Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Ron Paul GOP delegates may not back Romney
Ron Paul delegates nationally could deny Mitt Romney their votes if the Republican National Convention shuns Paul’s Oklahoma delegates, a campaign lawyer said.
The Paul campaign attorney told the Republican National Committee’s Committee on Contests a political battle could erupt at next week’s convention in Tampa, Fla., over its promised refusal to seat Paul delegates.
The RNC fears Paul’s supporters from at least six states will disrupt the convention, which is intended to coalesce support for Romney, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, The Portland (Maine) Press Herald reported.
The committee told 20 Maine delegates who support Paul they may not be allowed to be seated. Republican Maine Gov. Paul LePage threatened to boycott the convention, which starts Monday, if those elected delegates are not seated.
The committee said Massachusetts and Louisiana Paul delegates would also not be seated, Examiner.com reported.
Paul is a libertarian-leaning Republican U.S. representative from Texas who ended active campaigning May 14 to focus on state delegate-selection conventions.
He failed July 14 to win a plurality of delegates at the final state Republican convention in Nebraska, ending his ability to ensure a speaking spot at the national convention. Paul supporters still want Paul to have a prominent speaking role during the convention, the Press Herald said.
The threat by a Paul campaign attorney Monday that Paul supporters from across the country would withhold their votes from Romney followed an Aug. 10 decision by the contests committee that procedures used at the chaotic and sometimes violent Oklahoma Republican Convention May 11-12 to select 25 delegates and alternatives to the convention out of a total of 43 were appropriate.
Paul supporters, some claiming to have been physically attacked at the convention by Romney supporters, alleged many party and parliamentary rules, as well as state law, were not followed.
GOP Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin was booed at the convention when she said the party’s single goal was to elect Romney as president.
Romney finished second in Oklahoma’s March 6 presidential primary, losing to former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. Paul won no delegates in the vote.
At one point during a challenging moment at the convention, the overhead lights were turned off and a room partition was moved across the room, isolating many attendees from the rest of the body, video aired by KFOR-TV, Oklahoma City, indicated.
Full article: http://www.upi.com/T … 536000/?spt=hs&or=tn
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