You call that “winning”?
Although Mitt Romney is crowing about his big win in Michigan this past Tuesday, it appears that he split the Michigan delegates evenly with Rick Santorum.
Comically, though, the Romney camp is saying that’s not true.
Santorum, campaigning in Tennessee, one of 10 states with contests on Super Tuesday next week, said he and Romney have split Michigan’s total of 30 delegates.”We tied the state of Michigan,” John Yob, adviser for the Santorum campaign, said in a press phone call Wednesday. “We view that as a major success.”
But Romney’s camp disputed the issue was closed.
“Under no scenario is it a tie,” said Katie Gage, Romney’s deputy campaign manager.
The Michigan GOP and Romney’s campaign point out the results have not yet been settled. Also there’s disagreement between the camps whether the two statewide delegates are split or whether both go to Romney.
Based on party rules, Romney should win the two at-large delegates because those delegates are first assigned to the popular vote winner, Gage said.
Saul Anuzis, a Romney supporter and Michigan’s Republican National Committeeman, said: “The Santorum people are mistaken. They don’t understand the rules.”Anuzis continued: “Based on the current count, Romney has won the majority of delegates in Michigan.”
The Romney campaign reads the state GOP rules to state that they win the two at-large delegates and finish with 16 delegates, Gage said.
“Those two delegates go our way,” Gage said.But Santorum tried Wednesday to cast doubts on Romney’s victory in Michigan.
“We’re going to walk out of Michigan with 15 delegates, and he’s going to walk out of Michigan with 15 delegates,” Santorum said. “This is a huge win for us. Let’s play it the way it is.”
The Detroit News explains that the confusion is because of the redistricting that the GOP did in Michigan last year.
The confusion comes over new congressional district lines. For the last decade, Michigan had 15 congressional districts. However, Michigan lost a congressional seat because of population declines and new maps were drawn last year to shrink to 14 districts.Since the maps are still fresh, election officials were not ready to report results based on the new 14 congressional districts. Instead, the Secretary of State issued results by county and the old 15 congressional district map.The new maps, particularly in southeastern Michigan, joined new counties together, and, in some cases, split cities and neighboring towns into separate districts.
That meant the Michigan GOP had to individually call local clerks to collect and tabulate precinct results in oddly divided districts. It’s the Republican Party — not the Secretary of State — that will announce delegate totals based on their tabulations for the new maps , according to the party.
I love that it’s the GOP’s own redistricting that’s creating this confusion. Karma is a not a nice lady.
How will this shake out? Who the hell cares? As long as they keep fighting. Daily Kos’ “Operation Hilarity” is, as I’ve contended all along, not needed in the least. The Republicans are doing juu-uust fine all on their own.
[CC photo credit Shown By Photos.]
