Of one thing we can be sure, his appalling mismanagement of delegates has nothing to do with Donald Trump or the way he screwed up and what it means for his ability to manage the country-it has only to do with you and me.
Posted on 04/09/2016 8:30:19 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
In Colorado and South Carolina, the GOP's embattled front-runner had another very bad day.
Donald Trump’s struggle to win loyal delegates to the Republican National Convention grew even more desperate on Saturday, with crushing losses in Colorado and South Carolina that put victory at a contested convention further from his grasp.
Trump, who handed the reins of much of his campaign this week to strategist Paul Manafort in an effort to shore up his operation before the nomination slips away, was swept out of delegate slots up for grabs at Colorado’s state convention. Adding to his woes, he picked up just one delegate of six on the ballot in South Carolina. The most painful result, though, may have been Trump’s failure to capture two of three slots in his strongest South Carolina congressional district.
In fact, Trump lost five of the six delegate seats on the ballot in South Carolina’s 3rd and 7th congressional districts. Ted Cruz nabbed a delegate in the 7th district, while another, Alan Clemmons, remained uncommitted despite Trump’s dominant finish there in the state’s Feb. 20 primary. (The Manhattan billionaire won 43 percent of the district’s vote, to Cruz’s 20 percent and Kasich’s 6 percent.) Cruz also won two of three delegates in the 3rd district, while a third — Susan Aiken, a supporter of Marco Rubio — will go to the convention as an uncommitted delegate.
At the same time, Trump so far has been swept in Colorado, which unlike most states chooses its delegates indirectly, through a series of caucuses. Cruz, who has had a team working the state for months, received a thunderous ovation in Colorado Springs at Saturday afternoon’s chaotic GOP assembly as he announced his preliminary delegate haul while Trump’s bare-bones operation struggled to get organized.
After firing the organizer initially put in charge of Colorado last week, Trump’s team hired Patrick Davis, a GOP operative from Colorado Springs, to put together a slate in an effort to win some of the delegate slots to be elected by just fewer than 4,000 party activists at Saturday’s assembly. Heading in, Cruz had already swept the seven assemblies held in the state’s congressional districts, each of which elect three delegates, giving him 21 of Colorado’s 34 elected delegates – a majority – before ballots hit the floor at the state convention.
"We have beaten Donald Trump," Cruz told supporters packed into the World Arena.
Trump’s last-minute organizing effort did not go well. The leaflet his campaign handed out listed a slate of 26 delegates. But in many cases the numbers indicating their ballot position — more than 600 delegates are running for 13 slots — were off, meaning that Trump’s team was mistakenly directing votes toward other candidates’ delegates.
When the balloting results were announced Saturday evening, Cruz picked up the 13 statewide at-large delegates chosen during Saturday’s convention, with the final three appointed automatically by the Colorado Republican Party, giving him all 34 of Colorado's elected delegates (Trump did win six of the 34 alternate spots).
“Cruz had the crowd eating out of his hand when he spoke,” said Kelly Maher, a GOP operative based in Denver.
It’s an extension of a losing streak for Trump that threatens the mogul’s odds of winning the Republican nomination at what is increasingly likely to be a contested convention in July. Trump is close to falling short of enough support in the state-level primaries and caucuses to clinch the nomination outright, meaning his fate would be determined by delegates in Cleveland.
Yet Trump’s thinly staffed operations, even in the states he carried easily in February and March primaries, have left little organization behind to support delegate candidates. In addition to the congressional-district routs in South Carolina and Colorado, he’s been dealt setbacks in Indiana, North Dakota, Tennessee, Louisiana, South Dakota, and Georgia. Massachusetts is also shaping up as a delegate battleground, despite Trump’s dominance of the popular vote there.
Trump has primarily lost delegate races to Cruz, whose superior organization, months of preparatory work and resonance among the GOP’s activist base has helped him consolidate support in the insider-oriented battle for delegates. Trump has begun mobilizing for a delegate push in recent days, empowering Manafort, a veteran of past convention battles, to lead his effort, but the 67-year-old lobbyist and political consultant is still playing catch-up.
Trump dominated South Carolina’s Feb. 20 primary in a much more crowded field, earning the obligatory support of all 50 of the state’s convention delegates on the first ballot at the national convention, set to be held in Cleveland. But if Trump falls short of clinching the nomination on a first vote, these delegates will become “unbound” on a second ballot, free to support the candidate of their choice.
Trump’s lone South Carolina delegate on the day, Jerry Rovner of Pawleys Island, said he’d stick with Trump so long as it looked like he had a shot to win the convention on subsequent ballots. But he said he’s open to backing Cruz as well, though he won’t consider any other candidate, even new entrants into the contest at the convention.
“The people that put the work in, that’s who I’m gonna support. I’m going to start with Donald Trump and I’ll stay with him,” he said.
Gerri McDaniel, who won an alternate slot for Trump in the 7th District, said she was frustrated to finish just outside the top three in voting and noted that she had been sick, preventing her from actively campaigning in the delegate fight.
“If I had not have been sick — this is my fourth day out of the house — probably the results would have been quite different," she said.
Trump was always poised to struggle to win delegates in South Carolina because the process favors party insiders who typically have rejected his brash, establishment-bashing style.
Early indications in North Carolina and Iowa suggested Trump had been routed in the hunt for another 30-plus delegates there. Cruz won the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1, but Trump bested Cruz in North Carolina on March 15. Still, Trump's efforts were essentially futile in both states.
Trump's lone bright spot of the weekend came in Michigan, where Republicans were also selecting delegates on Saturday. With a little help from John Kasich's campaign, Trump's team gave Cruz a dose of his own medicine, leaving the Texas senator shut out of the eight convention committee slots.
Kasich's delegates, whose votes Cruz was counting on, ended up voting for Trump behind closed doors after Cruz attempted to win all eight committee slots. Saul Anuzis, Cruz's Michigan campaign chairman, called it a "double-cross," even going as far as to tweet that the Ohio governor is "now openly auditioning for Donald Trump's Vice President slot."
Of the 59 delegates selected Friday and Saturday in Michigan, 25 spots went to Trump, while Cruz and Kasich each took 17 apiece. But the highly coveted committee assignments, especially on the RNC Rules Committee that could revamp procedures for the nomination battle, are of heightened importance with the increasing likelihood of a contested convention. If Kasich doesn't have any supporters on that committee, his rivals' backers could draft new rules that make it harder for Kasich to compete.
Every state gets two slots on the committee. Kasich backer Judi Schwalbach won the rules slot, and Trump supporter Matt Hall won the other, a rare double defeat for Cruz.
Cruz was also boxed out by Trump and Kasich supporters from any of the other convention committees. Kasich delegate Chuck Yob won a slot on the Convention Credentials Committee, which will rule on challenges to delegates’ eligibility to be seated in Cleveland. And Kasich delegate Yavonne Whitbeck won a spot on the Permanent Organization Committee, which — among other tasks — will elect a chairman to preside over the convention.
On Friday evening, as the scope of Cruz’s victory in Colorado was coming into view, Trump seemed to recognize his plight.
“Isn’t it a shame that the person who will have by far the most delegates and many millions more votes than anyone else, me, still must fight,” he tweeted.
39% is a pretty common winning vote in all 3 way races. What’s Cruz’s average, 20-25%?
Doesn’t change the facts.
Of one thing we can be sure, his appalling mismanagement of delegates has nothing to do with Donald Trump or the way he screwed up and what it means for his ability to manage the country-it has only to do with you and me.
for someone whose campaign is 17.5 million owed, he sure didn’t do his homework for the past 30 years after talking about it so much. Prep much?
http://www.politicalmoneyline.com/tr/tr_PresLookup.aspx?&td=0_1
I love you. Not in that way, but I love you. Yahweh bless.
“Well the freshman congressman just left Donald Trump humiliated, standing naked with his hands on his ample ass.”
What makes you want to notice a candidate’s ass? Most of us notice a candidate’s campaign stances.
Yay Politico - what do the NYT, the Huff Post and Tass say about it?
You're missing my point. If they are bound to Trump or Cruz is not my point. The point is trying to switch/steal/pay-off the delegates after the vote has been cast. Now you have voters who have voted & won delegates, which are then being stolen, in effect switching the intent of the voters' ballot. In my opinion, if you can change the results of an election after the votes are cast it is nothing more than a dictatorship or banana republic.
I voted for Trump in SC. If my vote goes to Cruz or some other person like Ryan, who nobody voted for, then I would have to vote for the most honest person in the general...in this case Hillary Clinton would be most honest compared to this GOPe BS. Nah, seriously, I’d just go fishing. The country would be lost anyway. Voting here under those conditions would be like voting for a candidate in N Korea. We’ve become third world.
I completely agree. I suspect that true Republicans and conservatives have been pushed out of the political process by radical leftists posing as conservatives in order to get our vote.
Please note the "Delegate allocation" column.
I vote in CA, and have never seen a delegate column. I saw that for the first time on the sample MD ballot that came out a few days ago. It seems it is not enough just to vote for the candidate--you also have to vote for the right delegates. I know there are only three candidates still officially running at this time--even so, not all of the candidates have delegates to vote for. This system of voting for a candidate AND delegates looks quite burdensome and prone to error to me.
It’s a meme around here. How many times have we been told by the presstitutes that Trump is done?
Well thank God you guys are going to save us from Trump...
Maybe you should try again...
His positions on illegals and Muslim immigrants/refugees have resonated. I wish other candidates would move closer to them. But those positions and his other broad brushed slogans (Make America Great Again) don’t make up for the fact that he’s not stated any realistic plan for making them happen. Further, he is often inarticulate
Trump is far more articulate on his plans than the few Cruz has thrown out there...So that doesn't fly...
and his views on many important issues have changed like the wind over the years. In fact, he’s well known for rubbing elbows with the Clintons and other unsavory types.
That shows Trump is paying attention to the issues and not just going along to get along...
You ignore the fact that Cruz's new Bush family and associates not only sit at the same tables at the CFR meetings with the Democrats, they also adopted the Clintons as their children and siblings...
I'd say you are completely disingenuous...
The rules committee can change the requirement that delegates are bound on the first vote...The rules committee decisions supersede the rules of the states...Cruz could win on the first vote if they change that rule...
He will when he gets up there to Kennebunkport to visit Jeb and Neil...He'll get to meet their extended family, the Clintons...Maybe go on a little fishing trip with Bill...
“Fascinating numbers, n00b. Don’t you agree?
Where did the 20,000 2008 Democrat primary voters “disappear” to, in an open primary? Hey - lookee there! Cruz got 20,000 more votes in 2016 than Romney in the 2012 primary!”
Now let’s add some context to your numbers. In 2008, by the time of the Wisconsin primary, McCain had virtually clinched the Republican nomination with over 65% of the delegates. Obama and Clinton, again at the time of the Wisconsin Democratic primary, were virtually tied in delegates - 1,267 to 1,184. Since it was an open primary there was no reason to vote for McCain but there was a reason to vote in the Democratic primary. And that’s what republicans did.
What you are seeing in 2008 is republicans crossing over to vote democrat. They stayed home and voted in the republican primary in 2016.
Bottom line is the analysis presented in your post is flawed.
I believe the delegate battle has more to do with the party apparatus at the state level rejecting Trump more so than an organized effort by Cruz. At least that is what is currently happening in Missouri and Indiana. In Indiana, the party is electing delegates who are opposed to Trump. If Trump wins the states primary, they will be bound to vote Trump on the first ballot, but will not vote Trump on any subsequent ballot.
Incorrect. The rules committee can propose such a change but cannot make a change. To change a rule there must be a vote of the majority of delegates at the convention.
You are right...But the option is there...
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