The Iowa way of assigning delegates for presidential candidates may need to change for the 2016 election cycle, assuming the Republican National Convention approves a rule change sought by Mitt Romney’s campaign.

Supporters of Ron Paul were able to dominate the at-large delegate selection process for the Republican National Convention and other party business at the GOP district and state conventions, even though Paul finished third in the straw polls conducted at Iowa precinct caucuses in January. A similar story unfolded in some other states that do not bind delegates to presidential candidates immediately following caucuses or primaries.

Romney’s campaign wants to make sure that never happens again.

The Republican National Convention Committee voted 56-40 to make it impossible for supporters of one presidential candidate to override the will of voters at a state convention, as Ron Paul supporters did in Iowa and Nevada. […]

The rule forces statewide presidential primaries or caucuses to determine the ultimate allocation of delegates, preventing takeovers like Paul executed in Iowa by eliminating unbound delegates in statewide contests. States would be allowed to decide whether to give all their delegates to the winner of the primary or caucus, or distribute them proportionally according to the results.

“Iowa will have to change the way they do it,” said a GOP official.

Governor Terry Branstad, who remained neutral before the caucuses but later endorsed Romney for president, likes the proposed change.

“Generally speaking, the delegates have been proportioned fairly close to how (presidential candidates) did in the Caucuses,” Branstad told Radio Iowa during a telephone interview early this afternoon.

Branstad supports the move to bind delegates to the results of the Caucus Night voting.

“I just think it does make a lot of sense and I’d be certainly supportive of that,” Branstad said. “I think that way the people who go to the Caucuses can feel their representation is reflected in the (national convention) delegation.”

But Iowa GOP Chair A.J. Spiker, who co-chaired Ron Paul’s campaign in Iowa, told Radio Iowa, “I’m shocked that the Romney campaign would decide to divide Republicans just before the national convention.” Yes, Mr. Spiker, we know that the fate of Ron Paul delegates is of great concern to you.

I have never been a big fan of the caucus system, in part because the delegates allocated to each candidate do not always reflect the preferences of caucus-goers. Any change that would make the delegate selection track more closely to the caucus-night results would be an improvement, in my opinion.

However, this change would not address the Iowa caucus problem of excluding highly engaged voters who are unable to attend in person. The Republican National Convention Committee considered but rejected a rule that would have required caucus states to allow active-duty military and disabled veterans to participate by absentee ballot. I support introducing absentee ballots to the caucus process, but only if they are available to anyone who can’t turn out on caucus night (including shift workers, disabled people, and those who lack transportation to the caucus site).

John Deeth sees binding delegates as a major potential threat to Iowa’s first-in-line status. However, the executive director of the Iowa Democratic Party downplayed that angle when speaking to the Des Moines Register.

Norm Sterzenbach, executive director of the Iowa Democratic Party, says he does not think the Republicans’ proposed rules change is a good idea – but he doesn’t expect it to cause problems with New Hampshire.  He said binding delegates leaves no room for changing circumstances, such as a candidate who wins the caucuses but later is found to be unqualified for the presidency or who dies before the convention.

However, he noted that New Hampshire already tolerates Iowa Democrats’ practice of allocating delegates based on the caucus-night vote. If Iowa is merely complying with an RNC rule, it shouldn’t affect the relationship, he said.

Any relevant thoughts are welcome in this thread.

P.S. – Speaking of the Republican National Convention, Monday’s events in Tampa have been postponed due to threatening weather from Tropical Storm Isaac. However, some Ron Paul supporters believe the postponement is a “hoax” to prevent Paul from becoming the Republican presidential nominee. Talk about a flimsy grip on reality.

UPDATE: During the convention, Spiker touted one new RNC rule as the “biggest protection Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status has ever had.”

Under the new GOP rules, a state that schedules its presidential primary or caucus before the end of February would only be able to send 12 delegates to the 2016 Republican National Convention.

“So (a state) like California that went into February would have 12 delegates instead of over 150, so it’s a big penalty,” Spiker says. “That’s one of the biggest, positive things that come out of the convention that impacts the first-in-the-nation status of the Republican Party of Iowa.”

States that have moved ahead on the presidential election calendar in the past, though, have escaped serious party penalties. By the time a national convention comes around, nervous presidential nominees do not wish to offend voters in states like Florida who are crucial for victory in November. GOP Convention delegates ratified the new get-tough-on-leapfroggers rule on Tuesday. Spiker says a bid to give the party’s next presumed presidential nominee the ability to dictate who could be a delegate at the 2016 convention has been thwarted.

“I believe that speaks volumes of a lot of us put in to make sure that it was the people rather than the politicians picking the delegates,” Spiker says. “It was a tremendous success of a broad coalition: Tea Party people, Evangelicals,  moderates, Ron Paul people – it was just a broad coalition to make sure that the grassroots continued to be the leader of that process.”