For those of you involved in the Nebraska Republican Party you know about this. You have seen it fermenting. You have seen it growing. And you are seeing it metastasising before your eyes.
And in Sunday’s Lincoln Journal Star, Don Walton spelled out what is going in the battle for control of the Nebraska Republican Party.
The Ron Paul wing of the Nebraska GOP is trying to (some say they already have) take over the state party.
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It started as a Tea Party type swing, with Matt Sakalosky folks suddenly pulling their weight to take the reigns of the Douglas County party. Scott Peterson got the nod over Jay Turco, after first getting his feet wet in party politics in Sakalosky’s primary fight against Congressman Lee Terry in 2010. Then Peterson became chairman of the party. A volunteer job to be sure — they all are — but many have complained that under his watch…
- the party office closed its doors — one does not exist now
- Peterson has not submitted a Treasurer’s report to the county central committee
- he has not had an Executive Director on staff
- he has reportedly recruited candidates against incumbent Republicans
These are all things that everyone knows. If you follow the comments in this blog, you are likely aware of this. And that is not to say that Peterson has not worked hard or put in a lot of his time or worked for some Republicans. It is just to say that organization, leadership and money have clearly been serious, serious problem under his tenure.
But in short, Peterson is a Ron Paul guy, and that means he is not on board with many of the elected Republicans. Which is only strange if you are the one leading the Republicans in your county.
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So on Tuesday, May 15th, Nebraska Republicans — who by the way had a very contentious Senate primary to show up and vote for — gave Mitt Romney 70% of the vote. They gave Ron Paul 10%.
Mull over those numbers for a minute.
But hey, Nebraska like many or most other states has more arcane political rules that can still change things. Like, if you get more of your people to show up at a Holiday Inn on a random Saturday afternoon, you too can take over the party. How about that!
And we will tell you this, what the Ron Paul peeps lack in actual, you know, votes for their candidate, they more than make up for in organizing their people to outnumber party stalwarts on a Saturday afternoon.
And this means that they took majorities in many counties, including Douglas, to gain a majority of Paulites on the GOP State Central Committee.
This is turn means that they have the ability to send Ron Paul delegates to the National Republican Convention. Nebraska will then be the 5th state that puts Ron Paul over the top and gets his name into nomination at the convention.
Aren’t you proud of that Nebraskans? You have the opportunity to embarrass the Republican candidate, potentially screw up the opportunity to elect Romney over Barack Obama, and allow the Paulites to take over the platform committee and insert whatever Ron Paul plans (that voters have rejected) into the GOP platform.
Didn’t know that’s what you bought in for when you voted 70% for Romney and 10% for Paul, didja?
So you can credit the Paulites for this.
Namely you can credit:
Laura Ebke (of Crete)
…and Jon Tucker (Omaha)
…and Scott Peterson (Omaha)…
And now…Washington County (Blair) GOP Chair John Orr.
Yes, THAT John Orr. Son of former Republican Governor Kay Orr.
He of the drop down, can’t-miss-it mustache.
And they have a plan.
They plan to elect John Orr over Brian Buescher of Omaha as GOP Party Chair at the Nebraska GOP Convention on July 14th. Currently the Ron Paul for President campaign is paying for calls to Central Committee members telling them that John Orr is the “true conservative” over Buescher. Which is a laugh. That isn’t to say that Orr is some sort of weak-kneed liberal, but to try to say that Buescher isn’t a rock-ribbed Republican is a joke.
Continue reading…
http://leavenworthst.com/2012/07/02/who-is-plotting-the-nebraska-gop-coup/#comment-55034
