HOW VIRGIN ISLANDS COULD DECIDE GOP RACE
‘Unbound’ delegates could have outsize role in picking nominee
The path to the Republican nomination this year could run through the Virgin Islands.
The tiny U.S. territory is one of a handful of places where Republicans can select “unbound” delegates who have the ability to cast a vote on the first ballot at the national convention for any candidate they choose.
These hundred or so delegates nationwide — the Virgin Islands has nine — could emerge as critical power brokers at the party’s convention in Cleveland if GOP front-runner Donald Trump fails to amass the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination.
This is not just hypothetical: “That is how the 1976 Republican convention was decided as President Ford had less than a majority of delegates pledged to him but won the lion’s share of uncommitted delegates in states such as Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York,” said Frank Donatelli, a former Republican National Committee official. These uncommitted delegates are “where the leading candidate will look to get delegates to go over the top.”
The total number of unbound GOP delegates is a bit unclear, because each state sets its own delegate rules. A furious shadow campaign is underway in several pockets of the country to influence who nabs these spots.
This weekend, North Dakota Republicans will meet in a convention to select 25 convention delegates who, in addition to the three state officials with reserved delegate spots, can all be unbound in Cleveland. State GOP Executive Director Roz Leighton said presidential campaigns have been recruiting people in the state to run for delegate spots, so they can count on having supporters in the delegation at the convention.
Pennsylvania will have 17 bound delegates selected in the state’s Republican primary April 26, but 54 Keystone State delegates will be unbound.
Colorado will select delegates the first week of April who can choose whether to declare a preference. Any delegate doing so before being selected will be bound to that choice for the first ballot at the convention. Colorado GOP spokesman Kyle Kohli said it is likely the state’s 37-member delegation “will be mixed, but it’s possible it could be almost completely bound or completely unbound.” Guam has nine unbound delegates.
Nowhere is the fight for these coveted delegates more intense than the Virgin Islands.
A Michigan political consultant, John Yob, moved to the islands last year and campaigned heavily to become an uncommitted delegate. His work paid off: He emerged as the top vote-getter among the 300 or so Republicans who participated in the islands’ caucuses March 10. Despite a big contingent of other delegate candidates who were committed to presidential contenders, Yob and the five other unbound delegates prevailed, including his wife, Erica.
Yob, who worked on Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s unsuccessful presidential campaign and the White House bids of John McCain and Rick Santorum, has a bit of an inside track on the delegate-selection process. He wrote a book on it, Chaos: The Outsider’s Guide to a Contested Republican National Convention, published in February. In it, he singled out the unique role U.S. territories could play as “free agents” in a brokered convention. Yob told USA TODAY he has been visiting the Virgin Is- lands since 2009 and had no ulterior motives in relocating to the territory last year. “I started making offers on houses in 2011,” he said. “I was not thinking about the 2016 national convention in 2011.”
His father, veteran Michigan political strategist Chuck Yob, supports Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s presidential bid, but the younger Yob insists he has no preference. He called Texas Sen. Ted Cruz a “solid candidate” and praised Trump’s ability to bring “new people” to the party.
Yob’s eligibility and residency are being challenged in court. The chairman of the local party, John Canegata, moved to disqualify Yob and the other unbound delegates, citing a party rule that requires delegates to accept their positions in writing.
The battle has underscored how much clout a territory with roughly 105,000 residents and a few thousand registered Republicans could have in the wildly unpredictable GOP contest.
Holland Redfield, the GOP’s national committeeman from the territory, automatically gets a slot as an unbound delegate to the convention. Redfield, a radio host, said Virgin Islands Republicans revel in the attention from their party’s candidates and use it to push local issues, such as boosting federal spending on Medicaid in the islands. “We are using the maximum leverage to make sure the candidate we elect understands the uniqueness of the U.S. territories,” he said. “If I’m uncommitted and I’m dating three girls at the same time, I want to get the best deals for me and the best marriage.”