Golly gee! That kind of questioning appears a lot right here on Free Republic!
Why, if'n I didn't know any better, I'd think they were (gasp!) GOPe Trolls!
Posted on 04/11/2016 6:27:26 AM PDT by FR_addict
This Saturday was the district conventions for many of the NC districts. The keynote speaker was Dr. Ada Fisher, a very impressive speaker and I recommend her short book “I am a Republican” which gives the history of NC African American Republicans. She also said it was her opinion that candidates for President should be born in America.
I wasn’t sure how the process worked, but submitted myself as a delegate candidate. I wasn’t sure if anyone would second my nomination. All the GOP delegates in my county were Cruz supporters.
Someone outside my district seconded me. Each of us gave a short speech as to why we should be a delegate and who we supported.
Here are my tallies. I think he said we had 118 district delegates. Of those, 24 were submitted as district delegates to represent NC districts at the GOP convention.
6 would be chosen from the 24 to represent the district.
We were each given two minutes to speak and we were to state who we supported. I counted 8 Trump supporters from the group. 3 Kasich, 2 Rubios. The rest Cruz supporters.
The 118 delegates present could vote for 6 out of the 24.
When the votes were tallied, all the delegates selected were Cruz supporters.
Of the 6 selected, the delegate in first place had 51 votes, I think they said the last selected delegate of the six chosen had 30.
Assuming that Cruz supporters voted for Cruz, and Trump supporters voted for Trump supporters, there were probably less than 30 Trump supporters at the District convention out of the 118 attending. This is a reasonable assertion, because some of the people, who voted for me, showed me their ballots and they were almost identical to mine. Also, we had fewer Trump supporters on the list of delegates.
Also even before the delegate names were put into nomination, I noticed the guy next to me had a list of the people he planned to vote for. So the Cruz people were organized before the convention as to who would be supporting Cruz on the ballot.
The Trump campaign needs to help Trump supporters organize for the state and national convention. This is a big expense for most of us and help to find rooms with good rates and close to the convention sites would be extremely helpful. A list of Trump supporters for the coming state convention would also be handy.
Some of the Cruz people said they planned to vote for Cruz only. That’s the difference between Cruz and Trump people. I couldn’t vote for Cruz, but then if Cruz had won the state, I wouldn’t sign up to be a delegate to take someone else’s place, who could vote for either Cruz or Trump. I wouldn’t be stacking the deck. If for no other reason, it is expensive to be a delegate and I wanted to do it for my candidate, but not for someone I don’t support.
The attitude of some of the Cruz supporters is to steal the election from the people, who stood in lines for hours to vote. I was an election official this year and saw the turn out for myself. I reported to the polls before 6am and didn't leave until almost 11pm. The state also had a huge turn-out for early voting. The people wanted to vote for their candidate and not have their votes nullified by the party elites.
exactly. and whining about theft when he hasn’t done his due diligence in getting his people prepped and organized is an attempt to miscast what is going on here.
If I was going to construct a rule, I'd make it so that delegates are bound as long as the candidate to whom they are committed is one of the top two vote getters on a particular ballot. Or maybe limit it to the top four on the second ballot, top 3 on the third, and top 2 on the 4th, so it couldn't go more than 4 ballots.
thanks for sharing your experience.
Golly gee! That kind of questioning appears a lot right here on Free Republic!
Why, if'n I didn't know any better, I'd think they were (gasp!) GOPe Trolls!
“Agreed. Based on the FRaddict’s report, Trump’s organization did not have enough people present to FILL his entitled delegates.”
Not really how it worked. Everyone was in the pile together. There was no Trump quota or Ted Cruz quota.
The next selection will be the “At Large” delegates at the state level. I had tried to find out how the system worked before I went down, but I really wasn’t getting any help from the local people. I didn’t even know how the selection process worked. So I didn’t have a speech prepared. I didn’t have anyone set up for seconding my nomination. I didn’t have a prepared list of Trump supporters like the Cruz supporters had. It was easy to see who the Cruz supporters were since they all had on Cruz buttons.
Some of the Trump supporters thanked me for running.
thank you for attending and seeking a role as a delegate...and I say that truly as a Cruz supporter and someone who despises Trump. Truly, thank you.
I would like to take exception to one thing you said, or at least ask for more explanation. You said, “The attitude of some of the Cruz supporters is to steal the election from the people...” It would appear that this may be projection on your part. “Steal” implies dishonesty and a deliberate intent to circumvent the established process. However, everything you cite shows examples of exactly following the process. How is this stealing? Someone having a personal view of being glad that the Trump campaign failed to organize and finish the job he started does not constitute “stealing”. Unless theres more that you didn’t included in your report.
Again, thank you.
‘When I voted in my state’s primary, there were various “Republican Party Committeemen” on the ballot. I had no idea who any of them were, or what they even did. Can’t remember if I even voted for one. And I know nothing about the delegates who represent my party district (if that’s what it is called) in Ohio.’
I thought I remember voting like that once too. Have lived in many states, so I don’t know which one did it that way.
What you are saying is that you support Trump and would never change your vote. Even though, for a nominee to emerge from a contested convention, delegates will need to be open to changing their votes on second and subsequent ballots.
Why should someone who bothers to go through the process of becoming a delegate be bound forever to a candidate who can’t even be bothered to try to get his own people selected as delegates?
Delegates do other things at the convention besides vote for POTUS. These delegates should be people who bother to show up for the party, not just people assigned by a candidate who can get people to vote every 4 years.
It’s worth noting that the only way the delegates can “steal” the nomination “from the people” is if the people give a clear majority of delegates to one candidate and the delegates somehow do not vote as they are bound on the first ballot.
If there is no majority candidate then “the people” have not spoken clearly.
I agree the state rules were followed here. But stacking the deck is going on all over the country and Cruz supporters are very proud of this. Most of us that show up to vote are expecting the process to be fair and that if Trump wins the state, he will be represented by our delegates. I was surprised to see how it is really done. I didn’t lie and say I was a Cruz supporter, but I sure wanted to see what would happen. Were the superPACS helping these people out? Where did the list of people to vote for come from, etc.
My reason for posting this is to let the Trump people know what goes on in the local conventions. It is not too late for him to get organized. Even in this state the majority of delegates will not be selected until the state convention.
When you are an outsider, the insiders do not give you much information. I couldn’t find out how the process worked and had to go back and request a form when I finally found out how the delegate selection worked. I had told the woman I wanted to be a delegate already, and expected to have everything I needed. But was missing a form. I really think they can throw up barriers for the outsider that you don’t even know exist. Legal but not fair in this case.
I voted for Rubio when the election came through my state and still think he would be the best candidate against Hillary, so I don’t have a dog in this fight any longer.
However, I am convinced that if Cruz goes against Hillary he will have a well thought out and organized plan of attack against Hillary and he will organize and execute it better than any Republican candidate in a while.
If Trump is the nominee I expect no such plan or effort. I expect he will flail around from place to place without any plan and will chase every rabbit that the Clinton campaign throws in front of him. It will be fun to watch, but will end in an amazing defeat.
As I already said I wouldn’t run if I had to vote for Cruz. Some of the Cruz people did not intend to vote for Trump even on the first vote, although he won the state.
That pretty much sums it up, and that's why I'm (---) this close to being a #NeverCruzer.
I don't think you have much to worry about. The GOP machine won't let Cruz anywhere near the podium in Cleveland.
Yes, I know that. But just in case...
Otherwise, I’ll be a #NeverRyaner.
Your naivete and optimism are refreshing. Deluded, but refreshing.
Otherwise, I’ll be a #NeverRyaner.
Heh!
Cruz does have better access to the state party elites, but that’s because he is an insider. He and his wife both worked for Bush admin and know the people in charge. I am not picking my candidate on who can do more backroom deals. It was a backroom deal with TPA. When he saw he wasn’t getting away with that, he all of a sudden didn’t support TPP. I’ve never heard him ask if he supports the North American Union that Bush supported and that Heidi Cruz co-authored as a member of the CFR. He supported the Corker bill which allowed the Iranian deal to go through. The Republicans acted like that had to be done that way. It did not. They could have easily stopped the Iranian deal.
I heard Cruz myself claim that Trump was behind white racist robo-calls. Chris Wallace never even questioned him about this claim. He got away with it. We don’t even know if there were any robo-calls like he claimed and I’m sure Trump would not have been behind it.
When it came to the anti-Trump Bill Ayers and Soros supported violent disruptors, Cruz took their side and said Trump was responsible. I’m disgusted with Cruz. I am replying to your comment about Cruz being the better pick, I didn’t intend to make this a thread about why I chose Trump over Cruz.
That’s the problem already. the power establishment is not going to hand over the reins easily. They are feeding off the trough.
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