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GunnyFreedom
06-07-2008, 11:52 PM
Report from the NC State GOP Convention

For the most part, the convention went better than we expected. During the Friday business session, we brought around 40 known Ron Paul supporters, yet we controlled a block of around 100 votes. Attendance on Friday was 408, and while we were probably down to about 250 by the end of Friday's session we never lost the quorum.

We knew by the way the state chair was keeping the national delegate slate secret that they were going to try some shenanigans, so we worked to adopt some rules changes in order to allow us to re-write the presented slate. The attempts were struck down, and the rules were adopted which stated that alternative slates could not be proposed containing the same delegates. We had wanted to propose an alternate slate which maintained the required number of McCain delegates but be able to propose the same slate with the proper number and properly selected Paul delegates.

After that, we moved into the Plan Of Organization. In the POO, there was a set of amendments proposed to initiate a power grab on the part of the central committee. After some debate amongst several factions within the old guard, the amendments were defeated by a number something like the size of the Ron Paul delegation we brought. I think it was 38.

Then came the platform committee. We were able to pass two amendments to the platform from the floor, and sparked the kinds of debates on the convention floor that nobody had ever seen in their lifetimes. The chair of the Platform Committee was very visibly upset to be challenged in the way that he was, and it was truly funny to watch Old Guard Republicans stand up on the floor in debate to justify the need for an income tax and the 16th Amendment.

The Friday session was adjourned before we could address the resolutions. This, in the end, turned out to be a very good thing.



Along comes the Saturday session, Ron Paul brought around 65 people on Saturday, and after some perfunctory business we held the elections for National Committeewoman and National Committeeman. The Old Guard put up Mrs Forrester (a State Representative's wife) for Committeewoman, and it was clear she had the backing of the establishment. She was 'expected' to win. A fine lady by the name of Dr Fischer then nominated herself for the position and ran as an anti-establishment candidate, stating that if we were going to gain any kind of real ground that we needed to make real changes. Dr Fischer, much to the shock and awe of everybody present, won by a vote of 289 to 338, making for a margin of 49 votes.

Did I say Ron Paul brought 65 people on Saturday? Without us that would have been 16 votes in the other direction. National Committeewoman is an unpaid position in which the committeewoman funds her own travel and expenses. We might look towards some kind of chip-in for Dr Forrester seeing that her expenses alone this year may run as high as $50,000.

Then, Ken Nelson graciously nominated me for Committeeman, and I went up to speak. I had to cut two paragraphs off the end of my speech because I was running out of time. I hadn't expected nor timed my speech for applause. It all seemed to go very well, however, and I left the stage to await the voting procedure.

On my way down, someone called for the candidates to state whom they support for President, and I snapped to the nearest microphone at attention awaiting instructions from the chair. I would NOT be ashamed of whom I supported! The chair ruled the motion out of order (the convention chair was supremely fair during the whole convention, by the way) and another person called for an acclimation vote to prevent a tally of votes being made. The whole convention nearly erupted in boos over that one (and I later heard that David Lewis himself said that that was wrong) and his motion was soundly defeated.

The vote was taken and I received 125 votes to Rep Lewis' 484 votes. Unlike the committeewoman election, this was not an open seat. I was running against a well liked, heavy incumbent, currently a member of the NC House, who has raised literally hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of dollars for the NC GOP. He had a full page ad on the back of the convention program, stickers all over the hall, and had sent a mailout to every delegate in attendance asking for their vote.

I was shocked to have received at much as 26% of the vote. I had not really expected to get 125 votes in this (did I say that Ron Paul only brought about 65 people to the Saturday session?) and the fact that I did means that there really is a fracture in the establishment and a pretty profound movement towards change towards strict constructionism.

I went to congratulate David Lewis, and he was very gracious. I actually like the guy, so it felt a little strange to run against him. He promised that he realized they needed us more than we needed them, and when he went on to make his victory speech he actually quoted from Barry Goldwater and sounded like he was reciting OUR agenda! I counted both the higher than expected vote total and the movement towards conservatism as a victory, and sat down quite pleased.

That's when we got to the delegates. I'll make a new post for that one, because that's when everything went ugly. It'll probably be tomorrow, though, so I have some time to reflect -- but it may be tonight if it just keeps burning at me and I have no choice but to talk about it.

amy31416
06-07-2008, 11:58 PM
Thanks for the update Gunny, hope the ugliness wasn't too atrocious.

GunnyFreedom
06-08-2008, 12:12 AM
Thanks for the update Gunny, hope the ugliness wasn't too atrocious.

I thought it was. I had to get up and walk out of the convention hall to go all the way outside and yell at the walls lest I get ejected. I didn't want to risk future standing by creating that large of a disruption (I intend to spearhead an action to take down the state chair in 2009). Turns out that was the smartest thing I could have done. By the time they got around to the "resolution to support John McCain," one of the few remaining Ron Paulers called a quorum, and the convention chair had the Sgt at Arms immediately bar the entrance while they counted. We had lost quarum by 5 members, and so could not pass any kind of "resolution to support John McCain."

By the way, did I mention that the convention chair was extremely fair?

Seriously. The NCGOP State Chairwoman was the real villian of this thing, decidedly not the convention chair. More toss-ups went our way than their way on parlimentary proceedure, in all frankness. If it wasn't for Linda Daves' outright lying and manipulation of state law to tweak the delegate slate it would have been a very good convention from start to finish.

Instead of following State law, we only received 2 at large delegates instead of 5, (thanks to Linda Daves) and when asked by the Ron Paul PCC representative who those two were (we didn't recognize them) she claimed that "there was too much infighting between the Ron Paul people so we chose their delegates for them." Turns out the two were McCain delegates who lost at district.

So yeah, it was atrocious ugliness in my book.

amy31416
06-08-2008, 12:22 AM
Well kudos on the self control, I'm sure it was tough.

It seems there's always a Cruella de Vil type at these things.

Join The Paul Side
06-08-2008, 03:14 AM
By the way, did I mention that the convention chair was extremely fair?

Well that's a first. :cool:

slacker921
06-08-2008, 05:10 AM
Dr. Fischer is a black woman.. and there were less than 10 blacks in attendance (I only counted 5..).. not that it should matter, but unfortunately I think it probably does.
(added..) and my guess is less than 10% of all the attendees were under 40.. it's a very white, older group of people making the decisions which makes the win by Dr. Fischer that much more important.

MozoVote
06-08-2008, 05:26 AM
I agree with everything Gunny reported *except* that Ron Paul supporters broke the quorum.

Yes, there was some whispering about whether we should. (I advocated not. I've bashed the Nevada GOP enough times over that, and felt it was playing dirty.) But the Mecklenburg Paul delegation was definately still seated. It appeared to me that the quorum failed simply from the apathy and impatience of the establishment GOP.

This has to be a disappointment to the Republican Womens' Club. Their spokesperson really wanted to finish resolutions, it was the culmination of an organized effort across the state. She pointed out that the previous two conventions could not finish business in time to vote on them... Well, this became the third!

haigh
06-08-2008, 06:55 AM
Well done Gunny. I hope Ron Paul reads about these accomplishments he has inspired.

With
http://www.electoral-vote.com/
showing 'Weak Republican' North Carolina may gain influence opportunities.

Cowlesy
06-08-2008, 07:25 AM
Thanks for the report Gunny. This really should all go in the Wiki page if anyone knows how to do it.

SteveMartin
06-08-2008, 08:36 AM
I a curious if there is anything in writing or any witnesses to the verbal contention that RP was given two delegates. If so, we should challenge these delegates through Arlington and get two confirmed RP people sent instead of their hand-selected goons.

pepperpete1
06-08-2008, 09:46 AM
I a curious if there is anything in writing or any witnesses to the verbal contention that RP was given two delegates. If so, we should challenge these delegates through Arlington and get two confirmed RP people sent instead of their hand-selected goons.

I sound like a broken record on this forum when it comes to responding posts about the establishment GOP breaking rules and state laws.

They need to be challenged at every turn! We are in this to fight for our rights and challenging them is one of them. So everyone who is involved or was present when they broke the rules ................CHALLENGE them, file contestments!

I agree with Cowlesy, this needs to go in the wiki and I do not know how to do it.

MozoVote
06-08-2008, 11:31 AM
There were two mysteries to resolve about national delegates. Would we get 4 more, or 2 more? Would they be Ron Paul supporters, or party plants? The answer was bad news on both fronts.

The NCGOP *did* take two of our reccommendations (that were delivered by BJ Lawson) as alternates.

Basically there is a collision of mindset, here. The NCGOP views the at-large delegates as a chance to reward party service, and so we were "allowed" the "honor" of seating 2 more people as alternates. You see, the district delegates are for us plebians. :rolleyes: The party plants that were elected at large, may vote for Paul on the first ballot... perhaps... but they are not activists, and not known to the NC grassroots.