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ByJulieBykowicz TheAssociatedPress WASHINGTON Afterburn- ing through millions of dol- lars in a mostly failed at- tempt to sway Republican primary voters, big-money outside groups opposing Donald Trump have turned to a far smaller target au- dience: the delegates who will actually choose the presidential nominee. Our Principles, which is devoted to keeping Trump from winning, and super PACs backing Ted Cruz and John Kasich are spend- ing their time and money researching the complex process of delegate selec- tion and reaching out to those party insiders. Com- pared to earlier primary states like Florida, there have been few ads by out- side groups on the air in New York, which holds its election Tuesday. Delegates are the people — typically longtime Re- publicans and state party activists — who will have their say at the GOP con- vention this summer in Cleveland if Trump does not lock up the nomination first in the remaining vot- ing contests. The hot pursuit of such low-profile people by out- side groups is yet another unprecedented twist in a history-defying presiden- tial primary season. The delegate focus comes after the groups' earlier efforts turned out to be money not partic- ularly well spent. GOP- aligned groups spent at least $218 million on presi- dential television and radio ads, according to advertis- ing tracker Kantar Media's CMAG. In one example, last month Our Principles put $2.3 million into ads trying to persuade Florida voters to ditch Trump, but he won the state anyway. "At this stage, the dele- gate fight is the most im- portant part of the race," said Tim Miller, a spokes- man for Our Principles. "The work we're doing on it is how we get the biggest bang for our buck." Our Principles isn't air- ing commercials at all in New York. On Wednesday, super PACs helping Cruz and Kasich purchased $700,000 in paid media there to run through Elec- tion Day, CMAG shows. On the delegate front, the Trump, Cruz and Ka- sich campaigns all pay spe- cialists to advise them. Yet the outside groups can't resist crafting a role for themselves. By law, candi- dates cannot direct their helpful super PACs on how to spend money on paid communications. However, candidates and the outside groups keep a close eye on what the others are doing. At a donor event last weekend at the Venetian casino resort in Las Vegas, pro-Cruz super PAC offi- cials explained to a rapt audience how they are div- ing into data about Repub- lican delegates. That super PAC event took place on the same floor as a Cruz cam- paign finance event, which delved into similar mate- rial. Douglas Heye, a former communications direc- tor for the Republican Na- tional Convention, said the organizational nature of a potential delegate fight plays into Cruz's strengths. The Texas senator has cul- tivated relationships with conservative leaders across the country. Now they're helping him woo delegates. "Cruz hasn't done things in haphazard fashion," said Heye, who opposes Trump but is otherwise unaligned. "It takes a real team and the hard work of surro- gates and coalitions to suc- ceed at mastering the pro- cess in all 50 states." New Day for America, a super PAC backing Ka- sich, is "executing a del- egate outreach strategy," said spokeswoman Connie Wehrkamp. She declined to give details. Thefreeagents There are two phases to this fight for delegates. The first involves free agents in states where voters don't have a say. Each time an anti-Trump delegate is se- lected, it gets a little harder for the front-runner to reach the 1,237 he needs to avoid a contested conven- tion. Our Principles has keenly focused on these delegates, who hail from North Dakota, Colorado and Wyoming. The group began reach- ing out via online advertis- ing back in February, Fed- eral Election Commission filings show. It then worked the phones and mailed lit- erature. Finally, at the state con- vention site in Colorado Springs last weekend, three of its paid employees and about a half-dozen volun- teers distributed "voter guides" likening Trump to President Barack Obama. In both Colorado and North Dakota, Trump was shut out of delegates. Wyo- ming selects delegates this weekend. Potential converts If Trump can't win out- right, most of the delegates who are initially pledged to him by state rules gain the freedom to vote at the con- vention for whomever they choose. That's why the three candidates are look- ing to make friends with them. Incidentally, there are few rules limiting the ways candidates and out- side groups can influence the delegates, Republican election lawyers say. So it's easy to imagine a deep- pocketed super PAC paying for delegates' accommoda- tions in Cleveland and giv- ing them other perks. Our Principles' Miller said the group is assessing what it will do in this sec- ond phase of the delegate hunt. Another Trump op- ponent, the Washington group Club for Growth, has also at least tempo- rarily stopped its TV ads. Spokesman Doug Sachtel- ben said that while it hasn't done anything with dele- gates yet, "nothing is off the table." Pro-Trump forces are also keen to get into the game. "We're running ads and a data program to fill as many delegate slots as we can with delegates who like Trump," said Jesse Ben- ton, a spokesman for Great America PAC. The group has reported to the FEC its plans to spend more than $1 mil- lion in ads across the coun- try — some aiming to whip up anger about a potential contested convention. "Donald Trump will have the most delegates by a wide margin, but the GOP establishment is de- termined to deny him the nomination in any way possible, even if it means a contested convention," a narrator says in one. Call- ers are asked to give money to the super PAC as a show of support for Trump. PRESIDENTIAL RACE OutsidegroupsdealthemselvesinforGOPdelegategame MIKEGROLL—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks in Rome, N.Y. FollowusonTwitterandFacebook. By Nomaan Merchant The Associated Press FORT WORTH, TEXAS A judge on Wednesday or- dered a Texas teenager who used an "affluenza" defense in a fatal drunken-driving wreck to serve nearly two years in jail, a surprising sanction that far exceeds the several months in jail that prosecutors initially said they would pursue. Ethan Couch, who was appearing in adult court for the first time after he turned 19 on Monday, re- ceived 180 days for each of the four deaths in the June 2013 crash. Initially, state District Judge Wayne Salvant said he would not immediately rule on how much longer Couch would spend in the Tarrant County jail. But he reconsidered his rul- ing after hearing an argu- ment from prosecutors that Couch should be sentenced not to 120 days in jail for the crash, but to 180 days for each of four counts of intoxication manslaugh- ter under a separate part of Texas code. Couch had always faced the prospect of adult jail time as part of his pro- bation once his case had moved out of the juvenile system. Prosecutors didn't ask the judge to declare Couch had violated his ju- venile probation by fleeing to Mexico with his mother last year, or to consider it in his ruling. Each 180-day term will be served consecutively, Salvant ordered. Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Ander- son said Wednesday that it was not clear if that would include the time Couch has already spent in jail. Prosecutors declined to comment afterward on their strategy, citing a gag order Salvant has issued in the case. For months, they had indicated they wouldn't be able to get more than a few months in jail for Couch, though they said he might face decades in prison if he vi- olated his probation again as an adult. But as the hearing Wednesday neared an end, prosecutors said they wanted Salvant to consider a section under the Texas Code of Criminal Proce- dure that allows a judge to give a defendant fac- ing probation for a felony crime up to 180 days. Pros- ecutors then asked Salvant to issue a "stacked" sen- tence, running each of the four punishments consec- utively. Salvant agreed over the objections of Reagan Wynn, one of Couch's attor- neys. But he said he would give both sides two weeks to file any response to his sentence, suggesting that he might reconsider. The initial sentence of 10 years of probation that Couch received in juve- nile court outraged prose- cutors and relatives of the victims, which include one teenager who was para- lyzed and uses a wheel- chair. The new jail time sur- prised Greg Coontz, a law- yer who represented one person killed in the crash and another who was in- jured. Coontz said it was good news that Couch re- ceived more punishment, but he questioned whether it was enough to rehabili- tate Couch. "In some ways, it's kind of ironic that at this point he gets so much more time than he did initially," Coontz said. "It almost seems like it worked back- ward." Couch lost control of his family's pickup truck after he and his friends had played beer pong and drank beer that some of them had stolen from a Wal-Mart. He veered into a crowd of people helping the driver of a disabled vehicle on the side of the road. Authorities later es- timated that he was going 70 mph in a 40 mph zone. The crash fatally in- jured the stranded motor- ist, a youth minister who stopped to help her and a mother and daughter who came out of their nearby home. DRUNKEN-DRIVING WRECK Judge gives Texas 'affluenza' teenager nearly 2 years in jail MAX FAULKNER — STAR-TELEGRAM VIA AP Judge Wayne Salvant address Ethan Couch's defense team during Couch's hearing at Tim Curry Justice Center in Fort Worth, Texas, on Wednesday. | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 2016 8 A