Gearing up for a possible open Republican National Convention, the campaigns of both Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz are reportedly maneuvering to keep the name of rival Gov. John Kasich off the convention ballot.
MSNBC reports aides to both men are trying to ensure they'll have a major sway over what happens in the convention's rules committee, which controls who gets on the ballot.
If no one clinches the nomination during the primaries, delegates choose from candidates on that ballot.
A senior Cruz campaign tells MSNBC he expects the convention's rules committee
— made up of 112 GOP delegates from around the country — to "require a level of support that would leave only two candidates on the ballot at the convention."
"The Cruz people and Trump people are fighting hard to make sure their hard-core delegates get on the committee," said Barry Bennett, a Trump adviser, adding a voting bloc favoring the two leading candidates will run the committee.
"We'll be successful getting at least a majority — or supermajority," he predicted, counting Trump and Cruz delegates together.
A past rule has required a candidate to get a majority of the delegates in at least eight states to get on the convention ballot, MSNBC notes.
"If the campaigns can convince a majority of delegates on the rules committee and in the convention, then they can pass an eight-state rule," former RNC general counsel Ben Ginsberg told MSNBC.
That would then block the Ohio governor from getting on the ballot.
But a Kasich campaign aide tells MSNBC while the campaign expects to prevail on rule fights and be on the first ballot, if they were shut out, "anyone can get eight delegations to put their name into nomination."
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