he said.

Gerri McDaniel, who won an alternate slot for Trump in the 7th District, said she was frustrated to finish just outside the top three in voting and noted that she had been sick, preventing her from actively campaigning in the delegate fight.

“If I had not have been sick — this is my fourth day out of the house — probably the results would have been quite different," she said.

Trump was always poised to struggle to win delegates in South Carolina because the process favors party insiders who typically have rejected his brash, establishment-bashing style.

Early indications in North Carolina and Iowa suggested Trump had been routed in the hunt for another 30-plus delegates there. Cruz won the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1, but Trump bested Cruz in North Carolina on March 15. Still, Trump's efforts were essentially futile in both states.

Trump's lone bright spot of the weekend came in Michigan, where Republicans were also selecting delegates on Saturday. With a little help from John Kasich's campaign, Trump's team gave Cruz a dose of his own medicine, leaving the Texas senator shut out of the eight convention committee slots.

Kasich's delegates, whose votes Cruz was counting on, ended up voting for Trump behind closed doors after Cruz attempted to win all eight committee slots. Saul Anuzis, Cruz's Michigan campaign chairman, called it a "double-cross," even going as far as to tweet that the Ohio governor is "now openly auditioning for Donald Trump's Vice President slot."

Of the 59 delegates selected Friday and Saturday in Michigan, 25 spots went to Trump, while Cruz and Kasich each took 17 apiece. But the highly coveted committee assignments, especially on the RNC Rules Committee that could revamp procedures for the nomination battle, are of heightened importance with the increasing likelihood of a contested convention. If Kasich doesn't have any supporters on that committee, his rivals' backers could draft new rules that make it harder for Kasich to compete.

Every state gets two slots on the committee. Kasich backer Judi Schwalbach won the rules slot, and Trump supporter Matt Hall won the other, a rare double defeat for Cruz.

Cruz was also boxed out by Trump and Kasich supporters from any of the other convention committees. Kasich delegate Chuck Yob won a slot on the Convention Credentials Committee, which will rule on challenges to delegates’ eligibility to be seated in Cleveland. And Kasich delegate Yavonne Whitbeck won a spot on the Permanent Organization Committee, which — among other tasks — will elect a chairman to preside over the convention.

On Friday evening, as the scope of Cruz’s victory in Colorado was coming into view, Trump seemed to recognize his plight.

“Isn’t it a shame that the person who will have by far the most delegates and many millions more votes than anyone else, me, still must fight,” he tweeted.

[nathanbedford]

Behold the genius manager whose campaign is in disarray, who puts candidates on the wrong ballot, who would not play by the rules even if he knew them.

How often have we been lectured by Trump supporters telling us what a genius Donald Trump is, how we can manage as billion-dollar empire, how he has managerial experience and Ted Cruz, for example, has none. Well the freshman congressman just left Donald Trump humiliated, standing naked with his hands on his ample ass.

This genius, the man touted to be able to reform the vast bureaucracy of the federal government and especially the Veterans Administration, cannot manage even his own campaign. Donald Trump is exposing himself for the fraud he is.

[2ndDivisionVet]

So you’ve bought some of that new Winchester Bourbon?

[gubamyster]

It’s bad enough our current administration is ruling like a dictatorship, but the “opposition” party is doing the very same thing. It really is scary to see what this country is becoming.

[heights]

Every day Cruz’s slimyness loses him more support. If he somehow manages to subvert the will of the voters and Steal enough Party Hack delegates for a second ballot nomination, he will be the most Hated nominee in a hundred years.

[Conservative Gato]

I don’t understand why you are so giddy that millions of voters potentially will have their votes negated & thrown to a candidate they did not vote for or support? I know you hate Trump, but doesn’t it bother you that the political system is rigged like this? Really, it goes against what this country was founded on. Whether it is your candidate or not, you should be bothered.

Good points. If the establishment had their man like in the past, Romney or McCain, this nomination would be over. Cruz needs like 88% of the remaining delegates to win this outright. After New York it will be virtually impossible to get the nomination outright. In 2012 late in the Republican race, Santorum faced needing 75% of the remaining delegates and he withdrew.

It speaks volumes that if the GOP establishment had their nominee, this would be over, now they are going to try to take it by hook or by crook because they don't.

It's amazing these Freepers don't realize they are ultimately helping the corrupt GOPe establishment or they don't care because the ends justify the means. I hope they realize, that's how commies or statists get things done.

CGato

[tumblindice]

Nothing but Rebel Yell popskull for me, my fine feathered friend.
All your taste is in your mouth.
How can you post crap like this?

[2ndDivisionVet]

Most delegates are your neighbors, not so-called party hacks. Too bad the Manhattan billionaire doesn’t know how to talk to the regular people.

[gubamyster]

You are correct, Cruzmight be more conservative than Trump, but the ends don’t justify the means. Just because they want him in there, fixing/rigging the election and disenfranchising voters does not the way to go. This is no better than a dictatorship. Instead of rolling in tanks & taking over, they are just taking over the ballot box.

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Hiding behind this “hey, them’s the rules, that’s how the system works, go cry if you don’t like it” shtick is extremely disingenuous. How many of these same people had a similarly blasé reaction when Obama sealed all of his records, or when citizens were repeatedly found to have no standing to see his birth certificate, or when Obamacare was quickly pushed through to the president’s desk when a Republican who vowed to vote against it was elected in a special election? Approximately none of them, even though all those situations were “by the rules” as well.

[Duchess47]

I don’t believe I have actively hated anyone in my live time as much as I hate Ted Cruz. He is a slimey, conniving, lying power hungry, American hating foreigner.

[inchworm]

The GOP’s rules? They are snob rules. Everything the GOP does is meant to thumb their nose to the voter. These rules are all meant to support the wants wishes and desires of the high donor class. These delegates are worse than politicians bought and paid for by lobbyists.

[tumblindice]

And as a postscript, how can you continue to support a slimy, GOP-e pwned, philandering snake like Ted?
Do you ever sleep Vet? Are you able to?

[2ndDivisionVet]

So he’s worse than Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Harry Reid in your mind?

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

Because party hacks can’t also be neighbors, right? We’ve all known these types of people. In my experience they’re usually big-time small-town horse traders, loud mouths on the range committee, and a-holes.

[Mr Apple]

Once again, his sore-loser cult will say it is cheating because Trump did not understand the rules.

Some folks come across as a delusional, unwashed gospel preacher in one of those big tents at the side of a road.

[Jane Long]

If Santorum would’ve done this trick to Romney, the GOPee would’ve been apoplectic.

Their not saying hardly a word...or the few “it’s the rules” statements/talking points....tells me that the cRuz campaign and GOPee are collaborating on this.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Then you should have got in there and out-worked them. I gave thousands of hours volunteering at my county party headquarters in my twenties, so I guess I’m an a-hole?

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

"so I guess I’m an a-hole?"

You seem to support of every slimy, insideresque move Cruz makes. Don't tempt me to say anything further.

[Duchess47]

You sir, are exposing yourself for the fraud you are. How anyone the least bit interested in the Constitution or the American public can cheer this is beyond me.

Let’s just subvert the whole idea of public having any input into the selecting of our government. Let’s just allow a few elitists decide what’s best for us. Seems we started this country because we didn’t buy into that.

[Jane Long]

Combined with the tactics of....