Ron Paul supporters have their day in court, er, armory
Here’s the scene: About 45 Ron Paul supporters, most of them from Republican hotbeds Greene County or St. Charles, are gathering in the gymnasium of the Jefferson City armory awaiting their fate as challenged delegates to the Republican state convention.
There’s an 80-year-old man who made the jaunt on a Monday at 10 a.m. There is Curtis Abbott, one of the Greene County ringleaders. There’s a group holding a prayer circle as the first delegate is led upstairs.
And over on the floor playing with his 3-and-a-half-year-old son Andy is Brent Stafford of St. Charles. Stafford was chairman of the St. Charles County Conference, which elected 137 delegates to the state convention, nearly all of them supporters of the failed presidential candidate, Paul.
Stafford and others believe the state party is ignoring it’s “open door” platform by challenging delegates without a reason. All of the challenged delegates in the Armory received a letter from Richard C. Peerson, the chairman of the Republican convention credentials committee. The letter did not state any reasons for the challenge.
“At least they’re giving us the illusion of due process,” Stafford said. He was referring to the 2nd Congressional District convention in which all the St. Charles delegates were unceremoniously tossed out.
The first to be called before the credentials committee today was Barry Pulley of St. Peters. Pully tried to bring Peggy Young with him. Young is an expert in parliamentary procedure who agreed to represent the challenged delegates in their secret meetings, but she was not allowed to join Pulley.
“Effectively, they were saying I was there because the entire group (of Paul delegates) was challenged,” Pulley said. He stated his case and the meeting ended. He said he still plans to attend the state convention.
Republican Party Executive Director Jared Craighead could not be reached for comment. He was in the closed-door meetings upstairs at the Armory, according to one of the Republican Party officials running the meeting.
Looks like they’ll get about the same due process as the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Who says Republicans aren’t consistant?
“failed” “ringleader”
Wow, another smear piece of fake journalism by Tony Messenger of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
My credentials as a delegate aren’t being challenged, so I have no personal stake in this situation. But I have to say, it seems to me a pointless, or even a counterproductive effort. McCain will be the nominee whether these folks get to come to Branson or not. The only possible repercussion of seating them is that a few Republican bigwigs may not get to serve as delegates to the national convention. As somebody who HAS been a delegate to the national convention (actually, to be precise, an alternate) that would bum me out … but it wouldn’t be the end of the world. On the other hand, alienating a bunch of excited political neophytes just months before an election doesn’t strike me as such a good idea.
Hear me and hear me good.
If the Republican party does not stop these pointless attempts to harrass and disenfranchise Ron Paul Republicans, we will not just sit out the election in November, we will push our support to the Democrat.
To our way of thinking, there isn’t but 50 cents worth of difference between McCain and either Democrat anyway (to say there’s not a dime’s worth of difference would be to overstate the case) The satisfaction of making the Republican party *suffer* through four (or maybe eight?)years of either Obama or Clinton will more than make up the difference.
To put it simply - If you think we are a problem when we are _in_ your party, imagine the havoc that we will create outside of it. Imagine thousands of blog comments for Hillary. Imagine $6 million dollar money bombs for Obama.
Do not take this as an idle threat. You have been warned.
Thanks for the update. I can see why they are worried - that group in the prayer circle is clearly calling for reinforcements!
What has my long time party come to in trying to disenfranchise people who played by the rules?
Simon Jester - The very words you wrote here are precisely why the party is challenging delegates. Unfortunately, it isn’t just the Republican party that will suffer if Obama is elected, it will be the entire country.
In fact, there is quite a bit more than fifty cents worth of difference between McCain and Obama, a Senator with a more liberal voting record than the Vermont Socialist, Senator Sanders. As President, Obama would radically reshape America. We would see a surge in the scope of the federal government that would leave you longing for the Bush years, and attacks on private enterprise that would exceed even those of FDR. Taxes would increase for nearly everyone. We would see the re-implementation of federal regulation of political speech in broadcasting, which would drive conservative talk hosts off the air. And we would see broad new federal regulations on gun ownership.
Will we see conservative heaven under a McCain administration? Unlikely. But the changes that would take place under Obama are broad and sweeping. Under McCain, none of those things would happen. And we would see, at least for four years, an elimination of earmarks, which is more than President Bush ever did.
Unfortunately, politics often presents us with imperfect choices. But a foolish response to an imperfect choice is, in this case, a costly thing. You can scream like a teenager, or fight like a man. The choice is yours.
If Ron Paul is not on the ballot in November WRITE HIM IN if this is possible in your state. If you can’t do this then don’t vote for anyone. Don’t waste your vote on someone you don’t want just because they are the lesser of two eviils or you don’t think that Paul has a chance of winning.Don’t be the vote who puts someone in office that will make this country even worse than it is now. If you can become a deligate.
If you can’t vote then write in Ron Paul
I’m a registered Republican and voted for Bush in 2000/4. I am not the only one sorry that I did so. I will be voting for Ron Paul this time around, as the Republican Party seems to be neoconned to the extent that it was, and remains, a major oppressor of the old line Conservatives. We are now being offered a liberal war-hungry McCain, and with him a former Democratic V-P contender who is set upon a war with Iran, Lieberman. Do you really expect my vote?
Ron Paul supporters should vote in this election. They have a place in the process whether the repubs want them at their convention or not. Instead of lesser than two evils or not voting, how about voting for the party that Paul ran in 1988. The Libertarians will field a good candidate without the money and the desire to pander like the two ding dongs.
I was at the polls handing out literature for Republican candidates before I could go to the polls to vote for them. I was also elected to be a delegate in 2004 to the GOP 1st District and State Conventions and attended with no problems.
Then why did I get a noticed last Thursday, May 1 that I was my credentials were being challenged and that I could appear on Monday in Jeff City for a hearing?
But truely, I don’t know. I called the GOP twice, and got voicemail with no return call. I sent an email to the man who signed my challenge letter. No response.
Since I was properly elected at the township caucus on Mar. 15 and I participated in GOP District Convention on Apr. 19th, I can only assume that because I’m a Republican who supported pro-life, Constitutionalist Ron Paul, the Party isn’t interested in my participation.
Why should I take a day off of work and pay for a tank of gas to attend this hearing to defend myself against unknown charges?
I’m just heartbroken that in a time when we are facing some tough questions and it seems so much time and energy is being put into keeping grassroots Republicans who took the time to attend the caucuses out of the process?