Ron Paul Supporters Put Conservatives in Uncomfortable Position

The effortsby Ron Paul supporters led by Ryan Davidson to get a 2/3 majority of Precinct Committeeman to vote to overturn the results of the Idaho Caucus puts conservatives in an uncomfortbale position. According to Davidson:

“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.”

 

Certainly, the convention CAN go ahead and put aside the votes of 51% of the people. They CAN invalidate countless hours of volunteer work done as well as the time,money, and pains that thousands of Idahoans to go out and participate in a Caucus.They CAN ignore the votes of the Party regulars because Mr. Davidson thinks he knows better, but should they? I would say no.

I should note that I write this as someone who spent the last five years advocating against a Mitt Romney candidacy.  I don’t like his nomination and don’t think he’s a great candidate but the idea that trying to throw the nomination to a guy who got 10.86% of the vote is going to help us defeat Obama in the fall is a pipe dream.

But here is where the dilemma comes infor conservatives. This is being pushed through the Precinct Committee races. These races are about a lot more than the presidential delegate selection process. Through 2008 and 2010, an anti-Establishment push has occurred. It’s allowed the election of Norm Semanko as Chairman. In that role, Semanko has done great things for our party, including beginning the effort to send out questionaires as to where our candidates stand on the Party platform.

Ron Paul lost the caucuses and so therefore, the focus ought to be on electing a new chairman at Twin Falls who will live up to conservative values. Instead, Davidson has handed the establishment a weapon with which they can get back into power at this year’s convention because they can tell voters quite honestly that a vote for Ron Paul backers will lead to an overturning of the state’s caucus results that will allow the third place candidate to get all the delegates.

Conservative voters will face a hard pick. Voting for the Romney slate of Precinct Committeemen will ensure that the integrity of Idaho’s election process will ensure the votes of Idaho Republicans are not disregarded. On the other hand, it will also end up handing control of the state party back to the landed political establishment who cares little for grassroots conservatives and more for its own power.

It may make sense to vote for the Paul people because the odds of them winning 2/3 of delegates are small or it may be that the move to use a technicality to overturn the votes of a majority of Caucus-goers may be a bridge too far. This will be the dilemma faced on Tuesday.

As an eddenum, Caucus critics will no doubt chime in claiming that the caucus allowed this to happen. That’s nonsense. The suspension of the rules Davidson proposes could be used after a primary as well.

Read more at Adam’s Blog