So I got a robocall this morning letting me know that John Kasich is having a town hall soon in my neck of the woods – and I mean, it’s almost within walking distance (certainly by my grandparents’ standard).  Now, I’m not going for three reasons: first, it conflicts with my kids’ school pickup.  Second, I would be very, very mean.  But third is… well, because of this.

“This” is the Maryland sample ballot that came in the mail yesterday; specifically, it’s the delegate list for my Maryland Congressional District (CD).  We’ve discussed this state’s delegate allocation system before, but let’s review. In Maryland, a portion of the delegates are elected by CD and bound to the winner of that CD for two ballots in the convention. Normally? …That does not matter, obviously. But these aren’t normal times. Right now, a contested convention looks highly likely – and if there isn’t a winner on the first ballot, then it’s even more highly likely that there won’t be one on the second ballot, either. In that case, it suddenly becomes fairly important whether the candidates have loaded up their delegate slates with people who would be inclined to vote for them anyway.

In other words, this is an organizational issue. And how did the candidates do? …Well, John Kasich barely bothered. He has one delegate candidate, no alternates. This suggests to me that Kasich hadn’t even thought this far ahead. Donald Trump did much better: three delegate candidates, one alternate. A good, solid C+ average, in fact: but not much margin for error, though. Almost razor-thin, in fact.  And, of course, Ted Cruz crossed the Ts, dotted the Is, and made sure that he had a full slate of delegates and alternates ready for this district.

All in all, there’s one guy taking this race and its byzantine rule set seriously, and it’s Ted Cruz. In my district, at least, Trump did participation-trophy levels of work, and Kasich barely did any at all. – so why should I go to a Kasich town hall?  Even if he wins my CD, his delegates are going to end up voting for somebody else anyway. I might as well save myself a step, and just vote for Cruz’s slate.

In fact, let me give everybody that advice: just vote for Ted Cruz, OK?