Anti-Trump delegate faction says it's raising cash, faces long odds
By Tal Kopan, Tom LoBianco and Maeve Reston, CNN
Updated 11:59 PM ET, Sun June 19, 2016
(CNN)A faction of Republicans is pinning a last-ditch effort to stop Donald Trump on a long-shot rules change at the national convention.
Sunday night, GOP operatives trying to drum up an anti-Trump coalition held their second conference call in five days. Roughly 1,000 interested people were on the call, according to organizer Steve Lonegan -- up sharply from the roughly three dozen who were on a similar call last week.
The goal is passing a rule at the Republican National Convention in July that would free delegates to vote their "conscience," negating any binding put in place by states' primaries.
The chorus calling for a miracle to save them from Trump's nomination represents a real angst in the Republican Party about the presumptive nominee, who has suffered weeks of bad headlines and poll data since the end of the GOP primary. But while this appears to be the best-organized opposition effort so far to keeping Trump from winning the nomination in Cleveland, doing so is a nearly impossible task.
It is unclear how many of the people on the phone call Sunday night were actual delegates. Lonegan, a former New Jersey gubernatorial and U.S. Senate candidate, said his "conservative" estimate was about 250.
The group has the backing of Courageous Conservatives PAC, a group which Lonegan serves as spokesman for and originally backed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. The PAC will serve as a fundraising vehicle, Lonegan said. As of its last filing, the group had just over $4,000 cash on hand and had raised a total of about $360,000 in the primary.
Next steps for the effort include a round of television and radio appearances, and encouraging supporters to make their own outreach through the press and social media.
The biggest focus will be whipping votes on the convention Rules Committee. If the conscience clause proposed by Rules Committee delegate and group organizer Kendal Unruh, of Colorado, can win the backing of 57
Rules Committee members (half plus one), it could go to the floor for a simple majority vote of delegates to govern the convention.
Part of the hope is that by preparing now, delegates will have options if Trump's numbers continue to tank.
"We're walking into a disaster with this guy," said Pat Brady, the former Illinois GOP chairman and a delegate from Illinois for John Kasich, who has begun reaching out to donors and influencers about stopping a Trump nomination and was on the Sunday night call. "If there's a chance we can clean up the mess, I want to be part of it."
But even gathering dozens of convention-goers won't be near enough to get Trump off the ticket.
"I've also heard about Area 51, I've heard about Elvis sightings, I've heard a lot of things," RNC spokesman Sean Spicer said of the Republicans who insist there is a path for derailing Trump's nomination. "The extent of this effort is a bunch of random people tweeting about it, full stop."
Trump says any insurgents are wasting their time.
"There are a couple of guys who are trying to go to Cleveland -- they're trying to get delegates," Trump said at a rally in Las Vegas Saturday. "I thought they already tried that? I mean, I could give you names, but I won't because it's meaningless. First of all, it's illegal.
Second of all you can't do it. Third of all, we, not me, we got 14 almost 14 million votes, 14 million votes in the primary system. That's more votes than ever received in the primaries in the history of the Republican Party."
more:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/19/politics/rnc-delegate-angst-donald-trump/index.html
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