W.Va. officials to certify primary candidates - interesting bit about delegates

[sailingaway]

http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/usatoday/article/38571557?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFrontpage %7Cs


All told, Tennant certified 331 candidates for federal, statewide and legislative races. She also certified 193 candidates for delegate to the Republican National Convention. Among the presidential contenders, Mitt Romney has the most at 48 followed by Newt Gingrich with 42. Ron Paul has 28 and Rick Santorum has 5. The rest are uncommitted.

[tsai3904]

Ron Paul filed the right number of delegates. WV has 28 delegates (excluding the 3 superdelegates) and they are elected on the primary ballot. Romney's and Gingrich's delegates will have their votes split.

[hXcLibertarian]

Ron Paul filed the right number of delegates. WV has 28 delegates (excluding the 3 superdelegates) and they are elected on the primary ballot. Romney's and Gingrich's delegates will have their votes split.

Exactly. In WV, the delegates are elected via a primary ballot in which their name and their candidate appears. Ron Paul's delegates won't be split, but Romney's and Gingrich's will be.

[Cosakaz]

WV delegate candidate here. Do we know if Santorum is failing to file full delegate slates in many of the other states? The idea of the other campaigns splitting the vote makes me very hopeful. We are doing everything we can to ensure victory in our state.

[PaulConventionWV]

Also a WV delegate. We have the right amount. All the other candidates have extras, and the RP campaign has taken careful steps to ensure no Ron Paul delegate votes are wasted or split. All we need is people to help the at-large delegates campaign around the state. I don't intend to spend any money on campaigning, but maybe a few newspaper announcements and/or signs would help. That's about the best I can do. Luckily, I already have statewide recognition from winning the state cross country championship two years in a row, as well as multiple track titles.

[gerryb]

Edit:

Unfortunately it appears they will be direct elected in W. VA, instead of by convention/caucus like in many other primary states.

But sounds very encouraging that not only will the primary vote be split among candidates, but the direct election votes of delegates will be as well for the other candidates delegates.

[rich34]

So will it be made known on the ballot which are the Paul delegates?

[Cosakaz]

^There will be delegates listed as 'Committed to Ron Paul' on the ballot, yes.

[sailingaway]

Also a WV delegate. We have the right amount. All the other candidates have extras, and the RP campaign has taken careful steps to ensure no Ron Paul delegate votes are wasted or split. All we need is people to help the at-large delegates campaign around the state. I don't intend to spend any money on campaigning, but maybe a few newspaper announcements and/or signs would help. That's about the best I can do. Luckily, I already have statewide recognition from winning the state cross country championship two years in a row, as well as multiple track titles.

maybe we can do some facebook ads

[LibertasPraesidium]

Will the delegates be able to speak on their behalf or is it just an organized GOTV effort and vote for the 28 RP delegates?

[Cosakaz]

^Basically, it's GOTV. Our primaries also fall on Finals week so we are hoping to push early voting and absentee voting options in the local universities.

[Araskaz]

I am also running as a delegate here. Unfortunately, WV now has 19 At-Large positions, and we only have 18 delegates running. We did have someone filing papers, but it looks like he didn't get them through on time.

The main thing at the moment is pushing voter registration and early voting. Hitting up college campuses and the young voters around the cities.

[gerryb]

^Basically, it's GOTV. Our primaries also fall on Finals week so we are hoping to push early voting and absentee voting options in the local universities.

Do the early voting ballot have all of the delegates on them, too?

[Cosakaz]

I certainly hope they do. I don't see why they wouldn't, but I'll check tomorrow.

[gerryb]

I certainly hope they do. I don't see why they wouldn't, but I'll check tomorrow.

In some states they don't include delegates on early/absentee ballots

[PaulConventionWV]

maybe we can do some facebook ads

That's a good idea. But wouldn't some of the ads be wasted on non-WV people? Either way, we could still do it, but we would need to figure out how to identify the delegates in the ads.

[ross11988]

Sounds like what were doing in PA. We have 6 delegate candidates in my district, you allowed to vote for 3. Once we find out our ballot position we will ask the other 3 to drop and we are directly elected.

[1836]

I remember in 08, we got very close in West Virginia to pulling off a coup. Any chance of that this time?

[tsai3904]

I remember in 08, we got very close in West Virginia to pulling off a coup. Any chance of that this time?

No. They changed from a caucus to a primary for this election.

[PaulConventionWV]

I remember in 08, we got very close in West Virginia to pulling off a coup. Any chance of that this time?

No. It was a state convention in 2008 and it's just direct election this year. In 2008, we weren't that close to doing anything, really, but we did get 3 delegate slots as a sort of compromise with Huckabee.

[enoch150]

Do we know if Santorum is failing to file full delegate slates in many of the other states?

-9 Illinois
http://www.chicagotalks.org/2012/01/12/santorum-unlikely-to-be-successful-in-illinois-primary-political-analysts-say/
-9 Ohio
http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2012/01/rick_santorum_wont_compete_for.html
-27 Indiana
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/ballot-2012/2012/02/03/rick-santorum-doesnt-qualify-for-indiana-ballot
-16 District of Corruption
http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/01/santorum-doesnt-file-for-dc-ballot-109647.html
-27 or -41 Tennessee (confusing)
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2011/dec/30/bachmann-santorum-fail-to-qualify-delegates-on/
-46 Virginia
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/13/gingrich-perry-and-huntsman-lose-virginia-ballot-fight/

And I guess now -23 for West Virginia.

[malkusm]

That's a good idea. But wouldn't some of the ads be wasted on non-WV people? Either way, we could still do it, but we would need to figure out how to identify the delegates in the ads.

Facebook allows you to target ads in very specific ways. You can specify that only users with West Virginia IP addresses see the ads.

[malkusm]

-9 Illinois
http://www.chicagotalks.org/2012/01/12/santorum-unlikely-to-be-successful-in-illinois-primary-political-analysts-say/
-9 Ohio
http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2012/01/rick_santorum_wont_compete_for.html
-27 Indiana
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/ballot-2012/2012/02/03/rick-santorum-doesnt-qualify-for-indiana-ballot
-16 District of Corruption
http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/01/santorum-doesnt-file-for-dc-ballot-109647.html
-27 or -41 Tennessee (confusing)
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2011/dec/30/bachmann-santorum-fail-to-qualify-delegates-on/
-46 Virginia
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/13/gingrich-perry-and-huntsman-lose-virginia-ballot-fight/

And I guess now -23 for West Virginia.

Amazing...so he could win the vote in all of these states (except VA) and yet the delegates are wide open.

[gerryb]

Amazing...so he could win the vote in all of these states (except VA) and yet the delegates are wide open.

Only if we control the party apparatus that will determine which delegates fill in...

[sailingaway]

Only if we control the party apparatus that will determine which delegates fill in...

So in other words, a vote for Santorum in those states is actually a vote for Romney.

[enoch150]

Each state does things differently. In Indiana, for example, Santorum will not be on any of the ballots, and 27 of the 46 delegates are bound. He can't get those 27, but he can get the other 19, depending on how things shake out. Santorum could get 3 of D.C.'s 19, but the other 16 are bound to the winner of the city, which can't be Santorum because he's not on the ballot. He could get 3 of Virginia's 49. Some states allocate 3 delegates per Congressional District. In Ohio candidates authorize delegate candidates who are directly elected on the ballot - and Santorum failed to file delegates in 3 Congressional Districts, so he can't get at least 9. They aren't legally bound in Ohio, but it's very unlikely that he'll get any of those 9 unless they turn traitor to someone. It's basically the same for the 9 he can't get in Illinois. He could still win the state, but he just can't get 9 out of 66 in Ohio and 9 out of 69 in Illinois.

[WVLiberty]

I am also a delegate candidate (at large) committed to Ron Paul.

Since we have the right number of delegate candidates, it is CRITICAL to vote only for those Committed to Ron Paul so that we do not split our vote! There are a few Uncommitted candidates out there that are for Ron Paul but that just splits the vote.

[ShaneEnochs]

Can I just point out that it is "WV" and not "WVa". Just a personal peeve of mine.

[WVLiberty]

Can I just point out that it is "WV" and not "WVa". Just a personal peeve of mine.

We'll just refer to Virginia as "East Virginia" or maybe "EVa". :)

Based on the ballot access, Sanitorum will not win either!

[PaulConventionWV]

Facebook allows you to target ads in very specific ways. You can specify that only users with West Virginia IP addresses see the ads.

So is anyone actually going to do this? I have no idea how to do it, nor do I have the money, but if someone could start a chip-in, maybe we could get some ads started.