Thread: Rubio's Delegates Still in Play Thanks to GOP Rules

Rubio's Delegates Still in Play Thanks to GOP Rules


By Greg Richter | Sunday, 20 Mar 2016 09:53 AM


When Florida Sen. Marco Rubio suspended his presidential campaign on Tuesday he already had won 169 delegates, according to The Associated Press' count. But what happens with those delegates now that he is out of the race can be a complicated matter?

State GOP rules differ, and most of the Rubio delegates are required to vote for him at least on the first ballot. But according to the The Hill, 81 of Rubio's delegates could have the freedom to vote for someone else even on the first ballot at July's Republican National Convention.

In the vast majority of election years, it would make little difference where a vanquished candidate's delegates votes would go on a second ballot because one candidate typically picks up enough to reach the total needed for the nomination.

But this year the possibility is real that no candidate will make it to the big event with the nomination already sewn up. Front-runner Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz are the only two candidates who actually have a chance at doing so, but neither has lock as of yet.

According the The Hill, 54 Rubio delegates likely will become unbound to the candidate. They come from New Hampshire, Alabama, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Washington, D.C., and Louisiana. Twenty-nine others from from Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas can be released only by Rubio himself.

Meanwhile, 19 delegates from Nevada, Kentucky and Alaska are set to be reallocated by state party leaders. The 76 delegates from Iowa, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and North Carolina must stick with Rubio on the first ballot.

His only other delegate, from Wyoming, could possibly be unbound as the result of complex rules at the state party level, according to The Hill.

Florida Today quotes Anne Li of the FiveThirtyEight blog as calling the whole process "fuzzy and complicated.

As an example, she notes that Kentucky's seven Rubio delegates must hold a meeting with the state's bound delegates and vote on a secret ballot on reallocating themselves to another candidate.

http://www.newsmax.com/Politics/marc...#ixzz46qvFtfiw

MAR 30 2016, 8:26 AM ET

Rubio Makes Unprecedented Bid to Keep Delegates for Contested Convention

by ARI MELBER

• 

Brokered Convention? Here are the Rules 1:46


Despite suspending his campaign, Sen. Marco Rubio is attempting to keep every delegate he won while running for president.

The unusual move reflects preparations for a contested convention this summer — and comes as Donald Trump backed away from an earlier pledge to support the Republican party's nominee if he is treated unfairly after winning more delegates than his rivals.
Rubio aide Alex Burgos told MSNBC that while the Florida senator is "no longer a candidate," he "wants to give voters a chance to stop Trump."

When presidential candidates suspend their campaigns, typically their delegates become free to support the candidate of their own choosing at the convention. Rubio, however, has quietly been reaching out to party officials with a different approach.

He is personally asking state parties in 21 states and territories to refrain from releasing any of the 172 delegates he won while campaigning this year, MSNBC has learned.

Rubio sent a signed letter to the Chair of the Alaska Republican Party requesting the five delegates he won in that state "remain bound to vote for me" at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July.

Marco Rubio's Letter to Alaska Republican Party.
Rubio copied National Chairman Reince Preibus on the letter - and sent the same request to all 21 states and territories where he won delegates, a source working for Rubio confirmed.

The Alaska GOP granted the request this week.
"Rubio said, 'I want my delegates,' and I said, okay," explains retired Army Col. Peter Goldberg, Chairman of the Alaska Republican Party.

Goldberg said he consulted RNC officials in Washington, who told him other state parties are consulting their rules in order to decide what to do with Rubio's delegates.

"They said some are trying to figure it out," Goldberg said. "Most states are leaning towards giving [Rubio] his delegates."

Delegate allocation decisions are up to each state party, not the RNC.

Alaska's party rules say delegates can be taken from a candidate if he "drops out" before the state's convention.

Since those rules do "not use the word 'suspend'," Goldberg said he decided Rubio could keep his delegates, while acknowledging that previously, "we've always taken 'suspend' to mean 'drop.'"

Related: What Is a Brokered Convention? GOP Rules Favor Trump

Presidential candidates often say they are "suspending" — rather than ending — a campaign in order to maintain an operation for handling bills and paperwork.

"No one has ever really tested this, the idea has always been that when you suspend, you're out," said a senior Republican in Washington, D.C., who did not want to publicly discuss a contested convention.

"No candidate has ever said, 'I want to suspend — but I also want the delegates,'" according to the source.

Rubio's gambit could even impact who wins the Republican nomination.

If he convinces most state parties to maintain his delegates, that could effectively deny Trump 172 potential delegates from now through the first vote at this summer's convention.






Cruz, Kasich backing away from pledges to support GOP nominee2:42


If Trump fails to win a majority of delegates during the primaries, he can try to make up the gap by winning over some of the 323 delegates thought to be up for grabs.

Campaigns have talked about winning over those 323 delegates, a reference to delegates from states that don't bind their vote — which some describe as a GOP version of the Democrats' super delegates — combined with delegates backing candidates no longer in the race.

The Trump Campaign, for example, has explicitly said it can woo those delegates if it finishes the primaries short the 1,237-delegate majority.

If Rubio is successful, however, he could cut that prized pool of delegates down to just 151.

That means if Trump finishes more than 100 delegates shy of a majority, he is less likely to win the nomination on the first ballot.

While the prospect of taking these delegates off the table only spilled into public view this week, when Alaska reapportioned its delegates, the potential significance was not lost on Rubio's campaign.

People close to the senator discussed this strategy before he suspended his campaign, according to a Republican source, even gaming out language for his concession speech that would be less likely to trigger a loss of delegates.

Even if successful, Rubio's delegate plan would not give him any individual leverage to play "kingmaker" at a contested convention.





Trump Won't Promise to Support GOP Nominee 0:34


Even in states that bind his delegates, like Alaska, they will only be required to vote Rubio on the convention's early ballots. The rules would not give Rubio any official control over who his delegates might support on later ballots, when the rules "release" them from having to back the candidate they were bound to by their state's primary results.

Beyond that, Rubio's plan also turns on the national rules governing the convention.

Some states only bind delegates to a candidate if he is listed on the national convention's first ballot. So Rubio could convince a state party to hold his delegates, based on their rules, but he would still need the national convention to put his name on that first ballot.

That might be a tall order for a man no longer running for President. Indeed, past conventions have required candidates to achieve a minimum level of support in the primaries to be listed on the ballot.

Take Minnesota, where Rubio won 17 delegates. The state GOP reiterated this month that delegates attached to a candidate must vote for him "if that candidate is on the first ballot" at the convention, but if not, they "may vote for any candidate."






Rubio Talks About Whether He Would Consider VP Role 0:39


In a contested convention, delegates and insiders backing Cruz and Trump would have sway over who is listed on the first ballot. It is possible an anti-Trump coalition would push rules protecting Rubio in order to thwart Trump.

While Rubio is going to great lengths to hold onto his delegates, there is no doubt he has stopped competing in future primaries. This week he sent a signed affidavit to have his name removed from the ballot in California, which awards 172 delegates on the last voting day in June.

Goldberg, the Alaska GOP chair, has his eyes on that state.

"My gut feeling is that no one will clinch 1,237 before convention," he says, "It may all hang on what happens in California, but we'll see."

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016...ention-n547646

In the mix in the Republican nomination battle: Marco Rubio’s 171 delegates
uz's big announcement, in 3 minutes

By Ed O'Keefe and Karen Tumulty April 28 at 11:43 AM

As Sen. Ted Cruz was addressing the Indiana Republican Party’s spring dinner last Thursday night, his father was on a secret mission to Puerto Rico.

Rafael Cruz, a pastor who is one of his son’s most popular surrogates, was meeting privately at a home in Dorado with some of the island’s 23 Republican convention delegates — all of whom are still bound to a candidate who got out of the race more than a month ago.

That’s Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). His presidential campaign may be over, but his potential to keep the GOP nomination from going to Donald Trump lives on.

That’s because Rubio — berated on the campaign trail by Trump as “Little Marco” — still has scores of convention delegates who are required to vote for him on the first ballot, and who could go anywhere on the second and beyond.

Rubio suspended his bid more than a month ago, on the night that he lost his home state of Florida to Trump.

Rubio surveys newspapers featuring his photo aboard his campaign bus following a rally in the Villages, Fla., on March 13. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

But — in part at the request of Cruz’s campaign — he has done what he can to hang onto the 171 delegates that he won in 21 states and territories.

That is more than Ohio Gov. John Kasich has, even now.

[Delegate tracker: The race to the Republican nomination]

Rubio sent letters to state parties noting that his decision to suspend his campaign should not be interpreted as a release of his delegates.

Whether they remain bound to him, however, varies according to the rules of individual states, how they are interpreted by party officials, and the inclinations of GOP leaders in those states.

The best estimates now suggest that Rubio can count on at least 50 delegate votes on the first ballot and may have to relinquish somewhere between 30 and 40. The remainder — as many as 81 — are somewhere in limbo.

Rubio’s delegates could be crucial, should Trump fall short of the 1,237 delegates that he needs to take the nomination on the first ballot.

They also give him leverage, although those close to Rubio says that he is not sure what he would do with it.

“It’s about keeping doors open — to step through and do what, who knows?” said one adviser, who asked for anonymity because the topic is a sensitive one.

Rubio speaks to supporters at Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Va., on Feb. 28. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)

[Trump won at least 39 unbound Pa. delegates, according to WaPo tally]

Rubio declined a request for an interview.
He has insisted that he has no interest in being someone else’s pick for vice president, or in putting his name back in the presidential mix, should the convention reach a deadlock.

[Trump to personally court delegates at Calif. convention, but Va. visit canceled]

Asked by Univision in a weekend interview about his plans for his delegates, Rubio said in Spanish: “What I want to see at the convention is for the party to name someone as a candidate who is conservative and who can win. That, and if my delegates can have a role, can play a role in reaching that goal, we’re probably open to that, but we haven’t reached that point yet.”

“I really don’t have secret or comprehensive plans about what I’m going to do at the convention,” the Florida senator added. “We’re just keeping those options open in order to be able to contribute in a positive way to the party naming a candidate who is conservative and can win.”

Meanwhile, his delegates have their own ideas about how they might use their clout.

Puerto Rico’s, for instance, plan to vote on the first ballot for Rubio, as their rules require, but say their support in later ones would hinge on one issue: statehood for their island.

“Whoever wants our vote needs to pay attention to our particular issues, as well as our struggle for equality as U.S. citizens. If that’s not taken into consideration, we could care less what the polls say,” said San Juan attorney Elias Sanchez, a delegate who also co-chaired Rubio’s Puerto Rico campaign.

Rubio endorsed statehood, but of the remaining field, only Kasich has. Cruz and Trump have said they support the “right of self-determination,” which the delegates say is not enough.

That’s why last week’s meeting with Rafael Cruz was appreciated, delegates said, but didn’t seal the deal for the senator from Texas. Ultimately, they plan to vote as a bloc for their second choice, whomever that turns out to be.

In Arkansas, other considerations are in play, as state Republicans prepare to gather next month to pick their 40 delegates — including nine who will vote for Rubio on the first ballot.

Bart Hester, an Arkansas state senator, said that he and others who backed the Florida senator would like to see his delegate slots filled by seasoned state leaders — ideally the governor, lieutenant governor and GOP lawmakers.

“If we go to a brokered convention, emotions are going to be high. There’s going to be a lot of alternatives,” Hester said. “It’s about being a good steward, to make sure we got people there that have a history of making good decisions and being level-headed people. It’s best for all Republicans involved.”

Rubio himself does not appear to be exerting much pressure.

[Marco Rubio is good at staying on message — too good, it turns out]

In Minnesota, the only state that Rubio won, the senator “hasn’t been prescriptive with us at all,” said Jeff Johnson, a Hennepin County commissioner who chaired Rubio’s campaign and now backs Cruz.

Virginia GOP Chairman John Whitbeck said, “We haven’t heard anything other than that letter” from Rubio asking to retain his delegates.

Even without a request from Rubio, Virginia’s rules require it to cast 16 of its 49 votes for Rubio on the first ballot. The same holds true in Minnesota, where Rubio won 17 delegates, and Tennessee, where he won nine. And Kansas, where he won six.

But after that, Whitbeck said, “this is all new territory for all of us.”

In D.C., Rubio won 10 delegates but already one of his supporters has announced her plans for later ballots.

Rina Shah Bharara, who was chosen to vote for Rubio, told Fox News this month that she will vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton if Trump wins the GOP nomination. As if that wasn’t awkward enough, the local party is investigating reports that Bharara isn’t even a District resident.

Bharara didn’t return requests for comment. But her situation means that party leaders likely won’t be able to decide what to do about Rubio’s delegates until at least June.

By then, Trump is likely to be the presumptive nominee — or in a spot where Rubio’s delegates could keep the prize just beyond his grasp.

http://www.icis.com/resources/news/2...fy-us-exports/

Rina Shah Bharara, who was chosen to vote for Rubio, told Fox News this month that she will vote for Democrat Hillary Clinton if Trump wins the GOP nomination. As if that wasn’t awkward enough, the local party is investigating reports that Bharara isn’t even a District resident.

She may not even be a resident of DC.

She's not returning phone calls to the press for comment.