Not Just in Travis - Ron Paul convention takeover reports

UPDATE: 3/31/08 - I am putting the Daily Paul Thread on the Texas conventions at the top. One report on the SD-25 in Travis takeover:

Well after 10 hours of "Ye's", "Nay's", "standing counts", "points of inquiry", "motion to amend", "division", "I call into question" "your out of order!", and finally a "motion to adjourn"; the Ron Paul Republicans took over all convention chairs, the Nomination committee, the Resolution committee. Then proceeded to pass the Resolutions that we had drawn up in committee after several hours of arguments over some big and small changes in wording or whole sections. Then succeeded with the nominations of a heavy percentage of RP Rep. to be state delegates. Of which I made the trip to Houston. : o
So I can say this, we won today at a local level and shook up the base that has been in power here for 30 years at least. We got our guys in the committee chair positions, passed the resolutions that we wrote up and sent our guys to Houston to be delegates.
There was so much fireworks involved with these people losing power you had to be there to see this. It was amazing, it was a 110 to 96 vote that made the difference in the takeover. This went on for 10 hours! It started at 9am, these people went crazy when we took it over you had to be there to see it. There might be video of this, the old committee stormed off the stage and took the flowers that were on the table and all the decorations around it like the red, white and blue runner at the front of the table. It was insane!

If there is any doubt this was a well-organized strategy, he's tipped their hand:

I mean this was just comical at times to see these people get so upset by the takeover. We were well prepared, organized and professional and it worked out the way we planned. We had meetings and worked out the strategy weeks in advance and then met the week of the convention to have our own mock session so we would know what to expect.

It was funny! I still can't get over all that happened today. There were many other funny instances that I can't think of due to the exhaustion of it all.

In Missouri - “Ron Paul backers succeed in guerilla takeover of some GOP caucuses”:

Caucuses in Missouri, held only in presidential election years, are typically low-key affairs attended mainly by party diehards. But this year, the pro-Paul activists commandeered gatherings in the city of St. Louis, St. Louis County, Kansas City and Springfield. Paul supporters also controlled caucuses in at least a half dozen rural counties.

The result: Paul's supporters predict they have snagged roughly a third of the 2,137 state Republican delegates. Those delegates will determine the state GOP platform this spring and help select the presidential delegates to the national Republican presidential convention in Minneapolis in September.

The unorthodox push, which sparked shouting matches in some meetings, reflected Paul's campaign — an anti-establishment, grass-roots movement built on passion.

"This is a movement for change in the long term," said Ruth Carlson, a 24-year-old secretary from St. John who helped organize Saturday's push in the St. Louis area.

At many of Saturday's caucuses, the Paul contingents also won approval for some of their man's key positions, including resolutions for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and against the federal Patriot Act and warrantless wiretaps.

GOP chairman thwarts takeover in Nueces county, near Corpus Christi.

The scene at the Nueces County convention appeared to be part of a larger effort by Paul supporters to gain delegates to the Republican National Convention. The Kansas City Star reported his supporters took over a county convention there March 17 and elected 170 of 187 delegates.

Bertuzzi, who chaired the meeting, said he did not recognize the group to speak and some members were escorted out by the sergeant at arms. Then about 40 members of the faction convened in another room in what's known as a "rump convention."

A report from 'anymouse' on Free Republic on Galveston county:

Down here in Galveston County, the Ron Paul bots tried to hijack the convention using subterfuge and tactical advantage of surprise, that would have made al Queda proud (high-placed sleeper, multiple coordinated attacks with a goal of causing a larger scale effect at the State convention and later at the National convention.

Unfortunately for them it was discovered and thwarted for the most part by perceptive Republicans that took action and alerted others to help block their efforts. But it did make for a long and chaotic mess.

Like jihadists, they took advantage of a weak Party leadership in transition and general apathy of Party activists and precinct delegates.

A high level trusted elected official used the opportunity of a sick convention coordinator, a lame duck Party chairman and an honorary convention chair that did nothing but show up to give a speech at the start of the convention, to appoint weak commitee chairmen and pack key committees (Nominee, Credentials and Platform) with Paulbots, who had never been active in the Party before. To cover the obvious, a few “go-along” follower types were added to the committees to ensure the Paulbot block vote would not be challenged.

I sat in on the Resolutions/Platform committee after seeing some disturbing planks in the draft Platform. I witnessed a shocking railroad job of a Libertarian platform pushed through with highly questionable planks voted through with little opposition. Including one listing a list of complains against Sen. McCain and stating a no confidence in him as the Party’s nominee. This was later removed in a heated floor fight.

Also the trusted official tried to get a change to the rules to allow people that had not voted in the Primary to be allowed to considered as State delegates. Supposedly to allow his daughter who had just turned 18 to go to State as a delegate (an understandable excuse.) But because I had been alerted to the plot to stack the nominations and Credentials committees, I knew that this could also be used to let Libertarians, who had not voted in the Republican Primary to be rammed through as sleeper Ron Paul delegates, merely by swearing to a worthless Party loyalty oath. The Parliamentarian eventually figured out that it was against State Party rules and it was withdrawn, before I could get my turn at the mic to explain the potential hazard of our entire SD delegations being disqualified at the State convention by the Credentials committee discovering that some of our delegates had not voted in the Primary.

They even had the audacity to add Bob Smither to the Nominating committee. Spither ran in the 2006 General election as the Libertarian Party candidate for CD 22. He didn’t show up to the convention, but it was a clear evidence of a concerted Libertarian plot to hijack the Nominations process.

Eventually things worked out in a long and painful floor fight.

Most of the State delegates and alternates ended up being known Republicans, but there were a few that made it, that I didn’t recognize as well as quite a few known Ron Paul supporters. So don’t be surprised if other Paulbots make it to the State convention in Texas and elsewhere and try to infiltrate the State committees and attempt other mischief in a vain attempt to push Ron Paul as a viable nominee over McCain.

Although we are not thrilled with McCain as the presumptive Republican nominee, we cannot allow the resulting Party angst and apathy to be exploited by another Party, the Libertarians (and their radical Left and Right Paulbots) to hijack our State and National conventions.

What's the reason? -
Could this be a new strategy for the (small l) libertarians - give up on the (big L) Libertarians and take over the GOP:

I joined the Libertarian Party in 1972. I do not regret the 35 years I donated, worked, and voted for them. However, the time and opportunity has come to take control of the Republican party from the Nixonian Neo-Cons.

Previously finding other like-minded liberty loving people was a big obstacle. The internet and meetup groups have made this easy. Third parties try to do things back-asswards, attempting to get national exposure. If Libertarian and Constitution party members will join the Republican party at the county level, they can get control. Control the county parties and the state will follow. Control the individual state parties and the national party will be controlled as well.

At the aggregate meeting before we broke into precinct caucuses, motions were made for the party platform. This was my motion: "Republicans should once again stand for fiscal responsibility and stop spending like drunken sailors and Democrats." After the cheering, the motion passed with a 100% yes vote.

In my Precinct (I was the PCO) were sent 6 delegates, myself included, to the county convention. All are Ron Paul supporters.
After banging my head against a brick wall for all these years, this is going to be easy.

Frankly, it makes a lot of sense. It's what the Religious Right did in the 1980s and 1990s and helped them wield a bigger stick with the party.