Ron Paul Dominates
Ron Paul forces
staged organizational coups this weekend in Nevada
and Maine,
where they won a majority of the delegates who will represent their
states at the Republican National Convention in Tampa. In addition,
Paul won most of the delegates thus far selected by the Iowa GOP.
The coups follow up Paul campaign victories a
week earlier in Louisiana and Massachusetts, where Paul supporters
dominated district caucuses.
In Massachusetts,
where Mitt Romney won the primary by a huge margin earlier in the
year, all Ron Paul supporters chosen as delegates to the national
convention are pledged to vote for Romney on the first ballot. In
Nevada, most of the Paul delegates are bound to support Romney on
the first ballot. However, in other states, such as Maine and Iowa,
the delegates are not bound by the earlier state contests.
The Portland
Press-Herald reported
May 5 that Paul supporters in Maine succeeding in electing their
own state convention chairman over the GOP establishment’s choice
by a mere four votes, demonstrating their clout and setting the
tone for the rest of the convention. “Paul supporter Brent
Tweed edged Charles Cragin 1,118 to 1,114 in a very close vote,”
the Portland Press-Herald reported.
The two-day
convention then went on to elect
as delegates 21 Paul supporters who will comprise 87.5 percent
of the state’s 24-member delegation to Tampa. This lop-sided Paul
victory occurred despite a narrow official Romney win of about 100
votes in caucuses earlier in the year (though there were numerous
voting irregularities
that could have changed the vote total). Paul supporters have essentially
taken over the Maine GOP, though some Paul supporters found the
term a bit dramatic. “Takeover is strong word; we’re all
registered Republicans here,” Paul supporter Matthew McDonald
told
the Bangor Daily News. “But Chairman Webster called
Ron Paul supporters wingnuts, he saw us as a fringe minority; now
we hold the power of the convention.”
In Nevada,
the same happened May 5-6. The Ron Paul campaign won
22 of the 28 Nevada delegates and gained control of much of the
state and municipal party leadership. And Paul supporters accomplished
this despite threats
from the Republican National Committee not to nominate too many
Ron Paul supporters and some fraud by Romney supporters. Some Romney
supporters at the Reno convention distributed
a fake slate of Ron Paul supporters seeking delegate spots to
blunt the Paul assault. “The list included some Paul supporters
but hidden among the Paul supporters were obvious Romney supporters,”
according to Ray Hagar of the Reno Gazette-Journal.
May
8, 2012
Thomas R.
Eddlem [send
him mail] is a freelance writer and educator
who focuses upon the kids surrounding the smart kid’s test paper.
He writes for LewRockwell.com, The
New American, and AntiWar.com.
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© 2012 The New American