Paul supporters create delegate mischief

Mitt Romney may be the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, but Rep. Ron Paul of Texas is quietly racking up some organizational victories that could complicate Mr. Romney’s anticipated coronation at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., this summer.

Exploiting party rules, loyalists for the libertarian congressman from Texas in recent days have engineered post-primary organizing coups in states such as Louisiana and Alaska, confirming what party regulars say would be an effort to grab an outsized role in the convention and the party’s platform deliberations.

In Massachusetts, the state where Mr. Romney served as governor, Paul loyalists over the weekend helped block more than half of Mr. Romney’s preferred nominees from being named delegates at state party caucuses — even though Mr. Romney won his home state’s primary with 72 percent of the vote. Many state GOP establishment figures, including longtime state Republican National Committee member Ron Kaufman, won’t be going to Tampa in August as official delegates.

Mr. Paul, who is Mr. Romney’s only active challenger with the expected withdrawal Wednesday of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, “is doing more with less than any modern presidential campaign in recent memory,” said Doug Wead, a Paul campaign adviser who served as an aide to President George H.W. Bush.

“More surprises coming,” Mr. Wead, an evangelical Christian, blogged this week. “It means that Ron Paul will be a factor in Tampa.”

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