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February 13, 2012 03:36 PM UTC

Do GOP caucus goers think their delegates should be up for grabs?

  • 22 Comments
  • by: Jason Salzman

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

As the Colorado GOP caucuses approached last week, state Colorado GOP Chair Ryan Call told the Durango Herald that a lot was riding on the outcome. That is, if you believe the GOP delegates are an honorable bunch.

The Herald reported:

Those delegates [chosen at the caucuses] are “bound by honor” to vote for the presidential candidates they supported at the precinct caucus, said state Republican Party Chairman Ryan Call. If a candidate drops out before the assembly, his delegates are released to vote for someone else.

But the morning after the caucuses, Call was downplaying the significance of the Stantorum victory, telling KNUS’ Steve Kelley:

Call: Last night’s preference poll is really just a straw poll. The delegates elected in each of these precinct caucus meetings are now going to go on to participate in county and district assemblies. And then at the state assembly in April is where we will actually be electing the slate of delegates that will be sent from Colorado to the national convention…This is still an open race, and it can be expected to play out over the next couple months.

Kelley asked the follow-up question that was on my mind:

Kelley: It begs the question then, Ryan, why do the caucuses if you’re not going to secure the delegates for sure?

Call replied:

Call: The caucuses are the first step in a multi-step process. It’s that sort of winnowing of the field as the process moves along. It’s a very representative, grassroots-oriented process where the folks who took the time to show up are the ones whose votes matter and whose voices get heard.

An impartial observer, like a reporter, might want to know how all those grassroots folks “who took the time to show up” are feeling now, as their participation, not whom they voted for, seems to matter most to Call.

Call: I think the most exciting thing is the level of turnout, the level of participation, and then we move on to the next step.

You’d think delegates would, in fact, feel some commitment to support the candidate they were selected to vote for, as long as that candidate stayed in the race.

I’d feel betrayed, if I voted for, say, a winner like Newt Gingrich, and my trusty Gingrich delegate dumped his chains of honor and switched to Romney at the county or state conventions.

But Call apparently doesn’t see it that way, and neither does former GOP Chair Dick Wadhams.

Neither does Ron Paul Campaign Manager John Tate, who thinks his boss has stealth delegates faking it for other candidates:

“We are confident in gaining a much larger share of delegates than even our impressive showing yesterday indicates. As an example of our campaign’s delegate strength, take a look at what has occurred in Colorado:

In one precinct in Larimer County, the straw poll vote was 23 for Santorum, 13 for Paul, 5 for Romney, 2 for Gingrich.  There were 13 delegate slots, and Ron Paul got ALL 13.

In a precinct in Delta County the vote was 22 for Santorum, 12 for Romney, 8 for Paul, 7 for Gingrich. There were 5 delegate slots, and ALL 5 went to Ron Paul.

In a Pueblo County precinct, the vote was 16 for Santorum, 11 for Romney, 3 for Gingrich and 2 for Paul. There were 2 delegate slots filled, and both were filled by Ron Paul supporters.”

Reporters should be wondering what the GOP caucus goers think of having zombie delegates.

How committed do they believe their delegates should be to the preferences of the hard-working caucus attendees who selected them?

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22 thoughts on “Do GOP caucus goers think their delegates should be up for grabs?”

  1. I’m familiar with the rule or the exception?  A Presidential straw poll was conducted but delegates selected to go to the county assembly were not apportioned based on that poll, and were not apportioned based on the relative size of the precincts either.  Also, a straw poll was apparently not conducted for a potential state legislative primary race.  ‘Fraid I just don’t understand the process the Republicans follow . . .

    1. GOP votes cast from the precinct in the last election, and the Maes/Tancredo phenomenon shifted the GOP voting pattern.

      But I don’t know how the pre-determined number of delegates from each precinct is allocated to the prez candidates.

      1. Your understanding of this all misses a crucial point — delegates are picked entirely separately from the straw poll, which is done by secret ballot, and was only added to the proceedings in 2008. There is zero relation between prez poll results and who gets picked as delegates at the precinct level. it’s not done the way Democrats do it at all.  

          1. In the situation I know about, it was “who wants to go?  Shall we give the new people who haven’t been to a county assembly the chance to be a delegate?”

             

            1. NOT presidential delegates. Those get picked in April the weekend of the state assembly.

              The basis for picking delegates, as The realist says, is whoever wants to go on and represent the precinct at county assemblies, and then from there whoever wants to go ahead to the state assembly.

              Republicans at caucuses can vote for their friends, the most active block workers, the ones they think will represent them best as the primary process unfolds, or a flip of the coin.

              The presidential straw poll is an add-on to this whole process, and was only added four years ago.

              This is completely different from how Democrats select delegates in Colorado, based on the highest contested race (Obama-Clinton in ’08, Bennet-Romanoff in ’10).  

          2. Before you write the story, try to gather some facts. Ask how delegates are elected from precinct caucuses and if they’re pledged to somebody.

            Facts are powerful things, grasshopper.

          1. If I had to guess, I’d bet he was anticipating the same kind of overwhelming Romney win that happened in 2008. In that case, you’ve got so many Romney supporters at each precinct that it’s tough to imagine them not sending Romney-leaning delegates up the ladder. But since no candidate got a strong majority statewide, or even in most counties, there’s a much weaker chance that a precinct’s straw poll result and its delegate selection will necessarily correlate.  

    2. My guess is that either Paul supporters were pretending to support other candidates and then getting themselves elected as delegates. Or, the other candidates couldn’t get enough caucus goers to commit to being county delegates, thus opening it up for Paul supporters to become country delegates.

      In the 2008 Democratic caucuses and assemblies, we were very careful about who we selected as delegates to make sure no one would flip.

      In the end I think you can look at a primary in two different ways. You are either making the process as democratic as possible by holding a primary election, or you view the process from an organizational perspective and allow those most familiar with the party select the candidate that is best for the political organization. Often times those two perspectives agree with each other, but other times they can conflict.  

      1. haven’t experienced more of this. I was a state delegate in 2004 (my girlfriend at the time went to the national convention) and one of the deciding factors was definitely enthusiasm. If the state convention is being held far away, or  the county convention is at an inconvenient time then only the most enthusiastic people are going to volunteer as delegates.

        In 2004, there were lots of empty Kerry and undecided slots, but every Kucinich spot was filled, including alternates. Kucinich actually got his largest delegate count from Colorado. With the Republicans splitting the vote much more evenly, Ron Paul’s fervent supporters might very well be able to pull off a relatively big delegate haul even without poaching from other candidates.

  2. are to be commended for showing their interest by showing up but, other than that, their picks don’t treally matter? Why does this patronizing attitude not surprise me?

    2. “Do GOP caucus goers think?”

      After that question, the actual treatment of those caucus participants by their party becomes more or less moot . .  .  

      1. though they are technically free to change. It’s just that the entire wacky system means you go to all that trouble just to select who meets the threshold for the primary ballot and who gets top spot. So, for instance, the base appealing liberal can win  from caucus through state convention and have the right to be listed first on the primary ballot before being defeated in the primary by the larger D electorate going for the more moderate, second place candidate. It really does seem like a lot of work and expense for not much distinction from a pure primary system.

        In any case, the insiders probably shouldn’t say right out loud that caucus results are unimportant and can be gotten around. Besides, it isn’t always entirely true as the Rs should know better than anyone considering Buck, Maes, Tancredo etc.

    1. handle the caucus, and how Republicans handle theirs.  In my experience, Dems have different numbers of delegates selected from each precinct to the county assembly based on several factors I believe – voter registration, past performance, etc.  In my county, from what I heard, Republicans selected two delegates and two alternates from each precinct regardless of precinct size, voter reg, etc.  Also, at least in some Republican precincts if not all, there was not a direct connect between the Presidential poll and selecting delegates who supported the top candidates.  Dems have a mathematical formula to divide up the delegates to match – as closely as possible – the proportion of votes in a poll for a contested race.  Significant differences, I think.  Maybe it depends on the county.

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