UPDATE: It appears no deal was cut, in the meeting in question. Original item below
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Ted Cruz’s campaign, through surrogates in Cleveland, is by all appearances cutting a deal in the rules committee that will damage the already very weak chances at nominating someone besides Donald Trump. In exchange, the Cruz camp will get rules for 2020 that will help a more conservative candidate who has a strong ground game.
A small negotiating group, including Cruz proxy Ken Cuccinelli, has spent the lunch hour hashing out a deal over the rules. Many conservatives want a rule declaring all delegates are free to vote their conscience — delegate Kendal
Unruh holds this view. For conservatives, there are a couple of objections to this approach: first, it could appear to be a coup to take the nomination away from the guy who won the primaries; second, (and related to the first point) Trump may win anyway in a conscience vote.
So Cruz people may cut a deal, according to reporting and sources in Cleveland. One rule Cruz people (Cuccinelli) may request: changing delegate allocation for the 2020 primaries so that in proportional states, more Republican districts get more delegates. Democrats do it this way, and Republicans doing it that way would help Cruz or any other conservative candidate who has a strong ground game.
Many conservatives are objecting that Cruz is selling out the Never Trump effort for his own gain in 2020 — that Cruz is consigning the party to defeat in 2016 because he thinks he can win in 2020.
Erick Erickson writes: “I realize Ken Cuccinelli thinks he does not have 28 votes on the Rules Committee to unbind the delegates, but having him lead up negotiations to scuttle the unbinding is only going to hurt Ted Cruz.”
The counterargument is that Never Trump had already lost — Erickson was referring to the fact that it would take 28 votes in the Rules Committee to pass “minority report” allowing a vote on the floor to unbind delegates. This way, Cruz/Cuccinelli can argue, conservatives are getting something.
If Cruz and Cuccinelli are defending pragmatic dealmaking in the face of conservatives demanding of standing firm and FIGHTING ON PRINCIPLE even in a losing battle, well Mitch McConnell might get a chuckle out of that.
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UPDATE: Tim Alberta of National Review reports that Cuccinelli’s request was for closed primaries to start the process in 2020.
Timothy P. Carney, The Washington Examiner’s senior political columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears Tuesday and Thursday nights on washingtonexaminer.com.