Nevada delegates revolt, vote for Paul anyway

TAMPA, Fla. - In a noisy show of defiance, Ron Paul delegates from Nevada revolted Tuesday at the Republican National Convention after GOP leaders changed the rules to stamp out a long-shot effort from the floor to nominate the Texas congressman for president.

During a roll call of the states to nominate Mitt Romney as the Republican presidential pick, Paul delegates refused to vote for Romney as required under binding rules of Nevada's GOP presidential caucus, which the former Massachusetts governor easily won on Feb. 4.

Instead, furious Paul delegates said they followed their consciences with 17 voting to nominate Paul and five more abstaining. Five Romney-loyal delegates voted to nominate him as planned. Another Romney supporter, Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald, was absent because his father was hospitalized in Las Vegas.

It was a protest vote because the rules require Romney to be awarded 20 Nevada delegates and eight for Paul, and Romney easily won enough delegates to wrap up the nomination - going over the top with more than the necessary 1,144 delegates when New Jersey voted after Nevada.

Rob Tyree of Henderson said he voted for Paul in defiance because national Republican leaders and the Romney campaign changed convention rules at the last minute to block Nevada and others from nominating Paul, a 77-year-old libertarian with a conservative following.

"They have no respect for the process, so I have no respect for them," said Tyree, who was supposed to vote for Romney although he doesn't back him. "This is a case of blatant cheating."

Before the formal roll call of the states, Nevada led an effort to nominate Paul from the floor. Paul delegates submitted petitions from a majority of delegates from six states - Nevada, Minnesota, Iowa, Oregon, Alaska and the Virgin Islands - to put his name forward.

Under old rules, submitting signatures from five states should have been enough to put Paul up for a nomination vote. But the convention secretary rejected the petitions, and GOP leaders changed the rules at the last minute to require eight states to nominate from the floor.

Wayne Terhune, a Paul supporter and chairman of the Nevada delegation, said he was frustrated at every turn as he submitted the petitions to the convention secretary by hand and then when the new convention rules were adopted on a voice vote that sounded close.

From the floor, Terhune tried to call for a standing vote count of the delegates. But convention organizers turned off his microphone and wouldn't answer a phone stationed with the Nevada delegation, which was given a spot near the back of the floor far from the stage.

"My microphone was dead, nobody answered the phone. They just wanted to silence us," Terhune said in the middle of the floor fight as Paul supporters shouted in dismay at the new rules. "If I try to storm the place, they'll probably put the Secret Service on us."

After losing the rules battle, Terhune took a piece of paper and recorded the votes of each Nevada delegate - as they wanted, not as assigned.

Former Nevada Gov. Robert List called Terhune an "outlaw" for subverting the binding vote.

"Dr. Terhune failed to act with integrity," said List, an official delegate for Romney and a leader of the Republican National Committee. "It was his responsibility to vote in accordance with the rules. I called him an outlaw. It's contrary to the process."

List said he would make sure that the official Nevada delegate nomination vote would be recorded as 20 for Romney and eight for Paul. He sent an email to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus saying the Battle Born state's delegate count was reported wrongly on the floor.

"The Nevada votes were incorrectly cast," List said in the email. "Under our binding caucus rules requiring proportionate allocation, the correct votes should have been announced and recorded as Romney 20, Paul 8. The Paul supporter incorrectly announced Paul 17 and Romney 5."

Priebus replied, "Right, that's what I said immediately."

Terhune was unapologetic as he rose to speak on the convention floor before announcing the Nevada delegate vote in the 20,000-seat forum.

"In Nevada, freedom isn't a word, it's a state of life," Terhune said.

After losing the fight to nominate Paul, some supporters shouted about the tyranny of the GOP leaders, others vowed to continue to battle to take over the party from within. A few Paul backers cried in disappointment and said they may go home before the convention ends with Thursday's coronation of Romney as the GOP nominee.

"They knew we had five states to nominate Ron Paul, and they just wanted to shut us down," said Cindy Lake, chairwoman of the Clark County Republican Party, which is now controlled by Paul supporters. "I'm not going away. I'm going to be a thorn in their side."

Lake broke into tears, however, when she thought about how she was "railroaded" by the rules committee, where former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu wouldn't allow debate on the new rules. She sits on the panel, dominated by Romney backers.

She and her husband, Jay Lake, another delegate, probably will go home today, she said.

"There's really no reason to stay after this," she said. "It's really hard to watch. This whole thing is just a show, a slick TV show for Mitt Romney. It's sickening."

Wiselet Rouzard, another Paul delegate, said the nation's founding fathers would be "turning over in their graves" if they had witnessed the GOP heavy hand snuff out debate.

"This is the death of the Republican Party," Rouzard said. "Future generations will be ashamed of what they did today. The only way we can win this battle now is to infiltrate the party. We're not going away. Not one bit."

Dave Buell, the chairman of the Washoe County Republican Party, predicted the Paul revolt on the floor may harm their cause.

"What they're saying is two wrongs make a right," Buell said. "I think they put their movement back a long way. They sit there and scream about the rules and then they turn around and break them. They're awful totalitarian for being such liberty-minded people."

Buell and other establishment party leaders aren't happy with some of the RNC rule changes for the nominating process and future conventions. From now on, state presidential caucuses and primaries must be binding, which means all delegates must follow the state vote outcome.

That would prevent alternate candidates such as Paul from packing delegations with supporters at the county and state party levels in an attempt to challenge the party favorite.

In addition, a new rule would give the RNC leaders the ability to change the rules in between conventions if at least 75 percent approve, weakening the state parties and grass roots.

"I don't like some of the rules," Buell said. "But I can live with them."

One proposed rule was rejected by party leaders. It would have given presidential candidates veto power over delegates elected by states. Buell, List and other GOP regulars said that would have given too much power to candidates and stripped the party members of real choices.

Carl Bunce, the chairman of the Paul campaign in Nevada, said Romney and the national GOP leaders were moving to quell "a conservative uprising" that he predicted would continue to grow.

"They want to put in their own delegates, control the process," Bunce said. "They're afraid of us. But now Romney has exposed his hand. It's cronyism. It's a loyalty test. It's Marxist. It really is."

Not all Paul supporters approved of the convention revolt, including state party secretary Jim DeGraffenreid and James Smack, the incoming Republican national committeeman.

"It's time for us to move forward and get behind our nominee," Smack said. "All this does is give ammunition to our Democratic opponents."

Contact reporter Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919. Follow her on Twitter @lmyerslvrj.