PA Primary Results: Hillary Wins Big, GOP Delegate Picture a Mess

First thoughts:  Well, Hillary won by 10.  I guess that means this superdelegate tracking is going to have to continue for a while.

Regarding the GOP delegate races, those results are a little spread out over the interwebs, so will require some time to aggregate.  My favored candidate for my district– Jim McHale– did not win, but he did OK.  Interestingly, in my district well-known insider Ken Davis, about whom many are less than enthused, was included on the GOP sample ballot as an endorsed delegate at the last second absent any appropriate vote, at least as far as this committeeman is aware.

While Mr. Davis did not win, he did siphon off 1300 votes which affected the ultimate results.  There could be an explanation for this, but the most thorough one I’ve heard thus far is there was a “mix-up”, so an endorsement fell upon him by fiat, like manna from heaven.  This will require more investigation.  A very polite e-mail to the chairman of the Chester County GOP has thus far gone unanswered.

As for the rest of the Commonwealth, I believe there are at least some unendorsed delegates who have been elected, and not all of them are Paul-bearers.  As Mr. Drudge says, developing…

Tomorrow is Primary Day in PA

Well, team, tomorrow is primary day in Pennsylvania.  As you may have noticed, some of my projects here did not quite ripen.  Work, fishing, and volunteering for Admiral Steve Kantrowitz, who is running for PA Senate 19, have intervened.

There’s nothing in this post for voters in the Dem. primary.  Your vote matters, and if you’ve been paying attention there’s not much I can tell you about each candidate.  I could tell you about what PA’s superdelegates are doing, but that shouldn’t be part of your equation.

As for those casting a meaningless PA presidential primary ballot, my recommendation is this:  Remember, top of the ballot is legally meaningless, and the state GOP likes it that way.  Down the ballot you will vote for delegates to the convention, who will cast a vote for your district in St. Paul.

If you live in my district, vote for Jim McHale.  If you have the opportunity to vote for additional people, leave it blank.  Generally, avoid most of the people pledged to Ron Paul, although God bless them for running and absolutely vote for them if you dig Dr. Paul.  If you don’t, though, go to this page, also look at the GOP sample ballot you can get at your polling place, and vote for a person who is not endorsed by the party, and is not a Ron Paul supporter.

In my research I have determined it is those people who are most likely to have your district’s best interests at heart.  As a group, the greatest fault of those people is they are running mostly because they think it would be fun to be a delegate at the convention.  That’s their greatest fault.  How we could go wrong with a delegation like that, I don’t know.  Pass the bottle, and move to close!

The take away point from all this is what?  That when it comes to electing the president of the United States, Republicans have to do lots of research and attempt to guess who might best reflect their values by proxy.  If you wanted to design a system concentrating power and influence in the hands of people with roles the public doesn’t understand, this is it.

That’s not the way I think things should be done.  You?

Updates on PA GOP Delegate Preferences

This page has been updated, accounting for all the GOP delegation candidates supporting Ron Paul, according to this link.

Jim McHale, running to be a delegate in the 16th district, got his start as a Paul supporter.  Upon witnessing more intimately the bursting inanity of Pennsylvania’s primary system is he decided the right thing to do was to simply reflect the will of his district.  He informs me, though, that in order to be designated a “Pennsylvania Patriot for Ron Paul” one has to agree to vote for Dr. Paul at the GOP convention regardless of the will of the district one represents.

I mention this because when I spoke to some of those people they claimed they would try and represent their constituents rather than the interests of Ron Paul.  So either they were lying to me, or they are being less than truthful with the Paul campaign.

So unless you hear otherwise from me, the people indicated as Paul supporters on that grid intend to vote for Ron Paul, which is absolutely their prerogative.  It is, of course, also incumbent to them to be honest with the voters about their intentions, and I am beginning to have my doubts about their veracity.

Your mileage may vary.

GOP Delegation Candidates Listed At Link Above

The identity of those who have filed to run as delegates to the PA GOP delegation to the Republican National Convention is now available at a link above.  You can also click here.

There are 167 names.  Only 62 delegates are elected.  That means there’s some competition, especially in congressional districts 3,7,11,15,18, and 19, where there’s more than three people running for each delegate slot, on average.

That’s Erie, the suburbs southeast of Philadelphia, the Poconos, Allentown, the Pittsburgh suburbs west to the Ohio border, and York/Gettysburg.  If you can find a common denominator to those districts, fill me in.  Are some of those folks supporters of Ron Paul?  Hopefully there’s more going on than a competition to win an invitation to party in lovely Minnesota.

Also, if you’re one of those delegates and want to tell me who you support, and how those you hope to represent can get in touch with you, please e-mail me at karlub at yahoo dot com.

As I mention elsewhere, I will fill you in on the presidential preference of each delegate candidate as I learn them, and also hope to include their contact information.  I will also indicate which of them are the endorsed candidates of the party.

Tension Between Theory & Practice: Pennsylvania Ron Paul Delegates

I am beginning to realize many of my posts are going to have to open with caveats.  The caveat for this post is:  Please recognize that I do NOT support Ron Paul.  I cannot be more explicit about this.  I’ve been a registered Libertarian.  I’m not any more, and don’t ever want to be one again, at least as long as that party remains the mothership of so many people who may be happier after heavy doses of Thorazine.

That said, GOP Paul supporters in Pennylvania are performing a critical service by running their own delegation candidates.  This is forcing the Commonwealth’s GOP to mobilize to ensure a delegation unencumbered in any way by the wishes of the voters travels to the GOP convention rather than delegates who are actually being straightforward and honest with the voters about who they support.

To that, I say bully for them.  You see, if a registered Republican wants to run to be a delegate with an expressed preference for Paul, that is legally his or her prerogative.  It also happens to be the transparently hilarious reasoning of how the system is designed to work here in PA where the votes of regular registered republicans on primary day have no formal relationship at all with the actions of the GOPs Pennsylvania delegation at the national convention.  Remember, Dr. Paul is a Republican.

Of course, PA’s state GOP committee ought to be expected to mobilize to support the delegation candidates who have already been endorsed by the party.  The same delegation candidates who– as far as I am aware– have not expressed any formal preference at all as to who the presidential nominee of our party should be.

I suppose it is possible the Paul-bearers are running delegation candidates who are trying to sneak in without telling people who they support.  As I said, Libertarianism is overrun by unsavory elements, so I wouldn’t put it past them.  If that were the case, their actions would be unacceptable.

Of course, in that case their actions would pretty much mirror precisely what we GOP insiders are already doing.

Test Two for National Strategy: NH

Well, Team Rudy’s national strategy passed its second test last night.  McCain won, Huck disappointed, and Hizzoner avoided the awkwardness of having the eighth paragraph of NH primary coverage reading “Ron Paul finished strong in the ‘Live Free or Die’ state, edging Giuliani…”

Avoiding early states and planting a flag in FL immediately before Tsunami Tuesday is looking less and less mad every day.

Still, despite this being about as wide-open a GOP primary as I am likely to see in my lifetime, there’s constant talk of candidates needing to drop out, perhaps even before Feb. 5, due to lack of funds.  Last night could have been a mortal blow to Romney.  Thompson is on fumes before his Southern base ever casts a vote.

And without a NH victory, there would have been talk about McCain needing to drop out after only 10% of Iowans and often intentionally mis-registered New Hampshire residents casting malicious ballots have had a chance to vote.  Now instead there’s talk of McCain being the frontrunner. 

I get to vote in April.

Giuliani and Libertarians

A comment in the post below expressed bemusement that Rudy Giuliani could find sympathy amongst those with Libertarian tendencies.  This poster seems to recall Hizzoner as a “gun grabbing”, “police state” mayor.

I understand the question.  You have to look at it from a perspective that respects one of Libertarianism’s fundamental requirements of the State:  That of protecting private property.

Giuliani’s priority as Mayor– the reason he was elected– was to make the City safer and more pleasant.  Read that as “Protect their private property.”

Hence this person’s perception of him as a “gun-grabbing” and “police state” mayor.  I think Giuliani was wrong at the time with his handgun lawsuits, but he thought he had two opposing freedoms he had to prioritize: Civil order and the right to defence.  I am a pretty dogged 2nd Amendment advocate, but even I can appreciate how the priorities of NYC in a crime wave and Idaho are different, and probably require different approaches.  So while aspiring to be President, it is natural for Giuliani to become more sympathetic to gun owners, which he has.

It is enlightening to also understand that the protection of private property is why– as a mayor rather than the President– he was Libertarian-ish on immigration.  He wanted illegals to be comfortable dealing with the local gendarmes so they could report on the bad apples.

Some suggest the Mayor has been doing a lot of flip-flopping.  Without getting into semantical arguments, I think it is important to understand that those issues on which he has drifted rightward merely reflect differently weighted priorities of two different jobs:  That of Mayor of NYC and that of President of the United States.  As he has pointed out, it would have been easier for him to just complete the flip-flop and lie.  A look at the GOP field illustrates at least one candidate who is comfortable doing this.  One thing, though, that appears to be consistent with the Mayor is that at the core he is driven by a respect for the freedoms of law-abiding individuals to pursue their own happiness, and an understanding that it is the State’s role to defend these freedoms.

I do not at all suggest that Giuliani would be at home in the Libertarian party.  I do suggest, though, that he is Libertarian-friendly:  His first priority is to protect your property and civil society in general.  His second priority– as evidenced by his actions in NYC and the associated favorable reviews from the Club for Growth and endorsement by Steve Forbes– is to minimize the vigor with which government dips into your bank account.  After that, he pretty much feels the states should decide on all the culturally divisive social issues.

That, I say, is pretty Libertarian friendly.  Does he buy into Libertarian ideology?  Probably not, as his habits of character can be quirky and pretty hierarchical.  Note his apparent distaste of ferret owners.  But when the time comes in a general election for Ron Paul supporters to pull a lever, I hope those that aren’t using their support for Paul merely a way to promote isolationism will do the needful and vote for Giuliani rather than staying home or voting for his opponent.

Assuming, of course, Hizzoner can secure the nomination, which is a whole ‘nother article, as Nordlinger says.  I am not entirely sure how Paul’s supporters effect that process.  Not much, I tend to think…

Presidential Signage in the Commonwealth

I saw the first sign for a presidential campaign in my corner of PA today.  Someone has put up a Ron Paul sign.

For lots of reasons, I probably would have been on that bandwagon 15 years ago.  My first presidential vote was for Andre Marrou, who was actually Ron Paul’s veep choice in ’88 when he ran for president on the Libertarian ticket.

I have since diverged from my Libertarian brothers and sisters.  Getting married and becoming part of a community have steered me away from radical individualism, and I also happen to think the threat that radical Islam represents to Western ideals is something that must at least partly be dealt with actively.  A passive, isolationist response may very well end up being a demographic white flag.

That all said, I wish no ill will to my former comrades in freedom, and hope over time they will come to recognize that in lots of ways Mayor Giuliani– as a fiscally responsible, and socially Federalist candidate– is the most Libertarian-friendly aspirant to the presidency we are likely to see for some time.

At he is for those in the Libertarian party who take property seriously.  I imagine the more libertine sort of Libertarian bristles at the prospect of the Giuliani presidency…