Is there any honor in winning the D.C. GOP primary?

The District of Columbia held its primary today. It wasn’t held in a phone booth, exactly, but it did take place at a single location — the Loews Madison Hotel. Formerly known as the Madison, this luxury hotel made its name as a favorite hangout of lobbyists. Make of that what you will.

Marco Rubio won the primary, narrowly edging out John Kasich. The tally was 1,059 to 1,009. Donald Trump and Ted Cruz were way behind at 391 and 351, respectively. 14 stalwart Cartelists voted for Jeb Bush. I think I might be able to name most of them.

The results mean that Rubio and Kasich will split D.C’s 19 delegates. Rubio gets 10; Kasich 9.

One imagines that Cruz would have been embarrassed had he won the D.C. primary. After all, this was literally an inside-the-beltway affair. Had the “Washington Cartel” embraced Cruz, he would have had some explaining to do.

D.C. Republican officials boasted of “long lines” of voters waiting hours for the opportunity to participate. But when you hold the voting at a single location, even the D.C. Republican party will tend to get long lines.

Actually, many fewer people voted in this D.C. primary than voted in the last one when multiple polling locations were used, which is also quite natural. Making it inconvenient to vote will invariably suppress turnout.

It seems ridiculous to award 19 delegates (as many as Hawaii has and more than Vermont and Delaware) based on the preferences of only around 3,000 voters. Nonetheless, Rubio and Kasich will be happy to have picked up the delegates and Cruz will probably be happy enough not to have them, given that they didn’t go to Trump.

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