Posted on 03/28/2016 9:47:04 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Oh, how cruel the game of politics can be — especially if you don’t have a ground game.
On Sunday night, Donald Trump tweeted, “Just to show you how unfair Republican primary politics can be, I won the State of Louisiana and get less delegates than Cruz — lawsuit coming.”
It’s true: On March 5, Mr. Trump took 41.4 percent of the Louisiana vote compared with Ted Cruz’s 37.8 percent and Marco Rubio’s 11.2 percent. Mr. Trump was awarded 18 delegates, so was Mr. Cruz, and Mr. Rubio got 5 delegates.
So what happened between March 5 and Sunday? Mr. Rubio dropped out, and under Louisiana delegate rules, those pledged to Mr. Rubio became unbound — meaning they were free to choose whatever remaining candidates were left in the race. Looks like they chose Mr. Cruz.
Mr. Cruz knows that in order to secure the number of delegates he needs to take the Republican nomination, he’s going to have to woo over Mr. Rubio’s supporters — and although he’s fallen short of an endorsement from the senator from Florida (as of now), many in the establishment lane are seeing Mr. Cruz as the only way to stop Mr. Trump.
Not to mention the grunt work Mr. Cruz’s team is putting in.
Mr. Cruz’s campaign has worked a state-by-state delegate strategy — both encouraging his supporters to run as delegates and by lobbying them to run and serve on various committees at the Republican National Convention.
As The Wall Street Journal noted last week: “Mr. Cruz’s supporters seized five of Louisiana’s six slots on the three powerful committees that will write the rules and platform at the Republican National Convention and mediate disputes over delegates’ eligibility this summer in Cleveland.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Voters are clearly disenfranchised when the inside baseball rules for delegate selection is intentionally held tightly among the state political apparatchik. This will not end well for the GOPe in Cleveland.
Nobody is robbing delegates from Trump. Trump failed to follow the process in place to elect delegates for the national convention.
What Trump did in Louisianna is akin to filing a lawsuit and then ignoring the rules of procedure that govern (civil) lawsuits within the judical system.
Ignorant of the legal process, Trump essentially wants to skip the trial and go straight to closing arguments in front of jury that he had no interest in picking.
And all of that while claiming that he will get the best deal for his client.
Trump won Louisiana 124,819 41.44%
Cruz, Rafael Edward 113,947 37.83%
So we learn there’s many ways to steal votes in LA. They still have not reported their CD votes and are violating national party rules and recently added their own. Looks like a dishonest delegate count to change where Trump won by 11,000 votes. LOUISIANA CRUZ CHEATERS hope you choke on a crawdad.
Saturday 5 March 2016: All 46 of Louisiana’s delegates to the Republican National Convention are allocated to presidential contenders in today’s Presidential Primary. [Delegate Selection Rules Resolution 2015-10. RULES FOR CONVENING OF THE STATE CONVENTION TO ELECT DELEGATES TO THE 2016 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION.]
18 District delegates, 3 from each of the state’s 6 Congressional Districts, are proportionally allocated to Presidential contenders according to the primary vote in each Congressional District (rounded rules are not specified) [Rule 3. (d)].
28 (10 base at-large delegates plus 15 bonus delegates plus 3 RNC) statewide delegates are proportionally allocated to those Presidential contenders who receive 20% or more of the total statewide vote (as rounded by the Executive Committee). The allocation is in proportion to the total statewide vote NOT the total vote of those candidates receiving 20% or more of statewide vote. The remaining delegates are unbound. The rule says “Presidential candidates receiving more than 20% of the statewide vote ... will be allocated the same proportion, rounded by the Executive Committee ....” [Rule 4. (c)].
We do not have the vote by CD but according to the Louisiana Republican Party:
CD 1: Trump 1, Cruz 1, Rubio 1
CD 2: Trump 1, Cruz 1, Rubio 1
CD 3: Trump 1, Cruz 1, Rubio 1
CD 4: Trump 1, Cruz 2
CD 5: Trump 1, Cruz 1, Rubio 1
CD 6: Trump 1, Cruz 1, Rubio 1
Statewide: Trump 12, Cruz 11, Uncommitted 5.
Total: Trump 18, Cruz 18, Rubio 5, Uncommitted 5.
Delegates to the National Convention ... are bound ... on the first ballot only .... If a presidential candidate ends or suspends his/her candidacy, the designated delegates are no longer bound. [Rule 4. (f)].
Saturday 12 March 2016: The State Convention convenes in Baton Rouge to elect delegates to the Republican National Convention according to the results of the primary.
18 National Convention district delegates— 3 from each of the state’s 6 Congressional Districts are elected in the Congressional District meetings at the State Convention.
25 National Convention At-Large delegates are elected by the convention as a whole.
The 3 party leaders, the National Committeeman, the National Committeewoman, and the chairman of the Louisiana’s Republican Party, will attend the convention as pledged delegates by virtue of their position [Rule 4. (e]).
http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P16/LA-R
What this reflects is the "vote" is closer to a Republican Hierarchy Dog and Pony Show than an election by the people.
Yet we, as voters, are told how important our vote is....yea, right.
“The GOP will never win without Trump voters.”
Trump will never win with his present support, in addition to Cruz voters he would need GOP-e voters.
Not a leader. Cruz is a liar and a cheater. Puts his lust before his faith, before family, and before his country.
This election is about alliegiance to the United States of America.
Ted’s only allegiance is to himself. He should have been a porn star.
Don’t be delusional. Trump can’t win as a 3rd party. The Democrats would win.
Not with a lawsuit like Bully Boy Trump.
while the Kremlin’s tanks roll into Paris?
Enough with the hysterics, vanderkook. You Trumpets are just too damn high strung and defensive. If your hero was as good as y'all constantly shout about you wouldn't have to say a word. You could just punch people in the face and compare hand sizes.
Two stories:
Trump hired Chuck Laudner to do a grass roots effort in Iowa. When it came time for Trump to use that ground game, he instead ignored Laudner. We saw the result.
This past summer. Trump claimed he had spoken to the Iowa State Fair and was going to land his helicopter at the State Fairgrounds. After media badgering, the State Fair Board explained that they hadn’t heard from Trump, he couldn’t land his ‘copter at the Fairgrounds, and suggested he might find private land nearby. Trump has lots of flunkies scrambling to make his off-the-cuff statements somewhat believable.
The GOP-E isn’t Trump’s worst enemy, Trump is.
I was referring to the national convention, but to answer your question, state party rules work in a similar fashion but vary widely among the 50 states.
Each convention, whether precinct, district, or state, votes to approve or amend the rules proposed and passed by the standing rules committee that last met. That is a very a broad statement, but is generally the way it works.
It remains to be seen who is amazing. There’s nothing wrong with Cruz maneuvering for unbound delegates, and there’s nothing wrong with Trump calling “Foul!” even though he knows it’s not.
Trump knows he has no case, but arguing about it anyway is part of fighting, like a baseball coach arguing an unfavorable call.
Personally, I’m glad they are both fighting. It bodes well for the general election, because everybody knows the last few Republican nominees have gone down without a fight. If Romney had fought against Obama as dirty as he is now against Trump, he could have won; then we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.
The Democrats fight dirty, and if the Republicans continue to think such behavior is beneath them, then they will again be handed their hat.
I understand that what Trump is adding to the discourse and tone of this primary season is unwelcome and uncomfortable for many, especially in the Republican vs. Republican arena.
At the same time, he is sending a message that he will fight, and that he won’t unilaterally disarm on account of table manners. There are many of us who find that message refreshing and a cause for hope that we won’t get psyched and trash talked out of another victory in the fall, with false accusations if throwing granny off the cliff.
Nope, I would be all for Trump going 3rd party. Run GOPe or snakeboy junk yard dog Cruz, and Trump would win hands down
What are you talking about?
The Louisiana rules are straight-forward -- the Rubio delegates became unbound when Rubio withdrew from the race.
These delegates were available to Trump, as well. Except his staff apparently didn't know the Louisiana rules as well as the Cruz people.
So, why is this the fault of the "oligarchy"? Why is not the fault of Trump and his campaign staff's?
Mr. Trump can either learn from this or complain about it. His choice to make.
If he ultimately wins the nomination, hopefully he will have learned from this experience. Just like the nomination, the general election is not a popular voter affair. There are electors selected based on popular votes but, in contrast to the nomination process, none are obligated by law to vote for any specified candidate. Look at past elections and you will find rouge electors who went their own way.
If Mr. Trump does not get his act together at the state and local level, he could find himself with slates of electors from safe states who are actually supporters of the democrat candidate. Think of a safe republican state such as Texas with a large delegation of electors but 3 or 4 Clinton supporters pass themselves off as Trump supporters and are named electors. When the electoral collage meets, they vote for Sec. Clinton. Nothing can be done about it after they are selected as electors.
Most successful candidates have been in the political arena for a long time and have studied the rules and developed networks in all the states. They have extensive vetting processes in place for selection of their slate of electors and can be fairly confident of their loyalty when the final vote for president is taken. A reliable multi state network is just as vital as a solid foundation for an office building. If you don’t build it first, it is almost impossible to repair after the fact.
Hopefully Mr. Trump has undertaken this task and has devoted sufficient resources to it. Some recent reports about delegate selection is not encouraging. As an outsider, he can’t rely on the networks others have been cultivating for years even if the defeated candidates endorse him. Loyalty and dedication can’t be bought or transferred, it has to be earned. The one thing you can bank on is that whoever the democrats nominate, they will have an organization that knows all the ins and outs and fairness to Mr. Trump will not be an issue to them. Whoever gets the nomination will look back on the current battle as a walk in the park.
You know, this whole “so many didn’t vote for Trump” is getting really old.
Anytime it’s said it could be said about the other candidates.
Let those who say it try and go one week without using the phrase.
Well if we don’t like the rules, why don’t we make them change the rules? Or is it only that certain folks don’t like the rules when it doesn’t play out in their favor. I suspect that....if the roles were reversed and Trump was stumping for those Rubio delegates and getting them ...in order to beat Cruz, it would all magically and suddenly be “ok”. Right?
Ground game = GOPe agents of corruption
“If voting made any difference they wouldn’t let us do it.”
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