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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsArizona GOP delegates resign rather than vote for Trump
" PHOENIX (KPHO/KTVK) -
At least two of several Arizona GOP delegates that have resigned say it's primarily because they refuse to vote for Donald Trump at next month's national convention.
The Arizona Capitol Times reports that nine of the state's 58 delegates to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland have stepped down.
[Raw video: Donald Trump campaign speech in Phoenix - June 18, 2016]
Former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Frank Riggs and Zuhdi Jasser, a Muslim reform advocate, say they were willing to go if there was a chance of a contested convention.
Jasser says he also takes issue with Trump's immigration ban specifically targeting Muslims.
The other resigning delegates include top elected officials such as Attorney General Mark Brnovich and Secretary of State Michele Reagan.
Brnovich and Reagan cited previous commitments as the reason for missing the convention. "
http://www.azfamily.com/story/32256218/arizona-gop-delegates-resign-rather-than-vote-for-trump?autostart=true
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malaise
(269,157 posts)and I hope that is metaphorical although with ReTHUGs one is never sure.
sheshe2
(83,901 posts)Hi there 
groundloop
(11,523 posts)
Stuart G
(38,445 posts)
joeybee12
(56,177 posts)
ailsagirl
(22,899 posts) 
Ford_Prefect
(7,919 posts)You guys signed on when it was Carson, Fiorina, Cruz and all those other fools saying the same things about all the people you are willing to hate, so why stop now? Trump Fatigue syndrome taking hold, is it?
Do not worry. Once Trumpenstien figures out how to leave the campaign trail while passing all the bills along to the party you'll be right back in the saddle again, riding high on the same misanthropic party dogma you've been spouting for the last 30 years.
Beartracks
(12,821 posts)... a commitment to reason? Sanity? The constitution?
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Duval
(4,280 posts)Get out the popcorn!!
keithbvadu2
(36,907 posts)The repub/cons base wants Trump and the GOP elite are trying to ignore them.
TeamPooka
(24,254 posts)missing the convention."
I rewrote it the honest way.
63splitwindow
(2,657 posts)" Anti-Trump Republican Delegates Allege 'Intimidation' by Party Leaders
by Alexandra Jaffe
Republicans in multiple states complained Sunday night of "intimidation" tactics from party leaders who they said seemed aimed at preventing a revolt against presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump at the party's convention next month.
A North Carolina delegate said the delegates in her state "are very much under direct threat from our state with a $10,000 fine," adding that she had been "threatened" by the state GOP "vice-president" over Facebook and asked about the possibility of a legal fund being established to defend them.
"I think that that's definitely going to affect very many people who are not going to be willing to step up in front of the committeemen" and contest votes for Trump at the convention, she said. She also noted that delegates in Arizona are required to sign a pledge committing to vote for Trump or they'll be barred from the convention.
A man who identified himself as a candidate for the statehouse in Arkansas said he had been called a "threat, a coward, a communist" because he refused to support Trump.
Republican Party chairmen in North Carolina and Arizona confirmed to NBC News that their parties do, in fact, have rules barring delegates from voting for any candidate other than the one to whom they're bound.
Former North Carolina GOP Chairman Claude Pope couldn't remember when the rule was passed, while Arizona GOP Chairman Robert Graham — who appeared at a rally with Trump this week in his state — noted that the rule was in place for the last few convention delegations.
The concerns were aired on a 90-plus-minute nationwide conference call hosted by a group of grassroots conservatives hoping to oust Trump at the convention by passing a rule change to allow delegates to vote their consciences.
The call, which organizers said had nearly 1,000 people listening in, was intended as an informational session for convention delegates and other Republicans supportive of the cause.
The organizers of the effort, who are calling themselves "Free the Delegates," acknowledged the threat of a backlash, but they encouraged delegates on the call to "do the right thing, not necessarily the easy thing," as Colorado delegate Regina Thompson, a spokeswoman for the group, put it.
"We want you to be proud to tell your children and grandchildren that the person we have nominated and are ready to elect as president is a moral person who will take seriously the oath of office. Will you be able to tell them that you were not afraid of public opinion or party leaders?" she asked.
Steve Lonegan, a spokesman for Courageous Conservatives PAC, an outside group supporting the effort, said the group is raising money "to provide you support should you be threatened on the state level with some form of retribution."
The PAC also plans to pay for staff and to establish a "command center" at the convention to help whip votes for the rule change and strategize on the convention floor.
Lonegan encouraged Republicans listening in to get the word out by calling in to talk radio, writing letters to the editors of their newspapers and calling their own delegates to encourage them to vote for the change.
It was clear on the call that there was plenty of interest in the effort — but lots of details still to be hammered out.
It's no small task to change Republican National Convention rules — first, 57 of the 112 Rules Committee members must vote in favor; then, a majority of the more than 2,400 delegates at the convention must vote for it.
Trump has dismissed the effort, calling it a "hoax" and "illegal" at a campaign rally Saturday.
Kendal Unruh, a Rules Committee member from Colorado and leader of the effort, told those on the call that if they managed to get it through the Rules Committee, she's confident it'll easily pass.
"It's just kind of an easy sell. And I don't think that there's going to be enough organized resistance on the other side to defeat it," she said.
But the group still has a long way to go. The website it launched Sunday was still missing key information, like state-based contacts and talking points for supportive Republicans hoping to persuade delegates to vote for the change.
The part of the site collecting information from supportive Republicans lacked a "submit" button.
In the question-and-answer session after the call, delegates expressed confusion over conflicting interpretations of the party's rules and the legality of voting against the presumptive nominee.
Lonegan acknowledged that they were starting from scratch.
"This has never been done before, so we're sort of writing the textbook and making calls on how to do it," Lonegan said.
But with four weeks to go, Unruh said, she is confident that there is enough momentum to ensure success.
"I'm just very glad that we've just all come together so quickly, because we have a monumental task to actually accomplish. But I will tell you the momentum that I have seen within the last week — it is just astonishing how fast this has come together," she said.
"We're going to be hitting our peak right at convention time." "
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/anti-trump-republican-delegates-allege-intimidation-party-leaders-n595351
63splitwindow
(2,657 posts)By Ed O'Keefe
June 19 at 11:41 PM
" Supporters of a growing anti-Donald Trump movement announced plans Sunday to raise money for staff and a possible legal defense fund as they asked new recruits to help spread the word with less than a month until the Republican National Convention.
Having started with just a few dozen delegates, organizers also said Sunday that they now count several hundred delegates and alternates as part of their campaign.
"As we carefully consider not only the presidential nominee but the rules of the convention, the platform of the Republican Party and the vice presidential nominee, remember that this is true reality TV – it is not entertainment," Regina Thomson, co-founder of the group now calling itself "Free the Delegates," said Sunday night.
The group is led by convention delegates seeking to block Trump at the GOP convention next month in Cleveland by changing party rules so that they can vote however they want -- instead of in line with the results of state caucuses and primaries. It is quickly emerging as the most organized effort to stop Trump and coincides with his declining poll numbers.
Concerned Republicans also are increasingly alarmed by Trump's rhetoric, including his racial attacks on a federal judge, a fresh call made Sunday to begin profiling Muslim Americans, and his support for changing the nation’s gun laws in the aftermath of a mass shooting in Orlando.
But Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and other party leaders believe that convention delegates are bound to the results of the caucuses and primaries held over the course of the year. An RNC spokesman on Friday dismissed plans to undermine Trump, first reported by The Washington Post, as "silly" and "nothing more than a media creation and a series of tweets."
Trump called attempts to strip of the party nomination "totally illegal but also a rebuke of the millions of people who feel so strongly about what I am saying." On Saturday, he accused former opponents Jeb Bush and Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) of trying to undermine his candidacy.
But in a conference call Sunday night, leaders of Free the Delegates repeatedly insisted that they are not working on behalf of any of Trump's former opponents. They also lashed out at top party leaders.
"Mr. Priebus needs to understand that leadership has not answered the call of the most important people in the Republican Party and that’s the conservatives. We have always been there, we’ve endured a lot of one-way loyalty," said Chris Eckstrom, a Dallas-based businessman and founder of Courageous Conservative PAC, an organization that once supported Cruz's campaign but is now backing the new movement.
"It’s now our time and our duty to say that this is a conservative platform in the Republican Party and we simply will not abandon it," Eckstrom added.
Thomson, Eckstrom and others addressed at least 1,000 Republicans nationwide who participated in the call, organizers said. The Washington Post obtained call-in information from a caller, but there was no way to independently verify how many people participated.
Also on the call was Steve Lonegan, a Republican consultant from New Jersey who is advising the campaign on fundraising and media outreach. During the call, Lonegan asked participants to donate to Eckstrom's PAC, reiterating that both men are volunteering their time and would spend the PAC money only to help track down like-minded delegates, hiring staff to assist the campaign while in Cleveland and to help any delegates who may face threats or pressure.
Delegates in several states have said they are under pressure not to join anti-Trump groups. In North Carolina, some have proposed fining delegates or kicking them out of the party if they vote against Trump. In other states, party leaders have threatened to strip delegates of their credentials if they buck primary results and against Trump, said delegates who have contacted The Post. Some who have reached out have spoken on the condition of anonymity, saying that spouses are fearful of physical threats if they speak out publicly about their plans.
Kendal Unruh, one of the group's founders, said that she is planning to propose adding the "conscience clause" to the convention's rules so that there is no confusion about what delegates can do. While some Republicans believe that they already can vote their conscience, Unruh said that adding the rule would end any dispute.
"I’m so convinced that it’s going to pass with a majority," she said.
Unruh and other delegates were pleased to hear House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) tell NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that it's "not my place to decide" whether delegates should be unbound at the convention.
"It is not my job to tell delegates what to do, what not to do, or to weigh in on things like that. They write the rules. They make their decisions," Ryan told NBC.
"Paul Ryan signed our permission slip," Unruh said in response.
Talmage Pearce, a GOP delegate from Arizona's Fifth Congressional District, said that Ryan "spoke wisely and empathetically" in his interview.
"Regarding Trump, I cannot in good conscience vote for him," Pearce said in an email. "The deceit, bullying, insulting, blackmailing, and liberal views all make it impossible for me to cast him my endorsement. Trump would need to change significantly and convince myself and millions of other conservatives across the country that he has changed in order to earn our votes."
A delegate from Colorado supporting the campaign said that "we will not put our delegates in an ethical dilemma" if they are unbound. "We live in America. The land of the free. As delegates, we should be free to vote our conscience."
The delegate spoke by email and on the condition of anonymity because he said he's already being harassed by other Republicans and is concerned for his safety.
Cecil Stinemetz, a delegate from Iowa, participated in Sunday night's call. Angered by intimidation tactics used by one of his state party's leaders, he forwarded an email he received on Friday from Steve Scheffler, who holds one of Iowa's seats on the Republican National Committee and is a leader of the Iowa Christian Alliance.
"Stop this madness Cecil!!" Scheffler wrote. "All the other candidates have either folded their campaigns or suspended them. You are hurting Iowa! Can't you behave yourself? You are an embarrassment! The binding for Iowa is what it is and your trying to make a name for yourself in the press is disgusting! Christians don't behave this way!" "
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/06/19/anti-trump-delegates-raising-money-for-staff-and-a-legal-defense-fund/
Wednesdays
(17,408 posts) 