This is the projected calendar for the Colorado delegate selection process and the primary:
Updated information – yet still subject to change
Precinct Caucuses: Tuesday 7 February 2012
Boulder County Assembly: Saturday 24 March 2012
District Assemblies: Saturday 26 May – Saturday 9 June 2012 (tentative dates)
State Convention: Saturday, 14 April 2012
Primary Election: Tuesday, 26 June 2012
General Election: 6 November 2012
The Republican National Convention is the presidential nominating convention of the Republican Party of the United States. Convened by the Republican National Committee, the stated purpose of the convocation is to nominate an official candidate in an upcoming U.S. presidential election, and to adopt the party platform and rules for the election cycle.
The United States 2012 Republican National Convention, in which delegates of the Republican Party will choose the party’s nominees for President of the United States and Vice President of the United States, will be held during the week of August 27, 2012, in Tampa, Florida at the St. Pete Times Forum.
To become the Republican Party nominee, the candidate must win a simple majority of 1,191 of the 2,380* total delegates at the Republican National Convention.
* note – numbers here are from the 2008 cycle, and are likely to change somewhat for 2012
The Republican Party of the United States of America utilizes a system with pledged and unpledged delegates. Of the total 2,380 Republican delegates, 1,719 are pledged delegates, who are elected at the state or local level. Pledged delegates are elected or chosen at the state or local level, with the understanding that they will support a particular candidate at the convention. Pledged delegates are however not actually bound to vote for that candidate, thus the candidates are allowed to periodically review the list of delegates and eliminate any of those they feel would not be supportive.
A majority of the unpledged delegates are elected much like the pledged delegates, and are likely to be committed to a specific candidate. Many of the other unpledged delegates automatically claim the delegate status either by virtue of their position as a party chair or national party committee person. This group is known as unpledged RNC member delegates.
The process by which delegates are awarded to a candidate will vary from state to state. Many states use a winner-take-all system, where popular vote determines the winning candidate for that state, while a few others use a proportional representation. While the Republican National Committee does not require a minimum threshold, under which a candidate receives no delegates, individual state parties may impart such a threshold.
The unpledged RNC member delegates are free to vote for any candidate and are not bound by the electoral votes of their state. The majority of the unpledged delegates (those who are elected or chosen) are technically free to vote for any candidate; however they are likely to be committed to one specifically.
Tampa host Committee 2012 logo
The size of delegations to the Republican National Convention are determined by Rule 13 of the party’s national rules, which in the 2008 cycle indicated the following:
One alternate delegate is also awarded for each regular delegate except for members of the Republican National Committee.
The composition of the individual state and territory delegations is determined by the bylaws of their respective state and territory parties. Since 1972, almost all have appointed delegates by primary election results, although some, notably Iowa, use caucuses, and others combine the primary with caucuses or with delegates elected at a state convention.
In the past, competing factions of a state party sometimes drew up separate lists of delegates, each claiming to be the official one. One of the first agenda items at a convention is therefore credentialing, whereby the Credentials Committee determines which group is recognized as the official delegation.
Earlier today, five GOP 2012 candidates attended the Palmetto Freedom Forum sponsored by South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint and the American Principles Project. The forum took place in Columbia, South Carolina. Below you can find the entire video in an 8-part playlist.
Participants: Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney
Original Air Time/Date: September 5th (Labor Day) at 3pm EST on CNN
Originally Texas Governor Rick Perry was also slated to attend, however, he was forced to cut his campaigning short and return to his state to manage the worsening wildfire situation.
Wow – it’s been an interesting couple of days.
The third Republican debate was held at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, sponsored by the Iowa Republican Party, Fox News, and the Washington Examiner.
Candidates participating in the debate included Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney , Jon Huntsman Jr. and Rick Santorum. Criteria for inclusion in the debate did not allow several other candidates, or potential candidates, to participate in the debate, including Buddy Roemer, Gary Johnson, Thaddeus McCotter and Fred Karger, who did not meet the polling criterion of at least 1% in 5 national polls.
The debate was broadcast live for two hours on Fox News and FoxNews.com. It was moderated by Bret Baier with questions from Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace and the Washington Examiner’s Byron York and Susan Ferrechio.
This debate immediately preceded the Iowa straw poll, which while being nonbinding, is a recognized bellweather of support. Surprise wins or losses in this poll can accelerate or doom a candidate’s prospects.
Shortly before the debate, perhaps in an attempt to steal someone’s thunder, Texas Governor Rick Perry announced his candidacy, although he was not at the debate.
In the subsequent straw poll, Michelle Bachmann barely edged out Ron Paul for first place, with 28.6% and 27.7% of the vote respectively. Third place finisher Tim Pawlenty did not muster even half of either figure, at 13.6%. Mitt Romney, whom the media keeps telling us is the ‘front runner’ mustered a mere 3.4% – below that of write in candidate Rick Perry. It should be observed, however, that Romney announced some time back that he would ‘skip’ the Iowa straw poll. See the full results below.
Third place finisher Tim Pawlenty dropped his campaign for the nomination the day after the poll.
Iowa Straw Poll Results
| Place | Candidate | Votes | Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michele Bachmann | 4,823 | 28.6% |
| 2 | Ron Paul | 4,671 | 27.7% |
| 3 | Tim Pawlenty | 2,293 | 13.6% |
| 4 | Rick Santorum | 1,657 | 9.8% |
| 5 | Herman Cain | 1,456 | 8.6% |
| 6 | Rick Perry (write-in) | 718 | 4.3% |
| 7 | Mitt Romney | 567 | 3.4% |
| 8 | Newt Gingrich | 385 | 2.3% |
| 9 | Jon Huntsman | 69 | 0.4% |
| 10 | Thaddeus McCotter | 35 | 0.2% |
| — | Scattering | 162 | 1.0% |
| Total | 16,892 | 100% |
I just received training on the RNC’s Voter Vault system.
Voter Vault (VV) is an extensive database, with an easy to use web-based interface. It is the tool we will be using to keep track of all the info we compile on each voter in each of our precincts. In addition to basics such as Name, Address, Phone, Email, Sex, Party affiliation, etc., it also tracks for each registered voter useful info such as date registered, other household members, responses to telephone surveys, age, and even how likely they are to answer the telephone on any arbitrary call.
Voter Vault will be the primary tool we use to generate calling lists, walking lists, conduct surveys, track our GOTV activities, etc. Each DC and PCP should become adept in using this program for these purposes.
Voter Vault - screen cap
I have heard some people express dissatisfaction with Voter Vault. Bearing in mind that I have not yet used it (still waiting on authorization), everything I saw seems very logically laid out and easy to use.
Perhaps the issue some have is with the quality of the data. The data in VV comes from a number of sources – the Secretary of State, National party, purchased lists, previous campaigns, etc. Most importantly, data can be entered by us troops on the front line. Like any data, it can become stale or obsolete over time. Accordingly, it is one of our primary functions as DCs and PCPs that we expand or correct the data with accurate data obtained from direct contact with registered voters.
The use of VV requires prior authorization. Authorization is available to the following people:
In order to become authorrized, each DC and PCP must:
Training sessions are held online — over a web browser and telephone — approximately once a month. To register for training, or for more information, contact Chuck Poplstein – Chuck at the State GOP office. Or send an inquiry to dc@SELongmontGOP.org, and I’ll try to set you up.
Submitted as news for your consideration. Redistricting is occurring. The outcome of this redistricting is likely to affect our district.
The article may reflect some bias, which you can cut through yourself.
We here in the SE Longmont District report up through a structure that is national. The next layer up in the organization is the Boulder County Republicans. We District Captains for the SE Longmont District are voting members of the Executive Committee of the Boulder County Republicans. The Executive Committee meets regularly to conduct the business of the county party. These meetings are used to coordinate our activities with those of other districts.
The website of the Boulder County Republicans has a wealth of great info. Check it out at http://bouldercountygop.org/
The Precincts that lie within the SE Longmont District include:
Below is a rough map of the geographical boundaries of each of these precincts (click on the map to see at full size):
Precinct map - SE Longmont district
Hello and welcome -
This website has been created in order to coordinate the activities of the Republican party, in the general area of southeast Longmont, Colorado.
Please think of this as a resource for any advocacy or campaign activities with which you would like to engage. Indeed, please think of this as your website. While it is initiated by the District Captain team for SE Longmont, the intent is that all Precinct Committeepersons (PCPs) will also feel free to use, edit, and publish material to and from this site, as well as share this material with all likely voters in the SE Longmont district.
This website is built upon WordPress, which is probably the leading blogging platform currently in existence. WordPress makes it easy for registered users to add and modify information on the website. As time goes by, we will add information on exactly how one goes about creating a new page or new post. In the meantime, any questions can be sent to dc@SELongmontGOP.org.
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!