The four GOP presidential campaigns are quietly preparing for a battle over an obscure rule-making committee that could control the balance of power in a contested Republican National Convention in July. The convention’s 112-member Rules Committee wields enormous power to influence the outcome of the party’s nomination fight, including the authority to undo policies requiring most of the 2,472 convention delegates to abide by the will of the voters — freeing them to vote according to personal preference — or to erect all kinds of obstacles to Donald Trump’s nomination. “By majority rule, they can do anything that they want,” said Barry Bennett, an adviser to Donald Trump who’s coordinating the mogul’s convention strategy. “They can throw out the chairman. You can throw out the RNC members. You can do anything.”
For now, the campaigns are fairly limited in the steps each can take to stack the Rules Committee to its advantage. There are no officials to lobby or members to cajole. The committee doesn’t actually exist yet — and it won’t for months, at least until state-level primaries end in June.
But the campaigns are still working feverishly on a state-by-state basis to line up steadfast allies for delegate slots, and thus possible appointments to the rules panel. Whichever campaign is most successful at getting its loyalists appointed could broker a set of rules that deny Trump a path to the nomination — or ensure that he has one.
But those familiar with the process already see trouble ahead. “It’ll be a bloodbath,” said Tom Lundstrum, an Arkansas Republican who served on the convention Rules Committee in 2012 when rules changes surrounding Ron Paul supporters created a dust-up.
Full Article: How an obscure committee could decide the GOP nomination – POLITICO.