Posted on 04/12/2016 2:25:47 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
I am a delegate to both the North Carolina State GOP convention to be held in May and my Congressional District Convention next week. My political insider connection is that I showed up at my precinct caucus/county convention last month, where I expressed the willingness to commit to the time and expense of attending these other conventions.
I have made a similar commitment every few years for the past three decades. When I lived in Chicago I was also a delegate to several Illinois State GOP conventions for the same reasons: I voted in Republican primaries, attended my ward Republican organization's meetings and made the commitment to attend the state convention. As a law professor I had who was also a veteran of the Minnesota State legislature used to tell his class, “The world belongs to those who show up to participate.”
The sad fact is that many times delegate/alternate slots to political conventions go unfilled because there are not enough people willing to participate. A county convention may take from half to a full day depending on the size of the county. A congressional district may also take up to a day. The state party convention's general assembly is also an entire day and unless the state convention is in one's hometown, attendance involves at least one night's stay in a hotel. Plus there are registration fees to pay and travel costs.
There is one big difference this year. As I listen to Trump whine about how unfair it is that he actually has to come up with hundreds of warm bodies willing to spend the time and money to go to Cleveland to cast the votes he won through his plurality finishes in various primaries, I marvel at the incredible level of organization inside Ted Cruz's campaign...
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
A nickname for Rafael in Spanish is Rafelito. His father shortened it to Felito.
Rafelito is a Spanish nickname for Rafael. Cruz’s father shortened it to Felito. Kids in Houston made fun of Cruz and called him Dorito and Frito. That is why he changed it to Ted.
And you know him personally to have that tidbit?
Google is your friend or maybe I do know him. I am from Houston. :)
Mysterious!! But I am not into whacko theories so I will just say Google and I are only friends for things I care about. Thanks for a polite reply though they are becoming a rare commodity.
It may be a nickname for other non-Cuban Hispanic males, but deep in Little Havana, it’s a nickname for Fidel.
Felito #1 -Fidel Castro’s eldest son, by his first wife who happens to be related to Republican Party U.S. Representative Mario Diaz-Balart.
Felito #2 Fidel -The former deacon at the Ermita de la Caridad Shrine on Biscayne Bay.
Lots of Marielitos that enjoyed the early stages of Communist Cuba named their sons after el Jeffe. It’s not so popular once they escaped.
How can you seriously post that analogy with a straight face. I bet you are laughing as you post, eh. Over a 1,079,000 voters gave TRump 99 Florida Delegates. He earned their votes and the delegates.
In Colorado they had a few hundred perhaps a thousand people huddled in rooms in a very unrepresentative form of selection. In Colorado there is close to a million registered Republicans that were not given the chance to vote.
.000000000000000000000000000000000001% of the voters selected Cruz.
The Colorado delegates had been pre-destined for Jeb. Most just needed to be redircted. If Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush were going head-to-head, Cruz’s birthplace would be reason for dismissal from the competition. Since he and all other GOP candidates are going against Trump, those details don’t matter because it’s all about taking down Trump. The GOP is interested in keeping all their pawns on the board at this time…
Fidel Castro’s oldest son was nicknamed Fidelito, with a D in it.
I haven’t found the deacon you refer to, but I’m still saying you are making it up since you’ve already cited one wrong nicknamed after Fidel.
Your posts are informative. Thanks.
You the new owner here?
I'm not criticizing anyone with this question. I would just like to understand.
“Can someone tell us exactly WHAT is the “ground game”?”
I’m from Washington state and got a couple of emails from Cruz people to attend my precinct caucus. Another freeper said he got a phone call reminding him to go. (He changed his other plans and went).
That is what the “ground game” is. Emails, phone-calls, door-to-door neighborhood walks (hence the term “ground”).
That ground game by Cruz is probably what got me and that other freeper to our different precinct and district caucuses with about 90% of the folks being elected to the state convention as Cruz delegates.
No arm twisting, no nothing. Just sit down, hear some speeches, and then vote for the delegates. At my caucus, 27 delegates were elected by about 200 people. Most of the folks voting were just interested voters. I’m guessing about 30% of the delegates were newbies, like myself.
Perhaps at this late stage it’s enough you know that Cruz fielded thousands of volunteers across the country to campaign for him, set up headquarters to operate from and they organized from there......Trump did rallies and TV Interviews/media and did very little to organize anyone on the ground (grassroots) to assist.
ou need a ground game, and Cruz and other candidates have always done so....Trump chose to operate his campaign non-traditional and now it’s biting him in the rear....
The delegates actually will often times try to get committee members and those attending caucuses and conventions to vote for them...some are more aggressive then others.
You really need to invest a bit of your tie to search the web on the electoral college and about delegates.....actually about how our elections work.
It’s people as yourself, who do not understand this process ...that make it so complicated for things to work as they need to work. People have to explain, and explain and explain.....
“Trump did rallies and TV Interviews/media...”
Here in Washington state we will also be having a primary election. It will be interesting to see if Mr. Tump has a rally out here and how much TV he does. And how the primary results stack up with the State Convention.
Interestingly, our convention is before the primary! (Due to the democrats in the State Legislature!!??)
I'll assume that you are sincere in your question and not being deliberately obtuse. In that vein, I will try to answer you.
What many people, including apparently many on this forum, fail to realize is that in most cases, when you vote in a primary or caucus, that while you are voting for delegates to be bound to your candidate for a specified number of ballots, you are not actually voting for the delegate. The people filling the delegate spots are selected at another time. And you are not voting for a Trump supporter to be in that spot - you are voting for the person in that spot to be required to vote for Trump on the first ballot.
Now, as a candidate, if you want the people selected to be the delegates that are bound to you to be loyal to you after they are unbound, you have more work to do. You need to have your supporters attend their precinct caucuses and get elected as delegates to their county caucuses; and then they have to attend the county caucuses, and get selected as delegates to your state convention; and then they have to go to the state convention, and there have to be enough of your supporters as delegates to the state convention to outvote the supporters of the other candidate in order to have your supporters selected as the delegate to the national convention.
Now all of this takes a tremendous amount of effort and organization by the campaign, and a large group of enthusiastic and loyal supporters willing to show up at every stage of the process. The campaign has to know when and where the caucuses and conventions are; needs to have the list of its preferred delegates, and make sure that their supporters have the list and know whom to vote for; they may even need to provide transportation, assist with registration fees, etc. And they need to do that at every stage of the process. THAT is what a ground game is.
Cruz isn't winning these delegate spots by converting Trump supporters, or by bribing, blackmailing or coercing anyone. He is doing it by being organized and out working every other campaign.
Nobody is "stealing" Trump delegates - all of the delegates that are bound to Trump will vote for him on as many ballots as they are required. That is ALL he earned by winning the delegates in the primary or caucus. Anything beyond that, he has to work hard to get his own supporters into those spots - he can't just demand that they be placed there. The system doesn't work that way. If Trump can't figure that out - he will lose.
Traditionally, ground game has referred to direct get out the vote efforts, that involve direct personal interaction with individual voters - things like door to door or direct phone calls to potential voters to sway them to support your candidate. On election day, it includes efforts to prod and encourage sympathetic voters to actually get out and vote. Sometimes that includes providing transportation to supporters who have no means to get to the polls.
Those are all legitimate efforts. What the anti-Trumpers are trying to do is use the term ground game which applies to these legitimate activities, to include the bribery and intimidation and outright exclusion of Trump supporters from the selection process that was used in Colorado to deliver Cruz a clean sweep of the Colorado delegates.
So they’re playing games with language, by applying the term ground game to their illegitimate activities to try and legitimize them.
I heard today some Mayor in California has made it quite clear Trumps not welcomed in their city.
Trumpsters are having a very hard time grasping the idea that there are many people who do not want to see Trump win this primary....so we’re going to see more and more of the usual “quiet” people, or those who don’t usually vote in Primaries, now are seeing they can’t sit still and just let this ride any longer.
These next voter states are going to be interesting.....Trumps going to try and present a more conservative, Presidential pose.....which may turn off some of his supporters he has won by being bombastic.
So the mix of voters is going to slide some for various reasons....how it balances will be interesting.
“I heard today some Mayor in California has made it quite clear Trumps not welcomed in their city.”
I can understand that. I don’t agree with it, but the extra security and traffic control for his huge rallies probably can put a drain on things. Although that might be offset from the revenue it brings it. I suppose the Mayor can say whatever he wants, but can’t enforce it.
Out here in Seattle it is a nightmare with traffic whenever Obama comes into town and they shut down the highways. I think it was last year when the Chinese president came into town. That was even worse they had everything shut down for him so he could travel.
It will be interesting to see how Cruz does in California. I’ve heard he’s trending upwards there.
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