March 18, 2012|1:38 pm
Missouri Republicans had a
raucous Saturday, mostly due to conflicts between Ron Paul
supporters and traditional Republicans as they gathered at
caucus sites to help decide who will be the party's
nominee for president of the United States.
Most of the reported incidents appeared to be the result of
a combination of pugnacious Paul supporters and
disorganization.
In St. Charles county, Paul supporters got into an argument
with the caucus chair. They had sought to elect their own
chair and adopt their own rules, according to caucus
procedure. They were also carrying video cameras, though,
which is against caucus rules.
An off-duty police officer, who was hired to provide
security for the event, filed a trespassing complaint
against Paul supporters. About 10 police officers, including
a police helicopter, arrived on the scene. Two Paul
supporters were arrested and the caucus was shut down. The
caucus for that district will have to be rescheduled for a
later date.
"It's like the Hatfields and McCoys around here," a former
GOP chairman for the county told ABC News.
A political blogger at
the event tweeted that order had broken down in the first 10
seconds and, "Man with camera insists on staying. Officers
move in. Crowd goes ape."
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There were reports of "boisterous" and "obnoxious" Paul
supporters in other districts, but St. Charles was the only
place where arrests were made.
In Clay county, the caucus chair threatened to have some
voters forcibly removed after arguments became intense. The
Paul supporters complained that they were following the
rules but being ignored by caucus organizers.
"We raised a number of points of order, points of
information, points of parliamentary inquiry, many of which
have been ignored," John Findlay, a Paul supporter, told The
Kansas City Star.
A blogger who describes herself as an "anarchist guided by
biblical principles" posted a message from David
C., a Paul supporter at the Lincoln county caucus.
"They practically ignored the state GOP guidelines and
rules. They severely butchered Robert's Rules of Order," he
complained. "We prayed for the rules to be followed and that
honesty, integrity and transparency would prevail throughout
the scheduled event."
While the state convention is governed by Robert's Rule of
Order, each county can use their own rules and new rules can
be adopted after electing a caucus chairman.
In Boone County, Paul supporters were successful in
electing their own caucus chair and were able to elect a
slate of mostly Paul delegates.
Inexperience may be partly to blame for the contentious
process. Missouri is accustomed to using a primary, rather
than a caucus, to select delegates. The state party opted
for a caucus this year to avoid a penalty from the national
party for scheduling its primary too early.
Paul is currently in last place in the national delegate
count and has not won in any states. He is running a mostly
insurgent campaign by attracting independent, libertarian
and young voters who do not generally identify as
Republicans. Even without winning the nomination, he could
have some influence on the party and its platform if he has
enough delegates at the convention and if there is no clear
front-runner at the convention.
Rick Santorum easily won Missouri's Feb. 7 primary, but
those results were non-binding. Most, but not all, counties
chose delegates Saturday to the congressional district
caucuses, which will then choose delegates to the state
convention. The district conventions and state convention
will then choose 49 of Missouri's 52 delegates to the
national convention.
Since many of the delegates chosen on Saturday were
non-binding, there are additional steps in the process, and
the proceedings were marred by contention and confusion,
there was no clear winner.
