Ron Paul's delegate strategy results in 5 more
delegates and up to 12 alternate delegates for the Republican National
Convention in Tampa.
by Jake Towne, the Champion of the Constitution
(libertarian)
Thursday, April 26, 2012
HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA - Ron Paul has won 5 delegates and at
least 10, possibly 12, alternate delegates to the Republican National
Convention in Tampa on August 27. These "district" candidates were
directly elected in yesterday's primary per
the tabulated official election returns with 99% reporting.
The
delegates are Tom Boggia (CD-1), Tom Martin (CD-5), Thomas Brown
(CD-5), Anthony Antonello (CD-17), and Brian Dougherty (CD-18). The
definite alternate delegates are Seth Shoemaker (CD-4), Chad Nagle
(CD-4), Dave Talley (CD-4), Mark Brady (CD-5), Nancy Price (CD-10),
Holly Anderson (CD-11), James Sheets (CD-14), Andy Maul (CD-14), Chris
Donatelli (CD-15), and Ben Bradley (CD-16). Greg Sheeler (CD-17)
may have won
an alternate delegate spot since two of the winners already won
delegate spots. Tony Destro (CD-14) was listed by the Paul campaign as a
write-in candidate and likely won the third uncontested alternate
delegate spot for CD-4. The state board of elections has not yet
announced the delegate results, the results are below and the work I did
to calculate each congressional district is in
this rough Excel file for any wishing to download and doublecheck my work.
Ron
Paul finished a distant second to Mitt Romney in last night's primary
election in Pennsylvania. Ron Paul had 13% of the popular vote while
Romney took 58%. Even Rick Santorum had more popular votes than Paul.
However, in Pennsylvania the presidential popular vote is just a beauty
contest - it means
NOTHING in terms of which candidate the delegates will support at the Republican National Convention.
Pennsylvania sends
72 unbound delegates
to the Tampa convention along with their alternates. Three (3) of
these are the head state party officials, and ten (10) "at-large"
delegates will be decided at the state convention, tentatively set for
June 10. The remaining 59 delegates
WERE
determined yesterday by popular vote, 3 or 4 delegates from each of the
18 congressional districts. Voters are permitted to vote for a maximum
of three or four delegates on their ballots, but no delegate is allowed
to have the candidate he/she supports appear on the ballot beside them.
The end result is that without campaign organization, the delegate and
alternate delegate selection become a crapshoot. The Paul campaign
published its delegate list
here.
Since Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney do not appear to have published delegate lists,
ALL of the remaining 54 delegates are unconfirmed and unpledged for
ANY
candidate. It is even a possibility that some of the delegates already
favor Ron Paul. Realistically though, many of the winners are
establishment GOP players and officials so it is likely that a majority
of the 54 will favor Romney, the anointed establishment candidate.
However,
another monkey wrench for Romney is that since Rick Santorum, the
former US Senator from Pennsylvania, dropped out just before the
primary, many of the delegates may have been running to support Santorum
and oppose Romney in Tampa. Will they still oppose Romney and vote for
Paul since Gingrich will also likely give up? The only way to find out
the preferences of all these delegates would be to ask and/or sway them,
which is likely exactly what the Paul and Romney campaigns are now
engaging in. Maybe the mainstream media will try as well, but best not
to hold your breath.
Jake Towne ran as an independent for the 15th
congressional district in the 2010 election cycle winning over 15,000
and one of the highest third party election results in the country. His
old campaign website is towneforcongress.com.
