Ron Paul Gains Delegates at Maine and Nevada State GOP Conventions Held this Weekend

Paul supporters are enlarging GOP and elevating his platform of constitutionally-limited government and restoration of our economic and civil liberties

LAKE JACKSON, Texas – Supporters of 2012 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul made notable gains in state Republican conventions in the key voting states of Maine and Nevada this weekend, affirming his delegate-attainment strategy and injecting uncommon, sorely-needed enthusiasm into GOP party-building efforts.

By Sunday in Maine, Republican convention-goers elected Paul supporters as their state party secretary and chairman, changing the convention atmosphere and altering party operations going forward.  They also elected the state’s RNC committee man and woman, and swept four of four electors.  In addition, Paul supporters won 34 of 50 Maine Republican state committee members elected today, bringing them closer to a majority of the full state committee that consists of 80 members including county chairs.  Especially noteworthy is that the Paul campaign estimates it has elected 20 delegates to the national convention – an airtight majority.  In total, Maine gets 24 delegates, the balance consisting of automatic delegates such as RNC officials, the governor, and the state party chairman.

By Sunday in Nevada, where on Saturday Ron Paul addressed the state convention in Sparks live and in person, Paul supporters won 22 of 28 delegates to the national convention, with establishment-pick Mitt Romney garnering three, and three more reserved for the state GOP chair and two RNC officials.  Other recent developments in Nevada include Paul supporters electing a Paul-friendly state GOP chair by a 2-to-1 margin, the election of a Paul-friendly Nye County GOP chair, acquiring a two-thirds controlling interest in the Clark County GOP executive board, and gaining control of both of the state’s RNC slots.

“We’re extraordinarily pleased with the victories Ron Paul supporters achieved this weekend, and we thank these men and women for their untiring engagement.  Republican Party activists with Paul leanings are affirming the campaign’s delegate-win strategy and making lasting inroads into the party infrastructure, broadening the Republican footprint and strengthening the GOP base that suffers from a dearth of enthusiasm,” said Ron Paul 2012 National Campaign Manager John Tate.

“Ron Paul victories in Maine and Nevada are occurring at a time and in a manner helpful for unseating President Obama and restoring America’s liberty and prosperity – goals that, naturally, all Republicans share,” added Mr. Tate.

Update on the Nevada Republican Convention

Ron Paul speaking in Las Vegas

By Zach Foster

May 6, 2012, 10:45 A.M. -- Though the delegates bound for the National Convention have yet to be elected, the atmosphere is incredibly tense but still shining favorably for the Paul camp.

Though it has been discovered that the Romney camp has done everything in their power to steal the state convention for the dishonest corporate welfarist, going so far as to dress their own storm troopers in Ron Paul gear and distribute fake lists on behalf of the Ron Paul campaign with the names of pro-Romney delegates, in an effort to bamboozle Ron Paul supporters, they Romney thugs are still in the minority in the election.

Unlike 2008, when the Nevada Republican Party shut down the convention early in order to prevent the Paul camp from winning their impending victory, the majority of those attending this year are in the Paul camp.  Whenever a Romney supporter takes the stage to speak, he is heckled by the Paul camp, even Romney’s own son Josh.  When Romney’s supporters begin to chant “Mitt, Mitt, Mitt” they are quickly drowned out by a sea of voices shouting “President Paul!”

Two of Nevada’s incumbent members of the Republican National Committee, Heidi Smith and former Nevada Governor Bob List (known Romney supporters), were booed and voted out of the RNC by the pro-Paul majority, and replaced by Paul supporters Dianna Orrock and James Smack.

Nevada Party leaders are trying to maintain the illusion that there will be Party unity after this convention, but any such notion is a falsehood.  The Romney camp are running on the desperation of having anyone but Obama (but Paul doesn’t get to participate in their utopia), whereas Paul supporters are campaigning on the principles of the U.S. Constitution and a truly free and prosperous society.  Paul supporters are finally making headway in performing the vital surgery on our country to rid it of the Obama- and Romney-supported cancers of perpetual war, deficit spending, inflation, and desecration of the Bill of Rights.

UPDATE: As of 11:00 A.M., Ron Paul won 22 out of 25 of Nevada's delegates to the national convention.

Image courtesy of Gage Skidmore and used via CC attribution license 3.0

Ron Paul vs. Mitt Romney

The Christian Science Monitor’s Peter Grier writes:

 

Will Ron Paul be Mitt Romney’s last rival standing? We ask that question because if you sort through the Nevada caucus results, look at this week’s GOP events, add in a few financial disclosure forms, and shake, you can produce a scenario where Representative Paul outlasts Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. That would make the Texas libertarian the only non-Romney to run all the way to the Tampa Republican convention in August.

 

Yes, we know Paul actually placed third in Nevada’s Saturday vote. He’d hoped to do better, placement-wise. He ended up with 19 percent of the vote. Ex-Speaker Gingrich got 21 percent. Mr. Romney reached the 50 percent threshold.

 

But look at it this way: That 18 percent is four percentage points higher than Paul’s 2008 Nevada vote. It’s also higher than prevote polls had predicted: A Las Vegas Review-Journal survey in late Januaryhad him at only 9.2 percent of the vote, for example.

 

Plus, as The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake points out Monday morning, Nevada entrance polls showed something surprising: Paul won among voters who said that the most important quality in a candidate is that they are “a true conservative.”

 

Paul got 42 percent of that vote, versus 30 percent for Gingrich and 24 percent for Mr. Santorum.

 

As Mr. Blake notes, Nevada leans libertarian, and that may have been a factor in this result. But Gingrich and Santorum are competing to be the conservative alternative to Romney, aren’t they?

 

“This is really a must-have demographic for Gingrich and Santorum, and the fact that neither of them tapped it is bad news for their campaigns and their cases for pressing forward,” writes Blake…

Source: Paulitical Ticker with Jack Hunter

DNC Chair Schultz’s Statement on Results of Nevada Republican Caucus

By DNC Press

 

Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz released the following statement tonight on the results of the Republican caucus in Nevada:

 

"This week we’ve seen more evidence of the candidate who will say anything to get elected.  On every issue important to Nevadans and all Americans– from jobs and housing to immigration –Mitt Romney might try to tell voters what they want to hear, but the fact is he’s on the wrong side of the issues.

 

"Romney is running on his private sector experience and job creation record, but what he won’t tell voters is that he was actually a corporate raider who lined his pockets by running companies into the ground, closing factories, firing workers and sending jobs overseas.  He’s tried to pander to Hispanic voters, when he’s already called the DREAM Act a ‘handout’ and promised to veto it if he had the chance.  And he says he wants to help America’s struggling homeowners, but he hasn’t offered a single plan to do so – what’s worse, earlier this week he doubled down on the outrageous statement he originally made in Nevada that we should let the foreclosure process ‘hit the bottom.

 

"But Mitt Romney’s failed agenda isn’t just wrong for Nevadans – it’s wrong for the entire country.  Every week, every contest, everywhere he goes, Romney has shown he’s out of touch with the needs of the middle class and doesn’t understand what American families are going through.  In Florida, he said the banks are feeling the same pain as families are feeling – going into Nevada, he said he isn’t concerned about the very poor.

 

 "The truth is we’re ready to face any of the Republican candidates because they are all fundamentally flawed, and they all support the policies of the past that drove our economy to the brink of collapse.  But thanks to President Obama’s leadership, we are starting to dig ourselves out.  So while the GOP field keeps trying to drag our country backward, the President will continue to move America forward – and come November, the choice for voters will be crystal-clear.”

Nevada Vote Count Smells Fishy

By Lisa

 

A note this morning from RevPAC Advisory Board member Murray Sabrin:

 

Although the Nevada caucuses ended last night, only 71% of precincts have reported.  This smells fishy.  With electronic voting, results should be tabulated in an hour or so.  Paper ballots may take two to three hours, but no more.  Our much heralded “democracy” is corrupt.  Voter fraud, undercounting and overcounting, is occurring.  According to one source, Romney got two votes in one Iowa precinct, but it was reported as 22.  Ron Paul’s votes in Iowa, according to other sources, may have been tampered with because some of the ballots were counted in a closed room by GOP state officials.  Maybe the UN should monitor our primaries and elections like they do in third world countries.

 

At any rate, no one is dropping out of the GOP presidential primary race.  Ron is campaigning relentlessly and his message of limited government at home and abroad is being embraced by more and more people.  Whether this is the year an anti-big government GOP presidential candidate gets the nomination remains to be seen.  In the meantime, Mitt, Newt and Rick are sounding more like Ron on domestic issues but continue to mouth the neocon message on foreign policy issues.  McCain, if the three have not noticed, lost badly four years ago.  So why the three pro-war candidates think that endless war will be embraced by the public in the November general election is a mystery.

 

Source: Revolution PAC. Photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore.

Voters Crying Fraud Over Nevada Caucus Results

By Mark Wachtler

 

February 5, 2012. Las Vegas. For the second time in just five primary states, the Republican Party, with the assistance of the national corporate news media, is raising questions about the legitimacy of this season’s primary election system. First, the Iowa Republican Party and the entire American media knowingly reported the wrong Iowa Caucus results with the wrong person being declared the winner. Last night, it appears the same thing may be happening in Nevada. And again like Iowa, critics are accusing the GOP of suspicious activity.

 

Perhaps it’s indicative that the beneficiary of these recurring vote counting “mistakes” always seems to be former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. He’s just happens to be the same man that both the Republican Party establishment and the four corporations that own all of America’s news media outlets are actively supporting.

 

Iowa Caucus

In Iowa a few weeks ago, local Republican precinct captains – the individuals responsible for providing the official vote count to the state Republican Party – were up in arms and all over the national media claiming their vote counts had somehow been changed once they arrived at the state GOP headquarters. Two weeks later, the party announced that Mitt Romney didn’t win, but instead, Rick Santorum had actually won. This author was one of the only national journalists that predicted the results would be reversed. Two weeks later, they were.

 

Nevada Caucus

Expected to be over by “midnight”, that deadline turned into “dawn”. When dawn came and went with no vote results in sight, questions over vote fraud really picked up steam. See the below chain of events from last night and decide for yourself if something fishy is going on.

 

Events of the Las Vegas Caucus, February 4, 2012. All times and percentages are rough estimates from memory. All are from first-hand witness accounts.

 

Counting the votes

8:00pm EST – Some polls close, roughly 3 percent of the total vote is in. Mitt Romney leads with over 50 percent of the votes counted. Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich are tied with approximately 20 percent of the vote each.

 

9:00pm EST – Media outlets nationwide declare Mitt Romney the winner of the Nevada Caucus “in a landslide.”

 

9:01pm EST – All polls but one are closed. Some results have been released, less than 4 percent of the total vote is in. Mitt Romney leads with 46 percent, Gingrich second with 24 percent, Paul third with 19 percent and Santorum fourth with 11 percent.

 

10:00pm EST – All media outlets spend two hours declaring Mitt Romney the overwhelming winner of the Nevada Republican Caucus in a landslide victory. Only 4 percent of the vote is in… (Read the full article and timeline of strange events)

 

Source: Examiner.com

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus Statement On The Nevada State Chairman Election

By Michael Short

WASHINGTON – Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus today issued the following statement on the Nevada State Chairman election:

“I want to congratulate Amy Tarkanian on her election to serve as the new Chairman of the Nevada Republican Party. Nevada will be a crucial battleground state in 2012 and I am excited she will be leading our Party in the Silver State. Amy knows what it takes to organize and energize the Party at a grassroots level so we can turn back the failed economic policies of Harry Reid and Barack Obama. Nevada families and small businesses owners are hurting under the Obama Economy and cannot afford four more years with Barack Obama in the White House. I look forward to working with Amy to put our country back on a path to prosperity by electing more Nevada Republicans and ensuring that Barack Obama is a one-term president.”