I believe that in both Mississippi and Alabama any candidate that received more than 50% of the vote would have gotten ALL of the delegates. With no one getting 50% the distribution was proportional.
If Newt had not been in the race, Santorum would have easily have won more than the required 50% and received all of the delegates.....and Romney and Paul would have received none. That would have made him the overall delegate winner for the evening.
I think that all of the states which are required to award on a proportional basis by the RNC have a similar setup.
this is correct and something people STILL refuse to see.
If what happened in MS and AL, with Romney getting a 1/3 of the delegates repeats itself across other favorable Anti-Romney states of WV, NC, KY, AR, LA, MO, TX, NE, and SD, then Romney will EASILY hit 1,144 before the convention.
I encourage everyone to go to the Green Papers website and review the rules for the remaining states and play it out. Newt staying in means 100% Romney nomination.
However, you are correct, in many of these states, the Anti-Romney gets 50% or more, they get the massive bulk of the delegates.
One thing to look for on the Calendar. April 24 is a big day. It’s got PA and NY and a bunch of NE states. If Santorum get do well delegate-wise in NY, win PA, and pull off an upset in DE, he is poised to have an OUTSTANDING May, because the states that vote in May are all in the South/Midwest and Include:
Texas, North Carolina, Arkansas, Kentucky, West Virginia, Nebraska, Indiana
It is very possible Santorum would sweep all of these states in a two-man race, which would give him the maximum amount of momentum going into final Super Tuesday on June 5 with California, South Dakota, Montana, New Mexico, and New Jersey. Romney would be going a month without a victory by the June 5 primaries. This should allow Santorum to pick up at least 1/3-1/2 of the delegates in CA, and make him the favorite in SD, MT, and competitive in NJ and NM. If Romney is under 1,104 at the end of June 5th, the convention will likely be brokered (UT gives Romney his 40 delegates on June 19).
That's the way Alabama was. Which is another example of how Newt being in the race helped Romney extend his delegate lead.
Other states with that rule in place upcoming are New York, Texas, and I think Connecticut. We can probably shut Mitt out in Texas if we have a one-on-one race, which is probably necessary to denying him 1,144 delegates.
Many more upcoming states are winner-take-all no matter what though, not just if you get to 50%. 2 out of 3 delegates remaining are allocated in some form of winner-take-all. So exactly what happened in Alabama will continue in a 3-man race and almost certainly hand Romney the nomination.