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Wednesday, February 13, 2008
The McCain plan in Texas
They’re a confident bunch, these McCainiacs.
Way ahead in the delegate count and seemingly headed toward the GOP presidential nomination, John McCain’s strategists believe he will pass the magic number - 1,191 delegates - on March 4 when Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont have contests.
Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager, says all his candidate has to do to reach that goal is win 70 of Texas’ 140 delegates. Shouldn’t be a high hurdle, Davis told reporters at a Washington lunch.
At work will be what he called a “slice and dice” strategy targeting congressional districts where they expect McCain to be strong. Ninety-six of the delegates are doled out by congressional district under a system that gives all the districts’ delegates to a candidate who gets more than 50 percent of the votes. If nobody gets 50 percent, the delegates are awarded proportionately to each candidate that gets at least 20 percent.
The rest of the delegates are awarded based on the statewide vote, with the same rules about the 50 percent mark for giving them all to the winner and the 20 percent hurdle for proportionate distribution.
Davis said Mike Huckabee might concentrate on districts with large numbers of evangelicals, a demographic that has been strong for the former Arkansas governor in previous contests.
“Knock yourself out,” was Davis’ friendly advice to Huckabee. “Great. The water’s warm. Hopefully the weather is good. Everywhere we go, for some reason, on election day there is snow and ice. So if you like snow and ice in Texas, it’s coming your way.”
Clinton Campaign Says Super Delegates Will Decide
After an 8-state losing streak, Hillary Clinton’s campaign predicted Wednesday that, at best, they would pull “within 25” delegates of Barack Obama by the end of the March 4th contests in Texas and Ohio.
Campaign officials played down the value of Obama’s string of victories. “Winning Democratic primaries is not a sign of who can win the general election,” Clinton strategist Mark Penn told reporters via telephone conference.
Spokesman Howard Wolfson said they plan to put together the 2025 delegates needed to win the nomination by recruiting enough of the non-elected super delegates. “Neither campaign is in a position to win without super delegates,” he said.
Update: Congress v. Berkeley
On Tuesday we interviewed Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, about an effort in Congress to take federal funds from the City of Berkeley, Calif. after the city was poised to tell Marine Corps recruiters that they were unwelcome recruiters.
The Berkeley City Council backed down from its position some on Tuesday night, approving a statement that recognizes “the recruiters’ right to locate in our city and the right of others to protest or support their presence.” The council refused to apologize for its earlier stance.
The San Jose Mercury News has the story.
Now we’ll have to see whether Cornyn and other senators think the council has backed down enough.
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