Colorado Republicans cancel presidential vote at 2016 caucus -- The Denver Post

[bsteadman]

Colorado Republicans cancel presidential vote at 2016 caucus

Move makes Colorado only state to date to opt out of early nomination process

The Denver Post
By John Frank
8/25/2016

Excerpt:

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was first published on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2015 at 2:06 p.m. Please see Angry Donald Trump blasts Colorado GOP results as "totally unfair," published on Sunday, April 10, 2016.

Colorado will not vote for a Republican candidate for president at its 2016 caucus after party leaders approved a little-noticed shift that may diminish the state's clout in the most open nomination contest in the modern era.

The GOP executive committee has voted to cancel the traditional presidential preference poll after the national party changed its rules to require a state's delegates to support the candidate who wins the caucus vote.

The move makes Colorado the only state so far to forfeit a role in the early nomination process, according to political experts, but other caucus states are still considering how to adapt to the new rule.

"It takes Colorado completely off the map" in the primary season, said Ryan Call, a former state GOP chairman.

Republicans still will hold precinct caucus meetings in early 2016 to begin the process of selecting delegates for the national convention — but the 37 delegates are not pledged to any specific candidate.

The Democratic Party still will hold a presidential straw poll March 1 — a Super Tuesday vote in a key swing state that is attracting attention from top-tier candidates.

For Republicans, no declared winner means the caucus will lack much of its hype. The presidential campaigns still may try to win delegate slots for their supporters, but experts say the move makes it less likely that candidates will visit Colorado to court voters.

The Colorado system often favors anti-establishment candidates who draw a dedicated following among activists — as evidenced by Rick Santorum's victory in 2012 caucus. So the party's move may hurt GOP contenders such as Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Rand Paul, who would have received a boost if they won the state.

State Republican Party Chairman Steve House said the party's 24-member executive committee made the unanimous decision Friday — six members were absent — to skip the preference poll.

The move, he said, would give Colorado delegates the freedom to support any candidate eligible at the Cleveland convention in July. Republican National Committee officials confirmed that the change complies with party rules.
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http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_28700919/

[bsteadman]

Colorado CRUZ GOPe BACKFIRE ! ! !

Published on Apr 10, 2016 by 'nauteal'

Ted Cruz's SELF SERVING effort Helping to Destroy The GOPe by BYPASSING the VOTER to TAKE DELEGATES.
This fellow in the video was a Republican Party State Delegate in Colorado. He was removed from his position because he voted for TRUMP. Not having a Primary, No Caucus, NO PUBLIC VOTE and CRUZ gets All THE DELEGATES. That is Disenfranchising the voters . . . and you don't think their will be a price to pay!

[bsteadman]

Colorado GOP blundered on 2016 presidential caucus

Republicans made big mistake in abandoning presidential tally

The Denver Post
By The Denver Post Editorial Board
2/27/2016

Excerpt:

The Colorado Republican Party's decision last summer to jettison a presidential poll at its caucus on Tuesday looks worse with every passing day.

Except for the actual delegates to July's national convention, Colorado Republicans who want to have a say in the future of their party have mostly been stripped of a role in the most interesting and surprising nominating struggle in decades.

They'll stand on the sidelines on Super Tuesday while other states determine whether Donald Trump continues his march toward a possible nomination or whether his rivals can slow him down.

Meanwhile, local airwaves have been featuring ads on behalf of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, since the Democrats are still holding a traditional caucus at which participants get to signal their support for a candidate. It's known as democracy. The Colorado Republican executive committee needs to reacquaint itself with the concept.

GOP leaders have never provided a satisfactory reason for forgoing a presidential preference poll, although party chairman Steve House suggested on radio at one point that too many Republicans would otherwise flock to their local caucus.

Imagine that: party officials fearing that an interesting race might propel thousands of additional citizens to participate. But of course that might dilute the influence of elites and insiders. You can see why that could upset the faint-hearted.

By contrast, far-sighted party leaders should have welcomed the extra attention to their caucus and the potential activism on the party's behalf it would have spawned.

Admittedly, one thing has changed since the GOP executive committee made its decision on a preference poll: It appears somewhat more likely today that no candidate will have wrapped up the nomination by convention time. But even if that ends up being the case, it will be no great boon to Colorado's uncommitted delegates. If no candidate has enough votes on the first ballot to secure the nomination, delegates will be free to vote for anyone they like anyway.

It's bad enough the two parties in Colorado don't have presidential primaries in which many more voters would participate. The caucuses already limit participation to a narrow slice of the electorate. But the fact that the Republican leadership then took matters a step further and deprived even that narrow slice of voters a voice in one of the most competitive, consequential political nominations in memory - and perhaps in history - is mindboggling.
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View the complete article, including image, at:

http://www.denverpost.com/editorials...dential-caucus

[bsteadman]

Angry Donald Trump blasts Colorado GOP results as "totally unfair"

Donald Trump says Colorado residents "had their vote taken away from them by the phony politicians" after Ted Cruz victory at state convention

The Denver Post
By John Frank
4/10/2016

Excerpt:

A day after being trounced by Sen. Ted Cruz in Colorado, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump blasted the state party's process for selecting national delegates and called into question the results.

"The people of Colorado had their vote taken away from them by the phony politicians. Biggest story in politics. This will not be allowed!" Trump posted on Twitter on Sunday evening.

Moments earlier, he posted a tweet that asked: "How is it possible that the people of the great State of Colorado never got to vote in the Republican Primary? Great anger — totally unfair!"

The Cruz campaign ran the table in Colorado, capturing all 34 delegates at a series of seven congressional district meetings this month and the state party convention Saturday in Colorado Springs.

Colorado GOP leaders canceled the party's presidential straw poll in August to avoid binding its delegates to a candidate who may not survive until the Republican National Convention in July.

Instead, Republicans selected national delegates through the caucus process, a move that put the election of national delegates in the hands of party insiders and activists — leaving roughly 90 percent of the more than 1 million Republican voters on the sidelines.

The decision sparked significant controversy at the time and removed Colorado from the Republican primary map in the early stages of the campaign. But Cruz supporters worked quietly behind the scenes to build an organization to get like-minded Republicans to the March 1 precinct caucuses and capitalized on the Trump campaign's failure to adapt to the system.

Trump's campaign didn't put a visible paid staffer on the ground in Colorado until last week, when it hired Patrick Davis, a Colorado Springs political consultant, to organize national delegate candidates at the 7th Congressional District convention in Arvada. By then, Cruz had won the first six delegates.

Even then, the energy behind Trump's campaign didn't materialize in support. He managed to win only seven alternate delegates.

The Trump campaign's list of preferred national delegates distributed at the state convention on Saturday was riddled with errors and misspellings that only further hurt its chances.

The problems with Trump's ballots — and the candidate's comments — raise questions about whether Colorado will figure prominently into a challenge at the national convention about the state's delegates.

Ahead of the state convention, a Trump campaign strategist said it made the strategic decision not to compete in Colorado because the caucus system favored party insiders.
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http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_29...esults-totally