A Delegate Situation
The delegate allocation rules (Rule 15) set up by the GOP this year kinda make a mess of things: some states are proportional and some are not. And some that were going to be proportional are now winner-take-all. Take Florida for example.
Florida was not supposed to hold it’s primary before February, and not before Iowa, New Hampshire, S. Carolina and Nevada. However, they ignored the rules and set their primary for January 31st causing a chain reaction among the aforementioned states (Nevada moved their caucus back to February). By violating the rules, they lost half of their 99 delegates to the convention and now have 50. These 50 will all be awarded to one candidate, even though they would have been awarded proportionately had they followed the rules. Now, Santorum’s campaign is requesting that the delegates be awarded proportionately and has some support.
Texas is in a similar situation. There was debate during last year’s legislative session about keeping the primary in March or moving to April. That’s since been settled by the courts, but at the time, the Legislature voted to keep the primary in March, which meant that the Texas GOP had to alter it’s rules to allow for the proportional allocation of its 155 delegates. Currently, the rules still allow for the proportional allocation, but some suggestions have been made that the Texas GOP change its rules, which would help Gingrich. Such a change is unlikely according to GOP officials because of the hurdles involved (Source).
This campaign cycle is certainly becoming pretty unconventional.
(h/t MonkeyCage)
