RP supporters dominated the St. Charles County caucus!
Congrats to Denny (aka derdy) for a job well-done. I'll let him give you the details.
RP supporters dominated the St. Charles County caucus!
Congrats to Denny (aka derdy) for a job well-done. I'll let him give you the details.
Tell us Derdy!
Well, I'd love to go into great detail right now, but I'm so tired I can't even be excited.
Last night it was slamming the phones, strategizing, compiling our lists drinking beer til 5am, then switching to coffee at 5:30am, fell asleep at computer for one hour, went to the caucus setup our table for our "front" group, with the laptop, our "Conservative Values" logo, courtesy of Brandon, printed out on stickers.
I was told this was the biggest caucus they've had there by regulars. We won the chairmanship 72-59 even though their nominee was supported by all the old guard, even some local/state politicians were there.
So to summarize we got 252 delegates out of 274 possible. The only reason they got any is because they basically acknowledged we had the majority (I was head of rules committee and I had no idea what I was doing lol) I said if we had any empty slots on our slate they could fill them. Well, after the recess we filled all of our slots. So then this one guy starts whining and saying we're all Republicans and Christians (I'm an atheist) and we should work together blah blah. Then he tried to be sneaky and say the motion he was passing would only fill in the blanks when the actual verbage of his motion would've allowed those in attendance to have preference over anyone on our delegate list that wasn't there. We caugh him red handed and then he had to change. Well, I motioned to concede 10 spots on our slate for them, because I'm nice, but he didn't like that, he wanted 13. He threw his voter card thing at the chair and stormed out leaving his hat behind! :)
We have the first hour on video when the room was the most packed so I'm interested to see the video. I was there from 8:30am-3:00pm!!
We passed all kinds of amendments to the platform, it was amazing. Deb, if you want to fill in the details for now, I'm good with that. I'm absolutely exhausted.
We did incredibly well, beyond my wildest dreams. And the revolution continues....
PS I'll have a more detailed account of the events sometime soon. It was a 5 hour event so it could take a minute ;)
This is excellent news derdy. Thank you very much for sharing. I cannot wait to read the rest of your report. Please, when you have time, post that video on Google video so that we can all see what the atmosphere was like.
Good Job Guys!
Now, please carry on Deb. Fill us in. :D
So Derdy, you guys set up an issues slate? Kinda like the pro life/family (McCain) slate did in Louisiana? YEEEESSSS!!!!
What's so wonderful about this is that we ARE the "conservative" slate! When the McCain slate claimed to be pro life in La, they were lying! This was a rightous and honest move by Mo delegates!
The Revolution Lives!!!! Awesome job!!!!
I would sticky this but it'd get less attention.
This thread and Derdy's post should stay at the top of the new-post list for the near future.
I don't know the details of Missouri, but I imagine there are a lot of angry "mainstream" people on the phones right now trying to figure out how to stop you all at the next level.
Make sure to get one step ahead of whatever you think they may try and pull.
Go MISSOURI!
This account sounds like he was there also:
ht tp://journals.aol.com/rrchill/unique/entries/2008/03/15/parade-skipping-and-g.o.p.-juvenile-conduct./2533
When I arrived at the caucus location at about 10am, the parking lot was lined with Ron Paul signs. Almost every car in the parking lot had a Ron Paul sticker. There was a Ron Paul table in the entry staffed with people answering questions about how to participate in a caucus. I signed in, entered, and every single seat in the auditorium had upon it Ron Paul pamphlets outlining his stance on issues. I sat in the 5th District area on the left half of the auditorium, within earshot of the mainstay Republican crowd, which I'll call the Ward Parkway Republicans, like good ole Claire McCaskill. There was a very long delay as people continued to file in. Candidates in upcoming elections met and greeted up and down the aisles and spoke with anyone who would listen. The meeting began, and a chairperson from among the established core group was quickly nominated and accepted. He presided over the selection of a secretary, who was elected from among the Ron Paul supporters. He began taking minutes. Committees were quickly formed by nomination and immediate appointment by the chair, including a balance of folks from each faction. The agenda was presented by the Secretary. The agenda includes electing a slate of delegates for the district and state conventions, deciding on amendments to the party platform, and any resolutions which should be forwarded on to the conventions. Some speeches were given by present office-holders and movers and shakers in the state legislature while the committees were working. Then, there was a long recess, while rules and proceedures and politicking went on in various parts of the auditorium. After the break, the rules committee read the rules for the meeting. Then, resolutions were presented, including a resolution to change the party rule that delegates must vote according to the winner of the primary election, but they could vote their conscience. That would make Missouri a caucus state for Republicans instead of a winner-take-all state. It passed, to the chagrin of the Ward Parkway crowd. Then, slates of candidates were to be nominated. The leaders from the Ron Paul faction nominated a slate of candidates to include a mix of 107 Ron Paul supporters and 80 from the Ward Parkway establishment. The chair accepted the nomination, then one of the other Ron Paul supporter types, Michael Michelson, interjected, moving to debate the nomination. Since it was a nomination, there wasn't anything to debate, really, just take a vote up or down. There was a delay and some disruption from the audience,then the chair let the young man know that he could nominate an alternate slate, which could be voted upon. He proceeded to do so. That was quickly seconded, and a debate ensued. Ross Perot was mentioned, tempers flared, someone who was out of order said it was time for the real Republicans to stand up. And everyone in the room stood. Then, there was some mumbling, and the chairperson said "In politics, your word is your bond.", then he stepped toward the exit along with the bunch on the left side of the auditorium who grabbed their things and left. Again, there was a delay, because nobody knew how to proceed when the chairperson just leaves without adjourning. The secretary took over the chair position, being the senior person on the stage. Another secretary was elected. A parliamentarian was appointed by the chairperson. The meeting proceeded. Debate in favor of the and against the first slate of delegates took place, then debate about whether or not it was okay to vote on a slate which was no longer present at the meeting, since they had taken the list (and the rolls of attendees) away when they left, then we voted to continue to vote on the nominated list, even though it could not be read. That was okayed. Then there was a vote. It was very close. . . something like 62 to 70, so the mixed slate which was agreed upon between factions failed. The slate containing 100% Ron Paul delegates, including myself, passed. The irony is that if the Ward Parkway contingent had stayed, their agreed upon slate would have passed. After that, the meeting went on. There was debate about 18 or so platform items, and all but one or two of the items passed. Some comments were made and the meeting was adjourned.
How the press views what happened at this caucus may be positive or negative, but I saw how the system works in all it's ugliness. I saw how an 18 year old kid, can throw the wrench into politics as usual, and how supporters of a cause can band together and make change happen. The question now is about whether or not the Ron Paul faction of the Republican party can maintain this momentum. There was a lot of institutional G.O.P knowledge and experience in that room who took a big slap in the face when the mixed slate was not just immediately accepted. There are people who almost always go to the state convention who now cannot. Now, because of a poorly attended caucus, all of the Jackson county delegates will be Ron Paul supporters. And it wouldn't have been so, if the Jackson County Republican mainstays hadn't acted like juveniles and walked out before voting.
Cowlesy, can you send a mass e-mail to all members of this site, informing them of this terrific news. It will help cheer up the few of our members who have given up and who feel that they were let down by HQ. It will help build their spirits and show them that this fight is far from over.
McInsane and the GOP are in for a shock come the national convention.
And we thought WA was a success.
I'd love to, but I am just a Moderator and we don't have access to that kind of ammunition. Now, an Administrator might have that ability -- but to date I've never received an email from RPForums -- not sure if they even have the capability as owners.
If you could, send this thread to as many Ron Paul supporters as possible. Hopefully others will mimic the idea.
CowlesyOk, because it is late here in Spain, (1:08am) I will go through the members list starting with A and send out as many e-mails as I can tomorrow. http://www.ronpaulforums.com/gfx_Red...ons/icon14.gifQuote:
I'd love to, but I am just a Moderator and we don't have access to that kind of ammunition. Now, an Administrator might have that ability -- but to date I've never received an email from RPForums -- not sure if they even have the capability as owners.
If you could, send this thread to as many Ron Paul supporters as possible. Hopefully others will mimic the idea.
Oh, and congrats Missouri!
I love you Suzu and all of your fellow Missourians!!!
With a state capitol of Jefferson City I knew you patriots would come through.
UNITED WE STAND!
http://i31.tinypic.com/2e51lom.gif
Way to go Missouri! Thats the way to lead!!! Its happening!!! Everyone take note and follow!
The delegates we gave them are nothing compared to the total number. I'm running for committeman in my township, so I wanted to show that I'm at least fair and willing to work with people.
However, I will share some notes with you my friend took when we sent him on recon to the local County GOP meeting last Thursday. Someone in MO had found out about around last Monday and sent it to the GOP statewide. We were wondering what our local GOP would say at their meeting. 90% of the meeting was about stopping us. The notes are what the chairman said:
Quote:
I just got back from the St. Charles County Republican Central Committee Meeting. There was 7 committee and 4 audience members there. Here are the important minutes of the meeting.
The meeting started out saying by the chair saying how he was mad that the Democrats got an article about their caucus got a huge article about it on the front page of the suburban journals and they wouldn’t do it for the republicans. He said that the democrats had 75 people total that showed up for their caucus.
He then went into how the Ron Paul people were trying to hijack the caucus. He received calls from a large number of RP people that wanted info on the caucus and also many that didn’t want to say who they were affiliated with.
He said he went to the Ron Paul Website and saw that he had all kinds of info on the caucus and the GOP website had none…
He said not only do they want to be delegates to the convention, but they also want to amend the party platform.
He said bring everyone there that you can, Get everyone in by 10am and shut the door, don’t let any RP people in after 10am.
He said key to the election in getting the electing the caucus chairman and that the chairman runs the show. He said, we HAVE to get chair, chairmen is winner take all basically.
If we lose control of chair, you have RP stuff in your platform.
He said the 2004 caucus only had 50 people there.
He also said, they only had 30 delegates chosen so far. There is a 20% or so chance they may of suspected me of being a spy and through that in there to throw us off, but I don’t think they did.
We need to keep working to get delegates, and voters, so we can blow these guys outta the water, come on join the fun.
The chairman is the guy that came up and said they were withdrawing their slate because it was clear we had majority and he wanted to work with us. Knowing that he said the above and that he would've tried to railroad us had they got the chair, I could've shut them out and felt fine about it. However, this is politics and I would like to make some inroads with people before I start making enemies.
I'm sure someone else woud've done it different but our group of supporters there seemed to approve of it.
Derdy, you posted the name of your spy.
http://hawks4ronpaul.blogspot.com/
Everyone, great job. This is truly amazing and shows what kinds of things we can pull off if we continue to believe we can.
Now, I joined the site a little late, despite being a Paul supporters for a while. But can someone inform me of what exactly happened in Louisiana? It sounds bad... And can it be fixed at this point?
//
lol oh well. Cat's out of the bag on him already. He talked to the chairman and the chairman wanted him to go to the caucus.
He gave him a funny look today when he was working behind the "Conservative Values" table and then appointed to Credentials Committee
EDIT For the sake of his privacy I removed it, however. Good looking out. Brain is on the fritz right now.... must drink beeer!
Great news! Thank you for all your hard work.