The Fight Over Ron Paul, John McCain Delegates
 Tuesday, April 8th, 2008

Last month, we published an article entitled, "Missouri Ron Paul Delegates Shake Things Up At The Caucus."  In it, we mentioned that at least 175 delegates in Jackson County, Missouri are Ron Paul supporters - and while the Paul supporters wanted to participate in the Republican platform, a State Republican committee member said it could just lead to "embarrassing press coverage" with no real effect on the outcome.

In the original Kansas City Star article, Independence Bunk Farrington - who was angry at Paul supporters for backing out of an "agreement" - staged a walkout from the county's caucus meeting last month.

"Independence attorney Bunk Farrington said he was angry that Paul supporters reneged on an agreement to divide the county's 187 caucus delegates between those sympathetic to the Texas Congressman and supporters of other candidates," the article stated.

Larry Holland - the volunteer Ron Paul organizer - was quoted as saying, "We all know that on the first ballot we have to vote for [John] McCain," but "we can also help affect the Republican platform and bring it back to its conservative, libertarian values."

Larry Holland contacted ConnieTalk to elaborate on his side of the story.

"The Jackson County Republican Chairman, Mr. Farrington, walked out of the meeting.  Under Robert's Rules...a vote is required to adjourn the meeting.  The chairman has no power to adjourn the meeting on his own.  No one moved to adjourn [that] meeting, and no vote was taken to adjourn it," Larry wrote.  Robert's Rules of Order is a book of reference utilized for deliberative assemblies.  "Rather than being impartial, our chairman attempted to sabotage the meeting by walking out on it."

"The chairman didn't like that some people didn't think his idea was the best one, and rather than stick around to support his slate and continue to run the meeting fairly and properly, he decided to muck up the proceedings and create a controversy by leaving abruptly.  As we've said multiple times since, the chairman mistook an open and public caucus attended by equal participants, with backroom politics."

Our biggest question mark that hung in the air was why Ron Paul supporters agreed to a promise to divide Paul's delegates in the first place.

"That's a good question," Holland responded.  Chalk it up to political inexperience, he said.  Many of Paul coordinators, including Holland, were trying to manage and coordinate the "mass numbers" of Paul supporters.

"I eventually discovered Mr. Farrington had pulled one of us aside to negotiate in the auditorium.  In our strategy meetings, based on the caucus agenda and our understanding of Robert's rules, we didn't foresee that someone would attempt to negotiate a slate before the meeting even started.  In retrospect, since we had decent numbers, it would have made sense to wait to see if the meeting brought up an occasion to truly verify our strength."

Holland said he told the Kansas City Star reporter that Farrington walked out of the meeting with the sign-in rosters, rendering their filings for Jackson County with the Missouri Republican Party incomplete, but that it was left out of the article; and despite attempts by the new chairman and secretary to get the rosters back, Farrington "never cooperated."

"The truth is that we did what we were allowed to do - organize, motivate people, and attend the caucus in great numbers.  Since the article, the same chairman who left is now behind a challenge of the entire caucus.  One of the complaints made is that the filings should not be accepted because they were missing the sign-in rosters.  Presumably, the chairman who refused to turn them over understands why they were not filed, but it isn't stopping him from trying to negate the results of a fair and proper caucus for that very reason."

Mr. Farrington could not be reached for comment.

A similar situation is now occurring in Minnesota conventions, where Ron Paul backers are being accused of "hijacking" delegates, after requesting clarification on a motion made to ensure delegates support John McCain at the national convention.  The RNC told caucus attendees that according to Party rules, the national delegates must endorse John McCain or their votes will not count.

"If they intended to bind candidates to vote for the presumptive nominee, they should've announced this at the beginning," said Minnesota Paul supporter Jim Sutton.  "This convention never bound delegates to a candidate before.  It was a torpedo job against us."

Full article on that here.

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