Ohio delegates pledge to stick with John Kasich

A party at the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame. Boating on Lake Erie. Cleveland bars open until 4 a.m. Auditor Dave Yost singing with the Marshall Tucker Band. And, oh, yeah, picking a presidential nominee in possibly the first brokered convention in decades.

In a preview meeting Friday, Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges promised Ohio delegates plenty of fun but he also advised them to be ready for a convention that doesn’t follow the usual pep rally script.

“We are talking about situations where we have multiple rounds of voting,” he said.

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The 66 Ohio delegates and their alternates took care of housekeeping matters, named members to RNC committees on rules, party platform and other issues, discussed heightened convention security and showed a united front for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, promising to stick by Kasich through it all.

Former Ohio House Speaker Jo Ann Davidson will represent the state party on the RNC rules committee along with Kasich’s long-time friend and ally Don Thibaut, who is a lobbyist. It’s considered a crucial assignment.

Davidson indicated that Kasich could sidestep a rule already in place that requires candidates must have won at least eight states to be eligible to be nominated from the convention floor.

“You don’t have to be nominated on the floor for the votes that you get to count,” said Davidson, a veteran of RNC conventions. “So if somebody who has not been nominated gets 1,237 votes, they’re going to be the nominee.”

Davidson said nobody knows what will happen if the voting goes into multiple ballots.

“There will be a lot of people that will be working the delegates and trying to get them to change — there are right now. People are calling. People are writing. People are knocking on people’s doors. It’s not happening in Ohio,” she said.

Ohio requires delegates be named by the candidates in advance of the primary but other states name convention delegates at state party conventions. Rules vary state by state and delegates may be bound to a candidate for the first ballot but become free agents in subsequent rounds.

“It’s impossible to follow it all. I’m usually pretty good at organizational things — there is just no way to follow all of this,” she said. “There isn’t. There is just too much happening.”

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