Posted on 01/06/2008 4:13:42 AM PST by Alas Babylon!
Right below the box where I am typing this reply is the Tagline box. Put it in there ad it will show up in your posts from now on.
Not the way you think. At least for Colorado.
We are divided in both county and US House districts.
Our precincts elect delegates to our county assembly. At the county assembly delegates are elected to the state convention or assembly and/or the district assembly. (Convention on presidential election years and assemble on the off years.) Our county delegates go to state and vote for national delegates. District delegates stop at that point because their job is designed for US House elections.
The concept is the Republican party is driven from the bottom up, not the top down. We elect our party representatives but also vote on the party platform as well as by laws and rules. All of it moves from the bottom up with exceptions for procedural rules or submitted changes coming from the leadership. But even those have to be approved by delegate vote.
For example, if you have an issue you believe should be in the state or national platform, you would submit it to your precinct and get others to submit it to theirs. If there is support it is then submitted to the county, and the same thing happens for the state as well as national. To the best of my knowledge all of these issues come from the ground up.
At the precinct level our neighbors pretty much know which candidate a delegate will vote for because we’re asked in a smaller, informal setting. At the county level it’s like a Chinese fire drill with people running around asking for votes and declaring what we stand for or who we would vote for. At the state convention/assembly those people who want to go to the national convention cross the stage and have thirty seconds or a minute to make their pitch while the delegates vote. In each case it’s time consuming to tally all the votes but that’s grass root politics at its finest.
By the informal nature of the above, there is rarely time to print a ballot. At the county level all delegates are listed and we put check marks by the ones we want to elect. That means there can easily be sixty to a hundred names on the list and we choose forty or more depending on each counties allocated numbers.
It is so warm here (Dallas area) that, even though the wind is so strong I could hardly open the car door, it is still hot!
Interesting links.
Did you see this in the notes:
“There are currently 2,380 total delegates to the Republican National Convention, including 1,917 pledged delegates and 463 unpledged delegates. The total number of delegate votes needed to win the nomination is 1,191.
• Unpledged delegates in the Republican Party do not have to indicate a candidate preference, but a majority are elected just like pledged delegates. Of the 463 unpledged delegates, 123 are RNC members who become delegates automatically. “
Sorry, I forgot.
At the state convention delegates do vote for individual candidates. The vote is similar to the electoral college in that we are really electing delegates who will support the nominee chosen. So although national delegate names are not on a list, the candidate is.
Thanks.
At what point do the CO delegates get “unbound” / “unpledged” if there is a deadlock and no majority for any candidate at the convention?
The pledged delegates are only locked into their candidates for the first 2 votes. Then I believe it is an open convention and all bets are off.
Pray for W and Our Troops
Wiki is pretty accurate from what I understand. CO is a caucus state but candidates have an option to get on a ballot by petition if they want to forgo the caucus.
You’re right, it is complex but easily understood once you’ve gone through it once. But, as I said, each state has its own quirks as to how they get to the end.
I strongly recommend everyone get involved in the grass root aspects of our party. We can complain but change comes from this ground up efforts.
Delegates are generally bound for their first ballot vote.
Thanks for correcting me. I thought it was the first vote only.
“I strongly recommend everyone get involved in the grass root aspects of our party.’
Oh, absolutely. We are a Republican County and City but there are GOP big-government types embedded that are always ready to run wild and they just love to expand government.
Plus, we have all of a sudden gotten a well organized and active Sierra Club (some under the cover of other organizations, like the stupid Manatee Club for one). They are co-opting the anti-growth people and gullible northerners into a populist coalition to steal property rights.
“Will she get turd in NH too??”
No, and she won’t be turd in Oregon either. That designation has already been assigned.
Belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, everyone!
Anita, thanks again for the amazing work you do every week to produce your nuggets. I LOVE to read every week such quotes in the fourth link (from the “American Thinker”): “When things are going poorly for the Left, count on it to change the subject.” Your nuggets are a wonder weekly “reality check” that document trends and developments that (somehow/sarc) the MSM ignores or spins.
We have problems here too. That’s why it’s important to keep conservatives involved. We tend to lose some of our more conservative members to people more liberal.
It’s hard in Denver too. Denver is very liberal and Republicans are in the minority behind Democrats and Independents.
McCain/Finegold nationally followed by a state campaign finance law change has hurt Republicans. While the Democrats here geared up for the change, Republicans failed to learn what to do or how to overcome the changes. The result has been more Democrats elected while Republicans sit around complaining about it.
Look at both websites and ask yourself which party is doing best. Better yet, review and evaluate your own state to compare.
http://cologop.org/ for Republicans (Under change. For the better I hope.)
http://coloradodems.org/ for Democrats, but they also have http://coloradodems.com to use as a hit site.
Thanks for the link!
I don’t know what prompted Jeri to call in (I doubt it was Fred) but maybe O’royalty had made some reference to Fred.
Anyway, he certainly didn’t defer to her but he was no ruder than usual and I thought she handled it extremely well.
She’s a very charming person.
I wonder how many candidates have appeared on Bill’s show...I quite often manage to miss him.
Has Hillary appeared? Obama? Mitt?
He acts like Fred is the only holdout, so I just wondered.
Obama got Blacker before our very ears in that speech.
Yes, Fred’s plan will work. He refuses to offer pie in the sky stuff like the dems do. He just makes a sensible do-able plan.
I can’t believe people believe Huckabee can magically abolish abortion in the country. He can’t walk on water either.
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