Donald Trump inexplicably waited until YESTERDAY to name a State Political Director in California.

The California primary on June 7 could determine whether Trump reaches the magic 1237 majority delegate number prior to the July convention. By all reports, Cruz is far ahead in the ground game in California, which awards delegates not only on the statewide vote but also by congressional district.

Even if Trump wins the state, he may underperform in enough congressional districts due to Cruz’s superior campaign preparation that Trump is stopped short. Or he may fail to file delegate slates in all districts.

Erick Erickson reports:

Ted Cruz has been laying ground word [stet] in California for a year. Donald Trump? His campaign is just starting and they have a deadline on May 7th. Literally Donald Trump just hired his California political director yesterday. That deadline? The candidates in California get to submit delegates from each congressional district. If a candidate wins a congressional district, his delegates get to vote. It took Cruz more than 5 months to find delegates in all of California’s congressional districts. Cruz found 169 delegates and 169 alternates, which is a complete slate of delegates and alternates. Trump is just starting and the deadline to turn in his list is May 7th. If Trump can’t field a complete slate, even if he wins a congressional district he won’t have delegates to vote for him.

Clearly Cruz is stealing California by having Trump wait this long to hire state Pol Director #WaitForIt https://t.co/Z4I5sIvRnJ — Legal Insurrection (@LegInsurrection) April 13, 2016

The Yahoo News article linked by Erickson explains how organization is critical in California:

…. in California — the last and largest primary on the calendar — Cruz’s strategic superiority won’t just help the Texan pick up a few extra delegates. It could actually prove to be the difference between Trump clinching the nomination outright or falling short at the 11th hour, which would trigger a contested convention…. This isn’t just idle chatter. To secure the nomination on June 7, Trump will have to win roughly 70 percent of California’s delegates. But the state’s primary is a little quirky — and all those quirks favor the senator from Texas. To find out more, Unconventional sat down after the Irvine rally with Mike Schroeder, the former state GOP chairman who’s now serving as Cruz’s political director in California. “This is the last stand,” Schroeder said. “This is the battleground. And I think we’re going to win California — but even if we don’t, Trump is not going to get to 70 percent of the vote.” Why is Schroeder so confident? First of all, only Republicans can cast ballots on June 7. No independents or Democrats. That’s good for Cruz (who does best with conservatives) and bad for Trump (who does best with moderates). Secondly, California is winner-take-all by congressional district (plus three unpledged delegates and an additional 10 that will be awarded to the statewide champ). Not only is this a boon for the most organized candidate; it also blunts the impact of expensive ad buys (contrary to the conventional wisdom about California campaigns). “It requires a great deal more organization to conduct 53 elections than it does to conduct one statewide and just buy a lot of TV,” Schroeder said. “This is very blue state. So we’ll have some districts with only 5,000 Republican voters. I call them ‘empty districts’: maybe 2,000 voters will decide the result. That’s not even a good-size city council race. And yet you still get the same number of delegates — three — that you would in a district with 240,000 Republicans.” The Cruz campaign has been organizing in California for a year. They have thousands of volunteers statewide. And an estimated 65 percent of primary participants are expected to vote early by mail — a process that begins in three weeks. “We’re going to talk to all of these people personally,” Schroeder said. “We can pour calls into those empty districts.” Also helping Cruz is the fact that the campaigns have to pick their own delegates — 169 of them, plus 169 alternates. The process of identifying six committed Cruz supporters in every single congressional district — including districts where Republicans haven’t really campaigned in decades — wasn’t easy. It took Schroeder five months. But now he’s finished — and the Trump campaign, which just hired a state political director today, is only getting started.

You know what Trumpmedia will call Trump’s failure to compete well in all congressional districts in California or to field a full delegate slate, if it happens?

FRAUD

And you know how the headlines will start?

BREAKING – BOOM EXCLUSIVE WOW BOMBSHELL OUTRAGEOUS CHEATING STEALING

Sorry, I forgot the

!!!

If you are part of Trumpmedia and you think this post is about you, you probably are right.

Who is Trumpmedia?

That’s a secret. If I told you, I’d have to send Roger Stone to your hotel room, hint hint.

I regret having to put “(#Sarcasm)” in the title, but internet.

[Featured Image: David Lee Roth, California Girls]



