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Posted on 05.16.08 by Stephen Covington @ 4:21 pm
We’ve heard a lot about Ron Paul in the last year…huge rallies, fanatical supporters, oddly place highway banners. Paul has run as a Republican in the primaries, and has so far not given a clear indication as to how, or whether, he will run in the general election. A candidate is now vying for the Libertarian Party nomination, and it’s not Paul. Bob Barr, an ex-GOPer and former Congressman from Georgia, has announced that he is seeking top billing by the LP. This is obviously a source of consternation for the McCain camp - it means further vote siphoning, another alternative, and a potential headache should Barr attempt to split the GOP on issues ranging from the Iraq War to McCain’s record on campaign finance reform. More importantly, what does it mean for Ron Paul? Paul depends on attention from Libertarians and sympathetic elements of the Republican Party to make his splash. If he eventually decides to run as an Independent, this will be at least somewhat of a diversion from his efforts. After all the hype, could this represent the slow sputtering out of the Paul campaign? Filed under: Campaign 2008 and John McCain and Ron Paul and Third Parties Comments: 18 Comments |
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Posted on 02.21.08 by Austin Cassidy @ 6:43 pm
Longshot Republican Ron Paul is pushing forward with his Presidential campaign despite earlier indications that he was calling it quits to focus on a tough renomination fight for Congress. Apparently, at the end of January, the Paul Presidential campaign had about $6 million in cash on hand. That’s more than Huckabee, more than Romney, and even more than presumtive nominee John McCain. So as long as the money and volunteers are there, Paul vows to keep up the fight: “I will stay in as long as my supporters want me to,” the Texas congressman promised CNN. “And I say as long as the number of volunteers continues to grow, and the money comes in, and there are primaries out there, and they want me to be involved, I am going to stay involved.” A local conservative city councilman has launched a primary challenge against Congressman Paul. He’s trying to use Paul’s opposition to the Iraq war to highlight that Paul is not in touch with the voters of his Texas district. It was a similar situation that took Dennis Kucinich out of the Presidential race several weeks ago, as he now tries to win another term in Congress against stiff local opposition. Kucinich’s vote totals haven’t suffered much, making some wonder if anyone even noticed that he pulled out. Filed under: Campaign 2008 and Ron Paul Comments: 26 Comments |
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Posted on 02.12.08 by Will Anderson @ 6:55 pm
The quirky Congresscritter from Texas, Ron Paul is known as “Dr. No” by many, because he always votes no on pork spending. I don’t agree with him on many issues, including the war on terror, but I think he has some things right. The Constitution should be the platform of every candidate, with the only differences being interpretations. He’s not a guy who will force global warming myth-talk down your throat. The free market will keep our air clean and our water safe, because it’s good for business. You and I know it, but some so-called conservatives have forgotten along the way. In some ways, he is the heart and soul of the party. In some ways he is horribly wrong, like about the war on Islamic terrorism. We must not allow these thugs to push us around. But I don’t believe he is weak on terrorism, just wrong on how to deal with the threat we face as a nation. Maybe Ron Paul is what the party needs right now. A voice that reminds people what the Constitution is and that we must rely on principles to guide us. John McCain will be the nominee, but he would do well to listen to the message that Ron Paul is putting out there about our currency, our borders, and the nature of the free market. We don’t have many other loud voices for Constitutional liberty in this nation, let’s not totally ignore this one just because he’s a little weird and not right on every issue. Filed under: Campaign 2008 and Ron Paul Comments: 58 Comments |
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Posted on 02.12.08 by Austin Cassidy @ 4:24 am
Well, so much for party unity. Long-shot libertarian Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has stated that he will not back John McCain if he is the Republican nominee this year. “I can not support anybody with the foreign policy he advocates, you know, perpetual war. That is just so disturbing to me,” Paul said. “I think it’s un-American, un-Constitutional, immoral, and not Republican.” At the same time, however, he has also ruled out running as a third party candidate himself. He’s instead focusing on a tough re-election battle against a local city councilman who is running on a platform that is more in-line with the mainstream of the Republican Party. If Ron Paul is defeated in that primary, then all bets are probably off and we could see him going after the Libertarian nomination or something along those lines. Either way, it appears that there will not be a unanimous vote at the Republican National Convention this September. Ron Paul has accumulated at least 25 delegates, and that number will at least double before all is said and done. Filed under: Campaign 2008 and Endorsements and John McCain and Ron Paul Comments: 9 Comments |
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Posted on 02.10.08 by Austin Cassidy @ 8:17 pm
Ron Paul’s primary strength in this campaign has been fanatical grassroots supporters who have raised tens of millions for the long-shot campaign. But now that Congressman Paul has failed to break-out by winning in any state, that fundraising is drying up pretty fast. The week of January 21st, the Paul campaign added over $2.2 million to their bank account. Last week the campaign raised $1.6 million. This week, all signs suggest that the Paul campaign will take in only about $250k in donations. Yesterday, the campaign made an announcement that sounded a lot like a suspension of campaigning. Paul faces a serious primary challenge for his seat in Congress and has had put his resoruces into defending his day job. Later on, campaign officials tried to make it clear that Congressman Paul wasn’t actually suspending his campaign, just shifting things around and trimming his staff. It will be interesting to learn how much, if any, of the more than $25 million he has raised is still in the bank at this point. Filed under: Campaign 2008 and Ron Paul Comments: 23 Comments |
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Posted on 02.10.08 by Austin Cassidy @ 7:23 am
John McCain has apparently won the Washington Republican caucuses tonight, a narrow victory over Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul. In fact, the most notable element of the race is that Ron Paul picked up about 22% for a close third place finish. This is one of his campaign’s strongest showings to date, and it comes on a day when Representative Paul announced he was scaling back his Presidential campaign to focus on running for re-election to Congress. The win is also somewhat important for McCain as it blunts some of Mike Huckabee’s momentum from his victories in Kansas and Louisiana. Going forward, McCain just needs to win Maryland and the District of Columbia on Tuesday to keep a good head of steam going. If he can complete the sweep and win Virginia as well, Mike Huckabee might be out of the race by the end of the week. Either way, John McCain is still virtually guaranteed the Republican nomination. And every vote for Mike Huckabee helps bolster his stature as a potential Vice-Presidential candidate. Filed under: Campaign 2008 and Election Results and John McCain and Ron Paul Comments: 16 Comments |
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Posted on 02.09.08 by Austin Cassidy @ 3:06 pm
Ron Paul has decided to shrink the size of his campaign staff, he’s admitted defeat, and says he will now focus himself on holding his seat in Congress. He’s not exactly dropping out, or even formally suspending his campaign, but it sounds pretty close to it. His Presidential campaign appears that it will be put on autopilot and that he will seek to continue to accumulate delegates to take to the convention. Howard Dean did essentially the same thing when he stopped actively campaigning for President in 2004. After yesterday’s post where I was repeatedly slammed by Ron Paul supporters for not recognizing that there would (obviously) be a brokered Republican convention, it’s not to see Ron Paul actually say there won’t be a brokered convention. He’s also completely ruled out a third party bid for the White House at this point. Apparently his seat in Congress is more important to him than taking his long-shot Presidential campaign into the Fall. Now, this could obviously still change once he’s won re-nomination to Congress. He could turn around and accept the the top spot on the Libertarian ticket once again. But for now it seems like he just wants to hang onto his Congressional seat. His opponent in that primary, Friendswood City Councilman Chris Peden, lays out his case for Republican primary voters:
Filed under: Campaign 2008 and Ron Paul Comments: 19 Comments |
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Posted on 02.08.08 by Austin Cassidy @ 3:53 pm
Yesterday, Mitt Romney accepted the reality that John McCain will be the Republican nominee. Mike Huckabee is rolling the dice on a few more contests, but is widely expected to pull out once McCain racks up another couple of wins. But what about Ron Paul? He never really had a chance, but his supporters poured cash into his campaign and piled on the grassroots. But after a disappointing showing on Super Tuesday, the Paul campaign’s website lists their next event as an “MSNBC Presidential Summit” on February 28th. That’s three weeks away! If this is actually his next campaign event, it would appear that Paul has essentially put the campaign on autopilot in advance of contests in Kansas, Washington, Virginia, Maryland, and elsewhere. Then again, does he even need to campaign for his supporters to come out and vote for him? The cult of Ron Paul remains fairly strong, with or without the Congressman on the stump. Here is Florida, where our primary was 10 days ago, new Ron Paul signs keep popping up along the highway in defiance of common sense. All Hail Ron Paul! Filed under: Campaign 2008 and Ron Paul Comments: 46 Comments |
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Posted on 02.06.08 by Austin Cassidy @ 6:58 am
Alaska was a state that Ron Paul supporters hoped would deliver a win for their candidate. But that didn’t quite happen, they’ll have to settle for second place. Mitt Romney appears to have “taken the gold” in the last Republican state to report results. However, entry polls show that Paul finished a solid second in Alaska and will probably win some delegates. The KTUU entry polling survey gives Paul 26%…
Ron Paul also picked up third place and 5 delegates in North Dakota today. He made a deal with Mike Huckabee to win 3 delegates in West Virginia. And he’s likely to score a few more delegates in Minnesota. Plus, results show that Paul finished in second in the Montana caucuses as well. But he apparently doesn’t win any delegates from that showing, according to the Associated Press. ————— UPDATED: Well, exit polling is not an exact science. And it looks like they got it wrong in Alaska last night. Even though all the votes haven’t been counted yet, most reports agree that Ron Paul will finish in third place behind Romney and Huckabee. Projections show him winning 5 of the state’s convention delegates. Filed under: Campaign 2008 and Election Results and Ron Paul and Super Tuesday Comments: 63 Comments |
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Posted on 02.05.08 by Austin Cassidy @ 11:08 pm
As it turns out, the Ron Paul campaign figured out a way to wheel and deal their way to three convention delegates from West Virginia. Paul’s supporters made an agreement with the Huckabee campaign to swing their votes to the former Arkansas governor. In exchange, the Huckabee camp promised that 3 of the state’s 18 delegates would go to Ron Paul supporters. “Our goal is to secure as many delegates to the national GOP convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul as possible,” said Ron Paul 2008 campaign manager Lew Moore. “Securing three delegates in West Virginia is an important step in that direction. We plan on locking up more delegates before the day ends.” This is an interesting deal, but it seems like the national media isn’t bothering to give Paul the credit for those 3 delegates. All of the major media delegate counts show Huckabee with all 18 delegates in West Virginia. The McCain campaign seems to have made a similar deal with Huckabee, but perhaps not for the same kind of payoff. McCain’s camp simply wanted to deal Mitt Romney a defeat and help out Huckabee, who is widely believed to be campaigning for Vice-President. Filed under: Campaign 2008 and Ron Paul and Super Tuesday Comments: 5 Comments |
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