Delegates: The Real Decision Makers

Here’s the scoop. I thought the delegate situation would be a nightmare, but a little website called Fund Race saved the day.

Delegates are elected by the people of PA to attend the national party convention. (view complete job description)
+ They may vote for any Republican presidential candidate that appeared on the Pennsylvania ballot.
+ They are not pressured by the party to vote in any particular way.
+ They only place a vote for the presidential nomination. They make no other decision.

On Election Day, we cast two different sets of votes. 1 vote indicates our preference for a presidential candidate. The other set of votes is for 3 delegates and 3 alternates.

Our preference vote is used by the delegates as an indicator regarding whom we’d like to see as our next president. If the name of a person you’d like to put forward is not on the ballot, simply write it in. Although the delegates will not be able to vote for write-ins (as it is extremely unlikely a write-in would receive more votes than candidates on the ballot), it still lets them know what you think.

The more important vote is for the delegates. They are technically uncommitted. This means they can have leaning toward one candidate or another, but up to the last second may vote for whomever they please.

Delegates are to take into consideration the preference vote of the people, but are under no pressure to follow this indicator.

Because of the way this is set up, delegates become a very key vote in the primary election. It is important to find 3 people who will choose the same way as yourself.

These delegates are folks just like us, who’ve been watching this presidential race for some time and are deciding which presidential candidate to elect. I found only a few that have been proactive in informing voters about their leanings and the reasoning behind this decision.

By checking campaign contributions and searching the web, I only found 3 out of the 13 delegates that have no indicator regarding how they will vote at the national convention.

We can only vote for 3, but based on my research I’ve currently narrowed it down to 4.
+ No delegate, that I found, supports John McCain as a first choice. Several supported Giuliani, so likely will switch to McCain. These folks seem to just go with party line. I’d rather have someone vote who is not just a yes person.
+ Ron Paul has not impressed me. At a glance, I found several points of strong disagreement. He also has never been a frontrunner. I’d not recommend voting for his delegates.
+ Regarding the 3 with no preference, I tend to think that Pat Browne will go party line. Gruppo is too much of an unknown as far as her stance. Smith is also an alternate and I’d rather see him as a back up.
+ Paul Tubiana and Glenn Eckhart have been the best communicators. That leaves me in a toss up between Lee Snover and Gerald Pritchard -- not sure which is more likely to win. I’m leaning toward Pritchard.
+ Personally, I’d like to send a message to the Republican Party that I appreciate the strong conservative personal values of Huckabee. While McCain also has a conservative record, Huckabee’s is much strong on the social issues.

I welcome any additional information anyone can offer regarding the delegates. I will try to do a final check closer to Election Day and see if any new details have emerged.