Ron Paul: Campaign Efforts in Maine, NH and Louisiana and Super Tuesday

Campaign Recount and Checking Efforts Continue
In New Hampshire and Louisiana

Ron Paul to Campaign Tomorrow in Maine

Super Tuesday Primary States and Delegates Schedule

With the primary season getting ready to kick into high gear, the Ron Paul campaign is moving behind the scenes to cross its T's and dot its I's in states where voters have already cast ballots.

Super Tuesday, with its rich booty of GOP convention delegates, is looming--only eight days away.

But before Super Tuesday, the Maine GOP Caucuses takes place in most Maine towns on February 2. (Although technically running throughout Super Bowl weekend, February 1 - 3.)

Ron Paul will be campaigning in Maine tomorrow all day on January 28 in an effort to snag Maine's 21 Republican delegates.

While the Texas Congressman is meeting and greeting citizens in the Pine Tree State, his campaign will be attending to contests already completed. Paul's supporters are bankrolling a recount effort in New Hampshire, where there were some election worker mistakes acknowledged.

Meanwhile, the results from the Louisiana Republican Caucus--which took place this past Tuesday--are still clouded with uncertainty.

Paul's campaign said Saturday that it has filed a complaint with the Louisiana state GOP over what it calls problems and inconsistencies in Louisiana's process of choosing delegates.

"At this point right now, we're not going to charge anything nefarious is going on, but it's a very confusing process, and there have been inconsistencies, and we're voicing our complaints now" and hoping to work out their concerns with state party leaders, Paul spokesman Jesse Benton said.

Messages left for state party leaders Saturday were not immediately returned.

More than 10,000 Louisiana Republican voters met Tuesday, the state party said, to choose delegates to the state Republican Convention — a step in choosing delegates to the national convention.

The party listed results as preliminary on its Web site because they did not include about 500 votes from people allowed to cast "provisional ballots" even though they did not show up on the rolls as registered Republicans. Also, many candidates ran on "more than one slate," resulting in overlap, the party said.

Louisiana GOP staff were working with local election officials to determine the eligibility of the delegates, the LA GOP said. Anyone registered as a Republican as of Nov. 30 was allowed to take part, under party rules.

However, the outcome of races, including president, in five districts could be affected by any resulting changes in the ballot count, a LA state party spokesman said.

"Results of provisional ballot analysis will be updated regularly on the party's Web site until a final count is reached," the site read Saturday. It reported that delegate candidates endorsed by U.S. Sen. John McCain "appear to have won more state convention delegate positions than any other presidential slate" in the caucuses, followed by supporters for Paul, the libertarian-minded Texas congressman.

"The initial failure of the Louisiana GOP to properly determine who was and wasn't eligible to vote threw this entire process into disarray," Lew Moore, Paul's campaign manager, said in a statement. Moore said eligibility was "just one of many irregularities" in the process.

"We are filing this contest to ensure that we can challenge the results if it appears that delegates were improperly selected," Moore said.

Unofficial results from the caucus show McCain with more of the state convention positions than any other presidential hopeful. Paul follows, while former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney finished third.

Paul's campaign contends that hundreds of voters were forced to file provisional ballots because of mistakes by the Louisiana GOP.

About 500 voters at statewide caucus sites were not shown as registered Republicans on voter rolls. Those voters were allowed to cast provisional ballots, which are not included in current tallies.

Paul's campaign also states that caucus locations relied on a voter list from Nov. 1, though party rules state that voters must be registered Republican by Nov. 30.

In addition, Paul's campaign contends that at the time of the original Jan. 10 deadline, Paul had the largest number of delegates pledged to him. But later, the party extended its deadline to Jan. 12, allowing candidates to file more delegates.

UNOFFICIAL Louisiana Republican Caucus Results for Tuesday, January 22, 2008.

All the while, supporters of Ron Paul are helping to bankroll the re-count of votes in New Hampshire's January 8 GOP presidential primary. That primary, like the Louisiana contest, was won by John McCain.

Paul's supporters didn't initiate the NH re-count, but they are pitching in because of several published accounts of irregularities.

GOP candidate Albert Howard of Ann Arbor, Michigan, requested the re-count, which began Wednesday and was continuing. Howard got 44 of the more 200,000 votes cast.

Because Howard wasn't close to the leaders, he had to pay the nearly $60,000 cost of the hand re-count. Howard said a group of Paul supporters called the "grannywarriors" is paying for the re-count. He said Lawrence Lepard of Boston — who spent more than $100,000 on newspaper ads for the Texas congressman — lent the money to get the re-count started.

Many of Ron Paul's supporters nationwide believe their candidate will have won Louisiana and its delegates when everything is said and done. With several of the candidates focusing on Florida and its winner-take-all primary, the Paul campaign is switching its focus to several other states.

Included is Maine, where Paul will campaign tomorrow.

"Maine has 21 delegates that Paul has a serious potential of winning," points out Natalie Schultz of the Nolan Chart.

"Why can Ron Paul truly win Maine? Because outside of the political elite urbanites who control the state, the majority of real Mainers are very anti-government gun-lovers. Huckabee is gaining a Christian following, but truthfully, most Mainers are old-school Christians, not Evangelicals."

To date, Maine Republican Party Executive Director Julie O'Brien says, activity on behalf of the various GOP presidential hopefuls has been relatively high.

"I mean the phone is not stopping," she says.

Supporters of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee are busy and those backing Sen. John McCain of Arizona and ex-Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts are stepping up their efforts, according to O'Brien.

She says former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has a presence.

But most active?

"If I had to say," ventures O'Brien, "Ron Paul," the Texas congressman.

Schultz believes that Ron Paul is wasting his time following the other Republican candidates around "winner take all" Florida, where both Mitt Romney and John McCain lead by a large margin. It should be noted that Rudy Giuliani is already down to 5.5/1 odds of winning Florida at BetUS.com compared to McCain's 2/1 odds and Romney's even odds. Ron Paul came in with 40/1 odds of winning the state and this is one bet even his own supporters are not likely to place money on.

"No matter how much time and money Paul spends there, he will not win. The die-hard Paul supporters there will vote for him no matter what. It’s high-time he moves on to fresh waters were there are many fish waiting to bite."

So on Sunday evening, efforts continue to ensure the correct delegate counts in New Hampshire and Louisiana, while campaigning in other states is heating up.

Tuesday, January 29, is Florida's primary, which Paul trails and is not likely to win. As was stated, Florida's primary is a winner-take-all affair with Romney, McCain and Rudy Giuliani fighting it out for the top spot.

The winner of Florida collects 114 Republican delegates.

Next up will be Maine on February 2 with its 21 delegates.

Super Tuesday on February 5 will see voters in the following states casting ballots for delegates:

Alabama (48)
Alaska (29)
Arizona (53)
Arkansas (34)
California (173)
Colorado (46)
Connecticut (30)
Delaware (18)
Georgia (72)
Illinois (70)
Minnesota (41)
Missouri (58)
Montana (25)
New Jersey (52)
New York (101)
North Dakota (26)
Oklahoma (42)
Tennessee (55)
Utah (36)
West Virginia (18 of 30)

Ron Paul was originally scheduled for an appearance at the WV Republican Convention in Charleston on the morning of Super Tuesday. The results of that convention will be announced in the early afternoon, before the polls close in the other states.

It is hoped that a good showing in WV may help influence wavering voters in other states.

So, these are the prizes up for grabs in the next 8 days.

DBKP Ron Paul Library

Over 40 DBKP stories and videos on Ron Paul, from September until the present.

by Mondoreb
images: meetupstatic
Sources:
* Paul Contests Delegate Credentials
* Ron Paul's Supporters Finance NH GOP Recount
* McCain Wins State GOP Caucus
* Ron Paul Can Win Maine