Ron Paul Supporters in Washington State Win Delegates and Repudiate War, Despite GOP Chicanery
Supporters Win Four National Delegates, Four Alternates, and Pass Anti-War Resolution by Kingsley Morse
(libertarian)
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Underdog presidential candidate Ron Paul overcame GOP chicanery to win four national delegates, and four alternates at Washington State's republican convention here in Spokane on Friday, May 30th.
Stuart Grant, who was on the floor, estimated that forty to forty-two percent of the state delegates supported Ron Paul (video).
Ron Paul's supporters say the GOP rail-roaded the convention to favor John McCain.
A Ron Paul supporter named Jacob Brassington said he was offerred $500 to switch his vote to McCain (video).
Ron Paul delegates sitting in the left, right and center of the convention hall said they doubted that Washington State GOP chairman Luke Esser could discern whether a majority had voted for or against several questions. Nonetheless, Mr. Esser uniformly ruled in favor of McCain, and even reversed himself once after accidentally ruling for Ron Paul. Mr. Esser also failed to count votes for candidate Mike Huckabee in the February caucus.
John McCain has said he's OK with staying in Iraq for a hundred years, and bombing Iran. Ron Paul wants to bring the troops home immediately, and takes a peaceful approach to Iran.
Bruce Morton, from Lake Stevens, said he was euphoric and teary-eyed after passing an anti-war resolution. Some delegates said his success made the whole weekend worthwhile.
Ron Paul delegate John Spiers, said he was told by security that the GOP instructed them to kick out anyone videotaping the convention without press credentials. Mr. Spiers repeatedly asked to see which rule they were enforcing, but was never shown one. Mr. Spiers said he suspected the republican party was trying to hide something.
A reporter who supports Ron Paul said the GOP refused to give him press credentials for the convention. Fred James said when he told the GOP he was from Bellingham, where Ron Paul enjoys strong support, there was a long, pregnant pause at the other end of the phone. Mr. James is reporting for Nolan Chart and the Whatcom Independent.
The GOP placed Ron Paul's booth at the outer reaches of the convention hall, where fewer people would see it.
The election of delegates for the second congressional district was chaired by McCain supporter Joe Elenbaas, who was recently sentenced to a year in jail. Mr. Elenbaas said the rules wouldn't allow a hand count of the ballots to double check the computerized tally, but was unable to cite the exact rule. Washington state GOP chair Luke Esser was called in to answer questions, but said he couldn't remember who makes the voting machines that the party uses.
Justin McKay, from Ferndale, said he came away with one question: "Who makes the electronic machines that are used to count the votes? Does anyone out there know? We're waiting with baited breath."
Don Harkin, who runs the Idaho Observer, said people were shocked to find ballots in a garbage can.
Ron Paul supporter Doug Parris said the convention was the biggest cheat-fest he'd ever seen, and that he was kicked in the groin by another delegate while photographing McCain's delegation. His interview starts forty two seconds into this video.
A Ron Paul delegate was kicked out of the convention (video). Neither he or this reporter are aware of any McCain delegate being kicked out. Jayson Reimer criticized McCain delegates, and said he wanted to give Mr. Esser an "atomic wedgie", which is where someone is restrained by pulling the waistband of his underwear up over his head.
This reporter drew tears from Ron Paul supporters when he observed that, one year, two years or five years from now, if they happen to meet an unconsolable mother who has lost a child in a stupid Middle Eastern war, they'll be able to offer sympathy, and say that, back in 2008, they tried to stop it in Spokane.
Kingsley G. Morse Jr. Whatcom County delegate June 8th, 2008
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Mr. Morse, I was a Ron Paul delegate at the Washington State convention. The war issue was not brought up because of a deal that was made between the Ron Paul state leadership and the McCain state leadership. The deal was that the McCain organizers would stop using their "YES" and "NO" signs to tell their followers what to think, in exchange for our side not bringing up the war issue. As the war is a Federal matter, this ended up being a very positive deal for us at the State convention.
Regarding the McCain walkout, the only thing that was worse than the walkout was the fact that once they discovered that the convention was still left with a quorum (and therefore a more than 2/3 Ron Paul majority of the remaining delegates!) they came back in (unbeknownst to us, they had been waiting just outside) and then filibustered to run out the clock. We did manage to get an anti-war resolution on the platform before the filibuster however! The McCain leadership is obviously very, very afraid of our more "radical" ideas - so afraid that they walked out and filibustered to prevent them from even being discussed! What were our "radical" ideas that they were so scared of even DISCUSSING? Sound money, lower taxes, and US sovereignty. The walkout served only to strengthen our resolve and show the Romney and Huckabee folks how bad McCain truly is. Many of them spoke with Paul supporters during the filibuster and said that they were disgusted with McCain's tactics and were now changing their minds on who they'd support in the election. I also personally changed my opinion of McCain due to these events, as prior to the convention I had been willing to grit my teeth and vote McCain in November as he was the lesser of two evils. Now I know that I cannot vote for McCain.
Overall the convention was a big success for the Ron Paul movement. The state platform was 100% Ron Paul - all Traditional Republican, no Neocon garbage. This is a near 180 degree shift from the previous platforms. Our swelling of the Republican party ranks over the last year has significantly changed the hearts and minds of the majority of the Washington State Republican party. The overwhelming majority of the delegates voted to pass the platform as written, with only very minor issues being debated on. The best part is that the leadership who wrote the platform and the other (non Ron Paul) delegates think that the platform was their own idea! With the Ron Paul ideals so firmly ingrained in non Paulites, it is obvious that our movement has had great success.
I was also a delegate at the convention, and I have to say that the only consistent integrity shown on the floor was from the Ron Paul supporters...and the other honest non-McCain delegates who stood with them when the McNasties walked out. They should all have their convention fees reimbursed by the walk-outs (who should never be allowed to return).
Posted By: Geno Canto del Halcon
Date: 2008-06-02 08:18:29
The best thing Ron Paul supporters can do now is support Bob Barr, who already has his party's nomination. This could be the year of the Libertarian if Paul supporter's don't fall for the old duopolist sucker's choice.
The Republication Convention was insane. I think ours was worse than the Nevada convention in terms of outright dirty politics from the McCain people. They refused to count the votes for things that we were voting on, and while it always looked very close to me, the Chair always decided in favor of the McCainers, even without a tally of at least one vote for at least one issue. So that was very frustrating, and some delegates got up and left early on Saturday because they were so angry.
The McCainers were also very rude, unprofessional, and very immature toward all the Ron Paul people. It was shameful to watch grown people, most over 50, acting like 12 year olds. There was a lot of smart alek behavior from everywhere, and I kept wondering how that behavior was supposed to draw the new people into the party? Saturday, the McCainers tried to pull the "Nevada walk-out and hide" tactic. So while myself and several other people were standing in line at the microphone to adopt resolutions and ammendments to the platform, I look behind me and see a mass exodus of McCainers filing out of the convention room. I thought "Oh my God, they're going to pull the Nevada scam here too!" So they all left quickly and were nowhere to be seen, nor did they give up their delegate badges to a replacement, so technically, they violated the rules associated with leaving the floor. So we asked for a quorum count to see if we had enough people left to continue, and after what took forever to count the people, we did have enough, so we quickly started working on adding resolutions. Well apparently the disserters got that info after we passed a resolution on demanding a war be officially declared, and they all began coming back in quickly. So their hopeful tactic of throwing the quorum requirement didn't work so they came back!! Then they all got beligerent and were incessently wasting the remainder time with superflous garble at the microphones and kept all proceedings from moving any further. Finally they asked for a 2/3 vote to adjourn the convention, and of course they got that on their side as well, and in just that one vote, the convention was done by something like 6-6:30.
I was utterly appalled on Friday, when we seperated into our individual rooms for our districts to vote for Nat'l Delegates. I had submitted mine in a timely fashion. I had been voted in as a Nat'l Alternate in the Milan Prairie meeting. However, my name was not included on their list. I asked to be put back on the list and they said they would not unless I had my "receipt of mailing" with me at that time. I had never expected them to lose my paperwork, and never once thought about bringing that receipt, if I still even have it? They said if I didn't have my receipt, I could not be added to the list. When I stood up and called for point of order, I had to call point of order 4 times while the chairman ignored my calls and addressed other McCainers that stood up and just started talking before me. Finally I asked if their official statement from the Republican party was that all they had to do was lose our paperwork in order to keep us from going to the Nat'l Convention, and the chairman said yes. So I restated and asked again, that "was that REALLY their official statement of that all they had to do was lose our paperwork and we wouldn't get to go to the Nat'l Convention?" and again he said yes. He then added that the burden of proof belonged to the challenger. I was in utter shock, and they would not allow me to add my name to the slate for the vote. The result was I am not going to the Nat'l Convention when I had really wanted to go, of course as a voting delegate, but I was still excited about being an alternate as well.
After the convention was over, we talked to other districts and found out that the other districts openly allowed votes from the floor if their names for some reason were not included on the slate. In District #1 They even allowed appr 25 people to add their names to that slate without any hassle whatsoever. So only District 5 wouldn't allow a re-signing of the paperwork from the floor to add to the slate, unless that person had their actual receipt in hand. The obvious thing here was that the only paperwork that were lost were those of the Ron Paul supporters. None of the McCainers from District 5 had their paperwork so conveniently lost by the Republican party.
There were a few good things to come out of that convention, regardless of the dirty politics tactics we witnessed from the McCainers. The first was that opposition to a mandatory National Animal Identification System(NAIS) was added to the statewide platform. That is a trmendous victory for all the thousands of people who have been fighting against NAIS for the past couple years. When we started working against it in '06, nobody even knew what it was or even believed we weren't just making the whole thing up. Yesterday the opposition to NAIS was recognized as a platform/resolution issue. So that, in and of itself, was a tremendous step forward and will absolutely benefit ever animal owner in our state and help to protect their private property rights. So HURRAY for that accomplishment!!! :()
Opposition to the Growth Management Plan was also added. The experience was very valuable in that having had that convention under your belt, pretty much prepared the delegates for anything and everything for future reference. And of course knowing that RP delegates are in fact going to the National Convention is a positive outcome in spite of all their dispicable efforts against us.
The convention could have been a great experience had they been fair. The Chair kept saying he was acting in a way that was fair for everyone, but I strongly disagree, especially since he refused to allow a roll call count on even one vote, which could have determined a reference number from the get go.
I left yesterday, wondering if I even wanted to be associated with the Republican Party at all, after watching their low-down dirty Nevada tactics that were nothing short of disgraceful. The party members behaved no better than their tactics exemplified. I was ashamed for alot of the people's totally unprofessional conduct through the entire thing. I am still wondering if I care to associate myself any longer with a group that behaves in such a shameful manner when our country is in a real perilous downward spiral. I am possibly considering joining the Libertarian Party. I am not positive yet, but I am strongly considering the prospect right now, especialyl since the Libertarian Party doesn't seem to have problems with any of the resolutions we were trying to pass this weekend.
So for the most part, I think this convention was just as bad, if not worse, than the convention held in Nevada. While we were able to adopt some great resolutions to the party, their conduct is utterly embarrassing, and I don't think they represent me and my own family with their example.
If I can find my receipt for having sent in my paperwork , I will be taking legal action against whomever from the party is addressing such things.
Rene' Holaday~ Die-hard Ron Pauler, "a fight to the end"
I was a Delegate at the Washington State Republican Convention. I was extremely disappointed that mostly the King County Districts (not all), but all McCain platform supporters wasted the all the Washingtonians resolutions (not previously approved, 49 in all, resolution 18 was approved though regarding the authority of congress declaring war, the remaining all disregarded) that all counties statewide came up with to make Washington state a better place. Basically if it was not a McCain platform issue, who cares?
After the pre-approved resolutions were gathered up & approved in one “rail-road” vote, King Co. wanted to go home early and disregard the Washingtonians resolutions everyone worked so hard to identify and find solutions to these broad issues, they ran out the clock like in a game of sports by calling for a quorum having the entire delegation recounted at least 3 times (and I believe a 4th) all in a row to maintain control, to not address these issues instead of just leaving, and letting those who care and represent the people stay since we asked to suspend the Roberts Rules of order to extend the time indefinitely to address every single resolution the people deserved but it was challenged again by calling for a quorum wasting over an hour and a half until a majority finally decided to basically give up and go home.
Every single one of those Delegates were elected to be there to represent all voters in their districts and counties who were not able to be there, they did not due their duty as Delegates and did not represent them nor the Washingtonians statewide. I am very disappointed; I have to go back next time to make sure these shenanigans do not occur again. I am so disappointed in the outcome, but I am proud to have been a part of the Revolution!
