Missouri Primary Explained: Why Tuesday's Contest Won't Matter In The Delegate Count

Rick Santorum has campaigned hard in Missouri, calling it a "key state" in the Republican nomination fight. With Newt Gingrich not even on the ballot, Santorum is hoping to use the contest to underscore his argument that he is the candidate best equipped to take Mitt Romney on head-to-head. Indeed, recent polls place him well ahead of Mitt Romney in Tuesday's primary.

Unfortunately for Santorum, none of this matters in the delegate count.

When Missouri Republicans go to the polls on Tuesday, their votes will count only for bragging rights. The primary is non-binding. The state's 52 delegates will instead be apportioned at a caucus on March 17. As Republican National Committee Communications Director Sean Spicer told reporters in a memo on Monday:

Missouri will hold a primary tomorrow that is not recognized as being a part of any delegate allocation or selection process. A precinct caucus will be held on 3/17/2012 to begin the process of choosing their 52 delegates which will be chosen at district conventions on April 21, 2012, and a state convention on June 2, 2012. Candidates for delegate must state a presidential preference at the time of nomination and will be bound to support that candidate for one ballot at the national convention.

The confusing system is a result of a fight between the RNC and the states. When Florida decided last year to move its primary up to Jan. 31, it created a rush of date changes by states that wanted to stay relevant in the nomination process. Missouri was one of them. In May 2011, the Missouri legislature changed state law, mandating that the primary be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of February, which is Feb. 7 this year.

But the RNC wanted to preserve the traditional primary calendar, telling states that they would lose half of their delegates in the final count if they moved their primaries ahead of March 6.

Stuck between state law and the national party, Missouri Republicans attempted to split the difference. Because the primary was legally necessary, they left the February contest in place. But to satisfy the RNC and avoid penalties, they moved the actual delegate selection to a newly created March caucus.

This dual system kept Missouri within the rules, but makes Tuesday's vote confusingly unimportant. Santorum may be able to generate some buzz from a victory, and his focus on the contest has given the state plenty of media attention ahead of the vote. But in practical terms, not even a double-digit win would put him mathematically closer to the nomination.

The primary will also be costly: County clerks told Jefferson City's KOMU-TV that holding the non-binding poll will run taxpayers $8 to $10 million.

Comments

[Johnangry]

06:47 AM on 02/08/2012

I wonder who'll purchase the most delegates.

[Eugene Berkovich]

07:23 PM on 02/07/2012

A costly electoral undertaking that will not be anything more than a waste of taxpayers' money. moving on, folks, nothing else to see here...

[schrodster]

04:02 PM on 02/07/2012

So this nonsense is all about bragging rights. Now just when did it happen that these guys need a reason to brag?

[pbr56]

02:54 PM on 02/07/2012

Why is the state paying for the republican party primary.

[Libby123]

03:26 PM on 02/07/2012

It's a primary for all the parties, but the Republican National Committee decided that they wouldn't abide by the results of the Republican ballots. When I went to vote this morning, I was offered the option of a Democratic, Republican, Libertarian or Constitution Party ballot. The Constitution Party ballot didn't even have any candidates on it!

[Glenda Sitnek]

03:38 PM on 02/07/2012

I'm with you Libby, but I must admit this is the first time I've missed voting since I was old enough to vote. After reading this morning's paper that the votes count for -0-, I just passed on it. Also, I live in Christian County so no local Dems run for office here, rarely do we have an issue on the ballot except for the Nixa schools (which already take the majority of my property taxes) and since I really don't care which Repub clown wins MO I just didn't fight the gloomy weather and drizzle to go to the polls. It is depressing, to say the least.

[Glenda Sitnek]

03:30 PM on 02/07/2012

Because we are a Republican controlled state and they want to decide who they want to give the delegates to down the road? How the heck do we know, we just live here.

[Ozarks]

02:31 PM on 02/07/2012

This primary today appears to be just a Republican attempt to limit voter participation in the Feb Primary. Apparently if you don't show up today and cast an $8 million meaningless vote, you can't participate in the Republican caucus in Feb.

[Libby123]

02:43 PM on 02/07/2012

Welllll... the caucus will be in March. The Republican party would do better to be concerned about turnout then. Good luck getting the Irish Catholic Republican population of St. Louis to show up at a caucus on St. Patrick's Day. They'll have other things on their mind.

[Wrongway62]

02:31 PM on 02/07/2012

What a deal, Ricky could win a bunch of nothing, what a deal.

[HC4BO]

01:51 PM on 02/07/2012

Republicans never have a common sense way of doing ANYTHING, do they ?

[742]

01:18 PM on 02/07/2012

The state is spending $6-$10 million for "nothing"? And Santorum is part of that problem, as are his competitors.

How many homes could be built with that money? How many college grants? Heating oil? Parks for kids? etc, etc., etc.

Disappointing, but that's a state issue. Hope they send more to Washington, D.C. than they get to piss away on this kind of nonsense.

[Libby123]

03:04 PM on 02/07/2012

I think it needs to be made more clear that the Republican Party is at fault here. Our law here in Missouri says that this is the date on which our primary will be held and it's the Republican National Committee that decided that they would dictate to us and may other states what we should do. We didn't just decide to piddle away the money on having a meaningless election. The RNC made it meaningless.
The money being spent on the election wouldn't otherwise go to housing or parks. We would still have an election on that day. As it is, there were only presidential candidates on the ballot today, but there are often other issues, e.g. bond issues or city or county law changes, on the ballot, and if those initiatives are ready to go, then they'll be on the ballot.

[742]

03:55 PM on 02/07/2012

I live in Fla. and are stuck with our Governor, who bought the election with money stolen from Medicare, i.e. US Citizens.

It is really disturbing to see the civil liberties eroded by those who were supposed to be our watch dogs against being taken advantage of.

I think no matter the party, blame is shared equally, and it is my hope that the youngsters will get out, get involved and vote! Or, the only thing that will be handed to the generations of gimme more, will be their asses!

Sorry to hear about the selflishness of the RNC in your state. It is especially sad to know other issues, important to the state's residents were not addressed.

Recycle Congress! This is a time when throwing out the baby with the bath water is probably a good idea based on their "mentality", for the sake of the rest of us.

[Clearing-Brush]

12:33 PM on 02/07/2012

In the end...none of them matter, and they can count all the delegates they want and that won't matter either. 2012 is a re-election year. End of story.

[citizen4good]

11:46 AM on 02/07/2012

For Missouri this is an improvement, at least we don't have a dead man on the ballot (again) like when we elected the late Gov. Mel Carnihan to the US Senate.

[Libby123]

03:06 PM on 02/07/2012

Hey, if offered the option to vote for a dead man over John Ashcroft, the dead guy gets my vote every time! In a drawer somewhere I still have my button that says, "I'm still with Mel!"

[Michael Falk]

09:49 AM on 02/07/2012

If Romney loses by 10 points, you don't think that matters? What planet do you live on? If it happens, I'll bet it's the HEADLINE on tomorrows Huff Post.

[jefferson0467]

03:57 PM on 02/07/2012

The point is Santorum gets ZERO delagates from the primary, so it doesn't matter for delegate count which is how you actually get the nomination.

[Tyrant242]

09:46 AM on 02/07/2012

And here I though they were irrelevant just because they were mizzery.

[Libby123]

03:10 PM on 02/07/2012

It's better thatn living in a perpetual state of ignorance.

[Tyrant242]

05:43 PM on 02/07/2012

Oh you must mean Kansas.

[schrodster]

09:42 AM on 02/07/2012

What a way to run a democracy.

[PrairieGayCompanion]

09:37 AM on 02/07/2012

The primary calendar is ridiculous in both parties. They either need to allow a rotation system or hold them all on the same date.

[ScottV]

10:12 AM on 02/07/2012

Agreed

[Skago]

07:01 PM on 02/07/2012

"hold them all on the same date"

But what would we talk about for the rest of the election year? This drama makes politics interesting even if it is garbage politics most of the year.