Nevada Paul supporters remain vigilant as GOP briefly opens convention

TAMPA, Fla. - Mark Carducci was among a dozen die-hard Ron Paul supporters from Nevada on the Republican National Convention floor Monday when the GOP briefly gaveled the meeting to order before recessing for a day to wait out the wind-whipped rain from Tropical Storm Isaac.

Carducci said Paul backers showed up for the pro-forma session to ensure the Republican National Committee didn't pull a fast one and change the rules again to further weaken the power of the libertarian faithful who reject Mitt Romney as the GOP presidential nominee.

"Let's just say I'm distrustful," Carducci said after the brief floor session. "I would hope that we have a chance to nominate Paul from the floor, but they keep moving the goal posts on us."

Other Paul supporters were more vocal inside the Tampa Bay Times Forum, which can hold 20,000 people but was nearly empty Monday. A few hundred delegates and guests were on the floor, having braved a maze of barbed-wire security, monsoon-like rain and heavy winds.

After the session ended, a few protesters walked around the red, white and blue bedecked convention hall holding up signs that read, "Ron Paul 2012." One wore an Uncle Sam-style top hat. Another group gathered and shouted, "President Paul! President Paul! President Paul!"

They were all but ignored on a day when TV reports weren't live and few were paying attention.

The real potential floor fight could occur today if Paul backers from Nevada and other states such as Iowa, Maine, Minnesota and Louisiana challenge new rules that would limit the power of grass-roots organizers to nominate presidential candidates.

Nevada also will be in the spotlight tonight for another reason: Gov. Brian Sandoval is scheduled to address the convention at 6 p.m. PDT, giving the battleground state and its popular Hispanic governor a prominent role in the party's convention.

Sandoval's speech will happen during prime time after the rules for the convention are adopted.

Last week, the convention rules committee voted to require a majority of delegates in eight states instead of five states to support a candidate to nominate him or her from the floor. The move came after the GOP stripped several states of Paul delegates, although not Nevada.

More worrisome to Paul backers and some establishment GOP figures, the rules committee also voted to make future presidential caucuses and primaries in all states binding. That would mean nonestablishment candidates - such as Paul - can't use local and state party conventions where delegates are elected to pack delegations to the national convention to oppose the party favorite.

Finally, under pressure from the Romney campaign, the rules committee voted to give candidates veto power over national delegates, allowing White House hopefuls to handpick their own loyalists. This is the rule that both Paul and establishment party leaders object to most.

"This would cut any grass-roots movement off at the knees," said Marla Criss, an alternate Nevada delegate who is working with her husband on a long-shot bid to reverse the rules.

Kurt Criss, a Nevada delegate who, like his wife, supports Paul, was circulating a petition to try to reject the new rules when they come up for adoption today on the convention floor. The petition seeks to have a minority report put forward, opposing the new delegate requirements.

"If these rules go into effect, it will remove any incentive for people to go to the conventions," Kurt Criss said. "It's only the favorites of the presidential campaigns that would get to these events."

The Paul contingent from Nevada knows the odds are against them in getting the new rules reversed, but they are trying in hopes it will allow them to nominate the Texas congressman from the floor - something the Romney campaign is just as intent on blocking to avoid public embarrassment. Other states, including Iowa, are pushing for the minority report, too.

Even establishment figures such as former Nevada Gov. Bob List said he objects to the proposed rule change that would let presidential candidates handpick national delegates. He said it would strip the state parties of power and harm the Republican Party from the ground up.

"There are a lot of us who have worked a long time in the party and think that enabling a candidate to remove delegates would go too far," List said. "This really isn't about Ron Paul. It's about what has traditionally been a party responsibility and to be able to reward the hard work of those who support the party and give them every chance to become a delegate."

List, the outgoing Republican National Committeeman, said RNC leaders were working on a compromise to modify the rules and return power to state parties.

"A presidential campaign really goes on for 60 days," List said, referring to the time period between the conventions and the general election. "But a party goes on 365 days a year."

The Clark County Republican Party Executive Board, which is run by Paul supporters, met late Monday to approve a resolution condemning the rule changes.

"The Executive Board of the Clark County Republican Party, out of a deep love for our country, our party and the principles of conservatism, call upon the delegates to the 2012 Republican National Convention to reject this power play," the resolution said in part.

A member of the board also said the Paul faction doesn't support the compromise.

DISSENSION DISMISSED

Nevada Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, who is Romney's campaign co-chair in the Silver State, dismissed the Paul dissension as a sideshow. He said it won't upset the convention's goal of energizing Republicans and unifying the GOP behind the party's presidential ticket.

"I know there's a lot of intrigue within the delegation, but in the end we agree on far more things than we disagree on," Krolicki said. "Some of the rhetoric is passionate and is personal. But I think we all agree this country needs to go in a new direction. I think the energy of the party will show through and we'll rally together for Nov. 6."

Nevada's 28 delegates to the convention are divided between 22 Paul supporters and six Romney backers, including Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald. McDonald briefly came to Tampa but returned home over the weekend because his ill father is in the hospital.

As a result, Nevada will have only 27 delegates on the convention floor during the meeting because an alternate can't replace a GOP official such as McDonald, who won an automatic spot.

Romney won Nevada's Feb. 4 GOP presidential caucus with 50 percent of the vote, and Paul was third. After other GOP candidates dropped out, Romney was awarded 20 delegates and Paul eight. Under binding rules, Nevada delegates must vote as assigned during the scheduled roll call today of the states on the first nominating ballot.

Carol Del Carlo, an alternate delegate from Incline Village, said she wished the Paul faction would move on and support Romney to oust President Barack Obama from the White House.

"I want to see the Ron Paul people embrace our candidate," said Del Carlo, who came to the convention Monday. "They're telling me a vote for him (Romney) is the same as a vote for Obama, but that just isn't true. When are they going to admit that it isn't going to happen? Paul isn't going to be president, and they just have to give up."

Del Carlo, who said this is her second GOP convention, said establishment Republicans share the same worries as Paul supporters, especially the growing U.S. debt, now nearly $16 trillion.

On display at the convention are two debt clocks, which RNC Chairman Reince Priebus launched Monday as part of the 10-minute program. One shows the overall U.S. debt ticking up by the second. The other shows the debt growing during the convention, which is set to conclude Thursday night after Romney accepts the nomination.

One hour after the convention graveled to order at 2 p.m. Monday, the debt clock showing convention-time debt hit $100 million. At that rate, it could hit $8 billion by Thursday night.

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