#rsrh So, a colleague was asking about brokered conventions.

As in, how a hypothetical one would work.  My reply?

Although it’s more accurate to say:

…or so Wikipedia informs me.  For the record, I don’t actually expect a brokered convention; but if we do have one then people are going to be making it all up as we go along, because it’s been almost sixty-five years since the last one on the GOP side and I’m not confident that anybody did the necessary documentation during the last go-round.  Also for the record: I take the position that the GOP would easily survive the horrors of a brokered convention – and before anybody says ‘money’ let me say ‘post-Citizens United environment.’  Not that Super PAC money will be a magic bullet for building campaign/GOTV  networks, so anybody who really, really WANTS a brokered convention had better make sure that his or her state party organization is ready to take up the slack.

And… I had a final comment here, but I’m deleting it.

Moe Lane

6 thoughts on “#rsrh So, a colleague was asking about brokered conventions.”

  1. So what was that thing called in 1976? With Reagan and Ford? Was that a contested convention as opposed to a brokered one?

    I dunno, I just heard the term “contested convention” mentioned somewhere. I always thought 1976 was a brokered convention.

  2. BTW, if anyone’s interested in reading about it this is a good book about it – Reagan’s Revolution: The Untold Story of the Campaign That Started It All by Craig Shirley. I think I’ll re-read it myself.

    The same guy wrote about Reagan’s 1980 campaign in RENDEZVOUS WITH DESTINY: Ronald Reagan and the Campaign That Changed America. That one was unputdownable.

  4. Okay, it’s coming back to me now. Sheesh. 1976 was about a close race with uncommitted delegates who didn’t commit until convention. Well, dang. I’ve been envisioning something like that for this convention. Now I know I don’t know anything. Guess I’ll get my own 8-Ball.

  5. I agree with the person that said we should call it a contested convention, not a brokered convention; the latter implies the existence of brokers, who don’t have anything to do with the choice of the nominee (it’s the delegates that vote on that).

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