Posted on 04/27/2016 7:46:55 AM PDT by bigbob
After a big win in Wisconsin earlier this month, it looks like the all-important statewide delegate selection process could leave Team Cruz at a serious disadvantage. I’m told by several people familiar with the situation that the constitution of the Republican Party of Wisconsin gives the presidential campaign that wins the state’s popular vote the prerogative of picking 15 of the 18 statewide delegates and 18 of the state’s 18 alternate delegates to the Republican National Convention.
Though Governor Scott Walker endorsed Ted Cruz and clearly has a close working relationship with the Wisconsin GOP, the Republican Party of Wisconsin released its final statewide delegate list on Tuesday morning, and sources tell me the list is not what the Cruz campaign wanted.
Only four of the 18 delegates on the GOP list were on the list the Cruz campaign sent the state party, meaning the state party ignored its own rules that require it to honor the wishes of the Cruz campaign in naming 15 of the 18 statewide delegates. Among the 18 alternates, not a single one of them was from the original Cruz campaign list.
According to him, the WI GOP is split betweent true Cruz beleivers and some (mostly Rubio fans) who "held their nose" to give lip service to Cruz although they really dislike him. Scott Walker could have just put all the Cruz recommendations into convention slots but he did not do so and only 4 of the 18 delegates are actually Cruz delegates?
What does this mean?
Will Cruz end up challenging the results of his big "turning point" victory?
Leaving him disappoinTed
More importantly, will Cruz supporters now claim the process is rigged? Even Scott Walker has stabbed Cruz in the back it sounds like.
Seems as though Cruz’ delegate boomerang has circled back to smash him.
Most every delegate is interested in securing promises from prospective candidates but mainly from candidates who have the best shot of actually being the nominee. This is the ‘momentum’ factor.
good point, and Rubio is lying very low, yet still holds more delegates than Kasich
If true .... wait'l CRUZ begins HIS whine !!
I am glad the this delegate stealing thing has come back to bite Ted in the a$$. The old saying about playing with fire.
I am not a Cruz fan, but if the political process now stabs Cruz in the back, as much as turnabout is fair-play for the participants, for the citizens who voted it is just more corruption.
I support Trump. But this is just another sign of how disconnected the primary process is from the people who will eventually have to vote for candidates in the general. Even if this ends up helping Trump, it isn’t right.
I have to agree, if (and only if) the “rules” ignored by the state party are actually binding rules, and not traditions.
BOOM!
see ya Cruz!
All I can say though is that Cruz's ground game means nothing as well.
Just for the record I am a strong Trump supporter, and since Cruz has shown himself to be rather sleazy this does not bother me like it will staunch Cruz supporters
Will Cruz end up challenging the results of his big “turning point” victory?
Actually being a Trump supporter, it doesn’t bother me in the least. In fact I think it is fitting that Cruz gets screwed, since he is all about screwing who the people supported in terms of popular vote.
I agree. People just want to vote and have the popular vote determine the winner. Simple concept.
Maybe it’s time to demand primary election reform. Take it out of the hands of the parties and hold primaries just like we have for other elected offices.
I am a Trump support. However, Cruz won Wisconsin far and square, give him his delegates (not that they will help him now).
They'll still be bound on the first ballot. There won't be a second ballot.
I'd have a much bigger problem if these delegates were elected.
So, when Cruz follows the state convention rules, the Trump people go ballistic insisting Cruz is stealing their delegates. But when Trump people break the convention rules, that’s OK... that’s just getting it done.
Despicable.
Deals can be cut.
Rubio has requested the RNC to not release his delegates. But he has suspended his campaign.
Trump’s lawyers are preparing a certification challenge to Rubio’s binding of his delegates, and to the RNC decision to not release his delegates.
But the real argument comes not from Trump’s lawyers but the Rubio delegates themselves. They are speaking up that their delegate status is neutralized by binding to a candidate who has no shot at the nomination.
Each delegate has a large number of voters and commercial interests behind them. Those voices are in constant contact with the delegate about the status of securing promises. Each of Rubio’s delegates, in turn, is in contact with the RNC about becoming unbound so that they can secure such promises on behalf of their voters and businesses.
So a tense situation is set up. On the one hand, Trump’s lawyers are holding out for Rubio’s delegates to come to the Trump campaign. And on the other hand, the delegates want to go with a winner. The action by Rubio becomes quite frustrating. And the resultant pressure is put on the RNC and Rubio.
I count realistically 110 Rubio delegates as being in areas that are strongly pro-Trump. Source is:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/us/elections/primary-calendar-and-results.html?_r=0
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