This is a response to Mr. Tom Pico, Jr.’s rhetoric in Hawaii Reporter. In his piece entitled "Ron Paul Supporters Had Poor Showing at Hawaii GOP Convention", he addressed the Ron Paul campaign’s daring attempt for delegates at the Hawaii Republican convention this past weekend. Winning delegates was our primary agenda. With our block of voters (20-25%) we believed we could win nearly half if not more by following the Party’s latest 2007 rules procedure with the McCain campaign diluting their votes.

We caught wind of the proposed rules resolution the night before convention and prepared our district leaders. When we got the copy of the proposed resolution the first day of the convention we determined that it was worded so poorly, and was so blatant in its attempt to topple the party’s voting process that after debate on the floor a solid majority would see it for what it is and vote it down.

On Saturday morning during the first general session a delegate called a point of order, quorum, when the first vote (for officials) was about to be taken. It was around 8:45am and delegates were to be registered until 11am. The ruling was that those currently in the convention made quorum. If this were the case, than all the delegates who registered from that point until 11am should not have been allowed to vote because they did not make quorum. This would nullify later votes.

At this point, we first suspected impropriety and knew our work was even steeper than expected. Could the parliamentarian (co-author of the latest Robert’s Rules of Order) be there just to feed the Co-chair acceptable rulings rather than call him on fairness?

The rules resolution was presented, motioned, seconded and then immediately motioned to call to previous question to cut off any possible debate. It’s still hard to believe there were two-thirds who divided this call to previous question. It looked more like 50-60%. Suspicions of impropriety grew. The resolution passed.

We resorted to our back up plan for delegates and knew our chances significantly decreased for the block of delegates we were attempting. We had a better shot at Alternates. In accordance to the resolution we made the deadline to switch over delegates to alternates and distributed our backup slate to as many of our delegates as best as we could prior to the noon vote.

This is where the Party and the McCain camp lost the confidence of the majority of the delegates present. After all the hoopla of changing the rules, they did not prepare soon enough with the list of delegates to choose, but rather pushed the little green ballots with preset McCain delegates and alternates. Many honest McCain supporters as well as many other delegates could see the shameless fix at this point. Can you imagine how demoralized they felt (the ones who believe there is right and wrong) knowing they wanted to honestly support McCain delegates with all of the madness their camp with the state party initiated?

The following caused the biggest stir. A motion to suspend the rules to begin voting prior to viewing the revised list of delegates and alternates was about to fail, before it was withdrawn.

Many honest delegates smelled even more rats when they recognized hired RNC consultants from the mainland on the convention floor passing out preset ballots to drop in the box.

There weren’t publicized times indicating when the voting would cease. This denied delegates who were told they could return after lunch and vote. Other voting procedure problems took place. Russell McGuire’s article gave an accurate picture in his three points:

http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?d8cadc83-e2ae-4e01-9045-66142224549e

It’s no secret that this event was scripted. There’s no problem with that. The problem is that the script was used by the Party leadership with the McCain campaign to influence the voting.

What a process for Mr. Pico, Jr. to be proud of.

Each and every Ron Paul supporter who participated has gained a world of experience in standing up to incredible odds. We were outnumbered four to one and I roughly estimate, out spent over a hundred to one. Our wits, skills and resourcefulness were not only tested by the Hawaii McCain campaign, but also the Hawaii Republican Party and RNC consultants.

I understand they were fearful of what happened at the Nevada convention where the Ron Paul supporters were the majority. They got really scared, went "Scarface" and ended up losing a lot of respect from many long time Republicans. With the experience gained we have the dignity of knowing we did our best for our convictions and earned the respect of many.

Dan Douglass is a licensed Realtor Associate and the Hawaii State Coordinator for Ron Paul 2008 PCC http://www.ronpaul2008.com. He was raised and currently lives in Salt Lake and is actively apart of http://www.stoprailnow.com. For more information email mailto:dan@dandouglass2008.com

ELECTIONS 2008...