Wyoming GOP county conventions gave their delegates to Romney, Thompson, McCain, and Hunter. But Ron Paul never stood a chance there.
We shouldn’t have expected anything from Wyoming. Most observers didn’t understand the rules.
The Wyoming county conventions were NOT open to Republican voters. Eligible delegates consisted of only two groups: Republican party officials who were elected in 2006; and delegates who were appointed (by established precinct organizations) to fill empty delegate seats. The rules are explained here.
Each county convention elected either one delegate or one alternate. They were assigned one or the other by the state party based on past vote totals for GOP candidates in their county.
Each county convention was presented with delegate candidates, who were either pledged to a Presidential candidate or unpledged. The winner in each county had to get over 50%, so runoffs were held.
In most cases, the winning delegate candidates were county party leaders who were chosen because of who they were, rather than who they are supporting for President.
Wyoming’s system is a throwback to the old days of backroom nominations. There was little chance for new party activists to participate in this process, only old-timers made the choice.
2:45 pm on January 5, 2008
