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This is too funny, let me explain what happened. Apparently some delegates made it through the Minnesota state party convention by claiming to be pledged to John McCain. Well at the end, they all announced for Ron Paul and it caused quite a brouhaha.
Here’s the story on it from WorldNetDaily:
BLAINE, Minn. – Ron Paul supporters shook things up in at least three of Minnesota’s congressional district conventions yesterday when they captured nearly all of the national delegates and alternates for the Republican National Convention this fall.
There was controversy at Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District Convention. The district covers part of the Twin Cities metro area and extends to the west and into nearby St. Cloud, Minn. Paul supporters were accused of dirty tricks.
“They hijacked the convention,” said Jeff Johnson who serves as Minnesota’s Senate District 15 co-chairman.
Two out of three national delegates elected were Ron Paul supporters and all three of the alternates supported Paul. After the election results were announced at the convention, they were immediately disputed when it was discovered that the candidates had agreed to support John McCain in pre-screening questions.
“I had people coming up to me saying that they wanted to ensure that Ron Paul has a chance to speak at the convention,” said Andy Aplikowski, the vice chairman of the 6th District in Anoka County, “These people hid what their intentions were and that’s deceptive.”
Too funny and it shows the Paul supporters are still out there causing the mayhem in support of their candidate.
More of the story:
Prior to the voting, candidates running to be national delegates were screened by a nominating committee and asked two questions.
“We asked them if they were Republican and then asked if they would support John McCain at the national convention” said Aplikowski. “They had the option to answer yes, no, or maybe.”
The answers to these questions were then presented to the body of congressional delegates to take into consideration in the voting process. When it was discovered the elected national delegates were Paul supporters despite saying they would support McCain, the convention erupted in debate.
A motion was made to ensure the delegates supported McCain at the national convention.
Technically the only thing they did wrong was openly state support for McCain, only to change it when elected as a delegate. Eventually the Paul supporters were neutralized:
A heated debate lasting more than an hour followed the motion. Eventually, the motion passed by a slim margin, but not without harsh words and harsh exchanges.
The feeling among many of the congressional delegates who voted was that the Paul supporters had been dishonest. Ron Baert, one of the elected national delegates and a Ron Paul supporter disagreed.
“I don’t recall the exact wording of the question (about McCain), and so I wanted to clarify it,” he said. “So I said that the endorsement hasn’t even taken place yet, but that if McCain were endorsed I would support him, however I did not say I would vote to endorse him at the national convention.”
Anyone have some video? I’d love to see it. I’ll keep digging but post if you find any.
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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Nate, this is funny! It seems there’s instructional print and videos from the Ron Paul camp on how to become a Ron Paul delegate and win the Repulican nomination without ever winning a single state here:
http://www3.webng.com/ron.....egate.html
Talk about not paying attention to the voters of America, this is exactly what Ron Paul’s campaign is asking for on this site and in this video!
No video. Not allowed. I actually got some video of another part of the convention before a jackbooted th — I mean, a kind gentleman informed me there was no recording allowed.
The story I’ve been getting from some of the delegates is that they were not asked if they would support John McCain AT THE CONVENTION, but just generally. One candidate for delegate even clarified with the nominating committee that if McCain were the only Republican left in the running, THEN he would support McCain.
Your article is VERY wrong.
What the congressional district did with that resolution is in direct conflict with the Minnesota GOP constitution. So even if they passed their resolution, it is void because it explicity states in Article V, section 5, subsection C.:
C. In compliance with the rules of the Republican National Convention, no delegate or alternate may be an automatic delegate or alternate. Each delegate or alternate must be elected by his/her respective convention. No delegate to the Republican National Convention shall be bound by party rules or by state law to cast his/her vote for a particular candidate on any ballot at the convention except that the state convention may bind the delegates whom it elects to the National Convention of the Republican Party on the first ballot to vote for a candidate for the office of President of the United States, unless they be released by said candidate.
~~
The Ron Paul Revolution is taking over the GOP. They just do not know it yet, although they are starting to. We are not going away.
The Minnesota GOP constitution strictly forbids any “binding” of delegates, EXCEPT by the STATE CONVENTION, and then only for the FIRST BALLOT of the Presidential Nomination. In this case (but other state’s rules WILL differ) the “questions” should not even have been asked of the candidates, and whoever did the asking should be thoroughly chastised, as they were out of order.
SECTION 5: Election and Terms of Delegates.
C. In compliance with the rules of the Republican National Convention, no delegate or alternate may be an automatic delegate or alternate. Each delegate or alternate must be elected by his/her respective convention. No delegate to the Republican National Convention shall be bound by party rules or by state law to cast his/her vote for a particular candidate on any ballot at the convention except that the state convention may bind the delegates whom it elects to the National Convention of the Republican Party on the first ballot to vote for a candidate for the office of President of the United States, unless they be released by said candidate.
So any efforts by local district personnel are invalid, and the information from the RNC is completely incorrect (not surprising).
Does popular vote not mean anything to these Ron Paul supporters? Was Ron Paul not on the same ticket with John McCain and others, and was soundly beaten?
Gotta love publicity stunts. From now on we’ll spell it De”mock”racy.
Ron Paul loves our constitution so much that he hates popular vote! Viva revolution, bring back the divine right of kings! Man, you and Hillary Clinton, Ron. You two would make a great team.
In retrospect perhaps what I wrote before was a bit harsh - I’m still sort of piqued about Hillary trying to woo over delegates Obama won in the primaries, so maybe I’m over-sensitive to something like this.
But as the constitutionalist candidate, doesn’t subverting the will of the people really tarnish any legacy he’s got, and any chance for the future? It would seem to go against everything he stands for.
It also seems like a cheap, and not particularly respectable publicity stunt. And, I mean, I say this as someone whose always had sort of a soft spot for the guy: This makes his campaign look like a prank on the republican party.
Actually, Hillary Clinton has a pretty good chance of winning the popular vote. If you count in Florida, then she is only 422,000 votes behind. She could certainly make that up in the remaining 10 contests.
hahaha so, now you people cry because paul supporters are winnning.what did you expect that you can act like the main stream media and ignore us.I live in minnesota and only pompus rich brainwashed morons would vote for mccain.you’re just lucky the main stream media dont cover paul in the twin cities or we would of won all 12.bye bye republican party Here comes the revoultion give it 4 more years just wait.
the popular vote doesnt matter just ask bush when he lost to gore the first election.THe reason mccain won in minnesota overall vote is beacuse the media in minnesota doesnt cover ron paul.IM pretty sure the rich pricks in minnesota wanted romney more then mccaain so just deal with it.
tj, I don’t see Paul supporters winning anything. But if your language is an example of what a Paul supporter is, I’ll stick with McCain. You do your candidate more harm than good with your name calling.