January 11, 2016

Donald Trump, Republican establishment headed for convention showdown

Donald Trump is on track to storm into July just shy of the majority of delegates needed to win the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, rolling into the national convention in Cleveland slightly ahead of Sen. Ted Cruz, according to a state-by-state analysis by The Washington Times.

That would set off a feverish scramble with Mr. Trump trying to seduce some 150 or more delegates away from his competitors. The billionaire businessman would have to pull off a series of artful deals — wielding the accouterments of his wealth and promises of plumb jobs to delegates’ relatives — that would be the envy of Warren Buffett and Mark Cuban.

Establishment Republican leaders already are working to deny Mr. Trump the nomination. Their operatives are quietly recruiting prospective delegates to commit to voting for someone other than Mr. Trump or Mr. Cruz if the nomination goes to a second ballot July 18.

But the establishment may have outsmarted itself when it rewrote its rules in 2012, requiring that no candidate can be nominated unless he or she wins a majority of permanently seated delegates from eight states. The old rule was a plurality of five states.

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