"With the increasingly loud talk of a contested Republican convention, the obscure process of picking who actually gets to be a delegate is about to get underway in states across the country — with an urgency that has not been felt in decades.
These are the 2,472 people who will be filling Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena in July, many wearing silly hats and waving placards.
...Nearly all will be required to vote for a specific candidate on the first ballot, based on the results of the primaries and caucuses in their states.
In that scenario, the vast majority of delegates would be free to vote as they please.
The potential for intrigue is enormous.
State delegations who vote for one candidate on the first ballot could actually turn out to be sleeper cells for another as the voting proceeds.
Nor are they bound at any point to support the candidate to whom they are pledged on fights over rules, credentials, the platform or the vice presidential nominee.
Those kinds of battles can determine whether the convention is an orderly coronation or a street fight, possibly even putting new names in contention.
...The identities and loyalties of individual convention delegates could become the subject of intense interest and scrutiny.
The process of selecting them will be crucial and will be the subject of hand-to-hand combat in nearly every state over the next few months.
In the Internet era, there is no such thing as a smoke-filled backroom; once-anonymous delegates could find themselves feeling the heat from all sides..."
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