More than 90 delegates were up for grabs on Saturday. And Ted Cruz grabbed most of them. Again.

[Diamond Jim]

Local and statewide Republican party organizations around the country held about about 20 conventions and caucuses to elect national delegates, with more than 90 slots up for grabs in a shadow primary process that Trump has blasted as “rigged” against him. The contests, open only to registered Republican voters — and in some cases, only to party insiders — identify individuals to fill delegate slots earned by candidates in state primaries and caucuses. Who these delegates are is crucial: Though party rules require them to vote according to the will of their states' voters at first, most are able to vote freely if the convention deadlocks and it requires multiple rounds of balloting to pick a nominee.

So far, Cruz has dominated these delegate selection battles, even in states Trump won handily in the primary. Though Trump won all 50 delegates in South Carolina in a Feb. 20 primary, for example, many are poised to abandon him for Cruz on a second ballot. And now, in Georgia, where Trump crushed his rivals and earned 42 of 76 delegates on primary day, dozens are set to abandon him for Cruz as soon as they can.

On Saturday, the Texas senator won 32 of 42 delegate slots available in Georgia, according to former Rep. Jack Kingston, a Cruz supporter. And John Kasich, who finished last in that primary, scored a delegate as well — state Sen. Bill Cowsert — his campaign confirmed.


Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/...elegate-fights-once-more-222054#ixzz465ZzrVTk

On Saturday, the Texas senator won 32 of 42 delegate slots available in Georgia, according to former Rep. Jack Kingston, a Cruz supporter. And John Kasich, who finished last in that primary, scored a delegate as well — state Sen. Bill Cowsert — his campaign confirmed.

But the rest of the day went terribly for Trump. In Wyoming, Cruz scored all 14 delegates on the ballot at a state convention, giving him 23 of the state's 29 slots overall. Trump earlier on Saturday ripped the Wyoming contest on Fox & Friends and said he didn't bother to compete there because decisions were being made by “the bosses.”

Cruz also won a quieter victory in South Carolina, where he nabbed all three delegates available in the state's 1st Congressional District. Duffy Lewis, one of the winners, told POLITICO last month that she believed Cruz deserved a delegate vote from her district, since Rubio dropped out. “I’m convinced Ted Cruz would’ve taken Charleston County and many other districts. I just know my county.”

It was another blow to Trump in South Carolina, who lost five of six delegate slots last week in two congressional districts there despite winning the state handily on Feb. 20.

Delegate Count:
Trump 744
Cruz 559

Now Trump will get some wins here as the primaries hit the Northeast, but this is the stuff that fires up the Trump base who think D.C is trying to rip the election from them.

 

[ripskater]

The elections seem rigged.

If cruz gets the nomination this way, I feel like I may not vote in November.

 

[ripskater]

..............................

 

[VulcanNervPinch]

The elections are definitely a sham.

If people shrug and go along with it, it will never stop.

Only protest and refusal to back the party-picked candidate might have an impact.

 

[dittohead84]

Total sham. How anyone would want Cruz is beyond me, smarmy little shit

 

[PainIsLIfe]

I see a lot of Trump fans claiming that they'll stay home in Nov., but the fact is that Trump supporters are going to turn out to vote against Hillary in the general - and most sane people know that.

OTOH - you are going to have a good portion of conservatives stay home if Trump is the nominee.

 

[Skip Reming]

The elections seem rigged.

If cruz gets the nomination this way, I feel like I may not vote in November.

Why? This is fair and how it works. There is no scam. Check out the Ben Shapiro show and he will go over it again and again. All the things you want, Cruz would do. Trump has zero chance of winning.
You do know that Trump supports partial-birth abortions, right??? His sister supports them and Trump said he would nominate her for SCOTUS.

Trump is really fucking worthless.

http://www.dailywire.com/news/4648/cruz-stealing-trumps-nomination-ben-shapiro

Only if you consider knowing the rules of the game cheating. The rules may suck – indeed, they probably do, considering that winner-take-all primaries are certainly as unfair as unbound delegates – but they are indeed the rules. And Trump himself is happy to change the rules: now he wants the Republican National Committee to force Ohio Governor John Kasich from the race, a development that early on would have helped Cruz.

On a broader level, the Trump campaign complains that if they win less than 1,237 delegates but still a plurality, Trump ought to be handed the nomination. This is nonsense. All over the country, various states have run-off election systems in which candidates must gain a majority to win an initial election round outright; if nobody wins a majority, the two top candidates hold a run-off election. That isn’t unfair, and that isn’t stealing. In some ways, it’s fairer than a first past the post system, which neglects the fact that voters sometimes choose third-place and fourth-place candidates, but would prefer the second-place finisher to the first-place finisher.

Trump complaining that he has won the most delegates but not enough to gain the nomination, and therefore ought to be handed the nomination, is the equivalent of a baseball team up 2-1 in the World Series claiming that they should be handed the trophy. It takes four wins to win. And it takes 1,237 delegates to win the nomination. If Trump wins the nomination with fewer delegates, that’s moving the goalposts – a Trump specialty, but not a moral or legal argument.





http://www.dailywire.com/news/4824/trump-whines-about-being-cheated-he-was-only-ben-shapiro

There’s only one problem: the Drudge headline is highly misleading. Colorado Republicans voted at precinct caucuses for delegates; those delegates voted at the Colorado convention. This process was approved back in August 2015 as a response to the 2012 Ron Paul attempt to hijack the delegates from Colorado. As Jim Geraghty at National Review reports, Colorado began holding caucuses in 2004; in 2008, they shifted to a caucus/straw poll system that sent unpledged delegates to the convention; in August, the RNC said that Colorado shouldn’t waste money on the straw poll, since the delegates were unpledged anyway. Here’s Geraghty:

On March 1, Colorado Republicans gathered at 2,917 precinct caucuses to select delegates to the County Assemblies and District Conventions. If you’re a Coloradan with a view on the Republican primary, this is when you got to vote. At the County Assemblies, those delegates elect delegates to the Congressional District and State Conventions. (Colorado Republicans pick three delegates and three alternates from each of the seven congressional districts, and then another 13 to represent statewide.) Once again, this is all laid out in the party rules. This isn’t hidden somewhere. It’s not written in code.

But for Trump, it’s simply too much to ask for him to read the rules for each state, or hire the very best, fabulous people to do it for him. According to The Denver Post, “Trump’s campaign didn’t put a visible paid staffer on the ground in Colorado until last week, when it hired Patrick Davis, a Colorado Springs political consultant, to organize national delegate candidates at the 7th Congressional District convention in Arvada. By then, Cruz had won the first six delegates….The Trump campaign’s list of preferred national delegates distributed at the state convention on Saturday was riddled with errors and misspellings that only further hurt its chances.”

None of this should be surprising. Trump is a man whose own children didn’t re-register Republican in order to vote in the New York primaries. This is a human who decides political positions based on whether he had a solid bowel movement that morning.

 

[jmag]

Trump is apparently a thorn in the side of the neocons and the war party questioning the status quo with NATO, standing troops around the world, and interventionism. Is this why the establishment hates him so? Funny how lib activists as well who think they support peace and justice hating Trump in the name of the racist nonsense are made puppets of the war party.

Is Trump the Peace Candidate?
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2016/04/14/trump-peace-candidate/

 

[Fawlty]

Weren't GA, SC and WY foregone conclusions? I'm guessing they had their state conventions? Doesn't affect Trump's chances, these delegates were already in the L column for him. Trump supporters should look to the northeast in NY soon and then several states the week after. He's going to crush there and all of a sudden the narrative will swing in his favor.

 

[ripskater]

Why? This is fair and how it works. There is no scam. Check out the Ben Shapiro show and he will go over it again and again. All the things you want, Cruz would do. Trump has zero chance of winning.
You do know that Trump supports partial-birth abortions, right??? His sister supports them and Trump said he would nominate her for SCOTUS.

Trump is really fucking worthless.

http://www.dailywire.com/news/4648/cruz-stealing-trumps-nomination-ben-shapiro

Only if you consider knowing the rules of the game cheating. The rules may suck – indeed, they probably do, considering that winner-take-all primaries are certainly as unfair as unbound delegates – but they are indeed the rules. And Trump himself is happy to change the rules: now he wants the Republican National Committee to force Ohio Governor John Kasich from the race, a development that early on would have helped Cruz.

On a broader level, the Trump campaign complains that if they win less than 1,237 delegates but still a plurality, Trump ought to be handed the nomination. This is nonsense. All over the country, various states have run-off election systems in which candidates must gain a majority to win an initial election round outright; if nobody wins a majority, the two top candidates hold a run-off election. That isn’t unfair, and that isn’t stealing. In some ways, it’s fairer than a first past the post system, which neglects the fact that voters sometimes choose third-place and fourth-place candidates, but would prefer the second-place finisher to the first-place finisher.

Trump complaining that he has won the most delegates but not enough to gain the nomination, and therefore ought to be handed the nomination, is the equivalent of a baseball team up 2-1 in the World Series claiming that they should be handed the trophy. It takes four wins to win. And it takes 1,237 delegates to win the nomination. If Trump wins the nomination with fewer delegates, that’s moving the goalposts – a Trump specialty, but not a moral or legal argument.





http://www.dailywire.com/news/4824/trump-whines-about-being-cheated-he-was-only-ben-shapiro

There’s only one problem: the Drudge headline is highly misleading. Colorado Republicans voted at precinct caucuses for delegates; those delegates voted at the Colorado convention. This process was approved back in August 2015 as a response to the 2012 Ron Paul attempt to hijack the delegates from Colorado. As Jim Geraghty at National Review reports, Colorado began holding caucuses in 2004; in 2008, they shifted to a caucus/straw poll system that sent unpledged delegates to the convention; in August, the RNC said that Colorado shouldn’t waste money on the straw poll, since the delegates were unpledged anyway. Here’s Geraghty:

On March 1, Colorado Republicans gathered at 2,917 precinct caucuses to select delegates to the County Assemblies and District Conventions. If you’re a Coloradan with a view on the Republican primary, this is when you got to vote. At the County Assemblies, those delegates elect delegates to the Congressional District and State Conventions. (Colorado Republicans pick three delegates and three alternates from each of the seven congressional districts, and then another 13 to represent statewide.) Once again, this is all laid out in the party rules. This isn’t hidden somewhere. It’s not written in code.

But for Trump, it’s simply too much to ask for him to read the rules for each state, or hire the very best, fabulous people to do it for him. According to The Denver Post, “Trump’s campaign didn’t put a visible paid staffer on the ground in Colorado until last week, when it hired Patrick Davis, a Colorado Springs political consultant, to organize national delegate candidates at the 7th Congressional District convention in Arvada. By then, Cruz had won the first six delegates….The Trump campaign’s list of preferred national delegates distributed at the state convention on Saturday was riddled with errors and misspellings that only further hurt its chances.”

None of this should be surprising. Trump is a man whose own children didn’t re-register Republican in order to vote in the New York primaries. This is a human who decides political positions based on whether he had a solid bowel movement that morning.

That may be how it works. But it doesn't feel right to me. It makes me not care.

 

[snakedafunky]

I hope the Sanders and Trump campaign start a sort of movement that it becomes unacceptable in the near future to vote for people backed by big money and superpacs etc.

The whole Republican party being against Trump IMO has nothing to do with what he says but they fear they cant control him. It might be within the rules but it total BS.
Sanders almost has it but the whole Clinton machine is still to big to overcome at the moment.

With the whole internet crowdfunding we have now, I think its just a matter of time. If a candidate backed by big money still becomes the candidate informed people should just stay home to sent a message.

 

[uncommon]

Primary don't lie.

 

[Irenaeus]

For a guy promising a lot of simple solutions to complicated problems, Trump seems rather inept at handling his own party's eclectic, but comparatively simple selection rules. I mean, there are a lot of stupid rules out there, but they were known entities long beforehand, and for all his ability with the press angle, he's not much of a gamer when it comes to politics.

 

[The ScorpioN]

Wouldn't this guarantee Trump running as 3rd party? Which will pretty much guarantee a democrat in office again?

 

[Dalarna3]

Trump does seem to be slowing down a lot. I'm sympathetic to the Republicans, but they're really fucked this year. Completely and totally fucked.

 

[IDL]

nvm

 

[PainIsLIfe]

Wouldn't this guarantee Trump running as 3rd party? Which will pretty much guarantee a democrat in office again?

Two major problem:

1- It expensive, and Trump isn't going to spend that kind of money with a 0 chance of winning. He isn't really self-funding now and has already tried turning to big donors without much success.

2- 13 states deadline for independents to be place on the ballot will pass before the GOP convention is over; 2 more states deadlines pass within 4 days of the convention, then another dozen would have a month or less to get the required signatures for access.

I don't believe that any 3rd party made every ballot last cycle and those parties new well in advance that they were running candidates.

 

[VulcanNervPinch]

I see a lot of Trump fans claiming that they'll stay home in Nov., but the fact is that Trump supporters are going to turn out to vote against Hillary in the general - and most sane people know that.

Like I said - if they do that, then they're rewarding the Party for what it's done and guaranteeing that the same choice will be made again in the future.

Wouldn't this guarantee Trump running as 3rd party? Which will pretty much guarantee a democrat in office again?

If they do this and punish the Party for the shit they're pulling, then the Party may take notice and rethink.

 

[in the]

It's funny/hypocritical how the Republicans blast the Democrats for having "superdelegates" that usurp the will of the people and let the party insiders choose their nominee, yet they don't blast these types of "delegates" that bypass the will of the people and instead give delegates to pet party insiders.

I see a lot of Trump fans claiming that they'll stay home in Nov., but the fact is that Trump supporters are going to turn out to vote against Hillary in the general - and most sane people know that.

OTOH - you are going to have a good portion of conservatives stay home if Trump is the nominee.

I won't vote for Cruz. Dude is a creep. Gun to my head, I might choose Shillary over Cruz.

 

[PainIsLIfe]

Like I said - if they do that, then they're rewarding the Party for what it's done and guaranteeing that the same choice will be made again in the future.

The same people supporting Trump are the same ones saying Hillary should be indicted - I can't see them staying home to let her become POTUS. Also most of the ones I've spoken with; irl, say that they would be ok with Cruz.

Btw- exactly what message would they be sending to the party? The party's been put on blast repeatedly for nominating RINO's and Trump isn't a conservative. So are they telling the party that they actually like RINO's or that it's only ok to support RINO's when the people pick them?