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.
Let’s see now, Ron Paul got about 5% of the vote in the Presidential “primary” in the State of Missouri. Now those who LOST want to be represented equally with those who received 6 times as many votes. We hear of threats of disruption at the convention, we read of complaints that the loosing teams are not treated fairly that they are not getting an equal voice with those who “won”, we read the whining by Ruth that she received a letter about her election to represent a township (she does not live in) going to the convention, whine, whine, whine!
We’ve read in the paper about delegates to the 2nd Congressional District complaining that they were not allowed to partake in their caucus, them the same people turn out to be listed as delegates to the Constitution Party Convention in KC. True and Faithful Republicans? More like 5th columnists!
The Voters of Missouri spoke, Ron Paul Lost, the Republican Party of Missouri is not responsible for the the results of the election.
Ron Paul people, join up with the GOP, many of us believe in much of what Ron Paul has stated.
We support much of what he has voted for and against in Congress. Work and change what is wrong in the state and National GOP system. But the disruption of the conventions will look like Chicago in ‘68 and will gain your group nothing!
The United States has become so
I, I, Me Me, My
and fearful…
that when comes a time
that young people read
and learn about Civics,
the entrenched become ingrates.
I guess only the experienced
have a place in The Process
God Save America
I think Ron Paul supporters knew all along, how the vote would go. If these reporters had carried his efforts then, with the frequency we witness now, who knows what would have happened. Ron Paul was missing from the pie chart, (a 23% unaccounted for slice) right before the election.
Now, if the caucus had been before the Primary, would a rules change seem out of place? I mean, this IS the place to do it, right? So, if I interpret the professed Old Guard correctly, all rules changes will always be denied, because they will always occur after the ballot in question.
Maybe we should caucus first, and then go hunting. (without Cheney, of course…)
RE: #31 Fed up
Mika Schrimpf, Director of Grassroots Development for the State GOP, wrote in an email: “State delegates can be from ANY township or district so long as they are registered voters for St. Louis Co.”
I was elected to be a delegate to the state convention from a township in St. Louis Co. and I live in St. Louis Co. Why did you purposely try to imply I was breaking the rules?
Moreover, if I was not properly elected, why didn’t the 1st Congressional District chairman challenge my credentials at the District Convention on Apr. 19th?
Please check your facts before you accuse someone of breaking the rules. Check with Mika or read the MO Republican Call to Convention.
Moreover, the “rules” for the conventions confirmed by those elected to the convention according to Roberts Rules of Order and the Call. Thus, it is the delegates at state convention who vote on and decide the rules. It is legitimate to change the rules at the state convention; it happens every convention–state and national. Case in point: the MO delegates at some point were not “bound” (as in ‘96) and now they are “bound.”
When did that change occur? And who approved that change?
Since the media is bias and able to sway the masses, is it really in the best interest of Republicans to “bind” all delegates to the winner of the primary? I think this is a legitimate discussion for Republicans to have about unintended consequences of Party rules, even if it’s limited to discussing changes for 2012.
Thanks for the article, even articles with most truths in them are better than those with no truths.
Alright, So they are being challenged, don’t we have their published rule book, if we can’t win by trying to compromise with them. Then we fight back, make it come out to the convention who is the more conservative group. (who knows the rules?)
who do you think would win that debate, the mccain, huckabee, romney delegates?
or RP’s delegates?
What would be the issues to stand on?
Mccain=war
Huckabee + romney = mccain supporters (holding on to delegates just in case rp has a chance, cause they still want to win.)
Ron Paul = RonPaullibrary.org.
Jane said, [ Nick Kasoff writes ] ” that McCain will eliminate 4 years of earmarks……….what is that, about .00045% of our debt? ”
Jane, earmarks are a red herring that Nick Kasoff and a few others are using to distract voters from the goal of eliminating budget deficits. I worked in Army budget in the Pentagon, so I learned many of the budget tricks.
By the time earmarks come around, the money is already budgeted and it will be spent. In other words, the money will be spent by someone and earmarks are a way to take some of the money (money confiscated by the IRS from working people) and send it to the local districts. Having no earmarks will save exactly $0. Eliminating earmarks means other people in the gov’t will spend it - typically unelected career civil servants.
In 2007, earmarks were $19 billion. If we wanted to save $19 billion, we could easily do so by getting troops out of South Korea for a year … or getting troops out of Iraq for six weeks.
Elimination of earmarks saves nothing, therefore it has nothing to do with being fiscally conservative. McCain and Nick Kasoff use earmarks as a red herring argument to distract true conservatives from focusing on the real budget issue of reducing spending.
Instead of blathering on about whether the supporters of Ron Paul are “loyal” Republicans, I have a challenge for you McCainites.
Try reading “The Revolution: A Manifesto” by Ron Paul and decide what you think about the man’s policies and political wisdom.
Don’t take our word for it, and for heaven’s sake don’t take the condensed and predigested versions of his beliefs that have been force fed to the American public by the mainstream media.
Who knows, you might just come to understand why so many people are so enthusiastic about his campaign and his message.
Come on, it won’t bite, I promise you.
People are being treated unfairly, this is a fact. The entire delegation from the St. Charles Caucus was challenged. The delegates from St. Charles were not allowed to make any statements in their defense at the 2nd Congressional Convention in Kirkwood or participate in any way. Then we are asked to drive all the way to Jefferson City to defend ourselves.
The credentials committee is made up of one member from each congressional district. The man on the Credentials Committee from the 2nd Congressional District is the man who filed the challenge against all of the St. Charles delegates. How can this be a fair and unbiased process?
Not one challenged person has ever seen the written challenges. There must be written challenge with supporting evidence submitted by a deadline. How can anyone know if any of this is was done? Why would they withhold the information from the challenged delegates if there was not something to hide?
Nick KastMeOff
As a Ron Paul supporter, I find your assessment of the diffences between Obama and McCain to be without merit. McCain is the worst possible outcome for America. He is an international adventurist that lives in the Teddy Roosevelt world view of attack first, talk never. America is on the verge of economic and credibility collapse. McCain get’s us there on a speeding bullet. Obama will be constrained by the economic mess that he inherits from Mr. Bush and Cheney and then again by his ability to see the consequences of unbalanced budgets and military hedgemony.
America is in a constitutional death spiral brought on by the neocon fear machine and a spineless congress and an utter lack of awareness by the American people of their responsibility and power to exert control over a two party system that gives us a choice between Hillary “Annihilate Iran” Clinton and John “Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Iran” McCain.
If the GOP will not accept Ron Paul, the heir of Goldwater, Taft & to a lesser extent Reagen. Then, Obama is the clear choice for those who wish to slow the Empire in order to save our Republic.
Hey, if it’s no big deal and McCain will be the nominee, why the inquisition? For all that goes, why bother even sending delegates to the National Convention? Why have the national convention at all?