“These are the delegates that left the floor!”
Those are the words that rang out in the halls of the Tampa Bay Times Forum as a group of Maine delegates left the floor of the Republican National Convention in protest at the Republican National Committee’s decision of splitting in half the group of 20 Maine delegates who support Ron Paul, stripping ten of their delegate status and adding eleven new delegates that would presumably support the Romney/Ryan campaign.
The Texas Congressman’s supporters gave a final effort at appealing this decision to no avail before walking out of the forum.
The Republican National Committee replaced these delegates due to “procedural issues.” The challenge to replace the delegates were filed by two Maine Republicans, Jan Staples and Peter Cianchette, both Romney supporters and both very involved in the workings of GOP politics. From a report for Morning Sentinel, Staples and Cianchette argued that the 20 Paul delegates were improperly elected at a state convention with illegal votes and parliamentary violations.
The new group of delegates is made up of many high-profile names in the Republican party including Attorney General Bill Schneider, Secretary of State Charlie Summers, former U.S. Rep. David Emery and many state lawmakers.
Former delegate and Paul supporter Matt McDonald was elected as a delegate at the Maine GOP Convention back in May. McDonald traveled to Tampa under the impression that if he was fairly voted as a delegate, he would be seated as one.
“This is a tragedy,” McDonald said. “These delegates were fairly and democratically voted for and now they are just being replaced.”
A group of Romney Republicans began to gather around the Maine Paul supporters chanting “Romney! Romney!” To which the Paul supporters yelled “You have no idea what you’re talking about!”
In a report for The Republic, Mark Willis, Maine Republican National Committeeman Elect of Dennysville called the situation a “travesty.”
“[These] Paul delegates were elected fair and square. Unlike other Paul-inspired delegations, the Maine group never compromised,” Willis said.
While the Maine delegates seemed outnumbered inside the forum, they had friends on the outside. Many Paul supporters gathered at Gaslight Square Park hoping to hear good news of the delegate vote. Despite the protests inside and out of the forum, the outcome remained as expected, in favor of the Romney/Ryan campaign.
Chelsea Daubar can be reached at chelsea.daubar@theminaretonline.com