Pima County Republicans will mostly be watching the Republican National Convention from home rather than being part of the gathering in Cleveland.
Only three of 58 people picked for the state’s convention-bound delegation are from Pima County. A fourth GOPer, national committeeman Bruce Ash, was already going as his term was to expire after the convention. Ash, who controls the Standing Rules Committee, ran unopposed and was re-elected to the post over the weekend at the state GOP convention.
Republicans from across the state mostly backed convention delegates who live in Maricopa County, an analysis by the Arizona Daily Star found.
Two Pima County delegates were elected under the direction of Congressional District 2 party officials: former state legislator Frank Antenori and former congressional candidate Gabby Saucedo-Mercer. They also elected state Sen. Gail Griffin, who is from Cochise County.
And of CD2’s three delegates chosen on Saturday, the only at-large delegate to be elected from Pima County was Tyler Mott. He was listed on slates for both Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz and John Kasich.
Political horse-trading in the days and hours before the state convention might have led to some oversight, especially when it comes to proportional representation, said Pima County Republican Party Chair Bill Beard.
“Statistically, all of non-Maricopa is under-represented,” Beard said. “The great state of Maricopa won again.”
Local Republican James Kelley rejected being part of anyone’s slate and said that hurt his chances to go to Cleveland.
“Well, the party is very Maricopa-centric by nature and demographics. Gabby and Frank have run congressional campaigns, and Frank was a legislator, so the heavy name recognition helped them both. ... Whoever gamed the slates were pretty smart,” he said. “It’s going to be an interesting convention. Frank and Gabby have their work cut out for them.”
There has been some confusion about the names on the slate, with Trump campaign chair Jeff DeWit suggesting there were problems with the electronic voting, confounding voting for delegates at the state convention.
Cruz supporters as well as the head of the Arizona Republican Party have dismissed DeWit’s complaints as nothing more than sour grapes.
However, confusion among statewide delegates was common, and paper copies issued to delegates contained inaccurate or conflicting information.
For example, one of the early fliers given to delegates contained a slate for Trump listing Saucedo-Mercer in as a candidate in both congressional districts 2 and 3.
And a video has emerged of DeWit berating staffers for not consulting him on specific individuals on the billionaire candidate’s slate.
