It looks as if the Republican National Committee and the Mitt Romney campaign have officially taken a stand to oust Ron Paul supporters in Massachusetts. On August 10, the RNC’s ‘Committee on Contest’, chaired by Mike Duncan, released their recommendation to uphold “Romney for President, Inc.” decision to ignore the official caucus results. Instead they manipulated rules to decertify sixteen duly elected delegates. On August 14, the decertified delegates filed a Notice of Intent to Object. They are expecting an impartial hearing prior to Tampa.
It seems that Team Romney and the RNC do not care about unifying this block of voters at all because, at every turn, they have looked to undermine their organization and hard work and to shut their voice out of the convention. Last week it was Maine, this week it’s Massachusetts.
From the official release of the Massachusetts Liberty Caucus,
These sixteen duly elected Liberty delegates wanted to participate in the Republican National Convention to promote three platform issues, specifically Auditing the Federal Reserve Bank, Requiring Congressional Declaration of War for Funding Wars, and Protecting Internet Freedom.
This flagrant violation of the foundation of American Democracy has not killed the spirit of Liberty, but rather strengthened the resolve of activists to continue to reform the Massachusetts Republican Party, by actively supporting the removal of leadership that undermines fair elections, promotes cronyism, and whose policy positions clearly infringe on personal liberty. One example of the lack of liberty in the current state Republican Party Leadership is the recent endorsement by Republican State House Minority Leader Bradley Jones of ‘price controls’ on health care that every small government Republican should be opposed.
The tactical purge of duly elected delegates by the Romney Campaign’s top attorney, Benjamin Ginsberg, sends a clear message that grassroots activists are not welcome to participate in Romney’s Presidential Campaign. The grassroots activists that organized, worked hard, and campaigned to elect those decertified delegates can take a hint, and while committed to defeating President Barack Obama and his policies that promote poverty, not prosperity, moving forward, will pledge their time, talent, and treasure towards supporting local candidates.
These are people that had already purchased plane tickets and made travel arrangements to Tampa as official National delegates to the convention. Now they have been undercut by both the RNC and the Romney campaign.