MestroWest Daily – by Brad Petrishen Marlborough, Massachusetts - Dozens of Ron Paul backers showed up at a state Republican Party meeting last night to protest what they say is a manipulation of power aimed at decreasing their influence at the party’s national convention.
A 14-member GOP committee charged with allocating delegates to the convention held a closed meeting at the Holiday Inn to discuss whether three delegates and three alternates selected at the Fifth Congressional District caucus should be invalidated.
None of the Romney-backed delegates won any of the six seats for the district, which as a result of redistricting will include Framingham, Natick, Sudbury and Southborough in 2013. It presently is anchored by Lowell, Lawrence and Haverhill.
One of the unsuccessful members of the Romney slate challenged the results.
The complaint filed with the Massachusetts Republican Party alleges that those who attended the April 28 caucus at Nevins Hall in Framingham were not asked to sign a form under the pains of perjury certifying they were registered Republicans. As a result, the complaint contends, the results should be invalidated and new delegates chosen at the direction of the committee which selects delegates.
Brad Wyatt, a Paul backer and organizer for the Paul-allied Ronald Reagan Unity Liberty slate, said the complaint seeks to capitalize on a technical glitch that none of the delegates elected had anything to do with.
Those at the caucus still had to check in with workers using Republican voting lists at the front door, he said, so it is unlikely that the results — which he said were overwhelming for Unity candidates — could have been swayed by phony voters.
Stephen Zykofsky, chairman of the state committee that wrote the rules surrounding the 2012 caucus, said last night that the GOP shouldn’t invalidate the results.
According to the rules, the Romney camp needed to challenge any procedural part of the caucus while it was taking place, Zykofsky said.
“Nothing happened until after the results came out and they weren’t what people expected,” he said. “This would be a great injustice if overturned.”
Except to testify for a brief period, Zykofsky was barred from the meeting, something he said has never happened in his 26 years as a state committeeman.
Following the nearly two-hour meeting last night, Ed McGrath, the chairman of the delegate allocation committee, said that the issue had not been resolved and that he would not comment until a decision was made.
man one romney makes a complaint and they get a private hearing. I have complained numerous times and I am an alternate delegate and it falls on depth ears.
gop is crooked and is only listening to goldman sachs
The time of government is past. These huge parasitic bloodsucking creations of insanity have to go.
The people need no leaders. Empower ourselves and cast these leeches aside. The Haitian model works better than that of the US (a failed state if ever there was one) which is barely more than 200 years old, and which looks like it wont be getting much older.
How does anybody think Romney can run the country if he can’t even manage to get control of delegates in states that he supposedly won. Romney is a big sham.