Ron Paul Wins 5 Delegates in Pennsylvania; Romney Officially Has Zero
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.
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