Ron Paul

Right Wing News sent out a request to over 200 "right-of-center" bloggers and asked them to send their LEAST favorite elected Republicans in an unranked list (up to ten) in Congress, President, or governors. Forty two responded and came up with the following list (with total votes in parentheses):

Our own Senator Olympia Snowe finished in the top 3 with 20 votes, just one vote ahead of Arnold Schwarzenegger, while Senator Collins was only able to muster 8 votes, in a tie with Governor Crist from Florida.

No word yet from the Collins camp if they will use this ranking for independent voters and soft democrats in election materials in the Fall. Senator Snowe has allegedly sent a thank you note.

The lights are on and almost everyone has left. The convention is over.

It’s been a busy – but productive -- two days for the Republican Party.

In these two days, Republicans from across the state elected delegates to the state convention, elected state committee members, debated their platform and heard from all the major candidates. They also heard from Mitt Romney and Cal Thomas.

Team McCain managed to completely lock out the Ron Paul delegates, capturing the remaining 12 delegates. McCain's floor managers distributed a flyer with the names of the 12 delegates that they believed would be suitable McCain supporters. The 12 delegates are: (number of votes in parentheses)

• Former Governor John McKernan 532
• Senator Olympia Snowe 535
• Rep. Josh Tardy 551
• Senator Carol Weston 555
• Congressional candidate Charlie Summers 545
• Senator Kevin Raye 518
• Dwayne Bickford508
• Elaine Bridge 507
• Kathy Watson527
• Dawn Gilbert 435
• Ann Robinson 538
• Jan Staples 516

As the convention begins to wind down, republicans will be selecting 12 more delegates to attend the national convention in St. Paul.

The Ron Paul campaign is trying to win a few more delegates, but so far has been fairly out gunned by a well organized McCain operation.

 The McCain team has distributed a list of delegates and alternates that they are pushing.  The flyer urges convention goers to support those folks listed on the flyer. 

The flyer also states " these loyal GOP supporters have pledged their support to our nominee Sen. John McCain and can be counted on to act in the best interest of the maine Republican Party at the national convention."

We hope to provide an update by 3:30 PM 

Note: Thanks to Mr. M for sending this along. 

Jan Staples has won the run-off election for National Committeewoman. She defeated Kathy Watson.

There were rumors that Kathy Watson was approached by the Ron Paul delegates, who promised to support her in exchange for a few more delegate slots. That never materialized.

Ronulans win one Maine national delegate slot...so far.

With balloting complete in the first congressional district, it appears that of the three available slots, Ron Paul supporters have picked up one delegate.   Ron Collins, a former state rep and Kerri Prescott, a current state representative were "McCain approved" candidates and won two of the seats.  The third seat went to Patrick Eisenhardt, who has been identified as a Ron Paul supporter.

The second district delegates went to Senator Lois Snowe Mello, Phil Roy, and Scott Kauffman all "McCain approved".

Maine Republicans will be selecting 12 more delegates later in the day.

The convention has just reconvened after the two districts split up to elect delegates.

After opening proceedings U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe will speak soon, and then the delegates will elect the at-large national delegates. At lunchtime they will take up the platform – there are about 25 amendments to take up.

A Ron Paul video will also be shown.

Fox News contributor Cal Thomas will be speaking later.

PolitickerME.com is a bit behind with video from yesterday, but hopes to have footage of all the speeches up by the end of the day.

Ken Lindell, coordinator of the Maine Ron Paul campaign, said the two men removed from the Maine Republican Convention earlier did not represent the campaign, although both said earlier that they were Paul supporters.

UPDATED with comments from Ken Lindell, see further update

Security has removed two men, both Ron Paul supporters, from the Maine Republican Convention.

Mark Finks of Falmouth said his rights were being violated when he was denied a chance to raise “a routine, procedural objection” on the convention floor.

He was an alternate and said he had been moved into a delegate slot, but officials told him he was an alternate and convention rules prohibited him from speaking. Seeing no microphone for people on the floor, he grabbed the microphone in front of the podium.

More convention coverage:

Pssst...secret phone calls are happening

GOP Convention today