Unbound delegates in Louisiana are fuming over media reports that they have decided to back Ted Cruz over Donald Trump in the presidential GOP primary, calling them untrue.
Trump edged out Cruz in the Louisiana primary that was held March 5, though the margin was close enough that each candidate ended up taking 18 delegates.
But earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets reported that the five state party leaders who will attend the Republican convention, and the five delegates who were formerly pledged to Marco Rubio, were planning to throw their support to Cruz.
That would give Cruz a resounding delegates victory in the state despite losing to Trump by 4 points.
Trump promptly declared that he’d sue the state party and seek to have the delegates disqualified over what he described as a rigged process designed to block him from the nomination. (Read more from “Louisiana Delegates Just Announced Something Ted Cruz Won’t Like” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/12986993103_b16d084374_b.jpg6831024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-04-16 02:27:022016-04-16 02:27:02Louisiana Delegates Just Announced Something Ted Cruz Won’t Like
On Monday, assorted bankers, traders and Wall Street lawyers will gather inside the neo-Georgian walls of the Harvard Club in midtown Manhattan to write big checks to an unlikely recipient: Ted Cruz.
Cruz, who attended Harvard Law School, isn’t one to trade too heavily on old school ties and friendships at the likes of Goldman Sachs, where his wife works. On the campaign trail, the Texas senator has railed against Wall Street “crony capitalism,” ripped giant banks as “too big to fail” and wrapped himself in populist garb in his quest to take down Donald Trump. But now he’s desperate: Cruz, who has already received $12 million in support from the financial industry, needs Wall Street money more than ever.
If he is going to keep Trump from getting the 1,237 delegates he needs to secure the nomination before the GOP convention, Cruz will have to spend heavily on the airwaves in the remaining primary and caucus states, especially California, which closes out the voting on June 7. Cruz ended February with $8 million in the bank. His campaign says he pulled in $12 million — only a modest haul, for this stage of the campaign — in March, but that money will evaporate quickly during the final sprint.
So Cruz and his wife, Heidi, currently on unpaid leave from her Goldman Sachs executive position, will gather with donors in New York next week to refill the coffers. Event chairs for the Harvard Club gathering must collect $25,000 each for Cruz. Members of the host committee must commit to bringing in $10,800. Those who donate $2,700 will get to schmooze with the Cruzes at a VIP reception. General admission is $1,000. (Read more from “Cruz’s Message to Wall Street: Help Me” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/22608852784_534eb4e408_b.jpg6831024Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-04-14 02:20:302016-04-14 02:20:30Cruz’s Message to Wall Street: Help Me
By S.A. Miller. Sen. Ted Cruz’s hopes for winning the Republican presidential nomination outright have faded, and he has shifted to a strategy of gaming the rules, angling to send enough double-agent delegates to the July convention to snatch victory from front-runner Donald Trump.
It’s a major reversal for Mr. Cruz, who just weeks ago insisted he would win the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination before the convention. But major wins in Utah, Wisconsin and Colorado have not closed the gap, with a series of East Coast primaries looming.
Now the best option for the senator from Texas is trench warfare at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
“I think it’s very simple. The odds are now very high that we go to a contested convention,” he said in a radio interview Tuesday with conservative media honcho Glenn Beck, who has endorsed Mr. Cruz.
“When we get to a contested convention, here’s what’s going to happen: I’m going to have a ton of delegates, Donald’s going to have a ton of delegates, and it’s going be a battle to see who’s going to win a majority,” said Mr. Cruz. “In Cleveland, I believe, we will have an enormous advantage.” (Read more from “Cruz Eyes Double-Agent Delegates in Bid to Snatch GOP Nomination From Trump” HERE)
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RNC Member Predicts: Trump Can Win With 1,100 Delegates
By Pete Kasperowicz. Republican National Committee member Randy Evans predicted Wednesday that Donald Trump would likely be able to secure the Republican nomination if he captures anything more than 1,100 delegates, short of the 1,237 delegates needed for a simple majority.
“If Donald Trump exceeds 1,100 votes, he will become the nominee even though he may not have 1,237,” Evans said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
The RNC stressed Wednesday morning that under the rules, 1,237 delegates are still needed to officially clinch the nomination, and said Evans’ comments are more of a comment on what might happen in the hypothetical situation in which Trump falls just short.
Evans’ comment could be good news for Trump if it’s a sentiment shared by other RNC members, since Trump is at risk of falling short of a majority of delegates by the time of the convention in July. But Evans also warned that if Trump slips much more, the nomination would likely fall to someone else.
“If he gets less than 1,000 delegates, then I think we’re looking at a contested convention that could go on for many, many days,” Evans said. (Read more from “RNC Member Predicts: Trump Can Win With 1,100 Delegates” HERE)
There’s something else about these delegate fights that have taken place over the weekend where Cruz has just skunked Trump. It isn’t even a contest. It is fascinating to watch. And, of course, the Trump people think that games are being played and that tricks are being pulled. But that’s not happening. This is just somebody who understands the system using it. You know, we could go into a little discussion if you want about insider versus outsider, and I’ve tried to tell people: “These insiders are not just gonna let this stuff go, folks. They’re not just gonna sit idly by and let you take it away from ’em.”
This morning on the Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends, the guest, the Trumpster. During a discussion about Trump’s loss at the Colorado Republican convention, Ainsley Earhardt is talking here to Trump, and Ainsley Earhardt says, “Over the weekend you lost the state of Colorado, and you tweeted about it. You said you were angry. You said it was unfair. Why do you think that?”
TRUMP: In the Denver area and Colorado itself they’re going absolutely crazy because they weren’t given a vote. It’s a crooked deal. And I see it. And honestly I see it with Bernie, too. I’ve gotten millions more votes, millions, not just a couple, millions more votes than Cruz. Now they’re trying to pick off those delegates one by one. That’s not the way democracy is supposed to work. You know, and they offer ’em trips, they offer ’em all sorts of things. What kind of a system is this? I’m an outsider and I came into the system and I’m winning the votes by millions of votes. But the system is rigged, it’s crooked. When you look, even at Bernie, I’m not a fan of Bernie, but every time I turn on your show, Bernie wins, Bernie wins, Bernie wins, but yet Bernie is not winning.
That’s true. That’s true about Crazy Bernie. They have rigged it over to the Democrat side. They’re using their superdelegates. It’s not rigged on the Republican side. This is just the establishment taking advantage. You know, what they’ve done is fake everybody out here. And look, this is multileveled here, to get an idea of what’s going on. The establishment has had everybody looking at rule 40, for example. I mean, there have been all kinds of leaks in Politico. I mean, the last series of months we’ve had story after story about how supposedly the establishment is panicking, and the steps that they’re going to take to try to stop Trump. And we hear about maybe a third-party candidate that we’ve never heard of being nominated on the floor in a brokered convention. Everything.
But the one thing that nobody leaked, the one thing that nobody had a heads-up on was how Cruz was going to go into all of these states and arrange to get most of the delegates. We’re talking second and third ballot here. On the first ballot the delegates — for the most part; there are exceptions — are pledged to vote the way the people in their state voted. Pennsylvania, however, is different. Pennsylvania is coming up. You want to know about Pennsylvania? Only 17 out of Pennsylvania’s 70 some odd delegates vote the way voters in the primary go. Some 51, 54, I don’t have the number right in front of me, over 50 delegates in Pennsylvania are unbound, on the first ballot.
Just use an example. If Trump wins Pennsylvania by 75%, he likely will only get 17 of the 60 or 70 delegates, because only 17 are pledged and bound to whoever wins the state primary. Well, Trump has not been working any of these delegates. Why? Who knows. It could be that he didn’t think he had to. It could be he didn’t even know. It could be he had nobody on his staff that really knows how this works.
You do because you have been treated to in-depth explanations of how this whole delegate process works, particularly once we get to second and third ballots. And even I pointed out to you that it’s very possible — we won’t know actually ’til the convention starts — very possible that a lot of delegates that have to vote Trump on the first ballot don’t actually support him. And if we get to second or third ballot then they’ll abandon him and go for whoever. Right now Cruz is calling dibs.
Now, what happened in Colorado is, I’m sorry to say, it’s not a trick. What happened in Colorado is right out in the open. Everybody’s known how Colorado runs its affairs. Everybody has known. Nobody just chose to look at it. It’s no secret that Colorado was gonna have a convention and they’re gonna choose their delegates before the primary. It’s not a secret. It’s just nobody leaked it. Nobody talked about it. Nobody bragged about it. So it was left to be discovered by people who didn’t know. And it turns out that people on the Trump campaign didn’t know.
Now, I can understand how they might feel tricked here. I can understand how they might feel bugabooed because millions of votes, theoretically, are gonna happen that aren’t going to count. Hey, welcome to establishment politics. We have played for you the sound bites on this program of delegates — I’m sorry — of officials, rules committee officials. We played the sound bite of one of these guys that said, “Hey, what you all have to understand is the people don’t select our nominee; the delegates do, we do.” None of this is a mystery. This is the definition of insider versus outsider. This is a classic illustration of how an outsider has to learn the insider game to play it.
Every business has its rules and laws, bylaws, and specific ways that you have to climb the ladder of success. In addition to that, people that run the club — in this case, the Republican establishment — are not gonna sit idly by and let a bunch of outsiders, the peasants with pitch forks, however you want to visualize them, they’re just not gonna sit idly by and let people come in and take it. It’s too valuable. In most cases this is how all of these people value themselves. This is from which they derive their self-worth, is their membership in this club.
So I don’t see Ted Cruz lying and cheating his way to the convention. I see a lot of hard work. I see some people who know what they have to do, given where they are. They’re in second place in both the vote count and the delegate count. They’re serious about winning. The Cruz team is serious about winning. They have made themselves fully aware of how the process works, and they’ve been out working it for quite a while. They went into Louisiana where Trump scored a massive win but they’ve come out of there with many more delegates than, by appearances, they should have.
Ted Cruz had goals. He worked the problem ’til he got the result he wanted. What he’s demonstrating, folks, he’s demonstrating he knows how to work himself within this insider labyrinth. He knows how to navigate it. He knows how to work it. He knows how to turn it to his advantage. You have to look at this and say, “Okay, what does this tell us about Cruz, if he should become president?” No matter how enamored you are — and a lot of people are — no matter how enamored you are of the notion of a total outsider with no links to the establishment, no links to insider politics, nothing whatsoever, you’re fascinated by that happening, somebody coming in and just totally wrecking the castle, finding out that you can’t do that without getting inside the castle first. ‘Cause people inside the castle are not gonna let you crumble the walls.
You know, being an outsider, it has benefits, but it has drawbacks, too, and knowing the rules inside out and outworking the competition is not cheating. If you happen to be more knowledgeable of how things work and are able to work it to your advantage, that’s just hard work. That isn’t cheating. I think the entire lesson, if look at the Obama campaign and the Cruz campaign, organization matters, from the grassroots on up. Obama has charisma. Trump has loads of charisma. They connect with their audiences.
But I think what happened to Trump — and I’m just wild guessing here — I think the assumption was made at some point that our lead is so massive and that our love is so great and we’re just skunking everybody, if you go back to the early months of the primary, we’re skunking everything, we’re getting all that free media, we’re getting all these votes, we’re winning in every one of these primaries, most of ’em that count, losing some of the caucuses, but our poll numbers, we’re getting double-digit leads over people. And it was probably assumed that that would translate to delegates, and maybe even assumed it would translate to massive public and inside-the-party support. But of course it doesn’t.
People that don’t want Trump to win are going to get even more worked up about it and do what they can to stop it. And they’re gonna use the tools that they have available. And it happened to be the tools that they wrote. It happened to be the tools that they, who run the establishment, put in place. And every business has them, folks. Every business. Every career, every industry, no matter what, every organization, even Planned Parenthood, there is a way you get to the top in that crowd. At every homeless shelter there’s a structure. There’s a way you get to the top there. There’s a way you get to the top at Harvard. There’s a way you get to the top in a professional sports organization.
There’s a way you get to the top in politics. People who don’t like certain rules may call them loopholes and may say somebody’s cheating. But that’s just people using the rules as they have been written. Politico has a story: “Trump’s Saturday Delegate Disaster.” But it’s interesting; there’s no mention of Cruz in this story. That’s quite telling to me, because, remember, The Politico is the chosen receptacle for GOP establishment leaks. This is a long story, “Trump’s Saturday Delegate Disaster,” and there’s not a single mention of Ted Cruz.
Why is Trump having a delegate disaster? It’s Ted Cruz. It isn’t the establishment. And I’m gonna remind you again, I don’t know how many times, but I’ll say it again. If the establishment or Cruz succeed, if Trump doesn’t get his 1,237 before the convention, it may be over, the way this is going. Because what Cruz is sewing up is delegates on the second ballot.
But my humble belief is that if and after the powers that be dispatch Trump, they will then next seek to dispatch Cruz. Over there Paul Ryan’s running a campaign for something, and everybody’s marveling at it. He was just in Israel talking to Bibi Netanyahu. And there are people whispering Kasich, Kasich, Kasich. So this is by no means settled…
…NBC News has a story. I know, I know, NBC News. But their headline is this: “Despite Complaints, Delegate System Has Given Trump a 22 Percent Bonus.” And their point is that Trump leads with 756 delegates, or 45% of all delegates awarded, yet he’s won 37% of all votes. Meaning Trump’s delegate support is greater than his actual support from voters. As a matter of Republican Party math, Trump has been awarded a delegate bonus 22% above his raw support from voters.
So their point here is that even if you apply the same thinking to Cruz, you still end up with Trump has been awarded 8% more delegates than Cruz for the same rate of voter support. And they say Trump’s not factoring this in. They list the reasons why Trump has had a delegate bonus, if you will. Some of it benefits from crossover voters in open primary states. But their point here at NBC News — I know it’s NBC News — is that Trump really’s got nothing to complain about, because he has benefited from some of these very rules that have garnered him more delegates than the vote totals he’s amassed have actually earned him. (For more from the author of “RUSH: Cruz Isn’t Cheating Trump, He’s Outwitting and Outworking Trump” please click HERE)
The shadow battle for Republican convention delegates turns next to Colorado, where a days-long selection process will culminate this weekend — and once again, it seems Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has the edge.
While Donald Trump still holds a wide delegate lead in the GOP presidential primary race, his Achilles heel has been a perceived weakness in his ground game. Seeking to capitalize on this, Cruz has outmaneuvered Trump lately in the behind-the-scenes battle for delegates in places that don’t assign them through traditional primaries or caucuses.
Enter states like North Dakota, and now Colorado.
Both eschewed traditional primary elections and instead held conventions — where delegates not necessarily bound to any candidate are selected. Cruz saw this as an opportunity anyway to get allies elected to the slate, banking on their support in the event of an open convention . . .
Thirty-four delegates are at stake in the convention process, and the Cruz campaign told Fox News on Friday afternoon it has picked up 15 delegates so far in a series of local GOP meetings. The process culminates Saturday at the state convention where a final 13 delegates will be selected. (Read more from “Shadow Battle for Delegates Turns to Colorado, Cruz Holds Edge” HERE)
More than three months after Republican presidential candidate Sen. Sen. Cruz criticized “New York values” as lived out by liberal government leaders, two media personalities have claimed that the remarks were anti-Semitic in nature.
The leap of logic eluded Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, who laughed off the comments from Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera during Rivera’s appearance Thursday night on The O’Reilly Factor.
As the pundits made their proclamations, Cruz himself enjoyed a warm welcome from orthodox Jewish supporters in Brooklyn . . .
“Aside from the stinking anti-Semitic implications that I see in that whole ‘New York values’ money- and media-coated message that he put out there pandering to those Iowa voters, he also voted against Hurricane Sandy relief. He also voted against compensation for 9/11 victims. This is a man whose interests are absolutely antithetical to New York,” Rivera said . . .
“If he says ‘New York Values’ to a bunch of Evangelicals, it’s not anti-Semitic,” O’Reilly said, noting that Cruz has made it clear he was referring to liberal New York Democrats.
“He could have very easily said that,” Rivera insisted. “There’s a million ways he could have said that that he did not.” (Read more from “Geraldo Makes Stunning Accusation Against Ted Cruz” HERE)
Thanks to the candidacy of Donald Trump the financial intersection of money and political opinion, as guided by the monetary motives therein, has brought some amazing revelations to the surface.
These financial/media relationships have largely, and historically, remained hidden. They have damned sure never been publicly, clearly, and regularly stated so the consuming audience would know the presentation was fraught with financial conflict.
♦ The Senate Conservatives Fund (PAC) purchasing massive quantities ($400,000) of Mark Levin’s books in exchange for favorable candidacy political opinion. Conveniently Hidden by the radio host who avoids mentioning the financial conflict created.
Then again, Levin never informed his audience of his family working within the Staff of Senator Ted Cruz either. Does Levin’s endorsement, when contrast against the crony-constitutional advocacy, clarify with a little sunlight? You decide.
♦ Or how about the Breitbart Media enterprise being run via an $11 million purchase from Billionaire Robert Mercer, who also funded Ted Cruz’s Super-PAC “Keep The Promise 1”, to the tune of $10 million. Little overlooked facts, never openly shared for news consumers to determine source motive. Pesky Sunlight
♦ Maybe the Ben Shapiro website “The Daily Wire“, being funded by the billionaire Wilks Brothers, Levi and Farris, in Texas. Who also fund Ted Cruz and his Super-PAC “Keep The Promise”. Shapiro never publicly disclosed the financial/content conflict, or the extent therein. Could Shapiro support any other candidate other than who his content owners approved of? Again, you decide. (Yep, Pesky Sunlight)
♦ The Chairman of Glenn Beck’s Mercury One charity, David Barton, jointly running the Pro-Ted Cruz Super-PAC “Keep The Promise”; also never put into the sunlight by Glenn Beck or his various media enterprises so the consuming audience could filter presented political opinion through the filter of fiduciary connections.
These are just a few of the politically motivated – financially dependent – revelations we probably would never have known about were it not for Donald Trump presenting a genuinely conservative America-First platform; and as a direct consequence, the faux-constitutionalists having to reverse opinion simply to retain income.
♦ So it perhaps shouldn’t come as a surprise to find out that Erick Erickson’s media venture “The Resurgent“, is taking Super-PAC money from the (formerly Scott Walker advocates and financial backers) Ricketts family of Wisconsin who fund OUR PRINCIPLES PAC to the tune of $3,000,000 in February alone.
Yes, it appears there’s another conservative voice who can be added to the list of those whose opinions are conveniently tied to a financial incentive therein.
In addition to all of those in the Salem Media Communications network, along with Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, Ben Shapiro, Erick Erickson and anyone who is hosted upon the various media enterprises they front for…. all paid shrills dependent upon political graft.
Interesting indeed how the intersection of financial dependency drives the political ideology of these modern “conservative voices”. However, this does increasingly explain how those same voices will stand and cheer for Mr. No-Budget/Omnibus, House Speaker Paul Ryan.
“Smaller government”? Yeah, sure. (For more from the author of “Erick Erickson Website “Resurgent” Paid by Pro-Cruz/Anti-Trump “Our Principles PAC”…” please click HERE)
It’s no secret that many in the GOP establishment don’t want constitutional conservative Ted Cruz or reality TV actor Donald Trump to be the GOP nominee for the presidency. There has been talk of the Party attempting to slip in a new candidate if neither of the current candidates reaches the magic number of 1,237 needed to secure the nomination outright.
Ohio Governor John Kasich, who has pushed the notion that Jesus Christ would support government taking over one-sixth of the economy while forcibly making Americans buy into Obamacare, believes that he stands a chance at being the nominee in a contested convention. He believes he could win over support despite so far winning only his home state of Ohio. But, according to POLITICO, although RINO insiders believe the nominee will be someone other than Trump or Cruz, it will definitely not be Kasich.
One person, who spoke with POLITICO anonymously, said that Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has a 54-percent chance of being the Republican nominee. This unnamed person reportedly has “an enviable prediction record” and said that Ryan is “the most conservative, least establishment member of the establishment.”
Although Paul Ryan denies that he is interested in being the GOP nominee for the presidency, those are, according to another source, simply calculated words in the same vein as when he claimed he didn’t want to be Speaker, though he really did and jockeyed for the position.
A friend close to Ryan, again unnamed, spoke about a speech that Paul Ryan gave last month in which he said the tone and tenor in politics needs to be raised. (Read more from “RINO Insiders Weigh in on Who Will Be the Nominee – It’s Not Trump or Cruz” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/hqdefault-102.jpg360480Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-04-05 01:47:282016-04-11 10:50:44RINO Insiders Weigh in on Who Will Be the Nominee – It’s Not Trump or Cruz
Sen. Ted Cruz is out-hustling Donald Trump and looks set to ensure many Arizona delegates will defect to him in a convention floor fight.
The Texas senator, who ever since Iowa has played a stealthy ground game in contrast to Trump’s chaotic populism, is taking steps to snatch the Republican presidential nomination from The Donald at the convention in July.
The New York businessman easily won last month’s Arizona primary taking 47 percent to Cruz’s 25 percent, scooping up all 58 of the state’s delegates. That’s nearly 5 percent of the 1,237 Trump needs for the nomination, and they’re tied are to him on the first ballot.
But Cruz, exploiting deep opposition to Trump among grassroots Republicans, has been far more active in Arizona than Trump, insiders say. He’s recruiting candidates for the available 55 delegate slots, that along with the other three delegate positions filled by party leaders, would be allowed to vote for him in a multi-ballot contested convention.
“Cruz, out of all the campaigns, has the most folks on the ground and has been the most organized,” Michael Noble, a Republican consultant in Arizona who is neutral, told the Washington Examiner on Friday. (Read more from “Cruz Snaring Trump’s Arizona Delegates” HERE)
Sen. Ted Cruz on Monday reached out to female voters, claiming Donald Trump seems to have “a problem with strong women” as the two prepared for Tuesday’s Wisconsin primary.
The Texas senator appeared to try to capitalize on Trump’s recent campaign missteps that seem to be alienating women voters, a crucial voting bloc to win a general election.
“He seems to have a problem with strong women,” Cruz said on a special Town Hall edition of Fox News Channel’s “Kelly File.”
“It’s going to be up to the men and women in Wisconsin” to decide who wins. “I could not be more encouraged by the enthusiasm.”
Trump in recent weeks retweeted an unflattering picture of Cruz’s wife, Heidi, and suggested “some form of punishment” for women who got an abortion if they were illegal – then issued two statements to clarify his position. (Read more from “Cruz Reaches out to Women Voters, Answers Abortion Questions” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/24186068463_7deedd42b1_b.jpg6831024kathleenhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngkathleen2016-04-05 01:43:042016-04-11 10:50:45Cruz Reaches out to Women Voters, Answers Abortion Questions
Unbound delegates in Louisiana are fuming over media reports that they have decided to back Ted Cruz over Donald Trump in the presidential GOP primary, calling them untrue.
On Monday, assorted bankers, traders and Wall Street lawyers will gather inside the neo-Georgian walls of the Harvard Club in midtown Manhattan to write big checks to an unlikely recipient: Ted Cruz.
By S.A. Miller. Sen. Ted Cruz’s hopes for winning the Republican presidential nomination outright have faded, and he has shifted to a strategy of gaming the rules, angling to send enough double-agent delegates to the July convention to snatch victory from front-runner Donald Trump.
There’s something else about these delegate fights that have taken place over the weekend where Cruz has just skunked Trump. It isn’t even a contest. It is fascinating to watch. And, of course, the Trump people think that games are being played and that tricks are being pulled. But that’s not happening. This is just somebody who understands the system using it. You know, we could go into a little discussion if you want about insider versus outsider, and I’ve tried to tell people: “These insiders are not just gonna let this stuff go, folks. They’re not just gonna sit idly by and let you take it away from ’em.”
