Lincoln County Republican Party Committee Chairman Jim Carlton said May 8 that decisions made at the Maine Republican State Convention, May 5 and 6 could lead to Maine’s delegates being denied seats at the Republican National Convention, Aug. 27-30 in Tampa, Fla.
Carlton left the event on Saturday evening and said he would not continue to serve as county chairman.
Stories about the convention have appeared in newspapers as far as San Francisco and the United Kingdom.
He said organizers for Presidential Candidate Ron Paul brought a lot of people who appeared to be “one-timers” to the convention from all over the state, including Lincoln County.
“They were like programmed robots,” he said. “They had to be told how to vote and when to vote.
“When Lincoln County was caucusing and trying to elect its state committeeman and woman we nominated Jon McKane and they voted in a guy from Jefferson who’s a zealot, a big Ron Paul supporter and a constitutionalist.
“They voted in a young woman and at that point I had enough. I stepped down as chair of the Lincoln County Republican Committee. I’m not going to work with those people,” Carlton said.
“The three main conspirators are from Bristol.” Carlton named Dana Dyer, Ralph Hassenpflug and Phil Congdon as “the ringleaders. I know these people,” he said. “They’ve been in my home. To do something like that was completely underhanded.”
He said they were not committed to the county committee or the party.
Congdon said he was not involved in planning the convention or any of the events that took place there.
“I voted,” he said. “That’s the extent of it.” He said he only attended as a last-minute replacement for a delegate who became ill.
Congdon could not name the young woman who was elected as the county’s state committeewoman but said he voted for her because she has a business degree, “from a decent school, UMass Amherst. I would like to see some young blood and she represented that.”
He said Carlton had never spoken to him about plans for the convention.
“I think he’s jousting at windmills,” Congdon said.
He said from the Lincoln County delegation’s vantage point at the top of the Civic Center one could see how well organized the Paul campaign was.
“They were tremendously civil,” he said “I can’t make that statement quite so emphatically about the establishment. They were very poor losers and showed their emotions more than I think was appropriate.” He said replacing that kind of behavior might be good.
“We’ll never see them again,” Carlton said. “They don’t come to meetings. They won’t help our candidates.”
“[Newly elected state committeeman] Gregory Hodge is not the kind of person I want to spend any time with,” Carlton said.
He said many of Paul’s followers were nice people but that they did not understand what was happening and did not follow Parliamentary procedure or Roberts Rules, the process guide for the convention.
“I think Dr. Ron Paul is a spoiler.” Carlton said. “There’s no way he’s going to win anything. His followers remind me of the occupy people [Occupy Wall Street] or anarchists.”
Carlton said he doubted Maine’s Ron Paul delegates would be seated at the national convention.
“I doubt they had a quorum,” Carlton said. He questioned the accuracy or legality of the vote count. “They kept counting until they got the vote they wanted. I’d say most of it was illegal. I doubt they’ll be seated. That’ll be the next brouhaha. This was the foolish led by the deceitful.”
Hodge said the difficulties started during the first ballot for at-large delegates to the national convention. He said ballots from some counties were not allowed because they were not completed by the time the convention chairman announced the results.
“Since the ballots had been compromised, it was determined a new ballot would have to be printed,” Hodge said. “This was going to take time, so the convention went on to other business.” Overall, he found the convention exciting, he said.
“There was a lot going on,” Hodge said. “Nothing that happened up there was the fault of Jim Carlton.
“The problems and frustrations of this convention should be laid squarely at the feet of the [state] executive committee and the committee that organized this convention,” Hodge said.
He said a lack of forethought created the chaos. Hodge previously attended the Maine Republican State Convention two years ago and was a demonstrator outside the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He said the 2010 convention ran more smoothly with some confusion during the platform discussion.
Hodge said party rules do not bind a delegate to vote for any specific candidate or slate.
He said a quorum count was called for during the 2nd District caucus on Sunday evening. Because the full convention was not taking place at that time, Hodge said the count was postponed and could only be based on the number of delegates seated after the district caucus.
“That was the last official business,” he said. The convention adjourned sometime between 9 and 10:30 p.m. Sunday night.
“I hope somewhere down the line, bridges can be rebuilt here,” Hodge said. “A lot of traditional members of the party are having trouble dealing with this and some of the younger people are having trouble dealing with the attitude of the older people.” He said he was not sure how it would be going forward.
While he and the new state committeewoman for Lincoln County are scheduled to be seated May 12, Hodge said he was uncertain how the executive committee would be reconstituted. “Our bylaws have inadequate instructions for how to deal with this.”
“There’s no one that’s going to be at the level of quality that Jim had,” Hodge said. “It’s a new GOP in the state of Maine.”
Until May 12, Peter Lawrence will hold the position of state committeeman. He agreed that the convention was chaotic.
“The Ron Paul people ran a very inefficient convention,” Lawrence said.
The 2012 convention was the fifth Lawrence attended in the last 10 years. “They may have done that on purpose, just to discourage the Romney people. The end result was that senate and legislative candidates did not get a chance to speak.” Lawrence said the convention did not accomplish its agenda.
“The secretary and chair of the convention were Ron Paul supporters,” Lawrence said. “People nominated by the state GOP lost. It’s unfortunate.”
Lawrence said Paul’s supporters were trying to ensure that their candidate has a voice at the national convention. He said he had no problem with that, but supported Mitt Romney’s candidacy.
Lawrence said the next meeting of the Lincoln County Republican Committee would be June 13 at a location that has yet to be determined.
Meetings generally start with a social period at 6:30 p.m., followed by a business meeting at 7 p.m. Detailed information will be posted on the committee’s website at lincolncountyrepublicans.org.
“At that time we’ll see what our officers look like,” Lawrence said. “It’s a matter of waiting to see how everybody feels and how we function at that time.”
“I’ve been around a long time,” Lawrence said. “The county committee will come out of this one way or another. The main thing is to elect Republicans. That’s what we do.”
Ed Polewarczyk of Wiscasset (and a Wiscasset Selectman) was also disappointed with the convention.
“There were a number of issues that made me question the validity of what was going on,” Polewarczyk said.
He said there was a discrepancy between the number of votes cast and the number of credentialed delegates. “There was one county with maybe six more votes. With the election of the chairman it was a difference of four votes. It was a very hectic day.”
“I’ve been active with the county [committee] for well over three years,” he said. “I saw it beginning to grow and including more individuals. More diverse opinion helps us come to the right decisions.”
He said he was happy to see more people participating but was uncertain what his level of involvement would be going forward.
“Four or six hours into the convention, I began to see individuals walk away,” Polewarczyk said. “These were ordinary people that thought they had a voice and it was gone. That was discouraging to me.”
He said many of the Paul supporters had only been involved in Republican Party politics since the caucuses in February and had not been to any county meetings in the interim.
“It’s emotional,” Polewarczyk said. He said he’s worked hard to help create a welcoming environment. “I saw a good bit of that shattered.”
Polewarczyk was also disappointed that candidates for U.S. Senate and Congress did not get the chance to speak that was part of the convention agenda.
“That would have been a great opportunity to help me decide what I would do during the primary. I was denied that,” he said.
Polewarczyk said that only five of Wiscasset’s 13 delegates stayed through to the end of the convention and that the presence of a full quorum was questioned a number of times.
“The Ron Paul chairman would not respond to it,” Polewarczyk said of convention chairman Brent Tweed. “There were an awful lot of empty seats there.”
