Ron Paul condemns assault on Idaho caucus
05.12.12 | The Idaho Statesman
May 11–Ron Paul’s national presidential campaign manager, John Tate, said Paul does not sanction the actions of some Idaho supporters.
Tate said the current activity — following a binding caucus that gave Mitt Romney 62 percent of the vote among 45,000 GOP voters — is not in keeping with Paul’s chasing delegates in states that have nonbinding “beauty contests.”
“In Idaho, isolated instances of grass-roots activists working toward an ostensible ‘hostile takeover’ of the GOP are not sanctioned by the Ron Paul national campaign,” Tate said in a news release Thursday, four days after an Idaho Statesman account of an effort led by Ryan Davidson, an Ada County GOP Central Committee member.
“Therefore, (the campaign) condemns efforts to expand its influence in the Republican Party in Idaho and beyond when these activities are couched as vengeful … or markedly distasteful,” Tate said.
Last week, Davidson said Paulers are aiming to win enough of Idaho’s 925 precinct committee posts in Tuesday’s primary election to dominate county organization meetings in late May and early June. Then, Davidson said, they aim to elect two-thirds of the delegates to the June 22 state convention and suspend rules to award all 32 Idaho delegates to Paul rather than Romney.
Davidson declined comment Thursday.
Last week, Davidson told the Statesman, “I’ll do the scorched earth if I have to.”
In a training video, Davidson says, “If two-thirds of the delegates to the Idaho State Convention are Ron Paul supporters, they can vote to suspend the rules, overturn the results of the caucus and award all the national delegates to Ron Paul.”
Republicans, including former Gov. Phil Batt, are fighting back, sending 20,000 postcards to Ada County voters with lists of precinct committee candidates loyal to Romney. “I’m happy if they’re getting their internal affairs in order, but it was disruptive to Idaho to begin with,” Batt said.
Dan Popkey: 377-6438
