June 10, 2007 - Yesterday, about 15 of us hosted a booth and suite at the Salt Lake City GOP Convention where 1,500 Republican delegates (and many others) came to learn about issues and vote on local representatives. Our presence there was a surprise to many - especially the Mitt Romney and John McCain staff who each had a booth. I think in several ways we may have won the battle this weekend:
- We hand-delivered 1,700 Ron Paul packets that included a DVD as well as 2 pamphlets and a "Ron Paul Revolution" bumper sticker.
- Ron Paul was the only presidential candidate to have a suite in addition to a booth. Outside the suite, dozens of people watched on a 50" TV, video clips of Ron Paul from the debates and his various interviews.
- Inside the suite, more than 100 representatives and guests packed in to listen to Ron Paul's campaign manager, Lew Moore, speak about the campaign and answer questions. In addition, we were delighted to have Ron Paul call in for a 10 minute speech over the speaker phone!
- There was a straw poll conducted by the GOP Convention to gauge support for presidential candidates, and Ron Paul came in 2nd place! We're not talking about on-line polls; this is the outcome of actual delegates voting in a written poll. If this is representative of the whole, then Ron Paul is on track to be the second or, people willing, first choice for President of the United States among Republicans in Utah - above Rudy Giuliani and John McCain, who are the other two media-anointed candidates. Of course, at this Utah convention, Mitt Romney, a Mormon, came in 1st place by a majority.
- At a recent New Hampshire rally, over 400 people showed up to support Ron Paul, which was 50% more than any other candidate, including Barack Obama. A reporter who had been at the same location to report on each of the other candidates told Moore that this group was twice as energetic as any of the other candidates' supporters.
- When the petition went out to bar Ron Paul from the second GOP debate, the Republican National Committee received nearly 20,000 phone calls in support of Ron Paul within 24 hours and had to shut down their call center. They had to call Ron Paul's committee and plead with them to announce immediately that Ron Paul was without a doubt invited to the debate, and ask them to please make the announcement to his supporters so they would stop calling!
Ron Paul is positioned to take Utah by storm.