BANGOR, Maine — Since an insurgent presidential candidate stormed its state convention four years ago, a chief goal of the Maine Republican Party has been to unify for the 2016 presidential election.
On Friday and Saturday, the party will test itself at this year’s state convention at Bangor’s Cross Insurance Center, selecting delegates to the July national convention in Cleveland with a program bookended by A-list speakers.
But the nominating race hasn’t been unifying. Billionaire front-runner Donald Trump isn’t on track to get enough delegates to win the nomination outright, leaving Texas Sen. Ted Cruz — who won most of Maine’s 23 delegates in March — and Ohio Gov. John Kasich with openings to win over delegates at the convention.
Nobody expects Maine’s convention to be like 2012, when backers of insurgent candidate Ron Paul took over the state convention only to have delegates later split between him and Mitt Romney, who won the Maine’s popular vote and the nomination.
Assistant Maine Senate Majority Leader Andre Cushing, R-Newport, who is running to be a delegate, predicted the state convention would be “spirited” but with “limited bloodshed.”
There will be battles over delegates, but it’ll be nuanced with an eye toward a potentially contested convention. But many are undecided, and it’s uncertain if the party can coalesce behind a nominee.
There shouldn’t be a state convention floor fight like in 2012, but the contested convention means candidates will fight hard for delegates who’ll stay loyal to them.
Roughly 200 people are running to be national convention delegates from Maine but once elected, their hands are tied — to an extent.
The Paul debacle four years ago led to a state party rule change creating the March nominating caucuses that locked Maine’s delegate total to the results of the statewide vote, awarding 12 to Cruz, nine to Trump and two to Kasich.
But that’s only binding on the first vote at the convention. If no nominee wins enough delegates to secure the nomination then, delegates can vote for whoever they want on subsequent ballots. The last time a Republican convention went to a second ballot was in 1948.
Candidates are placing a premium on delegates who will remain loyal to them while at the same time aiming to pick off others.
Gov. Paul LePage, a Trump supporter, and his wife, Ann, are running to be delegates, and the governor’s team has discussed a “unity slate” with Cruz supporters to be apportioned according to the March caucuses.
Earl Bierman, the chief of staff to Maine House Republicans and a leader of Cruz’s grassroots campaign in Maine, said he expects “no attempt at taking over the convention.” But he said LePage plays “brass-knuckle politics,” so many are waiting to see how it plays out Saturday.
However, Cruz supporters have a slate of their own. On Wednesday, a pro-Cruz group sent supporters a list of more than 40 candidates who it said would vote for Cruz if unbound and support his interests on rules or other matters, including Bierman, Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason, R-Lisbon Falls, and Sen. Eric Brakey, R-Auburn.
There are stark divisions, and key Maine figures remain undecided in the presidential race, but the party thinks it will unite around its nominee.
Many of the delegate candidates name their presidential preferences in statements on the party’s website. But two of Maine’s biggest-name Republicans — U.S. Sen. Susan Collins and U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin of the 2nd District — aren’t backing any hopeful, even though they’ll speak at the convention on Saturday.
Two candidates who dropped out of the 2016 race to back other hopefuls — Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina — will speak for Trump on Friday and Cruz on Saturday, respectively. Former New Hampshire Sen. John E. Sununu will speak for Kasich on Saturday, when LePage will end the convention with a speech.
Some attendees will be like Cushing, who hasn’t endorsed and said he’ll vote with the majority of Maine’s delegation if elected a delegate. He said there are “two fairly strong players here” — meaning Cruz and Trump — but many Republicans are “unhappy with either candidate.”
He called 2016 “an opportunity to put a Republican back in the White House,” but that those two hopefuls have been focused on “pounding the crap out of each other” and that he’d be disappointed if Maine’s convention was “injected into a national fight” between them.
“I think a convention always is enjoyable if you’ve got a little competition, provided it doesn’t get ugly,” he said.
But Maine Republican Party Chairman Rick Bennett said Republicans will be motivated by deep concern over Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton and that the lineup of speakers and high interest reflects enthusiasm in the party.
“We’re in a definitional phase and it’ll play out in due course, and that’s why we have caucuses, primaries and conventions,” he said. “I think people will come together and we’ll have a good year.”