Posted on 04/21/2012 3:20:10 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Rick Santorum, the winner of Alabama's Republican presidential primary, hasn't released his 22 Alabama delegates to support another candidate, but delegates said they expect to unite behind Mitt Romney if he locks up the GOP nomination.
....Santorum won Alabama's GOP primary March 13, picking up 22 delegates, compared with 13 for Newt Gingrich and 12 for Romney.
Even though Santorum has suspended his campaign, the rules of the Alabama Republican Party bind his delegates to him until he releases them.
Dean participated in a conference call with Santorum on Monday, during which the former Pennsylvania senator told delegates he has no immediate plans to release them. Dean said Santorum is hanging on to the delegates for now to make sure conservative principles play an important role at the Republican National Convention in late August.
Delegate Tom Powers of Clanton said that if Romney gets the 1,144 delegates needed to secure the nomination before the August convention, he expects Santorum to release his Alabama delegates and encourage everyone to give Romney a 100 percent vote in Tampa, Fla.
Delegate Tripp Skipper of Anniston, an aide to Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, said that even though Santorum was his first choice, Romney appears to be the presumptive nominee.
"I'd much rather have Governor Romney as president than President Obama," Skipper said.
State Party Chairman Bill Armistead said it was obvious that Romney would win the nomination. He said some of Santorum's supporters in Alabama are already helping Romney's campaign, and he expects more to come on board.
Gingrich is still seeking the nomination and has his 13 Alabama delegates. Armistead said he hopes Gingrich won't become divisive because "there is no path to victory for him to get the nomination."
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum are on the same team.
“If voters start shifting gears and deciding they want ideological consistency, then they’re going to start paying attention to say, Rick Santorum.” Sarah Palin
.......................................................
“He wrote the law that ended partial birth abortions, and led the fight to reform the welfare system, ending abuse and moving millions from welfare to work.
snip
Sarah Palin praised Santorum for protecting the sanctity of life.”
“Rick will do what is right for Conservatives. ..”
He sure will, and will use his many delegates to keep the GOP platform pro-life and conservative in every way.
Do you happen to know if Rick Santorum will still be on the primary ballot in NY?
I just did a search and Rick Santorum will be on the ballot in NY, Connecticut, and maybe all of them.
Now I have a REASON to vote in the primaries. Hope others will join me in sending the GOP establishment a MESSAGE.
When someone’s name gets officially on an issued ballot, it stays there. It can’t be taken off even if they withdraw.
However, delegate selections are another matter.
They vary from state to state and process to process.
There are numerous situations where Santorum has received fewer delegates than would’ve been expected, in return for the number of popular votes he got. He has had some delegate issues throughout, because of the complexity of the process and the difficulty of running his somewhat “on a shoestring” campaign.
Now that he has suspended his campaign, it would behoove Santorum folks to look at who gets delegates, and even more importantly, who doesn’t, when all the shouting dies down from popular voting.
Vin L posted very detailed instructions to Newt supporters on the PA process in regard to delegates. I didn’t follow it because it doesn’t affect me, but was struck by the complexity.
On the larger picture, I don’t see how a suspended candidacy can wind up with delegates.
If you merely want to feel good that you voted for Santorum, that’s one thing, but my question is, is there any way a suspended candidacy can receive committed delegates, no matter any other factors that normally are involved in delegate selections?
However, if a Newt or a Paul receive votes, and if they follow the delegate selection rules in each location, they can still receive delegates, no question about it.
That denies Romney the delegates, at least on a first ballot at the convention.
Denying Romney the delegates is what those candidacies that remain ARE ALL ABOUT.
Exactly.
If someone wanted to “send a message” they would vote for the conservative who is still running — Newt.
Remember how the VA primary had conservatives who where denied their candidate on the ballot, voting for Paul?
Conservatives need to flood the polls and cast their vote for Newt - send the message that the base is not to be dismissed and laughed at again.
The RNC has ignored the 2010 conservative sweep and the will of the base. The GOP is behaving as our ruler and not as our representative.
This just in...
Romney wins 12 of 24 Missouri delegates chosen Saturday
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2875049/posts?page=6
Rick Santorum WON Missouri, right?
But, Romney won 12 delegates to Rick’s 7 in delegate selection caucuses on Saturday.
I’ve asked CW if she knows what happens under the rules at convention voting time when someone wins delegates AFTER they declared their candidacy over, but that aside, this illustrates my point about Santorum’s delegate deficiency compared to popular votes he won.
Not only that, but the Missouri GOP estalishment will select the rest of that state’s delegation, and you can be sure they will be for Romney.
So out of the 52 delegate slots Missouri has, only 7 go to Santorum, and even then, I don’t know what becomes of those 7 when the candidate has withdrawn.
No, I don’t know if he is still on the NY ballot, Sun.
“If you merely want to feel good that you voted for Santorum, ..”
More than wanting to feel good, I want to send the GOP establishment a message.
Newt is better than Romney, of course, but because of Newt we are stuck with Romney, which is why I have a problem voting for him.
Newt is not going to win. Romney will be the nominee, thanks to the GOP establishment, and Newt for not dropping out when he knew he didn’t have a chance.
But thank you for your informative post.
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