Are Winner Take All states created by GOP establishment to ensure their guy wins ?

[raystone]

so, the candidate backed by the GOP insiders has best chance of getting needed delegates sooner, other candidates (e.g., Huckabee, Paul) can't get momentum/delegates ?

or is there actually a valid reason ?


who has expert knowledge on this one ?

[raystone]

??

[Goldwater Conservative]

The national GOP is relatively laissez faire and federalist with regards to the state affiliates. They're basically allowed to do whatever they want, and many of them decide that winner-take-all makes their state more important in the nominating process and gets candidates throwing down big bucks there. They don't even get more than a slap on the wrist (losing half their delegates) for pushing their primaries too early, in this case before Feb. 5th. The Dems have mandated proportional representation for all primaries and strip states who violate the nationally established calendar of all their delegates.

Personally, even though I'm a staunch federalist in matters of government, I think the GOP should follow the Dems' lead in terms of how delegates must be allocated. Proportionality would have made it likely that one or two other candidates would still be in this race and we'd be headed for a brokered convention, with Paul not far behind any of the others in delegates. Instead, McCain's 35% razor-thin pluralities translated into a massive lead, and Paul's 5-10% (more in caucuses and western states) of the popular vote translated into less than that as a share of delegates.

[raystone]

thanks!

[nate895]

The national GOP is relatively laissez faire and federalist with regards to the state affiliates. They're basically allowed to do whatever they want, and many of them decide that winner-take-all makes their state more important in the nominating process and gets candidates throwing down big bucks there. They don't even get more than a slap on the wrist (losing half their delegates) for pushing their primaries too early, in this case before Feb. 5th. The Dems have mandated proportional representation for all primaries and strip states who violate the nationally established calendar of all their delegates.

Personally, even though I'm a staunch federalist in matters of government, I think the GOP should follow the Dems' lead in terms of how delegates must be allocated. Proportionality would have made it likely that one or two other candidates would still be in this race and we'd be headed for a brokered convention, with Paul not far behind any of the others in delegates. Instead, McCain's 35% razor-thin pluralities translated into a massive lead, and Paul's 5-10% (more in caucuses and western states) of the popular vote translated into less than that as a share of delegates.

I just think that they should pick one form, since right now only the liberal states, for the most part, have winner take all, putting liberals like McCain with a huge advantage, especially given this year's schedule. I prefer winner take all by Congressional District myself. Maybe our delegates can make this a rule.

[98Tokay]

Staes want to be important, and being winner-take-all makes them important.

[Goldwater Conservative]

I just think that they should pick one form, since right now only the liberal states, for the most part, have winner take all, putting liberals like McCain with a huge advantage, especially given this year's schedule. I prefer winner take all by Congressional District myself. Maybe our delegates can make this a rule.

Winner-take-all by CD is no good, since some districts have several hundred thousand Republicans while others barely have a hundred thousand, and there'd still be the problem of a candidate with broad (that is, not concentrated) support being shut out completely (imagine someone getting 15-20% of the statewide vote in California but getting zero of its hundreds of delegates).

Statewide proportional is the way to go. The best way to do it nationally would be for the RNC to offer double the normal number of delegates to any state that uses it. Watch every state follow suit at the exact same time. Ron Paul would probably have over 100 delegates so far instead of 40 (or 14 if you believe the media) if that was the case, and McCain would have 400 or so instead of over 800.