TUESDAY | 04.12.2016 | EXPRESS | 9
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Ways to woo a delegate There are few legal limits on how GOP candidates could go after convention votes WASHINGTONPOST.COM THE FIX
GOP on justices: For this year, eight is enough
Republican election law attorney Michael Toner thinks “the vast majority of the deals are going to be political deals. People want attention, a seat at the table.” That was the case in 1976, when Ford invited entire state delegations to the White House, and even hosted a group on the USS Forrestal to watch the July 4 bicentennial celebration, according to Jules Witcover’s 1977 book, “Marathon.” Reagan tried to match him with his Hollywood connections, recruiting John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart and Pat Boone to call wavering delegates. Anti-bribery laws would probably forbid delegates from outright selling their votes, and most experts doubt there will be systematic efforts to try to win over delegates with cash. “It’s a pretty dangerous game to play,” Herman said. “Putting aside FEC exposure or even criminal exposure, I think the political exposure if it were disclosed and the public knew about it — it would just seem so unseemly.” MATEA GOLD
Can the Supreme Court do its job this year with just eight justices? As the court’s vacancy enters its third month, Republicans seem to be saying: Sure. Why not? The “sky won’t fall” with eight on the court. That is the headline in a Des Moines Register op-ed by Sen. Chuck Grassley, above, R-Iowa, published Sunday. He was responding to a Register editorial calling the GOP blockade “un-American” and specifically blaming Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. His main point is that the court has sat with six, seven and as many as 10 justices. “The size of the court as Congress designed it over the years has frequently changed,” he writes, “and hasn’t left the court in disarray.” There’s no law that there be nine justices. It’s the same reason Republicans feel they can block President Obama’s nominee for the rest of 2016: There’s no rule saying they have to approve or even consider Merrick Garland, the nominee. History, of course, can be cherry-picked. The exceptions Grassley cites were products of extenuating circumstances, not design. The U.S. Code suggests there should be nine justices. But this battle is about rallying the base, and there’s no reason conservatives wouldn’t pick this “Why not eight?” case and run with it, even if it means a few split decisions this year.
AND ED O’KEEFE (THE WASHINGTON POST)
AMBER PHILLIPS
TY WRIGHT (GETTY IMAGES)
POLITICS Imagine this: Donald Trump wooing delegates with rides on his gold-plated private jet. A wealthy Ted Cruz supporter wining and dining them at the Cleveland convention. Welcome bags stocked with expensive swag awaiting party activists in their hotel rooms, courtesy of a well-funded super PAC. The already freewheeling Republican presidential contest is fast turning into a personal persuasion game as the candidates pursue a no-holds-barred effort to lock up delegates — and there are few limits on how far they can go. The jockeying has already led to accusations of unfair play. On Sunday, Trump accused Cruz of luring delegates with unspecified “goodies” and “crooked shenanigans,” a charge that the Cruz campaign dismissed as “falsehoods.” Under regulations established in the 1980s, delegates cannot take money from corporations, labor unions, federal contractors or foreign nationals. But an individual donor is permitted to give a delegate unlimited sums to support his or her efforts to get selected to go to the convention, including money to defray the costs of travel and lodging. A candidate’s campaign committee can also pay for delegate expenses. Some legal experts say a campaign could even cover an all-expense-paid weekend prior to the convention to meet with senior staff at, say, a Trump-owned luxury golf resort in Florida. Given that the last contested Republican convention was Gerald Ford vs. Ronald Reagan in 1976, many of Washington’s campaign-finance experts are paging through old Federal Election Commission opinions, trying to discern what delegates can accept. Trump and Cruz, who have
Just how far can candidates go to lure delegates? Would a ride in Donald Trump’s jet fly? Observers say it’s unclear.
shown their relentlessness this campaign, are expected to look for every legal edge possible if neither is able to secure 1,237 delegates before the July convention. Also in the mix is Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who forged an alliance with Trump Saturday in a delegate fight in Michigan. The FEC delegate rules were established long before super PACs came on the scene and offer little guidance about how such groups can lobby delegates. One possibility floated by strategists in recent days: a super PAC-financed war room that collects reams of personal data to target the nearly 200 activists and elected officials who are not bound to a specific candidate. The lack of clear guardrails has left party activists unsettled. “It’s almost like we need a campaign-finance system for delegates,” said Gregory Carlson, 27, who ran unsuccessfully to be a delegate in Colorado. Since most delegates are expected to cover their own travel and stay in Cleveland, they could
“When it comes to getting delegates, it is the wild, wild West. Anything goes.” CRAIG SHIRLEY, who detailed the last contested convention — in 1976 — in his book “Reagan’s Revolution”
be offered thousands of dollars in assistance. Just how far those payments can go has not been tested. “If they decide to go to Cleveland via Cabo, that might be a problem,” said Anthony Herman, a former FEC general counsel. But it’s unclear that such a perk would be made public if it was provided by a single donor. Under FEC rules, a contribution from an individual to a delegate does not have to be disclosed, as long as it was not made in coordination with a campaign or as an independent effort to boost a candidate. That means gifts could flow to delegates unseen.
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