Washblog

to do with the state central committee vote.

by Particle Man on Mon Jun 11, 2007 at 01:28:07 PM PST

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   We (the party) knew this was a PR train wreck when we went into it. I'll be disappointed if we don't have some pro-active responses in the can for attacks like this.

Dave Gibney Pullman

by gibney on Mon Jun 11, 2007 at 02:14:27 PM PST

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Sam's press release

Dave Gibney Pullman

by gibney on Mon Jun 11, 2007 at 07:48:37 PM PST

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Now Sam is happy, and Luke is happy, and we're stuck with it.

by RonK Seattle on Mon Jun 11, 2007 at 08:15:04 PM PST

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You'll want to look carefully at what the WSRP is planning.

They are only committed to selecting 51% of the elected delegates through the statewide primary.

They retain the same number of unelected party delegates as always. And if most Republican voters in the state forgo the precinct caucuses and only vote in the primary, they will effectively have less representation in the final delegation than Democrats in the state.

by Mark Cooley on Tue Jun 12, 2007 at 11:46:23 AM PST

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here is a recent post of his on HA that details what a sham the GOP deligate selection process is. The sit up does not translate to sound bite so Ron who posted above was right. We are stuck with the Sam and Luke show for now.

Richard Pope says:

The Washington GOP national convention delegate process is a fraud and a sham.

The Democratic caucuses guarantee delegates chosen by the presidential campaigns at every step of the process -- precinct caucuses, legislative caucuses, congressional district caucuses, and the state convention. If Barack Obama gets 25% of the people attending precinct caucuses in the 8th CD, then Obama gets 25% of the delegates (who are chosen by Obama supporters) at each stage of the process, including national convention delegates.

The Republican caucuses -- which are much more sparsely attended -- are winner-take-all at each stage of the process. People do not attend to formally express a presidential preference. At best, straw polls are taken. At each stage of the process, delegates are chosen to the next level by majority vote of the delegates attending.

So let's suppose the Republicans have 39 national delegates, and 20 of them are chosen by the primary. Let's suppose Mitt Romney gets 25% of the primary vote, but that Rudy Giuliani is preferred by the party establishment. Giuliani gets only 10% of the primary vote. The remaining 65% is split between other candidates.

At the precinct caucuses -- attended by just a few thousand party activists and establishment figures, 1/3 of the people support Romney, and 2/3 of the people support Giuliani. So Giuliani gets at least 2/3 of the delegate chosen at the precinct level.

The Romney delegates chosen by the precincts show up at the legislative district and county caucuses. However, most attendees support Giuliani, and the overwhelming majority of delegates to the state convention are Giuliani supporters.

As a result, Giuliani would get all 19 "caucus" delegates, even though Giuliani only got 10% of the primary vote (where perhaps 500,000 or vote people vote GOP ballots).

Now, Romney is supposedly "guaranteed" 25% of the "primary" delegates (5 out of 20) and other candidates are "guaranteed" the other 65% (13 out of 20). Only 10% is supposed to go to Giuliani (2 out of 20).

However, the overwhelming number of convention attendees are Giuliani supporters. They get to elect the actual "Romney" and other "primary" delegates to the national convention. So all of the slots for "Romney" delegates, "Thompson" delegates, "McCain" delegates, etc. are actually filled by Giuliani supporters. True, they are committed to vote for "their" candidate on the first ballot -- assuming that person is still in the race -- but they are going to support Giuliani under any other possible contingency.

The same thing happened to me in 2000. I supported John McCain for President in 2000. 39% of the Republican ballots were cast for McCain in the February 28, 2000 primary. McCain was theorectically entitled to several national convention delegates from the 1/3 that were supposed to be allocated by the primary results in 2000.

However, relatively few McCain supporters attended the March 7, 2000 precinct caucuses. I was one of only a handful of McCain supporters chosen from my legislative district to attend the June 2000 state convention in Spokane. The people attending in Spokane were overwhelmingly George W. Bush supporters.

To further cement their control, the Bush supporters adopted convention rules allowing national convention delegates to be chosen on a "slate". Rather than each national delegate having to be voted on individually, a state delegate could vote for all the national delegates by "slate" -- one push of a button on the electronic machine to elect all the delegates.

As a result, a "slate" of national convention delegates approved by the party hierarchy was prepared. All of the "McCain" delegates on the official "slate" were really Bush supporters. In theory, they were obligated to vote for McCain on the first ballot -- but McCain had already withdrawn from the race by then.

I filed my application to run as a real McCain delegate to the national convention, as did several other genuine McCain supporters. However, every single delegate on the official "slate" was elected, since it was easier for most drones (I mean "delegates") to push one buttons, instead of vote individually.

So even though 39% of Washington Republicans had voted for McCain in the presidential primary, not one single GENUINE McCain supporter ended up being elected to attend the Republican National Convention.

by Particle Man on Tue Jun 12, 2007 at 01:06:33 PM PST

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Rep. Ron Paul will get 51% of their delegates!  Rock on!!  

I really want to see a debate between Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich, moderated by the American Standard and the Nation magazine.  That would be a hoot.

by chadlupkes on Tue Jun 12, 2007 at 06:54:12 PM PST

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