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.
Now, you're on the list of taunting, puerile nastycruzers.
If Cruz wins the nomination battle, he loses the war.
For all of us.
Let me see, when did the current rules come into being? Last presidential election I believe. And now they are being changed again. Seems that now they change them every election doesn’t it?
Trump has really crossed the line this time!
It’s all over for him now!
—————————————\
What line?
View this chart at Real Clear Politics
‘I will say, it’s an absolutely insane election year. I don’t believe there’s ever been as polarizing of a candidate as Trump.’
you haven’t heard of the snake oil salesman named cruz....he’s from up north...canada i think?
LOL! More 2ndCommunityOrganizerDivision agitprop. :)
Yes, as usual at each convention. This time it will be July 18, 2016...about three months from now. Nothing has changed since 2012.
My VOTE should be good enough!!!
It is sickening to me that Taxpayers are funding a GOPe private criminal enterprise. So glad the Cruz supporters here are ecstatic that Cruz is such a good participant in the GOPe games... If GOPe picks to candidate, why the hell are we having elections?!?
Perhaps it is time to start a third party that will honor the vote of the citizens!
Excellent :)
“you haven’t heard of the snake oil salesman named cruz....he’s from up north...canada i think?”
I’ve not heard of a snake oil salesman named that, but I am aware of a brilliant, conservative, and highly qualified Senator named Cruz who’s been a US citizen since birth. He’s been slimed repeatedly by some reality show star and his minions but I think he’ll come out of it smelling like a rose...around the time he’s sworn in as President. :-)
President Cruz...yep that sounds pretty good all right.
....and the scallywags expose themselves for the frauds they are.
I'm not surprised as a Cruz supporter; just as a, you know, human.
Most delegates are your neighbors, not so-called party hacks. Too bad the Manhattan billionaire doesn’t know how to talk to the regular people.
I looked up the rules in South Carolina. The delegates that are being elected are required to vote for Trump on the first ballot seeing as Trump won the state primary. If Trump doesn’t win on the first ballot, the delegates are free to vote for whomever on the second ballot.
And 2DVet described my district caucus accurately. Maybe 10% of the people there were GOP volunteers. Two or three were people that I had recognized from previous election campaign material. But most were just interested people from the community that were interested in the election process. And they were the ones voting for the delegates.
Several of them said this was their first time wanting to be a delegate, as they wanted to do more than just vote. (In my state of Washington, just voting as a Republican is pretty much a worthless vote most of the time.)
Cruz is beginning to remind me of the little jerk neighborhood kid who knew ALL the rules to Monopoly - and used them for his OWN benefit.
If one of the rules would put him at a disadvantage, well, he just wouldn't mention THAT particular rule.
After the other neighborhood kids caught on, the little jerk could never scare up a game of Monopoly after that.
Nor would he be invited to participate in any other games, either. :)
Look at the next post.
Bless your heart, I am so sorry I upset you.
No one seems to be observing the rules.
I’m not here to defend Nathan but I just can’t understand your comment. If Cruz wins the nomination according the the rules of the Republican Party in existence today then he “loses the war”? Why?
While I support Mr. Cruz I will vote for Mr. Trump if he wins the nomination. Will you do the same?
I don’t understand why you are so giddy that millions of voters potentially will have their votes negated & thrown to a candidate they did not vote for or support? I know you hate Trump, but doesn’t it bother you that the political system is rigged like this? Really, it goes against what this country was founded on. Whether it is your candidate or not, you should be bothered.
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