IPSecure
Member
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2008
- Messages
- 3,709
Ron Paul supporters rock the boat at Oklahoma GOP Convention
Holly Shelves
May 3, 2008
http://www.coupbymemo.com/convention
http://www.dailypaul.com/node/47983
The Oklahoma Republican Party held its state convention in Tulsa today, to elect delegates to the national convention, presidential electors and committee members to the Republican National Committee.
It was immediately clear that a coalition of Ron Paul supporters and John McCain opponents had a slight majority when the folks running the show wouldn’t allow a “roll-call vote” (basically a head-count) to settle a very close vote for who would be convention chairman of the day. It was by no means clear who won the yea-or-nay vote, and calls for a roll-call vote were denied. They would never explain why, and I regret that they were allowed to get away with that. This convention may have gone very differently otherwise.
There seemed to be quite a bit of stalling on the part of the convention leadership, and at about noon there was a motion to break for lunch (incidentally, this motion was made by a particularly vile Republican I know from past experience).
An hour and a half later, the convention reconvened with about 500 more delegates in attendance than before we left for lunch. I suspect that there was a large group of scared McCainiacs (there wasn’t much of a reason to be too scared, since Oklahoma delegates have no choice but to support McCain) who were busily calling everyone they could think of to come counter the Paul supporters. It’s interesting that so many delegates registered during this time, since registration had ended three hours earlier, and some people were turned away for showing up too late. I nearly didn’t get in myself. I was waiting in line to check in, when an official-looking guy stood in front of me and said they were cutting the line off there because it was getting too late. It was 9:00 am at this time. There were about twenty or thirty people behind me who probably went home, but two nice people allowed my convention-buddy and I to cut in front of them further down the line.
So it’s 1:30 pm, we’re back from lunch, and there are 50% more delegates. A heated and rowdy debate (there was rowdiness on both sides to be sure) ensued over whether the Executive Committee’s hand-picked slate of delegates ought to be voted for over the Ron Paul coalition’s alternate slate. We delegates voted by way of secret ballots, and the Executive Committee’s slate won by—you guessed it—about 500 votes.
Many of the delegates on the winning slate did not even attend their Executive Committee interviews, and many had not been in the process as delegates until this point. As far as I could tell, it was nepotism that guided the committee’s selections.
Ron Paul supporters did have one victory: the candidate they backed for National Committeeman won the majority of the delegates’ votes.
Holly Shelves
May 3, 2008
http://www.coupbymemo.com/convention
http://www.dailypaul.com/node/47983
The Oklahoma Republican Party held its state convention in Tulsa today, to elect delegates to the national convention, presidential electors and committee members to the Republican National Committee.
It was immediately clear that a coalition of Ron Paul supporters and John McCain opponents had a slight majority when the folks running the show wouldn’t allow a “roll-call vote” (basically a head-count) to settle a very close vote for who would be convention chairman of the day. It was by no means clear who won the yea-or-nay vote, and calls for a roll-call vote were denied. They would never explain why, and I regret that they were allowed to get away with that. This convention may have gone very differently otherwise.
There seemed to be quite a bit of stalling on the part of the convention leadership, and at about noon there was a motion to break for lunch (incidentally, this motion was made by a particularly vile Republican I know from past experience).
An hour and a half later, the convention reconvened with about 500 more delegates in attendance than before we left for lunch. I suspect that there was a large group of scared McCainiacs (there wasn’t much of a reason to be too scared, since Oklahoma delegates have no choice but to support McCain) who were busily calling everyone they could think of to come counter the Paul supporters. It’s interesting that so many delegates registered during this time, since registration had ended three hours earlier, and some people were turned away for showing up too late. I nearly didn’t get in myself. I was waiting in line to check in, when an official-looking guy stood in front of me and said they were cutting the line off there because it was getting too late. It was 9:00 am at this time. There were about twenty or thirty people behind me who probably went home, but two nice people allowed my convention-buddy and I to cut in front of them further down the line.
So it’s 1:30 pm, we’re back from lunch, and there are 50% more delegates. A heated and rowdy debate (there was rowdiness on both sides to be sure) ensued over whether the Executive Committee’s hand-picked slate of delegates ought to be voted for over the Ron Paul coalition’s alternate slate. We delegates voted by way of secret ballots, and the Executive Committee’s slate won by—you guessed it—about 500 votes.
Many of the delegates on the winning slate did not even attend their Executive Committee interviews, and many had not been in the process as delegates until this point. As far as I could tell, it was nepotism that guided the committee’s selections.
Ron Paul supporters did have one victory: the candidate they backed for National Committeeman won the majority of the delegates’ votes.
