Ron Paul wins big in Maine and Nevada

Ron Paul’s presidential strategy is working – at least it did in Maine and Nevada this weekend, where he won the most number of delegates at state party conventions.

|
Marilyn Newton/Reno Gazette-Journal/AP
Ron Paul addresses the Nevada state GOP convention at John Ascauaga's Nugget in Sparks, Nev., Saturday May 5, 2012.

Ron Paul’s presidential strategy is working – at least it did in Maine and Nevada Sunday, where he won the most number of delegates at state party conventions.

If most Republicans and pundits consider Mitt Romney the all-but-nominated champion to take on Barack Obama in this year’s presidential election, Rep. Paul’s army of enthusiastic and determined backers beg to differ.

In fact, they’re not begging at all but pounding at the gates of conventional political thinking. All that’s missing are the torches and pitchforks.

In Pictures: Ron Paul: populist for president

Paul’s method is to hold the Republican Party to its often-arcane delegate selection rules, especially in state party conventions.

Over the weekend, his supporters took control of the Maine Republican Convention, electing a majority slate of delegates.

In Nevada Paul forces did likewise, winning their man 22 delegates, compared to three for Romney.

One example cited by the Las Vegas Review-Journal: RNC National Committeeman Bob List, a former Nevada governor, lost to James Smack, vice chairman of the state GOP and a Paul supporter.

Romney won Nevada's caucus in February with half of the vote, the Associated Press points out. Under party rules adopted last fall, Romney was to get 20 of Nevada's 28 delegates for the national convention, and Paul was to get eight.

Paul backers say delegates will abide by those rules in the first round of balloting at the national convention in Tampa, the AP reported Sunday. But all bets are off if there is more than one round of balloting, and it remains to be seen whether the Romney campaign or Republican National Committee will challenge Nevada's delegate results.

Romney wasn't present at the Nevada convention, but his election lawyers were.

In any case, Paul’s Nevada chairman Carl Bunce told the Las Vegas Sun, “We are sending a strong delegation to Tampa in August.”

Still, Romney is way ahead of Paul in the delegate count – 865 to 93, according to Real Clear Politics. Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich dropped out when they had twice as many delegates as Paul does now.

Reportedly, Paul and Romney have a friendly personal relationship. And although Romney is all but certain to win the nomination, he can’t risk alienating Paul supporters between now and the Republican convention by trying to force them or their determined libertarian leader into silence.

"I think he's being very careful because he knows how important the Ron Paul voters are – they obviously represent a very different dynamic," Mike Dennehy, a former top aide to Republican John McCain's 2008 campaign, told the AP. "They are the most passionate and the most frustrated of any voters heading to the polls. And many of them are independents."

In Pictures: Ron Paul: populist for president

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Ron Paul wins big in Maine and Nevada
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/President/2012/0506/Ron-Paul-wins-big-in-Maine-and-Nevada
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe