Bachmann, Santorum fail to qualify delegates on TN presidential ballot

Knoxville News Sentinel ^ | 12/30/11 | Tom Humphrey

[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."

[greeneyes]

It does help. I did know about the penalty for having the primary too early. I just couldn’t see spending the taxpayer money on a non-binding vote.

So, if the Pubbies have the caucus, then there is no penalty right?

Thanks for your help.

[darrellmaurina]

Thanks, Greeneyes... to the best of my knowledge the caucus avoids the Republican delegate penalty. My only hesitation in saying that is I've been told that by legislators and haven't verified it personally by checking, but I have no reason to believe I've been told wrong.

I don't want to give the impression that this is the way I routinely handle questions — I don't cover state government and my focus is local and county government, so I haven't had a reason until now to check. The political consensus seems to be that the beauty contest primary is a waste of money but not a major issue. I concur. If this were the worst waste of taxpayer money going on I wouldn't be too upset... not the biggest issue on my list of things to which I pay attention.

If you want me to do so, I will do some digging and post relevant links, or if for some reason I can't get the rationale online from primary sources, I will make some phone calls to verify facts. You've asked a question to which it would be helpful for me to know the answer with certainty and with primary source research, but until now nobody has asked me and I haven't yet needed to know for my own work.

[Impy]

Yikes.

[greeneyes]

Thanks. If you happen to find out anymore would you please let me know? I wouldn't want to ask you to spend your time on it. I was just curious.

We have so much wasted money its true, but a little here and a little there, and pretty soon you are talking about real money.

I think we have it better than some, because at least we have the Hancock amendment, which I do think helps keep the taxes/spending in check somewhat.