Posted on 03/16/2012 6:43:07 AM PDT by Mangia E Statti Zitto
As Rick Santorum desperately tries to make a dent in Mitt Romneys formidable delegate lead, he faces an unlikely obstacle on the primary calendar: his home state of Pennsylvania.
Yes, Santorum is currently favored though hardly a lock to win the popular vote in the state he represented in Congress for 16 years.
But Pennsylvanias non-binding primary rules for distributing delegates raise the prospect that Santorum, who has said hell win the vast majority of the states delegates, could actually come away from next months primary empty-handed at a time when he can ill-afford it.
Which means the April 24 primary could represent yet another chance for Romney who kicked off his Pennsylvania campaign this week by trotting out supportive Republican leaders to finally deal Santorum a knockout blow.
"Winning the state doesnt mean you get the delegates, said Alan Novak, a former state GOP chairman whos supporting Romney. Most of the delegates will be political professionals, and its not their first rodeo.
(Excerpt) Read more at thedaily.com ...
They are going to force Romney down our throats whether we want him or not. This is so disgusting and transparent. They aren’t even being sneaky about it. This is the worst primary ever. I have not seen so much cheating done in another primary. I guess the Obama/Clinton primary had some cheating but not anything like this.
The delegates actually appear by name on the ballot in PA (as well as IL and WV). I THINK in IL they’re identified by which candidate they support, but I think that is not shown in PA, just their names.
If that’s the case, we need Santorum and Gingrich to publish the names of their PA delegates for every district. So if Santorum’s aren’t on the ballot, his supporters can vote for Newt’s instead. It makes no difference anyway, because neither one can win without going to a contested convention and they’re going to have to decide on a ticket to combine their support behind there.
It was Gleason who arm-twisted Santroum and brought in President Bush to back Arlen Specter against Pat Toomey in 2010.
It was Gleason who tried to recruit Tom Ridge and just about anybody else to run for the same seat six years later after Specter showed his true colors.
Worst of all, it was Gleason who single-handedly put the kibosh on Senator Pileggi's logical legislation to allocate Pennsylvania electoral votes on the same system as Maine and Nebraska, legislastion which has widespread support, even among wavering RINO leaning members of the legislature (until Gleason threatened them) and which Gov. Corbett was already pledged to sign.
It would actually be worth having Rick Santorum win our primary and not be awarded delegates if it would generate the revolution needed in the Pennsylvania GOP to oust Gleason and his backroom Quisling cohorts.
We need a tea party scale action. Let them know that we the people won’t accept Romney.
Office of the Chairman
Phone: 202-863-8700
Fax: 202-863-8820
Email: Chairman@gop.com
Office of the Co-Chairman
Phone: 202-863-8545Fax: 202-863-8631
Email: Info@gop.com
It was Gleason who arm-twisted Santroum and brought in President Bush to back Arlen Specter against Pat Toomey in 20102004.
Sorry.
Romney started using "desperate" to describe Santorum after getting beaten by him in the south. Must be the new Mitt Meme.
How right you are, V-man!
Add to your list of Gleason sins his thuggery in making sure the 12th Congressional District stayed in the hands of Jack Murtha and the Murtha machine year after year by sabotaging every Republican candidate who ran.
For all practical purposes we have a Democrat serving as PA GOP Chairman.
We had polled the floor delegates before the the speaking begin and found something like 80% of the rank and file was backing Reagan. As the largest county in the state, we knew the outcome of our county convention would be critical to the delegate assignment.
The state GOP chairman was from our county and a big Ford backer. In the end, even though we had fought the good fight, demonstrated overwhelming support from Reagan and finished the race, the state GOP chairman got up and told us basically this:
We appreciate the enthusiasm of our youth. However, it is not right to disrespect a sitting president. Under the established rules, I and my committee are charged with the task of assigning delegates in consultation with the county convention. Our decision before coming to this convention was to assign them all to President Ford. However, given the enthusiasm of our young people and others for Governor Reagan, we will split them 50%/50% as a compromise.
We got that much only because the conservatives were united behind one candidate. We don't even have that now.
Burns was a successful businessman and would have made a great representative, but a lot of the Russell people who I phoned were livid about how the party bosses basically bypassed the primary process to cut Russell off at the knees.
As it was, Mark Critz inherited the Murtha machine and won in what should have been in a 2010 a very winnable seat for the GOP.
McCain-Palin actually carried the district in 2008, as they did the neighboring 4th district which also re-elected Jason Altmire in 2010, another district which Gleason helped undermine.
Our only consolation is that at least one of these two fake Blue Dog Democrats will be gone next year since redistricting has put them into the same district. Personally, I find Altmire only slightly less annoying than Critz, but I'd like to see them both gone.
You're right about Gleason fearing Col. Russell, but it was actually Burns who sweet-talked Gleason by hinting he would self fund his own campaign and kick in bucks to other Gleason candidates.
Burns had planned on running for Senate, knowing he could outspend Peg Luksik in the primary. When Toomey announced late, Burns changed course and went for the House seat instead. He was a horrible fit for the 12th District and was destined to fail. Gleason got a threefer in Burns, a sure loser, free money, and Russell off his back.
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