For several weeks I have been writing about Ron Paul's upset victories at district and state GOP conventions, and about the surprising success of his delegate strategy. Now, with Paul's delegate sweeps in Maine and Nevada, it looks like Mitt Romney and the Republican Party are finally starting to catch on to the trend.
Paul supporters swept this weekend's state GOP conventions, picking up 21 of 24 RNC delegates in Maine and 22 out of 28 delegates in Nevada. The twin victories come on the heels of Paul's surprise delegate wins at district caucuses and state conventions in Missouri, Minnesota, Colorado, and Louisiana, as well as a Paul-friendly takeover of the Alaska GOP.
Paul supporters have managed to stage these state-level coups despite significant resistance from local Establishment Republicans,
In Nevada, the Paul sweep was largely expected — the Silver State has been a Ron Paul stronghold since the 2008 election, when the state GOP literally turned off the lights at their convention to avoid seating Ron Paul delegates to the national convention. Since then, Paul supporters have won elections to local and county GOP boards, and are now major players in state Republican politics.
"The Establishment is us now," Ron Paul's Nevada campaign director Carl Bunce told Business Insider before this weekend's convention. "If we turn off the lights, we know where the light switch is."
Privately, sources close to the Ron Paul campaign say they believe Republicans will continue to ramp up his efforts to block Paul delegates at state conventions, particularly after Romney's embarrassing delegate losses in Massachusetts. But state organizers tell Business Insider that Paul supporters are significantly more organized than Romney's delegate team, and are ready to put up a tough fight in states like Idaho and Washington.
At this point, it is difficult to gage the actual delegate count, but even his closest campaign advisors admit it would be virtually impossible for Paul to deny Romney the nomination in Tampa.
So why are Establishment Republicans so concerned?
Even if the nomination is not in play, an army of Paul delegates could cause significant problems for the presumptive nominee, who needs a smooth convention to assuage concerns about his ability to unite and energize the Republican base.
While some of Paul's delegates will be bound to vote for Romney on the first ballot, they will not answer to Romney's campaign. That means that the presumptive nominee will have little control over how those delegates vote on the other issues at the convention, including the party platform, the convention chair, and even the vice-presidential nominee. If Paul winds up with the majority of delegates in six states — and it looks like he might — they will have the power to stop the convention proceedings, and make a motion on anything from electing a new convention chair, to changing the rules, to introducing new platform positions.
Sources close to the Ron Paul campaign tell Business Insider that senior strategists are already hunkering down to plan their convention strategy. The campaign did not respond to requests for comment, but if the state convention results are any indication, Romney underestimates their plan at his peril.
Read more: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-05-09/politics/31629069_1_paul-supporters-paul-campaign-romney-supporters#ixzz1wbaNwnOg
