Rallying the RP supporters in NC

[lib3rtarian]

Hello Paul supporters in NC,

Do we have any official campaign in NC? I'm guessing no, since the primary is far away. Is anyone else coordinating anything? I know that we have supporters scattered in places, but what's the plan to bring them together?

Fresh off the Wake County precinct meeting, I saw only 3 Paul supporters I could recognize amongst the ~1500 people that attended. This alarmed me, because to go to the county convention, one had to attend the precinct meetings. Even folks from our FB group 'Wake County, NC for Ron Paul' didn't show up. Am I paranoid in thinking that we might not end up sending enough delegates to national this way?

Can the RP supporters from NC, especially the Triangle area, comment please? Thanks in advance.

 

[evilfunnystuff]

I know someone in the Outer Banks, but he said wake county is pretty far from him.

 

[MozoVote]

I have suggested a regional meeting to some of the 2008 alumni - to converge in western NC at a location central to Asheville, Winston and Charlotte before the convention takes place. Just to get our priorities straight, share what we've learned, and have some face-to-face familiarity. I scouted out a meeting site too, that's easy to find and large enough for a decent sized crowd. It wouldn't cost anything. Nothing has come of this yet, but I'll bring it up again in a few weeks.

I think the fear is that it's hard enough to persuade people to go to state convention, and that a regional meeting might be a bust. It costs gas and babysitting time for people, too.

Anyway I think holding a regional in eastern N.C. would be a good idea as well. Maybe some of the more motivated grassroots can hang out after Glen's fundraiser in March and start brainstorming when and where to set it up.

 

[lib3rtarian]

A meet-up of NC based RPFers is a good idea. I am up for it.

 

[BuddyRey]

Checking in from Union County.

 

[jacque]

Vance County. I can meet in Raleigh just as easily. Only an hours drive from home.

Freedom Mom

 

[DerailingDaTrain]

You guys ever been to Burlington in Alamance?

 

[jacque]

Gunny and I went to a sign wave at Elon when they had a football game. Great response.

 

[slacker921]

How about a meeting just prior to the state convention? The state convention is June 3-5, so how about we meet up in Wilmington Saturday night the 2nd? The key is to get together and talk about the different decisions/votes that will be made at the convention and it would be best if that happened right before the convention anyway.

And the same sort of thing needs to happen before each district convention too.. there are a lot of people who will be new to the process that need to know what to expect, etc.

 

[MozoVote]

State convention will be in Greensboro this year.

My two cents on an eastern regional meeting would be to hold it someplace like Dunn or Smithfield. Make it fair to the Raleigh, Fayetteville and Wilmington contingents that they all drive a little bit.

 

[lib3rtarian]

State convention will be in Greensboro this year.

My two cents on an eastern regional meeting would be to hold it someplace like Dunn or Smithfield. Make it fair to the Raleigh, Fayetteville and Wilmington contingents that they all drive a little bit.

Agree. Somewhere in the middle please, unless the Wilmington folks wanna put me up for the night.

I think it's very important that we all meet and know each other, because we will need to adopt one of the 2 strategies when we finally pick the national delegates:

1) If there are more RP supporters in the room than the rest, then we declare our support for RP and try to win votes.

2) If there are more neocons in the room, then we declare our support for Mitt or Santorum and get nominated, in the hope that this will be a brokered convention and that we will all get unbound after the 1st ballot and we can switch our votes to Ron.

I am more comfortable doing #1 so that I don't have to lie about my allegiance, but for that, we need to know exactly who the Paul supporters are in the room. Which is where a face-to-face meeting becomes important.

 

[eblairmorris]

Will it really come to the point where I would have to lie at the chance to be voted for as a delegate? This seems very backhanded and dishonest.

 

[MozoVote]

eblairmorris, technically speaking - all the national delegates chosen at district convention are unpledged. (They will probably indicate their "preference" though.) We are supposed to allocate ALL of the delegates at the state convention in proportion to the primary vote percentages under NC election law.

This did not happen in 2008. The state chairman re-interpreted the party rules and state law to stuff the national delegates with party regulars and snatched two Paul delegates off the slate. Ron Paul people behind the scenes kept making a stink about that - and the state party legal counsel agreed with them. That state chair stepped down in 2009 in a quiet putcsh, rather than let the issue break out in public, or put herself at risk of being held criminally accountable.

ANYWAY - yes this process is convoluted and that's why people need to be at each convention to understand how it all works. And it's why people should meet each other a little before we get to the last stages. We did too many things off-the-cuff in 2008.

 

[musicmax]

eblairmorris, technically speaking - all the national delegates chosen at district convention are unpledged. (They will probably indicate their "preference" though.) We are supposed to allocate ALL of the delegates at the state convention in proportion to the primary vote percentages under NC election law.

This did not happen in 2008. The state chairman re-interpreted the party rules and state law to stuff the national delegates with party regulars and snatched two Paul delegates off the slate. Ron Paul people behind the scenes kept making a stink about that

It wasn't all behind the scenes - I made quite an elaborate speech declaring the chairman out of order for her refusal to assign Paul delegates to the slate.

 

[lib3rtarian]

MozoVote, at which point do we start to watch our mouths on whom we support? County? Congressional District? State?

Your previous post + what knowledge I have about this, this is what my understanding is:

1) Everyone who attend the precinct meetings get to go as delegates to the county convention. No questions asked, no nomination process, no votes needed, no need to declare support for any candidate.

2) Everyone who attend the county convention get to go as delegates to the district convention. No questions asked, no nomination process, no votes needed, no need to declare support for any candidate.

3) At the district convention, we need to indicate our presidential preference. Is there a nomination process for the delegates at this stage? Should a delegate get votes?

4) At the state convention, we need to indicate whom we support. There is a nomination process and the delegates who gets the most votes go to national. How many delegates are chosen this way out of the 55 delegates we have in total? How many superdelegates? Looking here, it appears that we have 3 (Ada Fisher, Robin Hayes & David Lewis) who will be bound per results. Are they bound to the winner automatically regardless of the winner's margin of victory?

The state convention is after the primaries, say the primary results are like this: Romney 30%, Paul 25%, Santorum: 20%, Newt: 20%, Others: 5%. So, by law, Paul will get 13 delegates (25% of 52), Romney 16, Santorum 11 and Newt 11. All 13 for Paul will be Paul supporters. If there are more than 13 RP folks in the room, the rest of us can go as delegates for the others, to be unbound in a brokered convention. Am I right?

I am yet to read Robert's Rules of Order. At which stage does the knowledge of RRO come in?

Sorry, looks like more questions than observations. I am new to this, and would never be putting myself through this if it wasn't for Paul, so I appreciate all info. Thanks.

 

[aclove]

Your wish is our command: come one, come all!

http://raleighrallyforronpaul.com/

Speakers include radio host Robert Scott Bell, two time District 4 Congressional candidate Dr. B.J. Lawson, and our own GunnyFreedom, Rep. Glen Bradley. Get your tickets today!

 

[slacker921]

AH! I was looking at old info..

NC state GOP convention is June 1-3 at Koury Convention Center in Greensboro.

aclove -
I think the Raleigh event is a great start... but it's doubtful that everyone would attend since it would mean an extra trip and it's a long drive for people in the Western part of the state. I'll plan on going to that and will try to get other Paul supporters to go.



Will the campaign get a meeting room at the state convention where Paul supporters can go and get info, meet up, etc?



lib3rtarian - at the district convention the delegates for national convention give short speeches and are elected. There are only three from each district so it can be difficult to be selected in some districts since the GOP regulars like to send their own. If a Paul supporter in your district really wants to go to the national convention (it's $1,000+) then he or she will need you there voting. At the state convention the other campaigns will offer up their own selected delegates just like the Paul campaign will offer up Paul delegates. The critical thing right now is getting to your district convention so you can vote there, and then at the state convention going to vote for the Paul delegates and also voting for the party officers (Paul supporters helped vote Ada Fisher in '08... )


Does anyone know if it's possible to get a list of people in NC who have filled out this form? That would be a good way to organize people..

 

[aclove]

I don't know whether the campaign will pay for a candidate room (as they did in 2008). I would be very surprised to see the campaign release its list of delegate applicants before the end of the campaign. My understanding is that when the primary is over, the large contact lists of new supporters recruited during this election cycle will be turned over to C4L.

 

[MozoVote]

lib3rtarian - you've got the hang of it for the most part. The word "delegate" gets used at so many stages that it gets difficult to make things clear sometimes.

Those of us who attend county, are credentialed as "delegates to" the district and state conventions (*If they marked the intention on their paperwork at the precint meeting, to go to these*)

So!! FROM COUNTY each person has the choice to go to EITHER or BOTH district and state conventions, as voting "local" delegates.

Three *national* delegates are elected, at each district convention.

The remaining delegates of the national slate, are elected at state convention.

Looks like Adam has dug up some info already on a statewide Meeup. http://raleighrallyforronpaul.com/ I'd suggest as many people as possible, try to go there. March 24 is early enough we can discuss the district conventions in depth.... Those will be taking place in April.

 

[Dianne]

Union County here, just outside of Charlotte.