Republicans in disarray

Representatives of the Romney campaign threatened to prevent New York State party chairman Ed Cox from taking the stage at the national convention in Tampa unless he installed the delegates they'd chosen, sources familiar with the encounter said.
The disagreement comes after months of incidents at state conventions, most recently in Massachusetts, where Ron Paul delegates were required to sign affidavits saying they would vote for Romney. In a host of other states, pro-Romney Republicans have struggled to maintain control of party platforms and delegate slates in the face of insurgent libertarians.

At stake is control of the convention, which the campaign hopes will be an error-free infomercial on Romney’s personal and presidential merits. But conventions are also gatherings of diverse and garrulous local political operatives, each eager for a day in the sun, and the intense focus on the events creates a constant risk of derailment.

In New York, the incident didn’t involve Paul supporters, but a battle of wills between the Romney campaign and the state party chairman over the selection of delegates from the state.

"The Romney people gave Ed Cox their list of people they wanted to have be delegates," said one Republican operative familiar with what happened. "Cox was like I’m not doing that, I’m doing my people."

"The Romney people were pissed at him," the operative said, adding that the Romney representatives had plans to "replace Ed Cox as the person with the authority" to introduce the New York delegation at the national convention.