WND EXCLUSIVE
WATCHDOG SUES GOP 'PARTY HACKS' OVER DELEGATE FIGHT
'We cannot allow Republican establishment ... to take away our constitutional right'
Bob Unruh
Most races to be political-party nominees for president in recent years have been decided before summertime conventions, with one clear leader. This year that isn’t happening, and it’s bringing up a whole host of new issues, including how the party establishment may handle picking that ultimate nominee.
One activist lawyer says the voters need to decide, and now he has sued the Florida state and national Republican parties over what he charges has been a developing plan by “insiders” to “manipulate … the election system to end up with a candidate that fits their own political and financial agendas.”
The complaint was filed by attorney Larry Klayman, founder of both Judicial Watch and the newer Freedom Watch, in Leon County Circuit Court in his home state of Florida.
He explains in the complaint that he wants the party to support the candidate the voters pick.
“Plaintiff prays for declaratory relief that Florida’s Republican Party delegates must vote as the Florida Republican electorate decided by way of popular vote during the Florida presidential primary at the Republican National Convention in order to vindicate and preserve the rights of Florida Republican presidential primary voters to cast a meaningful and operative vote and that they must adhere to this popular vote throughout the voting proceses, no matter how [many] rounds may result.”
The issue is that this year the two GOP front-runners, those with the biggest support, are Washington outsider Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz, who is considered an outsider by even his colleagues because of his conservative positions.
Their outsider status means that the full weight of the Republican establishment in Washington has been, so far, stymied because its preferred candidates all have fallen by the wayside.
Cruz and Trump both are perceived by many Washington insiders as a threat to the established process and procedures that exist.
The Hill explained that Trump, with more than 800 delegates supporting his campaign, and Cruz, with more than 500, each would have to work to reach the 1,237 delegates required for the nomination.
“It is that contest that will decide whether front-runner Donald Trump can become the GOP nominee or whether someone else – his closest rival Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) or perhaps some compromise candidate who has not participated in the primaries – can wrest the prize away from him,” the report said.
“Trump is the only candidate with a legitimate shot at reaching the magic number of 1,237 by the time the final Republican primaries are held on June 7. For him, reaching that goal is tough but plausible. He would need to win well over 60 percent of the 769 delegates who are still up for grabs in the contests that remain,” the report said.
If that doesn’t happen, there will be, “fun for the news media and armchair pundits; chaos and tension for Republicans. The candidates would arrive at the convention with the identity of the nominee in doubt for the first time since 1976. On that occasion, incumbent President Gerald Ford held off a challenge from Ronald Reagan and his supporters.”
The result is that delegates are required by different state rules to support that state’s chosen candidate for one round of voting, or maybe two. After that, all deals generally are off and negotiations could take a number of paths. The bottom line is that Florida delegates could end up supporting the person their voters want.
Or not.
Klayman explained that his action against the national GOP, chairman Reince Priebus, the state committee and others points out that the GOP voters in Florida chose Trump.
Klayman said he simply wants to “validate the vote of Republican voters and not allow the Republican establishment to pervert the nomination process by not having their vote count.”
His statement continued, “It has been widely reported and in fact admitted by the defendants and others that the Republican elites want to take away the right of the people to decide who should be the Republican Party nominee and insert one of their own establishment hacks, someone like widely discredited Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who just caved into President Obama during the budget process.”
“It has even been reported by the Washington Post that the Republican establishment is busy attempting to in effect bribe delegates so they can nominate one of their own like Ryan or someone else who will further their power and money gravy train in Washington, D.C. This complaint, the first of its kind, will set a precedent for Republican voters in other states to take similar actions to preserve the sanctity of their primary vote. While I am a Florida citizen and voted in the Florida Republican Primary, the complaint and the predicted declaratory judgment in my favor and for all Florida Republican voters will set a precedent nationwide. We cannot allow Republican establishment party hacks to take away our constitutional right,” stated Klayman.
The brief charges that the GOP organization defendants “are conspiring through action and inaction in securing the allegiances of numerous delegates to disregard the popular vote and instead support candidates who did not win the Florida Republican primary, should the Republican national convention go to a second round of voting.”
It continues, “In fact, Priebus and his allies have taken affirmative steps to preclude Trump, Cruz, or another anti-establishment presidential candidate from securing the Republican presidential nomination and therefore diluting and disenfranchising and nullifying the vote of Florida Republican voters, including but not limited to, trying to quash a proposed rule that would switch the rules governing the Repbulican National Convention from the rules of the House of Representatives to Robert’s Rules of Order. The proposal would have made it more difficult for Republican Party insiders, that is the ‘Republican Establishment,’ such as Priebus, to push through a candidate of their choice not currently running for president at the Republican National Convention.”
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/04/government-watchdog-sues-gop-over-delegate-fight/#uuB21ZBWzm2g3Mej.99My comments: I applaud Klayman's efforts. The Voters should decide who the Nominee is, not the Party Bosses.
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