Last night I went to the Dallas County GOP central committee meeting to support Ron Paul.
I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I wrapped a slim jim inside a tri-fold along with Dr. Paul's statement of faith. I don't imagine there's a lot of pro-abortion non-Christians involved in GOP organizations so I thought this would be good.
Dallas County is one of Iowa's largest and fastest-growing (there are 99 counties in Iowa), just west of Des Moines. It took me about 40 minutes to get there. When I pulled in I saw a W '04 sticker on one car and ones for Rudy and Tancredo. Some guy was sticking John Cox signs in the ground.
I went in and things got started. There were about 25 people there but I quickly learned that several of them were people just like me - there to speak on behalf of a presidential candidate. There were people there for Giuliani, McCain, Tancredo, and Romney. John Cox himself showed up with a small entourage. There was a table set up for literature so I spread out some of my Ron Paul stuff. Most of what was on the table was for John Cox but this was no suprise since he was in the room. Cox shook my hand and saw my RP stuff. He seemed a bit surprised and said it was great to see people supporting their candidates.
Cox was in a hurry to go somewhere else so they let him go first. He gave a really nice speech and echoed much of what RP says - freedom, Constitution, eliminate the IRS, etc. He's some businessman from Chicago. He's pro-Iraq war, pro-life, and pro-fair tax. He kept referring to the "Law and Order guy". He told an interesting story about being in a tiny town in NW Iowa and being asked by some elderly women about what he'd do about illegal immigration. He couldn't believe that the issue is so big here that little old ladies in small-town Iowa are concerned about it. This guy is likeable (outsider, not a career politician, etc.) but I don't think American is ready to make someone with zero political experience into the next President. Anyway, he split when he was done. He mentioned something about appearing at the Iowa State Fair on August 10th with Tancredo and Huckabee.
At their previous monthly meeting they said they had reps from T. Thompson, Romney, Tancredo, and Giuliani there - and except for Romney they were different people than were there last night.
The Giuliani guy was the students for Giuliani chair from the U of Iowa. He just said that Giuliani would be here Aug. 4-6 for the debate and that 150,000 mailers had just gone out.
The Tancredo woman was 20-something and the 'central Iowa chair'. She just read off one of Tancredo's mailers.
I spoke for about 5 minutes as I passed out my RP stuff. Everyone had heard of RP and it seems like I was well-received.
The young guy for Romney was especially well-received. It's not that he was any great speaker, it just seemed like he knew everyone there already and had been there several times. The local state representative was there and was going to be introducing Romney at some upcoming event out there.
The poor McCain guy seemed known to the people there and was like 'yeah, we're still going'.
I got the impression that I was the only one there on my own dime. I think the others were all paid interns or otherwise connected with the campaigns. These people were all young and one drove off in a new saab and another in a new volvo.
Afterward, I visited with one of the locals. He likes a lot about RP but thinks we have to defeat the islamic fundamentalists in the mideast because if we don't they will come here and eliminate us, as that is what they are charged with accomplishing. I tried to focus on the things I thought we had in common.
The Tancredo woman said that she has met a lot of people who are torn between Tancredo and Ron Paul.
I didn't expect to see all these people from other campaigns. I should have known better. It underscores the importance of us getting out and being seen and heard. It felt good to know these people were exposed to a real Ron Paul supporter and NOT on the internet.
We haven't even run the radio ads or the newspaper ad yet. Keep on goin'!
