By
WILLIAM MARCH
TAMPA -- With less than two months until the 2012 Republican National
Convention in Tampa, tension is building between the party and
supporters of Ron Paul, who hope for a high-profile role that may not
please the GOP establishment.The tension broke into confrontation
and arrests when Paul backers took over a state GOP convention in
Louisiana last weekend to elect their own slate of delegates to attend
the Tampa convention.
It's also showing up in Tampa convention
planning as Paul's forces suggest the party is stalling approval of a
three-day Ron Paul Festival at the Florida State Fairgrounds the weekend
before the convention. The party's convention-planning Committee on
Arrangements denies the charge.
The festival, backers say, will
include music, comedy, speeches and up to 20,000 attendees — but maybe
not an appearance by Paul — and is part of an attempt to use the
convention to elevate his blended libertarian-Republican message.
It also may be aimed at raising Paul's political influence or that of his son, Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.
For
their part, Republicans are objecting to another tactic used by Paul
forces: seeking to pack the convention with Paul supporters, a practice
some condemn as "delegate stealing."
Paul has been successful in
getting dozens of delegates in states where votes in primary elections
or initial caucuses didn't appear to justify it.
"We pay attention
to the outcome on the Tuesday or Saturday when the election or caucuses
are held, but there's a parallel track we don't watch: delegate
selection," said political scientist Josh Putnam of Davidson College,
one of the nation's leading trackers of the primary process.
In
some states, that initial vote isn't binding and national convention
delegates are chosen in later caucuses or a state convention according
to rules that don't necessarily reflect the vote.
By packing those
conventions and caucuses, Paul has built big majorities in the Maine
and Minnesota delegations headed to the Tampa convention, Putnam said,
even though Rick Santorum won the Minnesota caucuses and Mitt Romney
narrowly won or tied in disputed Maine results.
Santorum no
longer is campaigning and delegate counters say Romney has enough to win
the nomination during the Aug. 27-30 Tampa convention.
Paul also will get more than his third-place share from Iowa, Putnam said.
In
Louisiana, Santorum won the non-binding March 24 primary with Romney
second. But in April, Paul supporters won the caucuses that chose
delegates to last weekend's state convention — who, in turn, were to
elect the Tampa delegates.
At that convention, Paul supporters
charge, the party issued last-minute rules to try to elect delegates
reflecting the primary results, as both the Santorum and Romney
campaigns requested.
But Paul supporters, about two-thirds of the
delegates, turned their chairs around to face the back of the hall and
held their own convention, choosing a Paul slate.
In the process,
the chairman they elected was arrested for refusing to leave the hall
and, according to a release from the Paul campaign, dislocated his
artificial hip and faces surgery. Television news reports showed a
physical confrontation.
The remaining delegates, about a third, elected their own slate.
Party
spokesman Jason Dore said via email that the Paul group can challenge
what he called the "official delegation" at the party's Committee on
Contest, but added, "The Ron Paul supporters violated a myriad of rules
and will have no chance to win a challenge."
A statement by Paul
campaign manager John Tate said party officials "ignored the vast
majority of duly elected delegates and attempted to use illegally
adopted rules to deny Ron Paul supporters an opportunity to attend the
Republican National Convention in Tampa."
Tate said Romney's
Louisiana chairman has agreed to cooperate in helping seat the
delegation chosen by the convention majority — a Paul delegation. A
Romney campaign spokesman didn't respond to a request for comment from
the Tribune.
The planned festival would be Florida's splashiest
Paul event ever, but it's being put on by independent Paul backers, not
the campaign.
The Texas congressman "has no plans to attend at this time," said campaign spokesman Gary Howard.
The
GOP has first dibs on all publicly owned event venues during the
convention, and groups wanting to hold events here must get approval
from the party's Committee on Arrangements.
Paul supporters are
suspicious because they haven't received approval. They say they've been
negotiating for the event since March. State Fair Authority spokeswoman
Terri Parnell said the application was sent May 7, with no response
yet.
But Committee on Arrangements spokesman James Davis said the
committee is in the process of matching hundreds of requests from
various groups with the 70 or so available venues, and that neither the
Paul event nor any other event has been blocked.
"We're … making
those assignments on a rolling basis," Davis said. "We have not turned
anyone down at this point. We're trying to make all the accommodations
we can."
Parnell said she thinks the event "will probably happen."
Paul backer Deborah Robinet of San Diego, leading planner of the event, isn't convinced.
In
an email to backers last weekend, Robinet said the date of the
application was March 29, not May 7. She said Paul backers were told in
April they could proceed with planning, and a contract signing was
imminent.
But last week, Robinet said, a Committee on Arrangements
official told the planners the event hadn't yet been approved and an OK
might take two more weeks, cutting into the time needed for planning
it.
"No one from the COA is being forthcoming with us, or the fairgrounds," Robinet wrote. "We are being toyed with."
Waiting two weeks "is not an option," she said. "We can't sign talent, sell tickets, or raise money without a secured venue."
One unanswered question is what Paul wants to achieve with his delegates at the convention.
"That's the $64 million question," said Putnam, of Davidson College
Among
the possibilities suggested are changes in the party platform,
political support or a Romney administration appointment for Paul or
Rand Paul, or maybe just a prominent speaking slot at the convention.
Putnam
discounted the idea that Paul delegates would try to nominate him from
the floor of the convention. That, he said, would "wreak havoc" and
wouldn't be in Paul's political interest.
"The campaign itself is
not so much into the chaos angle," though some supporters are, he said.
Paul is "more interested in a long-term revolution, shaping things
within the GOP establishment."
The party's problem, he said, is
simple: "Anything that goes off the script of unity behind Romney is
something Romney and the Republican Party want to avoid."
wmarch@tampatrib.com (813) 259-7761
