Context: as has been
expertly documented by The Last Refuge, the Republican establishment long ago designed and began implementing a convoluted strategy to nominate
Jeb Bush and defeat
Ted Cruz.
The GOP establishment (which the
Refuge dubs "GOPe") devised a wide-ranging set of tactics to achieve that goal:
- Hidden within the massive CRomnibus bill to fund the government were obscure federal election law changes that allowed unlimited SuperPAC (large political action committees unaffiliated with specific candidates) contributions.
- They funded SuperPACs in order to incentivize the desired candidate behavior
- They changed the nomination rules of the 2016 primary (e.g., "winner take all delegates") to allow an unpopular candidate like Jeb to secure the nomination with only 20% (one-fifth!) of the delegates
- They altered the calendar dates of primaries to advantage a weak, establishment candidate (Bush) that had little, if any, grassroots support
All of these tactics were designed to support what the
Refuge calls the "
Splitter Strategy": a plan to dilute the GOP field with as many candidates as possible in order to erode the support of a popular, grassroots candidate.
For instance, Cruz vs. Bush was projected to be an utter rout in Florida, with internal polling showing that Cruz would crush Bush. But what would happen if the GOPe added Carly Fiorina, John Kasich, Chris Christie, Rand Paul, Scott Walker, and Marco Rubio to the mix?