 Sublette County, Wyoming GOP County Convention |
Despite having been trounced in Iowa last week and being given little chance of outpolling John McCain two days from now in New Hampshire, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won bragging rights yesterday by winning the Wyoming GOP county conventions and leading the Republican field in actual delegates.
Republicans attending the state’s 23 county conventions – widely misreported as “caucuses” – voted for delegates and alternates to the national GOP convention, making the Wyoming event the first in the nation this election year to award actual delegates. Caucuses, where voting delegates for yesterday’s county conventions were finalized, were held in December.
Wyoming Republicans elected to move their caucuses and county conventions ahead of the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary in a bid to attract more direct campaigning by the candidates in the state. The timing makes Wyoming’s delegates the first to be awarded in the 2008 election.
But what Wyoming gained in timing, it may have lost in influence.
The Republican National Committee penalized Wyoming for moving up the date of its nominating contest by having its 28 delegates reduced to 14 at the national convention in Minneapolis. Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire and South Carolina also lost half their delegates for advancing the dates of their primaries.
RNC rules penalize states holding their nominating contests prior to Feb. 5. Iowa and Nevada, which will hold its contest Jan. 19, avoided losing delegates because their caucuses are not binding on convention delegates.
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In yesterday’s Wyoming conventions, Romney won eight of the 12 delegates available. Fred Thompson won three delegates and Duncan Hunter was awarded one. Two additional delegates will be chosen at a statewide convention in May.
Romney promised a fight to restore Wyoming’s missing delegates.
“This is just the beginning,” Romney declared. “The people of Wyoming took the first step towards bringing true conservative change to Washington. I am honored to have won many of the first delegates awarded this primary season. As the Republican nominee, I promise to fight to seat all of Wyoming’s delegates at the national convention.”
The effort to draw candidates to campaign in the state was reflected in the final allocation of delegates.
Romney, who visited the state twice, had three of his five sons campaign in the state. Hunter, Thompson and Ron Paul also campaigned in the state, reported Associated Press. Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani and McCain didn’t come to Wyoming and they received little support at the county conventions.
“The ultimate goal is not how many times we appear on Katie Couric,” said Tom Sansonetti, the county convention organizer. “The ultimate goal was to have attention paid to rank-and-file Republicans by national candidates.”
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