Newt well knows the subterranean delegate battle and he’s waging it.
Newt Gingrich is going after unpledged delegates - that haven't committed in primaries already completed, including all the PA (72) and MT (26) and (IL (69) delegates, since these delegates remain unpledged regardless of primary vote.
AND though there are going to be some “winner take all” primaries, the following contests are also on the schedule:
RI (16) proportional
NY (92) proportional
WVA (28) proportional -- elect delegates (who list their presidential pick on ballot)
NC (52) proportional
OR (25) proportional
AK (33) proportional
KY (42) proportional
TX (155) proportional
CA (169) proportional (by district)
NM (20) proportional
SD (25) proportional
Then there are the Contested delegates: …. “delegates have to be "uncontested" in order to count. The frontrunner's rivals argue some of the states that awarded Romney all of their delegates violated Republican National Committee rules when they moved their contests ahead of April 1 and therefore should distribute delegates proportionally. This dispute, if it continues, would not be ruled on until the August convention in Tampa.
"All the media counts right now give him all of Florida, which is against the rules, all of Arizona, which is against the rules, and all of Idaho," Gingrich said Monday. "Those are all three proportional states and they should only be counting his share. So he has to win 1,144 uncontested delegates."
FL: 50 delegates
ID: 32 delegates
AZ: 29 delegates
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Jan 30, 2012 "So the winner on Tuesday gets all of Florida’s 50 delegates to the GOP convention, right? It says so right in the Republican Party of Florida primary rules.
Eh . . . probably. You see, the Republican National Committee wanted the primary season to start later (that didn’t work out so well) and they wanted the early states to award their delegates proportionally. But those rules came about under Chairman Michael Steele; by the time Florida set its date, Reince Priebus was running the show, and the RNC approved the current winner-takes-all system. The Florida GOP says it’s a non-issue; the current RNC leadership has signed off on the winner-take-all system.
The Tampa Bay Times’s Adam Smith reports, “All it takes is a registered Florida Republican to file a protest with the RNC, and the party’s contest committee would have to consider the issue when it meets in August just before the convention.”
The party’s primary rules were intended to encourage a longer primary season, while ensuring that four smaller states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina — hold the first contests. Only those states were permitted to hold primaries or caucuses before March 6, the RNC decreed, while any state that held a contest prior to April 1 would award its delegates proportionally. Under the rules, any party that violated the sanctioned calendar would lose half its delegates and potentially face further penalties.
Republican leaders in Florida, determined to give the state a big say in picking the nominee, decided having their delegation slashed from 99 to 50 was worth it and set Florida’s primary for Jan. 31. The RNC has said Florida will be a winner-take-all primary, but that decision is still subject to challenge.
If tomorrow’s results are in line with recent polls, Mitt Romney will win 50 delegates and everyone else will win none. (Thus, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul spent a limited amount of time and resources in Florida.) But if it were proportional, Romney would win about 20-25, Gingrich would win about 14-16, Santorum would win about 5-7, and Paul would win 5-6.
In other words, Newt Gingrich may have enormous incentive to file protests and perhaps even legal challenges to the RNC to make Florida allocate its delegates proportionally."
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State by state math HERE
If Romney is the nominee there will be no national GOP in 2016. There may not even be a national GOP after August 2012.
Romney is the NEW Juan McLAim....
WE’RE GONNA LOSE!!!!!.
He may take a dive like Juan did....
Rick Santorum is NOT a conservative.
Flawed article.
it would seem that the rules are comprised to be used by the party puppet masters to control the primary process for the party royals
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TX (155) proportional
The Texax SREC is making noise about trying to change the Texas allocation method to a ‘winner take all’. Apparently some are trying to get enough votes and then call an emergency session to pass the change. Not sure what the possibility of it passing is.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2868680/posts
“Romney win, now almost certain, won’t decide future of GOP”
Yes it will. A Republican party that would nominate a man whose record is left wing enough to be a Democrat is not a party that any conservative could support. It is a sign that the GOP is willing to move to the left. And if so, so be it. I won’t go with it; I would think some others would not also.
As far as the illustration of the shape of the GOP, he emphasized the size of the “Populist” branch in the party as being much larger than it actually is. The “Plutocrat” branch is correctly in charge, and always will be, because they have the ability to organize.
The “Populist” branch is nothing more that a fragmented, disorganized herd of cats and never will get it together like they keep threatening to do. Ross Perot is the epitome of that branch and took it to the limits of it's potential.
Ronald Reagan was a rare politician who, through his vast ability and pragmatic approach, was able to gather these groups together for two election cycles in a row. And Reagan clearly admitted that the “Populist” branch, was the most difficult to appease or influence, mainly because of their incessant malcontent and nearly psychotic negativity.
The future of the GOP may have been decided in 1936, when Alf Landon promised to implement the New Deal on a business-like approach. How many conservatives have been the nominee since that time?
Romney, McCain, no difference - same result. Obama wins. GOP will never learn.
If his candidacy can't put a stake through the heart of the rino insanity that rules the party and through the loyalty of those who follow it, nothing can.
Personally, I just don't understand his appeal.
His record, his flip and his flops, and now his very negative campaign are not what I vote for.