Tampa Day 5 & 6 - Coronation of Paul Ryan & Mitt Romney

The day following platform, rules, and nominations, many of the grassroots held a press conference in front of the convention center entrance to address some of the issues that were of concern. It was headed by Texans but included delegates from Maine, Oklahoma, and others. Watch it here.

It was interesting attending some of the different events that others from my CD didn't attend, because we were able to witness different events and understand the narrative of what happened at the GOP Convention from various perspectives. I also hope this helps others from my CD who did not attend get a better understanding of what happened.

Here are some "behind the scenes" photos (all from Tampa Day 4), since I didn't post many in my previous entries...

With CD3 alternate delegates Crystal & Joe.

Gloomy, rainy weather all week.

Many patrol squads like this one walking around the area.

Texas was the best dressed delegation there!

View of the floor from the alternate delegate seating section.

Steve Munisteri reading the Texas votes.

Me and Crystal on the floor.

Tampa Day 4 - First Day of the GOP Convention

Tuesday marked the first day of business for the 2012 GOP Convention in Tampa. Long day ahead. Let me begin with a picture to lighten the mood before it gets all into business...

The Texas delegation wore Texas flag shirts with our cowboy hats on this day. Here I am with my fellow alternate delegates, Crystal and Joe, from CD3.

But I also need to rewind to Monday a bit to discuss something that arose regarding rule changes which we would be voting on today.

Many of you have now heard about battle over rule 12 and rule 16. Here they are prior to being changed for the actual vote...

Rule No. 12: The Republican National Committee may, by three-fourths (3/4) vote of its entire membership, amend Rule Nos. 1-11 and 13-25. Any such amendment shall be considered by the Republican National Committee only if it was passed by a majority vote of the Standing Committee on Rules after having been submitted in writing at least ten (10) days in advance of its consideration by the Republican National Committee and shall take effect thirty (30) days after adoption. No such amendment shall be adopted after September 30, 2014.
Rule No. 16: (a)(1) Any statewide presidential preference vote that permits a choice among candidates for the Republican nomination for president of the United States in a primary, caucuses, or a state convention must be used to allocate and bind the state's delegation to the National Convention in either a proportional or winner-take-all manner, except for the delegates and alternate delegates who appear on a ballot in a statewide election and are elected directly by primary voters.
(a)(2) For any manner of binding or allocating delegates permitted by these Rules, no delegate or alternate delegate who is bound or allocated to a particular presidential candidate may be certified under rule 19 if the presidential candidate to whom the delegate the delegate or alternate delegate is bound or allocated has, in consultation with the State Party, disavowed the delegate or alternate delegate.

As a compromise, rather than having a floor fight on Tuesday during voting, Rule 16 (a)(2) was then replaced with: "For any manner of binding or allocating delegates under these rules, if a delegate (i) casts a vote for a presidential candidate at the national convention inconsistent with the delegate's obligation under state law or state party rule, (ii) nominates or demonstrates support under Rule No. 40 for a presidential candidate other than the one to whom the delegate is bound or allocated under state law or state party rule, or (iii) fails in some other way to carry out the delegate's affirmative duty under state law or state party rule to cast a vote at the national convention for a particular presidential candidate, the delegate shall be deemed to have concurrently resigned as a delegate and the delegate's improper vote or nomination shall be null and void. Thereafter the secretary of the convention shall record the delegate's vote or nomination in accordance with the delegate's obligation under state law or state party rule. This subsection does not apply to delegates who are bound to a candidate who has withdrawn his or her candidacy, suspended or terminated his or her campaign, or publicly released his or her delegates."

And at one point in time, there was also language in the rules that the RNC was trying to adopt which included allowing the RNC and presumptive GOP nominee to veto any delegates or alternate delegates, despite having been duly elected (this also gets us into another issue that arose regarding unseated duly elected delegates).

Ultimately, here are the final rules that were adopted at the convention after a voice vote that was too close to call, and was actually scripted into the program. If you haven't heard about it or just want to see more, click here and here. (Not just to point fingers at the RNC, looks like the DNC also scripts their votes.)

Another issue that arose at the beginning of the day was when they were deciding whether to seat Maine's duly elected delegates or have them replaced with delegates of the establishment's choosing. Here you can hear a good amount of delegates chanting "Point of Order!" trying to get Chairman Reince Priebus to recognize them and to address their objection, but Priebus ignores them. The chants then start mixing with "Seat them now!" Many people may think this issue is just Ron Paul supporters causing a disruption or creating chaos during the convention, but the concern is fundamentally about following the rules. In the state of Maine, they voted on their delegates and alternate delegates. It's not up to the RNC to decide that just because they don't like who the delegates or alternate delegates are, they can have them replaced because they may or may not support the RNC's presumptive nominee. Talk about the RNC and presumptive nominee having vetoing power over elected delegates, what they did to unseat Maine can also happen to any other state. This was an overstep of power that was uncalled for.

I hope this day's post makes sense, because there was a lot that happened, and I'm trying to describe faithfully what happened (with video) while still maintaining some objectivity. But there are so many other strings attached to what happened that it's difficult to write out linearly.

Tampa Day 1 - Settling In

Woke up at 7am to make it to my 8:30am flight from Dallas to Tampa. The weather isn't as terrible and humid as some said it would be, but we do have hurricane Isaac coming our way, so that might change. Two other fellow CD3 representatives were on the same flight as me, and I found myself in the company of three other liberty advocates. We discussed politics, social issues, and personal views which made the flight time pass by, and before we knew it, we had arrived in Tampa. I had no troubles with flight, luggage, and getting to the resort location where the Texas GOP delegation is staying.

Here is a picture of the room I'm staying in. I'll post more later.

After a short rest in the room, we headed out to Paul Fest where we met Gary Johnson, Vermin Supreme, and mingled with other RP supporters from around the US.

During this time, I received a few texts and emails stating that the Monday session of the GOP Convention was cancelled due to weather issues from Hurricane Isaac's arrival. At the same time, I came across information stating problems and concerns regarding rule changes that were made in the rules committee meeting earlier this week. With a dying phone battery and poor reception, I tried to look up more information about these claims that had been brought to my attention regarding concerns on how the RPT elects delegates and alternates and the power grab by Mitt Romney. It seems that the RNC and Mitt Romney's campaign feel extremely threatened by non-Romney supporters, and are going to extreme lengths to prevent the grassroots from having any voice in the Republican Party. Whether one is or is not a Romney supporter (or Santorum, Gingrich, Bachmann, Perry, Paul, etc), it should be clear that this type of power-grab is not what conservationism, Republicanism, or liberty is about. I hope other delegates and alternates can also see through this behavior and outright lack of integrity and principle.

Fellow delegates, alternates, and I are working hard to make sure this is known to the delegations present at the GOP Convention, and are making sure we fight against the suppression of voice and removal of representation by the RNC and Romney campaign. As someone who is trying to win votes and gain trust of the American people, shame on him.