(CNN) — On March 15, former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli — a Ted Cruz supporter — was sitting at lunch with his wife when his phone rang.
It was Jeff Roe, who runs Cruz’s presidential campaign, and he had a request: Would Cuccinelli run the Cruz delegate hunting operation — from Houston? They talked about what it might entail, Cuccinelli talked with his wife, and the decision was made.
“We felt this warranted the sudden and immediate disruption” of our lives, he recounted in an interview with CNN. “I got a plane ticket and was on my way to Houston at 10:30 that night.”
The task of herding delegates, as everyone who is mildly familiar with the process knows, is daunting.
“This is confusing stuff,” Cuccinelli said, but he takes great umbrage at the charge that the system is rigged against presidential front-runner Donald Trump, or that Cruz’s delegate hunting employs what Trump campaign official Paul Manafort has called “gestapo tactics.” In fact, he says, “this is good, old-fashioned running the ball up the middle. We’re not the ones threatening people. It’s offensive.”
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- Discussion
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Another candidate for Ted Cruz’s VP.
As Sen. Cruz said the other day, the stump campaign deludely participates is group projection. Whatever evil they unconsciously perceive in themselves, they project onto others.
What I do not quite understand, and maybe its because I’m unfamiliar with the process, but why would a potential Cruz delegate ever have to step aside for a former Rubio/Jeb delegate as the article mentions?
He says it is to form a broad coalition, but that does concern me a tad.
Maybe its just my lack of understanding the process at that level?
They need to incorporate the “ground troops” of the other candidates who have explicitly or implicitly endorsed Sen. Cruz into the Cruz campaign.
Plewis, you said, “What I do not quite understand, and maybe its because I’m unfamiliar with the process, but why would a potential Cruz delegate ever have to step aside for a former Rubio/Jeb delegate as the article mentions?”
Ken Cuccinelli was being a little overboard using the words, “step aside” for Rand Paul and/or Rubio’s delegates. He is speaking of Texas, and this is how Texas and numerous other primary state’s work with delegates.
Rubio got some delegates from Texas and since Ken mentioned Rand Paul, perhaps he got a few delegates from Texas. Delegates to the national convention are selected at the state convention. Some of those delegates will be designated as Rubio and Paul delegates and they have to vote for those candidates on the first ballot (these are those he was speaking of stepping aside for). What Cuccinelli wants to do after the Texas delegates are chosen, is contact those delegates and turn them into Cruz delegates on the second and more delegate counts. Now, these delegates may already want Cruz but they have to vote for Rubio or Paul on that first ballot. So, Cuccinelli wants to check out ALL the delegates from Texas, including those for Trump and try to convince them to vote for Cruz on every ballot count after that first count.
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