Paulite Shennanigans

After Paul's initial focus on the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary failed to pan out, the Paul camp began focusing on the mechanics of delegate apportionment. In order to officially win the nomination, Romney needs the votes of 1,144 delegates to the Republican National Convention. But in many states, winning a primary or caucus doesn't automatically guarantee that the delegates chosen by the winner will be seated at the convention. In Romney's home state of Massachusetts, for instance, the former governor won 72 percent of the primary vote. But delegates had yet to be chosen, and in the state party's delegate-chosing caucus last week, fewer than half of the delegates designated by Team Romney won the right to be seated at the convention. The rest of the seats went to Ron Paul supporters.

Similar scenes have played out in Minnesota and Louisiana and may well do so again today in Nevada. In fact, the Republican establishment is so concerned with the Paul camp's delegate strategy that Republican National Committee general counsel John R. Phillippe, Jr. sent a letter to the Nevada state party chairman not to mess with the delegate process, or risk "jeopardizing the seating of Nevada’s entire delegation to the National Convention." (Phillippe did, however, acknowledge that his letter was "not binding," according to Jon Ralston of the Las Vegas Sun.)

In Louisiana, the Paul forces swept the delegate election process last weekend, winning upwards of 70 percent of the slots, according to Policymic. (That process actually chose delegates to the June 2 statewide Republican convention, where more hijinks are likely.)

At a Minnesota delegate-selecting contest based on congressional districts two weeks ago, Ron Paul won 20 of the 24 delegates available in that contest.

In Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses last January, Ron Paul finished in a respectable third place, but his supporters now control the state Republican Party, and Iowa's entire delegation comprises "unbound" delegates, who can vote for any candidate for the nomination.

Iowa's unbound delegation, however, is something of an outlier. Yet that doesn't mean that delegates bound to Romney, but who not-so-secretly heart Paul, can't cause a heap of trouble. Under party rules, Ron Paul enthusiasts, such as those in Massachusetts, who won their convention spots on a Romney slate are bound to cast their nomination vote for Romney at the convention. But they can choose whomever they want for convention chair, and vote any which way on platform issues. And they can vote for any vice presidential candidate they care to. It's long been suspected that what Ron Paul is really after is a place on the ticket for his son, Rand, the U.S. senator from Kentucky, so those Paul-allied Romney delegates could make trouble for the nominee, should he choose a different running mate. Or they might just defy the rules altogether, and deliver a sh*t show for the television cameras.

Despite former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney’s overwhelming victory in the Nevada caucuses, Texas Rep. Ron Paul has won a majority of the state’s delegates to the party’s national convention later this year in Tampa, Florida.
Thanks to organized Paul supporters, who have been working to increase their candidate’s support at state conventions around the country, 22 of the 25 Nevada delegates up for grabs will be Paul supporters.