Michigan convention 1/2 over.

[pepperpete1]

Hi all, I just got back from the Michigan GOP Convention.
The delegates for Romney were considered uncommitted so any resident in a U.S. Congressional district where he won delegates could fill out a presidential preference form and indicate uncommitted and would be put on the slate for that district's caucus.

The persons there for Ron Paul mainly kept it on the QT, as you were supposed to be uncommitted and of course you want to get as many republicans voting for you as a national delegate.

My ignorance of how the process works, did not allow for me to prepare a speech, or make up flyers, promoting myself as a national delegate nominee. Trying to find information on how the system works when you are not normally a part of the system is like pulling healthy teeth! DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU! If your state coordinators or meetup groups can't give you the information, look to your local Republicans. Key word here is LOCAL.

Not being a but a NEW Republican, I did not have any credentials that would qualify me as national delegate, but that did not stop me from going as a "guest" to the convention and run for delegate, even though I could not vote, I could be voted for.

We did not have very many US Congressional district 2 Ron Paul supporters there to vote for us and of course they would have had no way of knowing we were RP supporters because we were running uncommitted. Unless we had some district meetups where the info could have been diseminated to everyone.

Tomorrow they will be voting for the 12 delegates who are considered "At Large".
These nominees will come from a slate of persons that the presidential candidate has chosen. Since Ron Paul did not win 15% of the state vote or even one district he has no slate to put any nominees on, and so I will not be going tomorrow as I have a chance to work and make up for the time I took off today.

Sorry to say Dist. 2 in MI has no national delegates for RP. I will check to see who the delegates are for the other districts are and post it later.

Oh, yeah, Janet Huckabee was there at our caucus and was stumping for her husband. We RP supporters were standing or sitting right up front and when she said "Mike Huckabee is the only candiate who is in favor of eliminating the IRS, I almost lost it. I started waving my arms indicating, like, "hold the phone", I know she saw me because she was looking right at me from only 15 feet away. I slammed my water bottle down against the chair I was standing next to and was about to interject with a correction when I thought, I had better not as I was being voted on as an alternate in the second round of voting coming up.
As it turns out, I might just as well have corrected her in a room full of 150+ people.
She said some of the other things that Huck stole from Ron, but I was so mad, I quit listening.

[pepperpete1]

What? No one wants to know how the convention is going in MI.?

[pacelli]

Keep the updates coming !

[ronpaulhawaii]

Good job on jumping into the fray - thanks

[JimInNY]

My ignorance of how the process works, did not allow for me to prepare a speech, or make up flyers, promoting myself as a national delegate nominee. Trying to find information on how the system works when you are not normally a part of the system is like pulling healthy teeth!

That's why I made http://newr3volution.com/

I want it to serve as a place to go get that info. Now all I need are people that know that info to join and become the editor for their state.

Great work by the way, thanks!

[morlhzd]

This type of report is really useful to the rest of us that have conventions coming up. Thank you for the details and keep the updates coming.

[faisal]

..

[280Z28]

Oh, yeah, Janet Huckabee was there at our caucus and was stumping for her husband. We RP supporters were standing or sitting right up front and when she said "Mike Huckabee is the only candiate who is in favor of eliminating the IRS, I almost lost it. I started waving my arms indicating, like, "hold the phone", I know she saw me because she was looking right at me from only 15 feet away. I slammed my water bottle down against the chair I was standing next to and was about to interject with a correction when I thought, I had better not as I was being voted on as an alternate in the second round of voting coming up.
As it turns out, I might just as well have corrected her in a room full of 150+ people.
She said some of the other things that Huck stole from Ron, but I was so mad, I quit listening.

"Mrs. Huckabee, don't you find it at least a little bit hypocritical to talk about Christian values in your family and then openly lie like that?"

[VRP08]

Thanks for the update and your hard work!

[1836]

Thanks for doing the actual work that matters. Thanks for trying, even though you came up short. We all appreciate it!

God Bless,

-Jess.

[kill the banks]

nice report thx

lessons learned i hope

kill the banks

[PauliticsPolitics]

yes, we need to learn about all the state conventions and county conventions.

we can steal alot of delegate for us!

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=119814

[nc4rp]

thanks for all your work and for the update. Perhaps we will still see ya at the national convention ;)

think of how experienced, prepared, and knowledable the 100,000's of Paul activists will be in future elections.

[Rhys]

Way to go. I'm glad to get the update.

[Eponym_mi]

I was glad to meet more Ron Paul supporters in our area at the convention last night....thanks for turning out pepperpete1!

We had a great turnout and were well represented by good people. Out of 11 people running for delegate, 3 were Ron Paul supporters. It was a close vote, but the party hacks and McCain supporters won in the end.

Nevertheless, I learned a lot and will be much better prepared next time. If I had followed my instincts about what to do, I believe it would've been possible to win. What I learned:

1. Contact your local GOP office and try to get a list of the delegates that will be at the convention/caucus with their contact info.
2. Prepare handouts listing some biographical info about yourself and what issues you're concerned about (keep it Republican mainstream!! the majority of people attending will not be 9/11 truthers, gold bugs, etc.)
3. Prepare a short speech
4. Dress professional
5. Prepare a slate listing our candidates (optional)

I had considered #2 and #5, but was discouraged from doing so by our state coordinator. Nevertheless, I was ready with #3 and #4. I probably could have given a much longer speech, but didn't want to be viewed as a blowhard in comparison to the other candidates who kept it pretty short for the most part. I got some good comments from people anyway.

On my way back home from the convention, I stopped to eat and ran into one of the party hacks from our district. You might remember him pepperpete...he was wearing a tan jacket and was up front distributing the ballots. Anyway, we had a laugh seeing each other and sat to chat for awhile. He was very sympathetic to us Ron Paul supporters and was disgusted with the direction the party is taking. So, I think we had some effect. He said Republicans are going to get creamed this year, and he was especially concerned about the influence the social conservatives are having on the party. He saw no point in staying for the pep talks that will be most of the business today and seemed pretty discouraged by how the vote went....I think he might have been rooting for us. He said the lack of enthusiasm about the party was obvious from the turnout for our caucus...only 111 out of 179 precinct delegates showed up for the caucus. Anyway, I may have found a future ally.

One of the people that made it as alternate (McCain supporter) came to me to say he shared my concerns. He had sent me a letter before the convention, and I responded in an email listing many of my grievances with the party. And we grilled some of the other delegates about their positions on various issues...they were obviously uncomfortable. So, even though we didn't make it, I know we had an effect on people....success!

[slacker921]

so.. because you were all running as "uncommitted" and hadn't met before you didn't know who to vote for.. so none of you were elected to go on and be national delegates? So the theory that RP supporters would infiltrate the national convention didn't hold up in Michigan. ?? Or did I miss something?

Did the campaign not call you all and give some instructions? I thought HQ had turned their focus away from winning primaries long ago and instead were focusing on increasing the share of national delegates. It sounds like that's not happening either. :(

[Eponym_mi]

so.. because you were all running as "uncommitted" and hadn't met before you didn't know who to vote for.. so none of you were elected to go on and be national delegates? So the theory that RP supporters would infiltrate the national convention didn't hold up in Michigan. ?? Or did I miss something?

Did the campaign not call you all and give some instructions? I thought HQ had turned their focus away from winning primaries long ago and instead were focusing on increasing the share of national delegates. It sounds like that's not happening either. :(

It will be different in every state, but I think it would've worked out better for Ron Paul if us supporters were more familiar with the process and better organized.
Our state coordinator never heard from precinct delegates in my district, so, I went to the caucus only knowing about some of the supporters in my county...our district covers at least 8 counties! What SHOULD have happened was our precinct delegates report in to the state coordinator, and those precinct delegates also let the state coordinator know if they're running for state delegate. THEN the state coordinator could've told everyone, vote for so and so.

In our state, running uncommitted really was the only option....this was true for McCain and Huckabee people too...they all had to run uncommitted because their candidate didn't win the popular vote in the district. So, yes, this makes it more difficult to ascertain who really is a Ron Paul supporter, but if the effort is coordinated properly, and the candidates have some appeal to others, we definitely could win some slots as a delegate to the RNC.

I hope that what I wrote will encourage everyone to get their ducks in a row.

[thoughtbombing]

Mrs. Huckabee, how is Mike going to get rid of the IRS if he increases spending and keeps our troops overseas?

Here are the numbers from the National Taxpayers Union.

Barack Obama +$287.0 billion
Hillary Clinton +$218.2 billion
Mike Huckabee +$54.2 billion
John McCain +$6.9 billion

Ron Paul -$150.1 billion

Wonder where Huckabee's gonna get that money... oh yea, your fucking paycheck. AND you're going to be getting Walter Reid Healthcare... if you can still afford it, which you won't be able to, because your job is GONE when those fuckers take over. Enjoy it while it lasts... better invest your "stimulus" check in some more Chinese made bullshit and increase the deficit even more. Thanks for ruining the fucking country, Mrs. Huckabee. You lying bitch.

[thoughtbombing]

Alaska is sending a majority of RP supporters, IIRC

[pepperpete1]

It will be different in every state, but I think it would've worked out better for Ron Paul if us supporters were more familiar with the process and better organized.
Our state coordinator never heard from precinct delegates in my district, so, I went to the caucus only knowing about some of the supporters in my county...our district covers at least 8 counties! What SHOULD have happened was our precinct delegates report in to the state coordinator, and those precinct delegates also let the state coordinator know if they're running for state delegate. THEN the state coordinator could've told everyone, vote for so and so.

In our state, running uncommitted really was the only option....this was true for McCain and Huckabee people too...they all had to run uncommitted because their candidate didn't win the popular vote in the district. So, yes, this makes it more difficult to ascertain who really is a Ron Paul supporter, but if the effort is coordinated properly, and the candidates have some appeal to others, we definitely could win some slots as a delegate to the RNC.

I hope that what I wrote will encourage everyone to get their ducks in a row.

Thanks for filling in more of the details. I was really tired when I got home last nite but pretty excited and perplexed too. I appreciate you putting a positive spin it for me.

Please PM me as to who the guy in the tan jacket is?

[Carole]

Mrs Huckabee: "Why, he is simply going to enact the Fair Tax which will only tax people up to 40% on every item they purchase. that should keep the people in their proper places--I mean, that should take cover the costs." :)

[Eponym_mi]

so.. because you were all running as "uncommitted" and hadn't met before you didn't know who to vote for.. so none of you were elected to go on and be national delegates?

BTW...we did have one guy running that actually said "I am a Ron Paul Republican" in his speech. He called it shock and awe...everybody was sitting there with their mouth wide open.:D

[pepperpete1]

I can't find the results for the districts in Michigan, so if you could help us out, let us know what happened at your caucuses.

[Eponym_mi]

I can't find the results for the districts in Michigan, so if you could help us out, let us know what happened at your caucuses.

I saw a news report that said 36 out of the 45 delegates allocated to districts will support McCain. 5 support Huckabee, and I guess the other 4 really are Uncommitted.

Ken said today was fairly uneventful, except Keith Butler will be an at large delegate and is supporting Huckabee. Poor guy had to listen to another Janet Huckabee speech.

[runderwo]

So your district conventions actually happened before your county conventions?

[Eponym_mi]

So your district conventions actually happened before your county conventions?

No. county convention was held the 7th. District caucuses were held the 15th at the state convention.

[Thomas Paine]

Mrs Huckabee is a damn liar!

[pepperpete1]

Bump for more district info