Donald Trump is widely expected to emerge the winner of today’s Republican primary in New York. The bigger question is whether the GOP frontrunner will build on that success in future contests, which will involve getting his chaotic campaign operation in order.
Trump’s erratic campaign is in the midst of another shakeup, the Washington Post reports. His national field director has quit, but a series of new hires suggests Trump is finally trying to build a serious organization that has the experience to help him win.
Loyal lackey Corey Lewandoski has seen his role diminished in favor of veteran GOP operatives such as William McGinley, Paul Manafort and Rick Wiley, who managed Wisconsin governor Scott Walker’s failed campaign.
A win in New York will breathe new life into a campaign that was blown out in Wisconsin earlier this month. The good news for Trump is that polls show him with sizable leads in Pennsylvania and California; wins in those states’ forthcoming primaries could net him hundreds of delegates.
The bad news is that Ted Cruz continues to outmaneuver Trump on the ground in the hunt for delegates. Trump’s poorly organized campaign apparatus has been struggling to navigate the state-level processes by which many delegates are formally selected, while Cruz has been ruthlessly efficient.
In Pennsylvania, for example, Cruz’s sustained effort in the state could net him a significant share of delegates even if he places third in the primary.
In California, Trump only recently hired a field director; Cruz has been organizing in the state for months. Trump’s failure to mount a serious campaign to recruit delegates at the district level could mean that many of the delegates he might otherwise have ‘won’ will end up voting for Cruz at the convention. Trump might not think this is fair, but those are the rules.
Despite his somewhat incomprehensible lack of foresight, Trump remains well positioned in the race, approaching 50 percent nationally in a recent Fox News poll. Republicans hoping to stop Trump, or at least dull his momentum heading into what is likely to be a contested GOP convention in Cleveland, may need a more dramatic development to change the dynamic of the election. Former nominee Mitt Romney predicted on Monday that if both Cruz and John Kasich remain in the race, Trump is going to win.