Digging for delegates

The campaigns of Mike Huckabee and John McCain are scrambling to put together delegate slates for Ohio's March presidential primary.

John Becker, the Republican state central committeeman whose district includes Clermont County, reports in the latest issue of his newsletter, The Becker Report, that he's gotten written requests from the Huckabee and McCain campaigns for help in finding supporters who are willing to put their names on delegate slates.


Lori Viars, the anti-abortion activist from Warren County, sent Becker a note saying that the Huckbaee campaign has "a few vacancies in a few congressional districts, and a small number of at-large laternate slots that are still open."


GOP presidential contender Fred Thompson released his Ohio delegate slate last week, a list that includes a few Hamilton County GOP notables such as Blue Ash council member Rick Bryan, Sharonville mayor Virgil Lovitt and Anderson Township trustee Russ Jackson.


Given the early organization Mitt Romney has put together in Ohio - not to mention the money he has raised here - putting together a delegate slate is not likely to be a problem.


GOP delegates from Ohio will be allotted based on the March primary results in each of Ohio's congressional districts. Each of the 18 congressional districts is alloted three delegates. the winning candidate in each district gets that district's delgates. The overall statewide winner gets an extra 31 at-large delegates.


Democrats in Ohio, of course, have an entirely different system. They hold caucuses in each of the state's 18 congressional districts on the evening of Jan. 3. Democrats who show up will split up into smaller caucuses - one for each presidential contender - and those caucuses will decide on each candidate's delegate slate.