AUGUSTA, Maine — In addition to providing impetus for the Republican National Committee to seize control of Maine’s national convention delegate seating process, a 26-page report that portrays the state GOP convention as an embarrassing, chaotic free-for-all prompted questions about leadership and direction within the Maine Republican Party.
As Republicans headed to Tampa, Fla., for a gathering designed to emphasize party unity, schisms between Maine supporters of presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney and Texas Rep. Ron Paul continue to garner national attention.
Republican Party Chairman Charlie Webster called the conflict over seating Maine’s delegates at the Republican National Convention “unfortunate,” but added that “I don’t think it means anything bad” for the party or its chances of winning elections in November.
“A review of the entire record of this matter reveals a state convention riddled with myriad interrelated credentialing problems, ballot security shortcomings and lax security,” the Republican Committee on Contests report states.
The report, based on information gathered in response to a challenge filed by Peter Cianchette and Jan Martens Staples, longtime Maine Republican party leaders and Mitt Romney supporters, identified vast discrepancies in county delegate counts, misidentification of individual delegates and questionable interpretation of rules of order.
After a lengthy description of the committee’s reservations about how the state convention unfolded, the report concludes “the committee is not satisfied that the conduct of the state convention allowed the will of the body to be able to be known and expressed on the election of the … delegates from the state of Maine.”
In the aftermath of the convention, Webster said that party officials had put in place a system for an organized convention.
“Before I turned over the gavel we established a process,” Webster told the Bangor Daily News in May. “We had a checker in each county. We had those folks involved in the tabulation. In my role as chairman of the party, I’m going to go to the Republican National Convention to make sure those votes are counted.”
After the Committee on Contests decision Wednesday, Webster accepted some of the responsibility for problems at the state convention. “I think a lot of the blame [for how the state convention went] is on us at the party,” he said. “We did a terrible job of running the convention and I’m willing to take the blame. There were a lot of mistakes made.”
On Friday, Webster said that Maine Republican Party leaders will “come up with a totally different plan” for future conventions. “It will never happen again,” he said of the confusion at this year’s state convention that carried over into turmoil in Tampa during the days leading to the GOP national convention. “There will be a new committee and there will be a new plan.”
One change Webster suggested Friday would be to cut off registration for the state convention five days or so before the convention to solidify the credentialing process.
Less than an hour after learning Friday that the Republican National Committee’s credentials committee had rejected an appeal by 20 Maine delegates pledged to Paul to be seated, Brent Tweed, who narrowly won election as chairman of this year’s state convention, said the decision was “unfortunate” but that he “will stay involved in the Republican party.”
“It will energize our base,” Tweed said of tea party and anti-establishment Republicans. “I think this will backfire on them.”
Tweed will continue working with the Campaign for Liberty, which he described as an effort to “educate people about the principles of liberty and the free market.” He also intends to help “Republican candidates who support liberty” win election to the state committee.
In December, the Maine Republican Party will elect new officers for two-year terms. On Friday, Webster said he’s willing to continue as chairman. “I love doing this and I don’t mind the controversy,” he said. “If [Republicans] win elections, then I’ll probably stay here and win elections”
Regardless of how Maine Republicans fare in November, Tweed won’t likely nominate Webster for another term as chairman. He praised Gov. Paul LePage for following through on his commitment not to attend the national convention if all of the delegates chosen at the state convention weren’t seated in Tampa. But, Tweed said Webster “waffled,” and he expressed “disappointment that he did not stand by our delegation.”
Webster contests that interpretation, explaining that his admission that he and other Maine Republican Party leaders made mistakes at the convention was part of a strategy to help achieve a compromise that would allow all of the delegates elected in May to be seated.
“I did everything I could to get our delegates seated,” Webster said Friday from Tampa. “Everything changed when they refused compromise.”
Julie Ann O’Brien, former Maine Republican Party executive director, does not believe the convention fiasco should automatically preclude Webster from continuing as chairman.
“I think Charlie Webster is a ‘get on the ground and do what’s needed whenever it’s needed kind of leader,’” she said Friday. “He just needs to surround himself with the right people.”
O’Brien said Republican state convention organizers encountered similar problems with uncredentialed delegates and confusion about rules in 2008.
O’Brien believes that much of the controversy, which she fears will rival Hurricane Isaac for national headlines coming out of Tampa, arises because people who first become involved with politics don’t understand the complex set of rules that applies from town committees through the national committee.
“Most people, particularly very excited new people to the party and to the political process don’t know that there are all these rules and steps,” she said.
Webster described it as passion making political newcomers believe they’ve become experts before familiarizing themselves with what makes the party work.
“There are a number of people within the Ron Paul organization who because they were successful in winning the convention believe they know a lot about running politics,” Webster said “They thought they were smart politically and could muscle the RNC.”
Mark Brewer, a political science professor at the University of Maine, expects the delegate dispute to have little or no effect on the upcoming election. “Faced with a choice of Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, the [Paul supporter] will swallow hard and vote for Romney,” he said.
However, Brewer believes the fight over convention delegates will deepen a widening chasm between the aggrieved libertarian wing of the Maine Republican Party and current party leadership through more legislative primaries or in the 2014 campaigns for Congress.
“The animosity is high, and this is going to stoke it higher,” Brewer said Friday. An emerging segment of Maine Republicans who identify themselves as conservative or libertarian will view [the decision not to seat all 20 Paul delegates] as “robbery by the establishment,” he said.
When the controversy over seating Maine’s delegates subsides, the most important outcome will be that “some new folks will stay involved and work to elect Republican candidates,” Webster said. “A lot of Ron Paul people are helping us.”
“I’m not really concerned about how this will adversely affect our election process,” Webster said. “We’ve got a ground game that’s much better than what the Democrats are doing.”
Right now, the ground game for Democrats in Maine involves letting Republicans “fight among themselves while we go out and talk to Mainers about what matters to them,” according to Lizzy Reinholt of the Maine Democratic Party.
The discord within Maine Republican Party ranks “fits a narrative we see around the governor,” Maine Democratic Party Chairman Ben Grant said when asked to comment on the GOP delegate dispute. “Voters want everyone in a political party’s public sphere to be competent and not playing games,” he said.
To answer the headline question, yes (at least it should).
agree
The teapublican party in Maine is doomed.
Thats a Good Thing!
Sometimes dreams come true…….! ;)
I’d say I hope so, if not for the chance of a crazier replacement.
Oh please yes. As a registered Republican, I have been disgusted with how Charlie Webster has run things. Last year his base pandering to extremists over the voter registration issue was beyond the pale.
Register Democrat!
They Encourage people to vote!
Which ever way you choose!
If Webster ran his business like he runs the Maine GOP it would go bankrupt in a week.
Nah, the far right wing of the party loves this guy and they call the shots in the modern GOP.
I don’t believe Charlie Webster could organize a one man parade!
First of all I doubt if he can even remember where he hid the vans!
Convention fiasco? Nope, it might be his I.Q. His illegal voter rant proved he hasn’t a clue.
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics
is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
Plato
Charlie is trying to fix it… LOL!!!! No he is trying to prevent losing power, thats it… Charlie an the rest need to go over to the Democratic Party..
i’m neither a register’d democrat or republican,, he’s the reason. charlie needs to step down if the rest of that party hasn’t the ballz to remove him. he’s a total disgrace, as much as pingree is to the other. actually you can add michaud, collins, and many others. they all need to go. it’s quite clear their own agenda’s rate higher then the voters.. we just need a total overhaul..
Call this anything you like …… I call it great news, what a buncha of sausages.
People like you are the reason this country is in trouble. You can’t come up with a coherent argument, so all you do is call people you don’t agree with names.
Yeah, there is too much name calling in this country. That’s what caused the economic collapse and all the wars we’re fighting…
Then a serious discourse needs to take place, not name calling. It makes people appear uneducated and droll. Both sides have some good points, the people who believe the ideals of either side are not the problem though, and people insist on name calling of groups of people like the group is the cause of the failure of the government. The federal government have two factions in power right now that have set themselves up to do the same thing, but keep us fighting about things that are essentially a non issue because they do not have cosnstitutional authority over it. Because the federal government has taken over our education system with indoctrination being the primary goal, people don’t truly understand how this country works. We are a republic, not s democracy. Democrats what a republic, because they say that the majority shouldn’t be able to rule over minorities like the gay community for example. But on the other hand they try to say that we are a democracy to try to push their ideals on other minor groups. Republicans do the same thing but use religious groups more often than not.
Both sides are complicit in the wars, both sides are complicit in the economic collapse. When someone steps forward and wants to stop the wars and has a plan to actually fix the economy, both sides ridicule him and cheat to make it look like he doesn’t count.
I roll my eyes at the republic/democracy talk.
Democracy doesn’t necessitate electing officials. Republics don’t necessitate the general public voting representatives. The two overlap and we’re a combination of both.
We began as more of a republic if you consider the fact that a much smaller group of people (compared to now) were the ones voting in elections. We’ve moved more towards democracy now because we are closer to having a genuine rule of the people. We’re both.
I would say we moved more towards corporate fascism. I see absolutely NO democracy and No representation in any of this latest political theater.
That is a major contributor of the problems that are happening to this country. Democracies have historically always failed. Once people find they can vote themselves money the system becomes broken.
Politican being corupt caused this and politcans writing their own laws to protect themelves from their own legislation put them on a different playing field. both sides are corupt. The untouchables.
Voters allow corrupt politicians to continue, or they don’t. Vote to end it. Vote to replace corrupt reps with those who are less or not corrupt. Its simple. But, do it.
Try telling that to people in Chicago.
ah …. yeah ok, I misspoke what I meant to say was .. what a buncha of plutocratic corporatists set on destroying our country who have little reason, intellect and are incapable of logical thought.
I think both parties are out of comtrol.. We have a constitution. without it we will be ruled not governed. I for one don’t want that
I’d agree with that to a point but I think the Republicans (and I hate to call them that) because what was the Republican Party is no longer. They’ve morphed into some form of hard right wing ideology mixed with pseudo-religion and radical uber-capitalism, much easier to equate all that to ground pork or ….just sausage.
Once again, the Republican convention in Maine was not a free for all, but a legal process that embarrassed Charlie Webster, because he did not have the ultimate control that he had planned for, thus he had to depend upon others to read the rules of order for which he had not prepared.
The Ron Paul delegates were courteous, aware and legitimate in the process of electing delegates, etc.
Egg on one’s face is a fitting description for the “established” Republicans who were not pleased that everything did not go under the hammer in 15 minutes. They were simply outsmarted and do not like that.
Charlie Webster thinks he has a ‘ground game’ that’s better than what the Democrats are doing?
Really?
Democrats and Independents will be voting for Obama and Angus King because Charlie Summers, along with Ryan-Romney, would be a triple disaster for Maine.
Sure like the way Obama and his crew have gotten control of spending and job creation. Nice job.
From Rupert Murdock’s Wall Street Journal:
Obama spending binge never happened
Almost everyone believes that Obama has presided over a massive increase in federal spending, an “inferno” of spending that threatens our jobs, our businesses and our children’s future. Even Democrats seem to think it’s true.
But it didn’t happen. Although there was a big stimulus bill under Obama, federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since Dwight Eisenhower brought the Korean War to an end in the 1950s.
Even hapless Herbert Hoover managed to increase spending more than Obama has.
http://articles.marketwatch.com/2012-05-22/commentary/31802270_1_spending-federal-budget-drunken-sailor
Job Creation?
You cant sell to people in America when all their Spending Money is in China!
YES YES YES! Good bye Charlie!
CharlieWebster is a disgrace. He should be run out of town.
Webster is just another one of those entitled guys thinking the rules don’t apply to him.
He makes Summers look really bad. Of course, Summers makes Webster look really bad, too.
Agreed. But I would like to ask this: “WTF is up with that squirrel he has on his upper lip?”
Well, people do need their oil burners check before winter comes….at least Charlie has something to fall back one.
i don’t have a problem with republicans stabbing each other in the back.
Webster et al. have failed to consider the implications of their dictatorial position vis a vis the right of the people to pursue democracy and express their views. While Obama is the epitome of incompetence, arrogance and utter failure — and Romney is in the enviable position of being the “anti-Obama” candidate — few of us will yield our votes so easily this time to a party that is equally as corrupt and oppressive as the Democrats. Perhaps it is the time to vote our consciences instead of holding our noses while the lesser of two evils is elevated to public office. Perhaps, because we have done this for so long, “public servants” have regressed into indistinguishable self-serving buffoons who fly off to Washington to fill their coffers for a few years and then retire at our expense decrying the political system as dysfunctional. Perhaps, because nearly 50% of the public is on some form of government subsidy, and we have become a debtor nation, it is no longer possible to reverse the tide unless people of character and discipline are selected as our leaders. Perhaps, we can no longer hold on to the Republic as Franklin once cautioned… and it is now too late to reverse our slow demise.
The only part of our country that is in a “slow demise” is the corrupt part, and we need to speed it up this election. As a republican in transition, I urge everyone to vote out ALL republicans from every office, low or high, this November 2012. … If an operation is needed, then make the most of it and cut and gut out all the cancer in one comprehensive swoop that does not risk killing the patient, so to speak.
Brent Tweed and the rest of the Tea Party should learn how to stand on their own feet and organize their own party, set their own platform, present their own plans for the future of America.
Even the Communist Party has the guts to run on their own. Plus they aren’t backed by the money that the Tea Party has backing them.
Let’s see the Tea Party in the full light of day. Let’s see them speak for themselves, as themselves.
patomi1, as a teaparty democrat I had LOL on your post.hahaha!!! you got a belly laugh out of me.hahaha!!!
I did not know the republican party was a member only club and that all the rules are written on stone tablets in the basement of a gothic home sitting in some undisclosed coastal home.. Do you have secert one finger hand shakes also? hahaha??? I never knew… hahaha.
There is no such thing as a tea party democrat. All the elected tea party congressmen are Republicans. You’re not being honest.
No to the eastwest highway, no to leveling Bald MT. no to the chamber, no to taxbreaks for companies that move their businesses over seas, I could go on and on. also no to the Quimby park, as a consititutional capitalist I like the idea that I can choose the party I feel closest to. I pick on both sides for trying to destroy this great country. I believe in welfare and I don’t believe in the war, I don’t like that the great industrial war machine who put fear in people for control and profits. patriot act need to go and the homeland security needs to go also. So yes I am a teaparty Democrat
You are singing to the choir here … yee hah! I love it.
I hope you’re not voting for Tea Party candidates because they’re not for the same things you are.
If he or she says they’re a “tea party democrat”, then we now have a “tea party democrat”. They’re free, in this country, to label themselves any way they chose and, even if I don’t like it, I will gosh darn defend their right to do it… huff… huff… huff …huff … stomp ….snort.
You can call yourself whatever you want, but actions speak louder than words. The Tea Party doesn’t push liberal causes and it doesn’t push liberal candidates. It doesn’t push Democratic causes and it doesn’t push Democratic candidates. I can say I’m an astronaut up and down, but it doesn’t me one.
…unless you are one. Here, the “tea party democrat” says they are one and, unless you have evidence to the contrary, we should, respectfully, accept that, having self declared, they are, in fact, a “tea party democrat”, right? … So. Tell me, what, if any, astronaut training or experience have you had, Colonel?
LOL, Tea Party Democrat? You must feel like a prostitute in Church.
What on earth makes you think Brent Tweed is a tea party member?
Truly the height of irony that the person seemingly most concerned about voter fraud cannot run a clean election.
There is voter fraud everywhere.. That is why we need to look at our own parties and fix it.. the dems think it’s ok and the republican leaders seem to think its OK. the ends justify the means mentality is wrong period for both sides.
It’s everywhere and yet no one can seem to produce evidence of it. Interesting.
A nun who taught me in high school used to be quite fond of saying, “We judge others by ourselves.” Turns out she was right!
Sounds like the Maine GOP needs a little more regulation…
Funny how the “party of small government” contains so many tin-pot dictators . . .
Sad to see from the comments here that the dumbing down in America has found its way to Maine.
You shouldn’t comment about your own comments, but if that is the way you feel you do have the right.
Smugness becomes real in showing ones true character. Attempting to be the king totally spills your pablum. LOLS.
Could you fix your site please? It’s very hard to use when it hangs up on ping.chartbeat.net
Just found another loophole that might work after what, three or four days? Did you miss me?
Not only doomed as party chairman but possibly run out of town along with his compadres. Maine will not stand for these shenanigans.
“He stuck his head in the sand and deliberately avoided knowing what would have been obvious. We don’t need to prove why.” — Robin Baker
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKsaZLtFtQw&feature=g-all-u
How Ron Paul wins Tampa and Romney gets disqualified, arrested, or flees to France
Ha Ha Charlie!
it is time for him to move on and also the GOP needs to look at going into the primary business that way there will be no questions who we will represent.
Faced with a choice of Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, many of the Paul supporters will stay home and not vote.
And that will cost ALL Republicans on the ticket votes.
You are in for a big surprise. Many who voted for Obama will not vote for him again. They have seen the truth.
Truth? Where? Where?
Soon to be released is a new documentary. When you see it you will find the answers. Many Americans from all across the country are in this and the people who did vote for Obama and will not vote for him again. I will notify you the date of the release when I get that info.
That work of fiction by a known racist birther will not help your cause.
Think what you want. I suggest keeping an open mind if you can find that possible. This documentary is based of FACT. Sorry to burst your bubble.
We certainly know who to blame for his not being able to accomplish as much as intended, when the minority leader states his number one project is to make Obama a one term president. If Obama had the cure for cancer and it needed to go through Congress we know it never would have made it through. The President took a Republican idea on health care and put it through Congress with 90% of the R’s ideas and now the R’s are screaming “the sky is falling, the sky is falling”, what a bunch of hypocrites. I don’t agree with everything the Pres. has done but the one thing I do know if (R)money is elected and his ideas are adopted the middle class will fall further behind than they are now, he has no choice but to pay back all the big money people who have spent millions on his campaign, with lower taxes and less regulation
so that the rich are able to have more money and the hell with the little people.
Hold on about Big Money. Big money has been donated to BOTH Obama and Romney. Did you forget Hollywood dinners that began at a mere 35 thousand dollars a plate? And today we hear the Fur trade is better than ever. We do not see the glitz and glamour of those who are for either party as they are keeping low profiles. Especially the Left. That is in another Maine paper today and very amusing and enlightening. The Obama’s served bottles of wine at a tune of 90 bucks per bottle at the White House on the evening that George Clooney was there and the same article said that was not even the usual 125. bucks per bottle they usually served. THAT, got my attention after returning from volunteering at the local food pantry.
When Michael Moore released a doumentary that was pro-liberal, the Republicans called it foul!!! Do you think anybody but the right wing Obama haters will pay heed to this new documentary??
Absolutely ! If people in both parties can attempt to be open minded, then those with some degree of interest will see the documentary. By the way, where is Michael Moore these days? He is not in the lime light.
We gave Bush 8 years to crash the economy at least give Obama 8 years to bring it back rather than go back to more cuts for the rich which didn’t and won’t work for anybody but the rich.
Many of the Paul supporters will vote third party rather than the lesser of two evils.
That’s not going to hurt the Democratic Party, now is it?
Right now, the ground game for Democrats in Maine involves letting
Republicans “fight among themselves while we go out and talk to Mainers
about what matters to them,” according to Lizzy Reinholt of the Maine
Democratic Party.
The discord within Maine Republican Party ranks “fits a narrative we
see around the governor,” Maine Democratic Party Chairman Ben Grant said
when asked to comment on the GOP delegate dispute. “Voters want
everyone in a political party’s public sphere to be competent and not
playing games,” he said.
This is rich, considering the Democrats can’t even get behind their own Senate candidate, but instead, have mostly jumped ship to support King.
What’s with you and your compulsion to change the subject whenever anyone criticizes the party you worship, Ms. Row-Spaulding?
Try to follow the bouncing ball.
Gee I hope it doesn’t hurt Charlie as GOP chairman. He is the best advertisement for voting Democratic that there is. However, with or without him, the Maine TeaPublicans are TOAST come November, and they know it. The GOPers should all be wearing clown suits and throwing pies at each other.
I like Charlie, I hope he stays.
Its the Frank Perdue (Ron Paul) followers that are an embarrassment
Dont get me wrong,,, Romney isnt my first choice, but anybody other than Obama or Ron Paul
I am not a Republican. I am not a Democrat–most of the Dems are too right wing for my politics. I do not support (most) of what Ron Paul stands for.
But I do support his right, and the right of his delegates to put forth his platform. If the Romney crowd are so unsure of their platform that they cannot debate the Paul platform on the merits, that says something about the flimsiness of Romney platform to me.
So as a true outsider, I think the state Republican/Romney crowd seem to be getting what they sowed. I read about their shenanigans over the pre-convention rules and chairman pick–how do you pick a chairman before a group has convened??–and their mid-convention distribution of altered ballots and such.
All shameful. I may not support what you say, but I support your right to say it. Process–that is, HOW you do something–is at least as important as WHAT you do. Following your own internal rules are important. These should never be done informally.
We also need to hear alternate voices during presidential campaigns. How many candidates will be on the Ballots in November in Maine, for example? Would it surprise you to learn that it will NOT be just two: Mitt and Bam?
Why do we not know this, why are there no debates set up within the state with proponents of each of the various candidates providing us with the viewpoints of their candidate? Are we that afraid of diversity? Are there not often more than two sides to any story? (Some would argue that the two sides we DO get to hear are just two shades of the same story…)
To paraphrase M. Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilization:
“Q. What do you think about the Western Democracies, Mr. Ghandi?”
“A. That would be a good idea…”
“…but added that “I don’t think it means anything bad” for the party or its chances of winning elections in November.”
Really? He hasn’t noticed that he personally, and his national committeewoman and his friend Peter Cianchette have given the middle finger to the most motivated and energetic 10% of his party? LOL!
I should also point out that Charlie Webster threw Cianchette under the bus months ago on WVOM when he suggested that perhaps it was Cianchette who contacted the Romney campaign to inform them that the straw vote was not going their way, precipitating the visit from Romney the weekend of the announcement.
This guy can’t go back to full time heating contractor fast enough!
Charlie should be taken to Boston and put on the MTA. For those of you who remember the Kingston Trio you will know what I mean.
Maybe Charlie can get a gig with Cianbro building that magical Canadian highway.