Posted on 12/30/2011 8:33:03 AM PST by SmithL
NASHVILLE — Four of the nine Republican candidates in Tennessee's presidential primary ballot will have no committed delegates on the ballot with them on the March 6 ballot, while Mitt Romney has a surplus wanting to represent him at the Republican National Convention.
Candidates Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul and Rick Perry also had a substantial slate of committed delegates on the ballot to qualify before the deadline earlier this month. Candidate Jon Huntsman has three — two of them being former Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe and his wife, Joan.
Tennessee Republicans will elect delegates as well as choose their favorite as the party nominee March 6, though that part of the election gets relatively little attention. The candidates without delegates on the Tennessee ballot — Michelle Bachmann, Gary Johnson, Charles "Buddy" Roemer and Rick Santorum — can still win them at the polls and have delegates appointed later by the state Republican Executive Committee under party rules.
But getting delegates on the ballot does at least speak somewhat to a candidate's organizational effort in the state, said Tennessee Republican Chairman Chris Devaney, who stresses his neutrality in the primary.
"I do think it shows a certain amount of organization on the part of the candidates who have gotten a good number of delegate candidates to run," he said. "That certainly shows there's a level of organization and that they're thinking beyond the early primaries."
(Excerpt) Read more at knoxnews.com ...
Here in Tennessee, they are on the ballot. They did not submit a list of delegates to get them on the ballot as well. We have two sections in a primary: candidates and a separate vote for delegates. Those without delegates can get them assigned later, so it is no big deal. It simply shows a lack of effort here.
________ is MY candidate so _______, ______, ______ and _____ need to all drop out because I am taking my toys and telling.Oh and _______ may run so I will trash _______, _______ in case they do.
Where did all the candidates but Romney go?
:::Muhahahahah evil laugh from axelrod and Obama:::
I would love to see the looks on the MSM and GOP’s faces if LTC Allen West announced today he is running as a tea party candidate.
Perry is the only one with the money to continue—that is the point.
Do you take your marching orders from anyone? I don’t. I don’t even know who the “establishment” is. PLEASE tell me who these bogey men are who are pulling all the strings and taking away our right to vote for whomever we want.
I agree — they got over a long time ago, about 15 min during the first debate.
I have no clue what you are talking about.
This “establishment” word gets thrown around a whole lot now.
I don't remember this level of problems with ballot qualifications, either, in prior years.
However, unlike some on Free Republic, I don't think the rules are the problem.
The problem seems to be that we have a higher number of candidates with lower levels of qualifications and experience. In prior years many of these people wouldn't have been taken seriously, but this year they have attracted support from the anti-incumbent Tea Party movement. That's certainly not all bad; the Republican Party's leadership is part of the problem today, just as it was in the late 1970s before the Reagan Revolution. What is bad is that people who do not have the level of organization we would typically expect in a presidential candidate, rather than being ignored, are getting “flavor of the week” treatment and dividing the conservative vote rather than leading to us uniting behind a single candidate.
That is doing serious damage because the conservative vote this year is fragmented. That's a problem because it helps Romney. Hopefully we'll be able to fix the problem before we have to deal with Romney as the Republican nominee.
I hope that Iowa, New Hampshire and other relatively early states like South Carolina do what they're supposed to do, namely, narrowing the field. If that doesn't happen, we have a much worse problem on our hands.
I don't want to think about the consequences of a race that leads to a brokered convention, or worse yet, that leads to Mitt Romney as the nominee because no “anti-Romney” ever gained traction.
In Tennessee that's not the case. You have about 3 major factions there, 2 of which have been around since the Civil War, and then a 3rd faction made up of former Democrats.
I don't even think you all think the same ~ fur shur you need to vote for your preference and for the delegates that agree with you.
That has not always been the case elsewhere in the country until recently. Our current RNC leadership seems to be made up of folks who imagine their personal biases should prevail irrespective of the preferences of the Republican voting base.
They are willing to hold to that belief even as the party goes down to bitter defeat against one of the weakest opponents we've ever faced.
When did the nomination process become more confusing than the tax code?
They do that in Banana Republics!
They are willing to hold to that belief even as the party goes down to bitter defeat TWICE against one of the weakest opponents we’ve ever faced.
Had to fix it, rest of comment is on the mark.
I thought so.
How incredibly stupid. How can you be in a dozen debates, spend months on the road and hundreds of town halls, and not even bother to get on the ballot in TWO states?
It's totally weird.
I know enough about the TN Republican party to know that they love to choose the candidates before the voters ever get a chance. That’s one reason why I don’t donate to the party. Can’t trust ‘em.
People ask "Why don't more good people run" and the answer is they have better things to do with their lives than fiddle with Virginia.
Our little team of Fascist princes and princesses running the local party have left us with two choices ~ a loser none of us agree with and a mad man.
It's time for some Seppuku at the top before the party just disappears into a miasma of ausfharts and barks!
My thought is that the first one to get Sarah to endorse, or join as a running mate, wins in a landslide.
Cheers!
That may be true, but it is my understanding he still has not paid off his debt.
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