Alliances with the devil can go very, very bad
The Snohomish County, First District, WA caucus report
Or politics are ugly and alliances with the devil can go very, very bad.
It was a very long day for caucus delegates and staff as the caucus started at 7:30 AM with the doors opened and lasted until after 11:00PM.
Mostly the time lines were due to the scheduled campaign speeches by the two GOP governor elects and other state elects which lasted until nearly noon and the fact that the huge gymnasium was filled to over flowing capacity of around 2,500 and some folks were turned away due to a lack of space.
To our surprise and satisfaction however, the event was run strictly according to rules and there was no attempt to thwart proper proceedings. However, the proper proceeding did lead to a hand count with some unfortunate folks holding their hands high over their heads for well over half and hour in order to be counted. Is that cruel and unusual punishment, or what?
Ron Paul delegates held the majority at 32%, Mitt Romney at 28%, Rick Santorum approximately 20% and the balance to undecided and Newt Gingrich.
If the different factions would have had stuck to their own delegates, Ron Paul would have won all 28 delegates from the first district, as well as the other districts, and the Romney, Santorum and Gingrich folks would have received none.
Although the caucus was carefully run according to the rules; politics can be ugly and Ron Paul had to form an alliance with Santorum in order to prevent Mitt Romney from steeling the show with the very same methods that they were using.
Here is where the rub comes in, as there was an unexpected development because Rick Santorum had fired his Washington state staff because he was not happy with prospects of Ron Paul receiving delegates and the unhappy outgoing staff told the Santorum delegates not to join forces with the Ron Paul delegates and vote their conscience.
Although Santorum’s new staff tried to get their delegates back on track, many of them did not comply and the results were disastrous and as a result, Mitt Romney scored a big victory because of their proposed alliance with Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum.
If the Santorum delegates had stuck to their agreement, as the Ron Paul delegates did, and not played ball with both camps, Romney would have received no delegates and Ron Paul and Santorum would have gotten a better chance at a brokered convention.
The resulting fiasco gave Ron Paul only five delegates, Rick Santorum received at least 9 delegates from the Ron Paul supporters and Mitt Romney was bestowed the remaining or about 14 delegates.
I can only hope that the other districts fared out better with their Ron Paul majority and I can also hope that Santorum got the message.
Or politics are ugly and alliances with the devil can go very, very bad.
It was a very long day for caucus delegates and staff as the caucus started at 7:30 AM with the doors opened and lasted until after 11:00PM.
Mostly the time lines were due to the scheduled campaign speeches by the two GOP governor elects and other state elects which lasted until nearly noon and the fact that the huge gymnasium was filled to over flowing capacity of around 2,500 and some folks were turned away due to a lack of space.
To our surprise and satisfaction however, the event was run strictly according to rules and there was no attempt to thwart proper proceedings. However, the proper proceeding did lead to a hand count with some unfortunate folks holding their hands high over their heads for well over half and hour in order to be counted. Is that cruel and unusual punishment, or what?
Ron Paul delegates held the majority at 32%, Mitt Romney at 28%, Rick Santorum approximately 20% and the balance to undecided and Newt Gingrich.
If the different factions would have had stuck to their own delegates, Ron Paul would have won all 28 delegates from the first district, as well as the other districts, and the Romney, Santorum and Gingrich folks would have received none.
Although the caucus was carefully run according to the rules; politics can be ugly and Ron Paul had to form an alliance with Santorum in order to prevent Mitt Romney from steeling the show with the very same methods that they were using.
Here is where the rub comes in, as there was an unexpected development because Rick Santorum had fired his Washington state staff because he was not happy with prospects of Ron Paul receiving delegates and the unhappy outgoing staff told the Santorum delegates not to join forces with the Ron Paul delegates and vote their conscience.
Although Santorum’s new staff tried to get their delegates back on track, many of them did not comply and the results were disastrous and as a result, Mitt Romney scored a big victory because of their proposed alliance with Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum.
If the Santorum delegates had stuck to their agreement, as the Ron Paul delegates did, and not played ball with both camps, Romney would have received no delegates and Ron Paul and Santorum would have gotten a better chance at a brokered convention.
The resulting fiasco gave Ron Paul only five delegates, Rick Santorum received at least 9 delegates from the Ron Paul supporters and Mitt Romney was bestowed the remaining or about 14 delegates.
I can only hope that the other districts fared out better with their Ron Paul majority and I can also hope that Santorum got the message.
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