Minnesota Lawyer
It’s been a tough convention for the legions of Ron Paul supporters, who have mostly gotten outvoted and shut down. However, they did manage to get Barb Davis White from their list elected yesterday. (Tom Conlon and Dan Williams also got elected, despite not being on the official slate.)
How did the GOP establishment effectively blunt the impact of these newcomers yesterday? Ballot design, evidently. On the national delegate ballot, state delegates were selected among 14 choices out of 26 offered, and they had to select a total of 14 in order for their ballot to be accepted. Effectively, this meant that the most anti-establishment delegates had no choice but to vote for several on the official list.
Subsequently, as a Paul supporter bitterly put it, only one of their alternates was on the ballot. There were only 18 choices on that ballot, a harsh situation. Many Paul backers refused to vote altogether.
This was a result of decisions on the nominating committee; the committee also required candidates to appear in Rochester before them, though Gov. Pawlenty and U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman were permitted to phone it in.
Currently, the Paul supporters have just defeated a motion to call the convention to a close. This has been a rare break from generally disappointing results. They’re grilling former Rochester House member Fran Bradley over what’s happened, and there have been many catcalls from the floor. Many want to address changes to the party constitution.
In a tangentially related development, nearly a dozen protesters have gathered at the convention center entrance to demand a new investigation into the September 11th terrorist attacks. As is widely known, there’s quite an overlap among 9/11 protesters and Paul supporters.
Karl Rove is in the building, and on his way in, he asked one tired reporter how he’s doing. That’ll be the last big event at the convention, it seems.
