Monday, April 4, 2016

Rising polls, pledged delegates mark Cruz weekend WIN!

'GREAT!' easily describes Ted Cruz's weekend.

With polls rising in favor of the only constitutional conservative in this race, particularly in Wisconsin, but elsewhere...

ANOTHER poll has TED CRUZ TROUNCING TRUMP in Wisconsin!!
Ted Cruz OBLITERATES Trump in Pennsylvania ‘Leadership Conference’ Straw Poll!!
CRUZ BEATS Trump by 5% in Wisconsin according to new CBS poll!!
...and with a contested convention on the horizon, the pledged delegates tell yet another story as Cruz collects more over the weekend, while Trump falters in Tennesee and the overall ground game...
CR: First Ballot binding and actual support from delegates are two completely different things. Donald Trump recently learned that the hard way in Louisiana, where Cruz added to his delegate totals. This weekend, more of the same played out as Cruz won a bevy of his supporters as actual delegates to the Cleveland convention on both the first ballot, and as bound votes for other candidates. This is while Trump faced roadblocks in Tennessee.

COLORADO

 Cruz won first ballot delegates in Colorado this weekend. Two of Colorado’s seven congressional districts held their conventions yesterday. Cruz won the six delegates from those conventions, who pledged to the senator prior to the elections. There are five more district caucuses and the state convention left to go.

The precinct caucuses that selected delegate to each County Assembly was March 1, 2016. The County Assemblies met between March 1st and March 26th to select delegates to the district and state conventions. Cruz’s early strategy in those states has led to this early result. It is too late for Trump and Kasich to correct course. Nineteen delegates are needed for a majority in the Colorado delegation.

 NORTH CAROLINA

In North Carolina, Donald Trump won 30 bound delegates at the primary, and Ted Cruz won 27. That is for the first ballot, where delegates are officially bound. District Conventions were held in four of the state’s thirteen congressional districts last weekend. A grassroots activist in North Carolina provided Conservative Review with the results of those districts. Nine of the 12 delegates elected yesterday are definitely Cruz supporters and have worked to elect Cruz for a significant period of time. Two others identified themselves as Cruz supporters at the convention so that 11 of the 12 are Cruz supporters. The State Party appoints 30 of the 72 delegates in North Carolina. Three additional delegates are the party chairman and the two National Committee members. The party chairman is a grassroots conservative, who is facing ouster. It is therefore important, for the rules committee, that Cruz supporters win 37 of the 39 remaining delegates to control who is on the rules committee from North Carolina.

TENNESSEE

 Donald Trump faced a delegate setback in Tennessee this weekend as the State Party elected delegates that were not approved by the Trump Campaign. Politico reported:
Trump’s backers maintain Haynes engineered the removal of several Trump supporters from a list of at-large Tennessee delegates and replaced with Republicans likely to support Trump’s rivals at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland -- if the nomination fight takes more than two ballots to resolve. Tennessee's delegates to the convention are bound to the results of the state primary -- which Trump won -- for the first two ballots. Haynes rejected claims he had done anything improper and insisted there had been no agreement with the Trump campaign on an initial list of delegates. Rather, he noted, Tennessee's GOP rules give the party the ultimate authority to name delegates, and any guidance from the campaigns is purely advisory.
As the Tennessee delegation is bound for two ballots, this is more about the rules committee than actual delegates.

 NORTH DAKOTA

 The North Dakota GOP is meeting in convention today to pick their delegates to the National Convention. The delegates are officially unbound but the Cruz campaign announced who is supporting them. Here is the list.
UPDATE on North Dakota: Delegates went with CRUZ!
Politico: Ted Cruz’s preferred candidates won the vast majority of convention delegates available in North Dakota over the weekend, taking 18 of 25 slots in the state in another show of organizational strength over Donald Trump.

It’s still not clear how loyal all of Cruz’s slate will be if the Republican nomination heads to a contested convention in Cleveland, as several included on it told POLITICO they were only leaning toward Cruz, or simply opposed to Trump.

But the result was bad news for Trump, who may need unbound delegates like those in North Dakota to lift him above the 1,237 delegate threshold to secure the GOP nomination this summer on the initial ballot. Only one of the 25 delegates selected Sunday has publicly signaled he might back Trump.

“This is a catastrophic outcome for the Trump campaign in North Dakota,” said Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Cruz. “Just when you thought the Donald’s horrible, very bad, no good week couldn’t get any worse, it just did.”

The North Dakota delegation has been heavily sought after because they are free agents from the first ballot in Cleveland, able to support Cruz, Trump or John Kasich. State rules do not, however, require to name the candidate they support before being elected — leaving their votes in question up until the convention in July.
Mr. Brilliant Businessman out-organized by well-oiled Team Cruz once again!

 Related links: Cruz wins all of Colorado delegates from Saturday’s two congressional conventions
Ted Cruz SHUTS OUT Trump in Colorado, WINS first SIX delegates!!
The officially unofficial North Dakota GOP delegate (Boom, baby!) count.
Ted Cruz claims victory in North Dakota party convention
TED CRUZ HUMILIATES TRUMP in North Dakota delegate pickup – team Trump declares victory!
Trump backers cry foul as Tennessee GOP picks convention delegates

Next in the Cruz camp's crosshairs: ARIZONA!
DCExaminer: Sen. Ted Cruz is out-hustling Donald Trump and looks set to ensure many Arizona delegates will defect to him in a convention floor fight.

 The Texas senator, who ever since Iowa has played a stealthy ground game in contrast to Trump’s chaotic populism, is taking steps to snatch the Republican presidential nomination from The Donald at the convention in July.

The New York businessman easily won last month’s Arizona primary taking 47 percent to Cruz’s 25 percent, scooping up all 58 of the state’s delegates. That’s nearly 5 percent of the 1,237 Trump needs for the nomination, and they’re tied are to him on the first ballot.

But Cruz, exploiting deep opposition to Trump among grassroots Republicans, has been far more active in Arizona than Trump, insiders say. He’s recruiting candidates for the available 55 delegate slots, that along with the other three delegate positions filled by party leaders, would be allowed to vote for him in a multi-ballot contested convention.

“Cruz, out of all the campaigns, has the most folks on the ground and has been the most organized,” Michael Noble, a Republican consultant in Arizona who is neutral, told the Washington Examiner on Friday.

“Trump has no real organization in Arizona,” added GOP strategist Sean Noble (no relation) in an email exchange. “Cruz will get most/all Arizona delegates on second ballot.”
Grassroot boots on the ground will get us there, folks. #ChooseCruz!

Related links: Here’s what Ted Cruz needs to do to DENY Trump 1,237 delegates for the nomination
WATCH: RNC releases NEW VIDEO explaining a Contested Convention
Ted Cruz explains why RNC Chair is WRONG about 2012 rules not applying to 2016 convention
The man behind the secret to Ted Cruz's ground game
There Is No Such Thing As "Stealing" Delegates
Posted by an ebb and flow at 3:14 PM