Michigan convention 1/2 over.

[pepperpete1]

Janet Huckabee



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.

[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.

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!

[angelatc]

Success indeed! Thanks for doing all that, and like you said - next time you'll do even better!!!

[tamor]

Thanks for updating us. I was wondering how it went.

[pepperpete1]

Thanks for updating us. I was wondering how it went.

Are there anymore districts that can give us an update on how it went for your caucus?:)

[pepperpete1]

Need to have a list of all the delegates elected at state convention. Please list those that you do know that won for your district.

[KevinInMI]

In District 1 – My Wife & I attended the MI State Convention for our first time. We did not hide the fact that we were inspired by Dr. Paul and his platform as our reason for being there. In fact that was the one thing that we explained to all those we talked to as our motivation for attending. We were treated very well by everyone who took the time to talk with us. Many of those we did talk to were supporters of many of the ideals of Dr. Paul. We introduced ourselves to those we found out were running for national delegate and inquired on how they felt on several of the issues.

Because District 1 was won by Senator McCain, the delegates are not uncommitted. I had thought that we were wasting our time, but we were going to try to help anyways. It was completely clear that those whom were on the pre-picked McCain Slate of delegate were not going to give us the time of day. The elite six of the McCain Slate made absolutely no effort to talk to us. Granted, we did not find the need to seek them out either.

In the end, the McCain Slate only had 1 Delegate and 1 Alternate elected, which was really a fantastic result. The Ron Paul Delegate was not elected, but the 4 selected (who were outside the elite camp), are quite good representatives for us.

Mrs. Huckabee gave her speech to us also. It really did not seem to have had any effect.

Our evening at the State Convention was actually very enjoyable. We met a lot of people whom shared our views, albeit not to the extent that they wanted to ruffle the feathers of the elite. We found that those who shared the position for the need to have a true Conservative Platform were quite supportive of Dr. Paul and were quite willing to talk with us. It was a great night.

[pepperpete1]

Hey, Kevin, thankyou to you and your wife for making the effort to attend and support the best that you could. Other than taking offense at Mrs. Huckabee's misinformation I had an enjoyable time and the GOP contention there from Allegan in District 2 came to me and want me to join up with them and attend their meetings. I will do this. I feel it would be a good way for me to learn the ropes and make contacts that may be helpful in the near future.