Reply #30: An Update about West Virginia [View All]

[Tom Rinaldo]

I have this OP posted as a Diary on Mydd and a poster there provided me with more information on the West Virginia Republican contest:

"I have a small correction that changes your data a bit: West Virginia did not hold a Republican caucus, it held a Republican "convention." Thus, it was even less Democratic than a caucus, attended by perhaps 1000 state Republicans.

There were two ballots. On the first ballot, Paul got a little over 10% of the vote. Romney lead with 42%, but the convention rules required an outright majority to get the delegates at stake. Paul and then McCain supporters (also about 10%) threw their votes to Huckabee (who had about 35%), and put him over the top. McCain supporters did it to screw over Romney, Paul supporters did so in engage for three of the eighteen delegates at state."

It seems like the entire concept of any popular vote there is a stretch. But if we factor in Ron Paul's "actual" support in West Virginia at 10%, continue to call West Virginia a caucus state and then redo the averages, that would push Paul's totals up to 16.33% in caucus states compared to my earlier lower figure of 14.67%.

That would mean that Ron Paul did almost exactly 4 times better in Super Tuesday caucus states than he did in Super Tuesday primary states.