Posted on 03/15/2016 8:26:42 AM PDT by TigerClaws
Republican National Committeeman Curly Haugland of North Dakota sent a letter on Friday to fellow RNC officials arguing that current party rules allow 2016 Republican National Convention delegates to vote for the presidential candidate of their personal preference during the first round of voting, rather than voting along with the will of voters in their states.
Haughland wrote in a letter published by The Daily Caller that the party’s Rule 38, also called “Unit Rule,” specifically allows Republican convention delegates to vote their conscience in every vote at the convention.
“Every delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention is a completely free agent, free to vote for the candidate of their choice on every ballot at the convention in Cleveland in July. Every delegate is a Superdelegate!” claimed Haughland, who also pointed out that he has “been defending the right of the delegates to the Republican National Convention to vote according to their personal choice in all matters to come before the Republican National Convention, including the vote to nominate the Republican Candidate for President, for several years.”
Haughland, who is a member of the RNC’s Standing Rules Committee, claims that convention delegates were only bound to vote along with primary results at the 1976 convention and that the requirement was repealed in 1980.
He said that Tom Josefiak of the RNC’s Counsel’s Office gave a 2006 presentation to the Standing Rules Committee in which he counseled, “One of the important rules changes over the last 50 years has been the unit rule prohibited… that change was made so that an individual delegate can vote his or her conscience.”
Haughland, who told The Daily Caller that he believes Trump will not obtain enough delegates to win the nomination, said, “The nominee of the party must receive a majority of the votes of the permanently feted delegates of the convention. That means it doesn’t make any difference what has happened in terms of primary voters, because they don’t count at the convention. It’s only the delegates at the convention whose votes matter.”
News of Haughland’s effort to convince the RNC of his interpretation of convention rules comes on the heels of a Truth in Media report that the GOP establishment is working to force a brokered convention by attempting to deny frontrunner Donald Trump the delegates necessary to clinch the nomination during the first round of voting at the convention in hopes that another candidate will prevail in a subsequent round.
Thanks. Great book, but a greater concept...one that the Founders, IMHO, believed in - that all be armed to prevent tyranny.
Here’s an interesting piece by Curly Haugland that appeared on Breitbart last year:
This guy is nuts. Rule #16 provides for either proportional or winner-take-all state rules and they are bound to the candidate they represent. In the event there are delegates for several candidates in a state contingent, Rule No. 18 provides that the majority mix of delegates can’t force the minority to vote with them.
Rule #38 DOES NOT permit winner-take-all delegates to abandon their candidate on the First ballot. Rule #16 strips them of delegate standing if they try.
They can rewrite the rules before the convention.
Limbaugh is discussing this right now- he thinks that the GOPe plan is to nominate Jeb! at the convention.
This primary is revealing the rot and corruption that prevents the average American from having any say in who runs the country.
This is the stuff of which violent revolutions are made.
I don’t disagree. I think they are just stupid enough to try it.
“I blame talk radio and conservative politicians for purposely thwarting any idea of a third party by insisting that if we just ‘work within the party’, all will be well.”
Michael “Wormtongue” Medved constantly whispers that into the ears of his listeners.
I don't see them protecting Cruz under any circumstances whatsoever. He has called McConnell a liar and many other things to shake things up and piss too many people off.
it seems more plausible for them to nominate McCain then to protect Cruz..
...as Reagan did.
The GOPe had it made before Reagan took away their punch bowl. They had safe seats with all the pork and hookers they wanted from their Democrat betters. All they had to do was be the Congressional Washington Generals and never try to get anywhere close to a majority let alone take over. If any of the rank and file, or worse, an outsider, tried to change things, it was the GOPe's responsibility to exact swift punishment (something you see to this day in the way the GOPe saves its venom for conservatives).
As long the GOPe played by the those rules, their world was a great place. Reagan's near defeat of Ford in 1976 and his election in 1980 brought many conservatives into the mix and wrecked the GOPe's world. They have never and will never forgive conservatives. The idea that pulling the rug out from under Trump at the convention would drive away his supporters as well as the remaining conservatives leaving just the GOPe in place sends massive thrills up their legs.
If they do then I will have nothing more for the repugs. I now swear if they do anything to fix the nomination I will vote straight DEMOCRATIC ticket on everything. And I have been a staunch, contributing Republican for over 40 years. I am also sick and tired of being lied to by the repugs. I might as well be lied to by the dims who at least acknowledge they lie all the time.
“If the establishment picks anyone other than the person who won the most delegates, the GOP will lose in November.”
I’m debating whether or not that justifies a straight ticket vote for the open enemy party, rather than the backstabbing enemy party.
Probably not. One has assisted such people to power. But if the Geriatric Old Plotters pull this, they will go into an eclipse that will make them long for their dead days of the 20th century.
Thank you for the link, jjotto. I'm ashamed to admit my ignorance on the GOP's "rules" for the convention/delegates.
Unfortunately for us, they KNOW that.
I believe the GOP establishment would rather a Democrat win simply because it would mean the current feeding trough and pecking order would remain intact.
Better that keep the ability to siphon and steal taxpayer dollars than lose access to it.
If Trump gets in it will definitely be DISMANTLED, and rapidly.
I believe FR used to have a lot of posters who were actual in-person participants in the GOP, even if they were libertarians. They and their firsthand knowledge of how parties function and officers and delegates are elected seem missing this cycle, and the ignorance shows.
You’re exactly right. Sickening.
If candidates could pick their delegates, what would be the point of district and state party conventions where delegates are elected by the people? Only the most powerful with the deepest pockets would ever get selected to serve as a delegate.
If you have never caucused and run for election as a delegate from your precinct, I encourage you to do so. I wish we could teach high school students about the political parties' caucus processes in an elective civics class.
It’s been clear to me for some time that the will of the people of America has little or nothing to do with what is being done in our government. That’s why they’re all so upset by a candidate like Trump who is outside their influence. Even foreign governments are petrified at what they stand to lose. With so many forces aligned against the ordinary American, it doesn’t look encouraging for either Trump or Americans.
I don’t listen to Medved, although I hear he started out good, but now is more in line with the Glenn Beck’s of the talk radio world.
What does he ‘whisper’ - blaming talk radio and politicians for convincing people to work within the party, or does he advocate a third party? Not sure what you mean.
Unless it has been changed since my copy of the rules, there is a provision in Rule 16 stating than any delegate bound by state law who attempts to vote other than the way he is bound will be considered to have resigned and his vote will be counted in the manner bound. It appears state law has been made the determining factor rather than a party rule. Some states bind their delegates for one ballot, others for two or three ballots. Some delegates are not bound at all.
“Caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) is clearly applicable to almost all information being presented in this political year.
Folks, don’t let loud voices or pundits ruffle your feathers. Yes, the RNC Convention Rules Committee can and does change the rules of the conventions. That is the purpose of a rules committee.
However, any rule changes adopted by the Convention Rules Committee must be approved on the convention floor by the whole convention of delegates.
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