Sun April 20, 2008
Texas congressman may grab more delegates
By Michael McNutt
Capitol Bureau
Ron Paul did not win a single delegate during Oklahoma's presidential
primary, but the Texas
congressman's sup****ters have won a third of the delegates selected so far
and hope to add to
that tally at next month's state convention.
Paul sup****ters have won five of the 15 national GOP delegates already
selected at Oklahoma's
congressional district conventions, Oklahoma Republican Party Chairman
Gary Jones said. They
also won several of the 15 alternates selected at the conventions.
"They appear to be Ron Paul sup****ters, they haven't publicly said they
are,” Jones said.
It's expected Paul's sup****ters will turn out to add to that count when
state Republicans
gather May 2-3 in Tulsa to elect 23 at-large delegates and 23 alternates
to the national
convention, he said.
Oklahoma will send 41 delegates to the National Republican Convention
scheduled for September
in Minneapolis.
Three are state GOP officials — Jones and the national committeeman and
national committeewoman
from Oklahoma.
Oklahoma Republican Party rules require that 15 of the state's GOP
delegates be awarded to the
winning candidate in the state's five congressional districts. The
remainder go to whomever
wins the most votes in the state.
U.S. Sen. John McCain won the most votes during Oklahoma's presidential
primary Feb. 5. McCain,
of Arizona, got 37 percent of the vote in Oklahoma, but collected 32 of
the delegates.
He got 23 delegates for winning the state and three delegates in each of
the three
congressional districts he won.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who since has dropped out of the race,
finished a close
second with 33 percent of the vote. He won several counties and collected
six delegates, three
each in the two congressional districts he won.
Paul won about 3 percent of the vote and was awarded no delegates. Paul
has dropped out of
recent primaries, but still is continuing his bid for the Republican
presidential nomination
and is making speeches across the country.
Kirk Shelley, who served as Oklahoma state coordinator for Paul earlier
this year, no longer is
working for the campaign. A phone number for his successor no longer is in
service.
Paul's backers captured two delegates in the 2nd Congressional District,
two in the 5th
Congressional District and on the 3rd Congressional District, Jones said.
State law and state
party rules bind delegates to vote for the choice of the primary voters on
the first ballot at
the national convention. But the laws don't require the delegates to be
sup****ters of the
candidate to whom they've been elected to represent.
http://newsok.com/article/3232480/1208651544
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