Michigan GOP Changes Delegate Rules (After the Vote), Gives Primary Edge to Romney

Have suspected that the Romney campaign is ethically challenged when it comes to voting with all the irregularities in states where he has won starting in Iowa with the eight missing ballot boxes that were never found and then there was the little problem that they couldn't add the numbers.

Now because Romney got mad, the Michigan GOP wants to change the rules AFTER the vote.  They want to take a delegate that Santorum won fair and square and give it to Romney.  One delegate doesn't sound like much but what if Romney won the nomination by one delegate?

It is time for Mitt Romney to bow out of the Republican Primary and take his 'scorched earth' policy with him.    In 2008, the Clinton campaign complained about voter fraud and intimidation along with changing of rules in favor of the Obama campaign. In fact some think they stopped the voting at the convention because she was going to win.

Now one of the Republican candidates doesn't see anything wrong with changing the rules AFTER the vote.  That is not Republican and it is past time for Romney to exit stage left.  If he gets mad because Republicans  ask him to leave then let him go elsewhere because if he is the nominee, there are a lot of Republicans who will be looking for a new home.  If our leadership is too weak to do anything, then they need to exit right along with Romney.

Already there is going to be a challenge at the convention on Florida not following the rules of proportioning delegates, VA is crooked to keep people off the ballot, Iowa as stated had the missing ballot boxes and couldn't seem to add up the numbers which finally gave Santorum the win not Romney, NH had dead voters, Maine announced Romney won without the results from two counties which won't be available until after Super Tuesday, Nevada took days to count and turned away voters not supporting Romney, and then there is FL high rises with the absentee ballot fiasco once again where voters are registered in two and some in three states and they just happened to go heavily for Romney where the Romney people spent a lot of time.  See a pattern?  Romney wins and you find out about the cheating.  Then there is the classic from VA where only two candidates are on the ballot and the GOP Governor is a Romney person.

Don't think I have ever been as embarrassed or as disgusted as a Republican as I am having Romney even running with his dirty shenanigans representing the Republican Party.  He thinks money solves it all and why he should be elected as he spends more money.  You cannot buy class or ethics no matter how rich you are.  It is his choice to spend the money and it is our choice to demand he leave the race and continue to vote for other candidates.  

This email from the Santorum campaign and my reading the ABC article sent me through the roof.  Even some Romney supporters say it is not right.  Looks like he bought and paid for the Chair of Michigan GOP like he did FL, NV, NH, ME, VA, and IA where the Chair did resign.  Think there should be more resignations by the GOP Chairs.

Sharon 

There is breaking news about an election scandal in Michigan. 

ABC News headline states: "Michigan GOP Changes Delegate Rules, Gives Primary Edge to Romney" and the Associated Press states "Michigan GOP changes delegate award after vote." 

Last night there was an unannounced closed-door secret meeting of the Michigan Republican Party credentialing committee. During the meeting, they voted 4 to 2 to allocate delegates differently than was previously stated in a memorandum that was issued to all of the campaigns. One of the 2 dissenting votes was Former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, a Romney supporter, who stated: "I have this crazy idea that you follow the rules. I'd love to give the at-large delegates to Mitt Romney, but our rules provide for strict apportionment." 

We’ve all heard rumors that Mitt Romney was furious that he spent a fortune in his home state, had all the political establishment connections and could only tie Rick Santorum. It appears that he has now called on those establishment connections to orchestrate a back room deal to allocate additional delegates to him that he did not earn. 

Changing the rules after the election is something that happens in Iran, but not in America. This type of political maneuvering should not be tolerated. 

Please stay tuned as we learn more about what the Romney campaign "establishment" insiders are up to in Michigan. 

Mike BiundoCampaign Manager

Here is the article from ABC that was referenced in the Santorum email:

Mar 1, 2012 4:40pm
Michigan GOP Changes Delegate Rules, Gives Primary Edge to Romney 

The Michigan Republican Party voted to break a delegate tie Wednesday night, awarding 16 delegates to Mitt Romney and 14 to Rick Santorum. 

The decision, which broke a 15-15 tie that would have resulted under the pre-primary interpretation of the rules, caused disbelief at Rick Santorum’s campaign. A spokesman rejected the decision. 

Even Romney supporters in the Michigan GOP said the decision was unfair to Santorum. 

“I have this crazy idea that you follow the rules,” said former Attorney General Mike Cox said after a 4-2 vote by a Michigan GOP credentialing committee, according to the AP. “I’d love to give the at-large delegates to Mitt Romney, but our rules provide for strict apportionment.” 

Santorum had claimed partial victory and ABC News projected a delegate tie from Michigan’s Tuesday primary based on the rules as originally laid out by the Michigan GOP.
Romney won the popular vote 41 percent to Santorum’s 38 percent. 

There could be a lot of fuss over this one delegate. The notion of a delegate tie has encapsulated the Santorum campaign’s spin on Michigan, but perhaps more importantly, Santorum is counting on an energized conservative, tea-party base to oppose Romney for the rest of the primary season. Winning this one delegate could hurt Romney more than it helps him, if the Michigan GOP’s contradiction gins up an added sense of injustice in the anti-Romney contingent of GOP primary voters. 

Before the primary, party officials repeatedly explained the rules as splitting the two at-large delegates between any candidate getting more than 15 percent of the vote. Under that interpretation, as laid out by party officials, Santorum should have gotten an at-large delegate.
Santorum’s campaign accused Romney’s campaign of trying to rig the results. 

“There’s just no way this is happening,” Santorum communications director Hogan Gidley said in an email statement to press after the Michigan GOP’s announcement. “We never thought the Romney campaign would try to rig the outcome of an election by changing the rules after the vote. This kind of backroom dealing political thug-ery [sic] just doesn’t happen in America.”
There was no evidence Thursday to show Romney’s campaign was involved with the delegate allocation. 

Santorum’s campaign had declared Michigan a tie in delegates after the vote, predicting that the two candidates would each win 15 delegates. The campaign based its prediction on news reports, published county vote results, and “anecdotal evidence” that each candidate would win 15 delegates. 

“This is not a win for Mitt Romney. This is a tie in his home state,” senior Santorum strategist John Brabender told reporters on conference call Wednesday morning. 

ABC News projected the 15-15 delegate allocation would hold true, based on how the Michigan GOP had explained its delegate-allocation system. In Michigan, delegates are mostly awarded by congressional district, with each district awarding two delegates on a winner-take-all basis. The state’s two at-large delegates were to be doled out proportionally to candidates who beat a 15-percent threshold.   

Excerpt:  Read More at ABC

Now we know that Michigan GOP is dishonest because the rules for awarding delegates they briefed before the election has now changed after the election because Santorum tied Romney for delegates.  Did the Michigan GOP Chair think they could do this and Republicans would just sit down and shut up like some of us have been told by Romney people?  Not happening!