Saturday, February 11, 2012

Mitt Romney steals Iowa in January, Maine in February

On the night of January 3, Iowa state Republican officials – partisans of the ‘establishment’ Republican Party - announced that Mitt Romney had won the Iowa caucuses by a mere 8 votes. But a win is a win, and the establishment officials who organized the capital area (Des Moines and West Des Moines) for Romney were relieved, especially since Romney was losing counties he won all over the state the last time he ran.

But then, a few weeks later, a new vote total was announced: On Jan. 20, some uncounted votes were “discovered,” and Rick Santorum was declared the winner by 34 votes. Panicked that the establishment favorite would be seen as a loser, Iowa GOP Chair Matt Strawn said no winner could be certified because the votes of eight additional precincts were “missing.” (Strawn resigned as party head Jan. 31).

Romney would go on to win New Hampshire and Florida, but face embarrassing defeats in South Carolina, Colorado,, Minnesota, and Missouri. The last thing Romney needed was yet another defeat in Maine.

And so, Maine State Republican Chairman Charlie Webster announced an hour ago that Mitt Romney won the Maine caucuses with 2,190 votes, and that Ron Paul came in second with 1,996 (39% - 36%). The difference between the two candidates – a mere 194 votes – offers a much-needed, but still razor-thin win by Romney.

But wait....are the caucuses over?

The media have simply parroted Webster’s announcement that Romney has won by 194 votes. But the reality is that 17% of the precincts in Maine have not yet voted - and Webster is insisting he will invalidate them.

Those precincts include voters from the University of Maine at Machias, in the heart of Washington County. Ron Paul has, so far, won the plurality of votes cast among college students in every state in which a primary or caucus has been held.

Maine's caucuses do not all happen at the same time, as each Town decides how to conduct their own caucuses. In Maine, caucuses began as early as February 4 and continued throughout the week. But the results announced this past hour only account for just 83 percent of all of the precincts in the state. Caucuses in Washington County, which were originally scheduled today, were postponed until next weekend because a major snowstorm hit today.

The official weather forecast:

Moderate to heavy snow and strong winds will create very hazardous traveling conditions. Frequent blowing and drifting snow will cause near whiteout conditions at times.

Schools and other meeting facilities were closed.

Is it possible, in a County of almost 33,000 residents and a university campus, that Romney's “victory” margin of only 194 votes might disappear?

Webster doesn’t want to take any chances. In an effort to preserve a Romney victory at all costs, Webster declared that any caucus results that come in after tonight would not, under any circumstances, be counted.

A century and a half ago, there was a common political cliche that said, “As Maine goes, so goes the nation!.” This was not necessarily because Maine was a bellweather state, but because Maine voters would cast their votes in September, rather than on the usual national November Election Day. Yankee pragmatism suggested that the threat of severe winter weather in November should naturally mean that Mainers be given the chance to cast their votes earlier in the season, when they weren’t likely to be battling two feet of snow and freezing rain.

And so, in another pragmatic decision that was supported by a century-old, long-honored Maine tradition, Washington County officials delayed the caucuses because of severe February winter weather. But Webster won't count them.

Apparently, Webster is more interested in disenfranchising voters and securing a Romney win at all costs...making Maine the second state stolen by Mitt Romney in the Republican race for the nomination.


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4 comments:

Rich Bianco (aka, DisplacedGuy ) said...

I was waiting for bloggers to run with this, great job for getting it done fast.

Executive Director Michael Quatrano is part of the army ensuring Ron Paul does not achieve any more momentum.

The GOP has robbed Ron Paul of a victory, momentum, legitimacy, and given the MSM more ammunition to make the "people" believe RP can't win.

Quatrano says the votes after today don't count.

Quatrano says Washington County doesn't matter and wouldn't have made a difference. Note to people living in Washington County, don't bother voting again you don't matter anyway.

Rich Bianco (aka, DisplacedGuy ) said...

If you have questions...

Charlie Webster- Chairman

Webster@MaineGOP.com

Michelle Dale- Assistant to the Chairman

Michelle@MaineGOP.com

Michael Quatrano- Executive Director

Mikeq@MaineGOP.com

9 Higgins Street
Augusta, ME 04330
Phone 207.622.6247
Fax 207.6235322

You know what to do.

Marlene Newell said...

I watched him announce the results, and he said specifically that it was a straw poll and that not all of the caucuses participated in the straw poll. He also said the caucus results would be announced later. It's not his fault if the media screws it up. He couldn't have been more plain.

anothermaine said...

No one has 'won' yet. The real voting doesn't happen until May 5th and 6th at the Convention. The election of Delegates and the Straw Poll are two ENTIRELY different things. In my town 6 of the 7 Delegates are Ron Paul Supporters even though Santorum won our Straw Poll with 14 votes, Paul with 7, Romney with 5 and Gingrich with 1. They are claiming that Romney won the state, but they are talking about a poll that has absolutely NO bearing on who will go to Augusta to elect Maine's Delegates to the National Convention. It is just silly. Washington County will have their Delegates at the State Convention, regardless of what was 'declared' yesterday.