As Ron Paul’s much-vaunted, little-understood “delegate
strategy” continues, he wins yet another state (far too late to
get media credit or momentum for it), Maine. That is, “wins” as in,
the majority of delegates from that state seem set to vote for him
at the Republican National Convention in Tampa in August.
AP with the newsy details:

Ron Paul supporters took control of the Maine Republican
Convention and elected a majority slate supporting the Texas
congressman to the GOP national convention, party officials said.
The results gave the Texas congressman a late state victory.

In votes leading to the close of the two-day Maine convention,
Paul supporters were elected to 21 of the 24 delegate spots from
Maine to the GOP national convention in Tampa, Fla. The 24th
delegate’s seat goes to party Chairman Charles Webster, who has
remained uncommitted throughout the process.   

Making the Paul takeover complete was the election of Paul
supporters to a majority of the state committee seats…..Romney
won the February straw poll with 39 percent of the vote to Paul’s
36 percent. Rick Santorum trailed with 18 percent and Newt Gingrich
got 6 percent.

The story says that Romney’s people aren’t afraid Paul can
stymie their victory, but are “mindful not to do or say anything
that might anger Paul’s loyal supporters.” A Maine
Paul fan insists she found a secret Romney supporter
distributing fake slates of Paul-leaning delegates. The same is
reported from Nevada, where Paul also won the most delegates this
weekend (though they are bound by party rules to vote for Romney
anyway), more details on that below.

*The Des Moines Register sums up the situation

going out of Iowa as of now (though it ain’t over yet):

The majority of Iowans on the list to go to Tampa for the GOP
national convention could be aligned with Ron Paul, a presidential
candidate who represents a movement focused on limited government
and constitutional principles.

Of the 13 delegates and 13 alternates nominated Saturday for the
national convention in Florida, just one has publicly endorsed Mitt
Romney for president: Gov. Terry Branstad. And just three others
publicly supported Rick Santorum, who won the Iowa caucuses but is
no longer in the race.

The national delegate slate is far from complete, but if the
Paul trend in the Iowa delegation continues, the upshot will be
that the Iowa caucuses essentially had three winners: Romney on
caucus night, Santorum after the certified vote, and Paul in the
delegate count….

The at-large delegates nominated Saturday were Branstad, U.S.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, Margaret Stoldorf of Red Oak, Michelle Bullock
of Ankeny, James Mills of Nora Springs, Steven Anders of Council
Bluffs, Roger Leahy of Fairfield, Mark Hansen of Council Bluffs,
William Johnson of Dubuque, Lexy Nuzum of Winterset, Andrea Bie of
Waterville, David Fischer of Altoona and Drew Ivers of Webster
City.

Ten of those 13 have expressed public support for Paul, such as
volunteering for his campaign or donating money….

This slate next goes before the state convention in mid-June. It
can be amended to replace certain delegates before a final up or
down vote.

Six of the eight members of the nominating committee voting on
delegates Saturday have public ties to Paul’s campaign and his
philosophy of limited government. But they insisted that they
elected people they believe are politically active and good
Republicans and have no idea who the delegates will back in Tampa.
Iowa’s 28 delegates are “unbound,” meaning they aren’t required to
vote for a nominee based on the results of the caucuses.

*In Nevada, Paul people won
22 of the 25 national delegate slots open at the end of the
Nevada GOP state convention in Sparks this weekend. This is despite
dirty tricks from the Romney camp–Romney folk pretending to be
Paul folk and distributing fake Paul delegates lists. This is
discussed at both the
Reno Gazette Journal and Daily
Paul.

Paul himself appeared at the
convention in Nevada.

More from the
Las Vegas Sun on the Paul victory, and how it won’t be
expressed in actual votes for Paul, since the delegates are bound
to follow the results of the February caucus vote, in which Romney
won a majority:

But while Paul loyalists will make up the majority of the Nevada
delegation, Republican rules require the first vote at the national
convention to reflect the results of the Feb. 4 caucus, which
Romney easily won.

That means 20 of Nevada’s national delegates must vote for
Romney, while eight will be free to vote for Paul in the first
balloting.

While some Paul supporters voiced an intention to challenge the
binding requirement, the campaign opted not to further antagonize
the Republican National Committee, who has threatened not to seat
the delegates if they ignore the caucus results and vote for
Paul.

“We are sending a strong delegation to Tampa in August,” Paul’s
Nevada chairman Carl Bunce said. “There are rumors that (the Paul
campaign) will actively work to not follow rules and unbind our
delegates. That is false; we are not doing that. Congressman Paul
is an individual who wants to follow the rules, follow the
Constitution and we follow that lead.”

Jim DeGraffenried, the secretary of the state party, stressed
party officials will not allow the national delegation to deviate
from the binding caucus results.

“We will not allow anyone to break that,” DeGraffenreid said.
“If they do, the will revoke their delegate status and they will be
replaced by alternates.”…

National Republican officials characterized the Nevada
convention as a “Ron Paul super bowl,” noting that his supporters
spent the last four years working to take over the state party
structure. They’ve captured seats on state and county central
committees, elected a state chairman and elected their own to
represent Nevada at the Republican National Committee.

Some talk on Ron Paul Forums on why Paul people might have been
less inclined to try to
change Nevada’s own state rules to unbind the delegates and
allow them to vote Paul on first ballot.

*The Christian Science Monitor on
Paul’s Maine and Nevada victories.

*NPR
finds the Republican Convention in Nevada this weekend to be as
libertarian as the Libertarian Party convention held
simultaneously in the state.

*My book
Ron Paul’s Revolution: The Man and the Movement He
Inspired.