Posted on 03/03/2012 4:09:17 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
In a potentially ominous Super Tuesday setback for Rick Santorum, a campaign filing mishap in Ohio could leave him ineligible to be awarded 18 Buckeye State district delegates -- more than a quarter of the total at stake there, ABC News reported Friday.
Ohio has 66 delegates total, with 63 at stake on Tuesday. Santorum failed to qualify for any district delegates in three Ohio congressional districts representing nine delegates because he didn't turn in names there.
ABC News reported that in six other congressional districts, the former Pennsylvania senator's campaign submitted fewer names than required to be eligible for all three delegates up for grabs in each district. That would put another nine delegates in jeopardy.
Santorum spokesman Hogan Gidley responded to the report by issuing a statement that sought to depict the issue as a continuation of a controversy in Michigan. Santorum contends he and Mitt Romney should have split the delegates evenly in that state, but party officials there awarded Romney 16 and Santorum 14 in a move that the latter has decried as dirty politics and is contesting.
"The attempt by the establishment to to deceive the voters of Ohio and further their hand-picked candidate will be met with resistance on Tuesday," Gidley said. "I want to be clear -- Rick Santorum's name will appear on every ballot in the state of Ohio, and every vote cast will go towards his at-large delegate allocation.
"As it relates to individual congressional districts, it's clear we aren't the establishment hand-picked candidate, and back in December we were a small effort focused on Iowa. Now that we've won several states, obviously much has changed, and we feel confident that we will do well in both the delegate and popular vote count on Tuesday."
But a Romney spokesman seized on the report as further evidence that Santorum is a vastly inferior candidate.
"Rick Santorum has failed to get on the ballot in Virginia, has failed to file full delegate slates in Tennessee, New Hampshire and Illinois, and has failed to submit enough delegates in several Ohio congressional districts," said the spokesman, Ryan Williams, alluding to other Santorum logistical pitfalls. "The fact that he cannot execute the simple tasks that are required to win the Republican nomination proves that Rick Santorum is incapable of taking on President Obama's formidable political machine."
If he wins in a district where he failed to allocate a full slate of three delegates, Santorum would be eligible to take only the delegates he has already allocated in that district. But the unallocated delegates would not be awarded to anyone else.
"On Super Tuesday, if Sen. Santorum were to carry a district where he has not seated a full delegate slate, he will be awarded delegates where he has submitted delegate names," Ohio Republican Party spokesman Chris Maloney told The Plain Dealer of Cleveland. "And the additional delegates in that district will be unallocated."
Such a situation, The Plain Dealer said, sets up challenges -- if not from Santorum, then from political rivals such as Romney or Newt Gingrich.
The Ohio state party told the newspaper it has not faced this situation before, but it has been reviewing its bylaws and is prepared, if there is a challenge, to convene what it calls a "committee on contests."
Santorum is partially at fault, he should have made sure he had delegates if the rules call for them.
But, the real problem is 56 sets (States, DC, Territories) of Byzantine rules for picking delegates. The RNC need to come up with two basic sets of rules for Primary and Caucus States and compel the state parties to adhere to them.
A candidate should be allotted Delegate slots instead of having to name all delegates prior to the caucus or primary.
You get x delegates per congressional district, x delegates for winning the whole state. Weighted by the total number of republican votes in the state and district in the last election.
A set percentage of signatures per total republican presidential votes in the last election to get on the ballot.
Simple and clean, and it will never happen with ANY party, 3rd parties included, because everyone likes to bend the rules to favor their guy...
Huntsman would have been the only candidate that was completely vetted, untouched by the right wing media that rewarded failure on each of the others and armoured against virtually all lines of Obama’s attack machine.
Good to see you come on board! You have always been a great advocate for what you believe, and an asset to this forum!
Let's hope there is still time left to save this and undo all the previous Santorum insanity! Like it or not, Santorum IS the reason we find ourselves in this current nightmare. (Don't worry, I fully understand that it was not all Santorum, it was mostly the fault of those who blindly dropped everything and impulsively scrambled over to his campaign.)
Confusion suits the Karl Roves and Dick Morrises of political malpractice.
Yes, they're actually supporting Santorum behind the scenes. It was no wonder Santorum ran those robo calls to democrates....he knows who his "friends" are.
I fear greatly his supporters will not wake up anymore than those who voted for Obama. They "want" Santorum rather than look at the peril this nation is in and who really is best qualified and able to change this course. So be it....and no doubt Obama will win the election...SAntorum simply doesn't have the whole package, Newt does and that without a doubt.
Go Newt Go!
PS. This is really a bizzare and strange primary as networks, media pundits, the obm machine, and elite Republicans and pacs fight it out over "their" canidates.....and it is about their candidates.
The more people like you refer to Santorum as “Ricky” and make similar comments the more likely his supporters will go to Romney instead of Gingrich if Santorum doesn’t make it.
That’s not good, because Gingrich isn’t a bad guy, but it is reality.
Santorum played this same crap when he voted for Spector....his excuses were just that and brought us oBamacare. Not to mention the crap he pulled in PA.
I posted a short lived thread on that subject yesterday. But his misguided supporters still believe that if they can just get him the nomination, he will be vastly popular among ALL Americans and win in a landslide.
Which in turn, will usher in the new “Moral America” which will gladly accept a return to a Theocratic/Religious Utopian form of Government.
I kid you not!
Nobody is to blame for who other voters vote for but themselves. If they are stupid enough to be mis-lead then so be it...they were with Obama too.
Santorum is down over 25 percent in Intrade today on the Ohio prediction. He’s currently sitting at about 30 percent to Mitt’s 70 percent. Anyone know what’s going on or what has changed today? It’s a big fall from yesterday.
https://www.intrade.com/v4/markets/contract/?contractId=757102
He and Bone’r would make such a pretty couple...both a bunch of whining no back bone insider’s.
GO NEWT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can’t believe the Intrade fall is based on the delegate issue. It’s something bigger. Perhaps the Rush fallout.
They don’t want Santorum as much as a two front attack by any remaining Non-Romney forces to further muddy the waters against Mitt.
'Believing' if Santorum can "just get the nomination" isn't going to win it as they think. He's very unpopular here in PA. and rightfully so. Even the politicians he worked among , if they aren't speaking negatives about him they're fumbling thru generalities about Santorum just to save their own faces.
Additionally, Santorums's going to have to move Congress....so how many congressional politicians does he have under his belt supporting him...a handfull or so...while Romney has 70 some in his court. So if Santorum can;t get even a margin of congressional supporters what makes people think he'll get anything thru in WAshington if he can't move congress?
This is just not going to play out as they want it to....they're riding on FALSE hope
I don’t agree that Santorum is the only problem. Newt, the best of the lot, is not ahead because of his past poor choices in his personal life.
The stars are aligned for the despicable Romney and the really sad part is that there are many out there like my lovely daughter who think he’s great because he’s “good looking’. Geez. I’ve got work to do!
I can buy that only to a point...at which point it becomes critical to back one of our guys or the other. If it's Santorum we simply will not win against Obama and his machine....Santorum's made far too many critical mistakes along the way he will not be able to afford against Obama...and unfortunately he's not bright enough on his feet to come off as he needs to against Obama in the debates he'll face...... He's going to get creamed in that respect. Not becuase Obama is so great...but because Obama has a formidable team to set him up for them...and he has the ability to deliver what they give him convincingly.
Santorum isn't there yet and still has a long ways to go in how he responds to questions and as much delivers his intentions. He isn't convincing....rather often offensive and bullying....so just voting for him thru this race in hopes to keep Rommney at bay isn't enough when we have the man this nation needs in Newt...it's just that reality .
The RNC is notorious for not helping in primary campaigns. They usually wait until the nominee is chosen.
Of course, this time they are supporting Romney anyway and don’t care about fairness.
And when and if the RNC does get involved in races, they muck everything up so badly that they are an epic FAIL in the end anyway.
It’s absolutely astounding that this well funded organization could ruin a chance to defeat Obama, the worst president in American history, to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
They’ll not see one nickel of my money until and unless they renounce RINOs permanently and support only Conservatives. Yeah, when pigs fly. and even then, I think I’m done with them and their cowardly Roves, McDonnells, Jan Brewers and Ted Nugents.
That's simply not the reason at all...Newt's not being given air time nor face time to present himself...the media is not going to give him that....SAntorum has risen for being the man of the media hour
Just wait and watch if Santorum gets this primary...he'll nnot be given the air time etc. either that Obama will.
Already throughout the internet we see Obamas face popping up at every google click and throughout you-tube....no doubt free as Googlle is in Obamas court.
Do you see Santorums's face? No and if so it's derogatory.
NEWT NEWT NEWT NEWT NEWT NEWT GO NEWT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks. That’s got more info, but meanwhile we are being ruined and ruled over by a Kenyon retard who isn’t even a citizen.
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