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The One Man Who Could Stop Donald Trump (Curly's crazy control of the GOP rulebook)
Politico ^ | May 9, 2016 | EricTrickey

Posted on 05/18/2016 11:59:57 AM PDT by Beautiful_Gracious_Skies

Curly Haugland loves the rules..... North Dakota’s top Republican gadfly, its rule-mongering crank, its official state pain in the ass. On the national GOP’s standing rules committee, he’s been the pedantic curmudgeon, the stubborn speed bump who for years has raised points of order only to watch establishment Republicans stampede over him.

... Haugland has become one of the most dangerous men in politics: He’s the mainstream GOP’s last hope to deny Donald Trump the Republican nomination in Cleveland. It would take a miracle—and almost certainly lead to a historic split in the party—but there is still a way, buried in the labyrinthine rulebook, that the party could free delegates from their obligation to vote for Trump. To get there, the convention’s rules committee would need to travel a perilous road. But nobody knows the terrain better than Haugland, a self-taught maverick expert on the Republican convention rules, who has spent a decade pushing schemes to take power away from Republican primary voters and give it back to party insiders.

There is one article of faith in the Republican Party: On the convention’s first ballot, bound delegates are required to vote for the candidate to whom they’re bound. What you need to know about Haugland’s radical vision is this: He insists that’s not the case. Haugland has been trumpeting this nuclear option for months. In March, he blasted out a letter to fellow RNC members with the subject line:

“NEWS FLASH: All Republican Delegates to the 2016 Republican National Convention are Unbound!” He’s on a mission to let all the delegates at the convention in Cleveland to vote however they’d like on the first ballot, no matter whom their state’s voters chose

This has long seemed like a crazy cause—who doesn’t want voters to decide?

(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: New York; US: North Dakota
KEYWORDS: 2016election; curly; curlyhaugland; demagogicparty; election2016; erictrickey; haugland; memebuilding; newyork; pariah; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; politico; rulesrnc; trump
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To: Beautiful_Gracious_Skies

I was stationed in North Dakota for 7.5 years and found the ND Republican party to be an offshoot of the Democrat Party.

North Dakota politics is some of the most insular, inbred, and self-serving that I have ever seen and made me want to vomit as they tried, with every breath, to take advantage of the rest of our Country, especially the military members of the two air bases there.

It was disgusting.


21 posted on 05/18/2016 12:20:22 PM PDT by OldMissileer (Atlas, Titan, Minuteman, PK. Winners of the Cold War)
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To: Beautiful_Gracious_Skies

Rules for 2012 hold. 1237 and you are the nominee.


22 posted on 05/18/2016 12:21:48 PM PDT by DarthVader (Politicians govern out of self interest, Statesmen govern for a Vision greater than themselves)
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To: ClearCase_guy

As largely descendents of England, this applies still...


The Beginnings
by Kipling

It was not part of their blood,
It came to them very late
With long arrears to make good,
When the English began to hate.

They were not easily moved,
They were icy-willing to wait
Till every count should be proved,
Ere the English began to hate.

Their voices were even and low,
Their eyes were level and straight.
There was neither sign nor show,
When the English began to hate.

It was not preached to the crowd,
It was not taught by the State.
No man spoke it aloud,
When the English began to hate.

It was not suddenly bred,
It will not swiftly abate,
Through the chill years ahead,
When Time shall count from the date
That the English began to hate.


23 posted on 05/18/2016 12:23:33 PM PDT by ctdonath2 ("Get the he11 out of my way!" - John Galt)
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To: Titus-Maximus

I’m not sure that I follow your train of thought. Curly happens to be in ND, but he is the Republican National Committeeman for North Dakota. Haugland was elected chairman of the North Dakota Republican Party in 1999; he served one term and has since been elected to three four-year terms as committeeman. Since 2009 Haugland is a member of the RNC Rules Committee.

Looks like he partially won by keeping Martinez out: In 2008, Haugland set up an unsuccessful run for chairman of the Republican National Committee, in part because he was against a proposal that would allow an outsider to hold the position. Haugland was one of a group of RNC members who fought then U.S. President GW Bush’s move to install U.S. Senator (FL) Mel Martinez as the RNC chairman.

Some members of the committee disliked what they said was Martinez’s lenient stance on illegal immigration. Haugland argued that the committee’s rules barred Martinez from serving as chairman because he was not one of its 168 members. The dispute ended in a compromise with Kentucky banker Mike Duncan elected chairman, and Martinez given the title of “general chairman,” a position not replaced when Martinez stepped down after only 10 months in October 2007.

Here’s his latest 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries controversy: March 16, 2016 he said that Presidential primary elections are essentially a waste of time.

Haugland made this claim in an appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” saying that “We (Delegates to the Republican National Convention) choose the nominee, not the voters”

On the question why the party holds primary elections, Haugland replied: “That’s a very good question”. Haugland went on: “The media has created the perception that the voters will decide the nomination” ... “Political parties choose their nominee, not the general public, contrary to popular belief.”


24 posted on 05/18/2016 12:25:40 PM PDT by Beautiful_Gracious_Skies
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To: Beautiful_Gracious_Skies

This assclown is an excellent example of the people who need to be purged from the GOP if it is ever to be successful.


25 posted on 05/18/2016 12:26:19 PM PDT by ozzymandus
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To: Captain Peter Blood

If he were to succeed Mrs. Bill would become president- if her health holds out- and the Republic is over and done. Buried. If she were to bow out or if God were to bow her out at the last minute and the Republican Romney, or Ryan or whoever who is NotTrump were to actually win the result is the same. It would just take a few months longer. In the second case the Bureaucracy will actually assert itself and pretty much relegate the Republican President to the White House to play gin rummy and carpet golf with his aides.


26 posted on 05/18/2016 12:29:14 PM PDT by arthurus (Het is waar. Tutti i liberali soli o feccia.)
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To: Captain Peter Blood

I bet Erling “Curly” Haugland receives hate mail every day and he cherishes it!

The real question is why the 168 other RNC members keep reelected Curly to the Rules committee.


27 posted on 05/18/2016 12:30:31 PM PDT by Beautiful_Gracious_Skies
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To: COBOL2Java

That face.

He amy be still living that dream that there’s a chance. But he definitely is attempting to set himself up for 2020.


28 posted on 05/18/2016 12:32:09 PM PDT by Beautiful_Gracious_Skies
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To: Beautiful_Gracious_Skies

29 posted on 05/18/2016 12:36:51 PM PDT by kabar
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To: Beautiful_Gracious_Skies

30 posted on 05/18/2016 12:38:06 PM PDT by kabar
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To: Beautiful_Gracious_Skies

He has his email address and phone number on his website...so he must.


31 posted on 05/18/2016 12:48:36 PM PDT by vmivol00 (I won't be reconstructed.)
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To: COBOL2Java

Ya know...I really don’t trust that guy....just his looks make me thinks he’s a disingenuous person....then he opens his mouth.


32 posted on 05/18/2016 12:49:20 PM PDT by goodnesswins (Alinsky.....it's what's for dinner: with Cloward Piven for Dessert)
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 photo legsss.gif
33 posted on 05/18/2016 12:49:49 PM PDT by Prov1322 (Enjoy my wife's incredible artwork at www.watercolorARTwork.com! (This space no longer for rent))
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...
...here is still a way, buried in the labyrinthine rulebook, that the party could free delegates from their obligation to vote for Trump. To get there, the convention’s rules committee would need to travel a perilous road. But nobody knows the terrain better than Haugland, a self-taught maverick expert on the Republican convention rules, who has spent a decade pushing schemes to take power away from Republican primary voters and give it back to party insiders.

Ted Cruz Says Fight Not Over with GOP Convention Nearing (Wants to CANCEL Open Primaries )


34 posted on 05/18/2016 12:59:31 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (I'll tell you what's wrong with society -- no one drinks from the skulls of their enemies anymore.)
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To: OldMissileer
Having lived in North Dakota over 20 years, I will tell you that you aren't too far off. My Freeper page adds even a little more insight.

Our former Democrat governor Art Link (1973-1981) was better than anything the GOP offered since.

35 posted on 05/18/2016 1:01:37 PM PDT by Vigilanteman (ObaMao: Fake America, Fake Messiah, Fake Black man. How many fakes can you fit into one Zer0?)
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To: Beautiful_Gracious_Skies

I thought the delegates were bound by their individual state party rules regarding the first vote.


36 posted on 05/18/2016 1:59:08 PM PDT by TomGuy
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To: Beautiful_Gracious_Skies

This blowhard Haugland should be tarred and feathered, then given an atomic wedgie for good measure.


37 posted on 05/18/2016 1:59:24 PM PDT by Flick Lives (One should not attend even the end of the world without a good breakfast. -- Heinlein)
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To: Beautiful_Gracious_Skies

Based on the current general counts, Trump is only about 70 delegates away from the 1237 mark, and there are just over 300 delegates in the remaining primaries.

It does look like he will surpass the 1237 mark by a hundred or more.


38 posted on 05/18/2016 2:03:43 PM PDT by TomGuy
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To: Titus-Maximus

“Shouldn’t all federal offices be outside the domain of state law?”

The election of the President is ENTIRELY and EXCLUSIVELY under the control of State Legislatures (and Congress, for DC’s 3 EVs).


39 posted on 05/18/2016 2:04:48 PM PDT by Jim Noble (Cruz never could have outfought Trump.But I didn't know until this day that it was Romney all along.)
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To: TomGuy

I thought the delegates were bound by their individual state party rules
regarding the first vote.

*************

And the 2016 Convention rules haven’t been adopted yet. That will be one of
the first items of business. The Rules committee meets they week or so before
the convention to agree on the rules to present to the convention for adoption.
Now what they will be is yet to be determined.


40 posted on 05/18/2016 2:07:17 PM PDT by deport
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