Inside The Paul Campaign: ‘Delegates’ Got Marching Orders

RIRO (Republican In Registration Only) Al Gerhart

UPDATE: Comments show depth of dissatisfaction. To read them, click on “comments” below.

From: Oklahoma National Ron Paul 2012 Campaign <alg@ronpaul2012.com> Subject: Official Ron Paul Delegate List for nd Congressional District Convention Date: Friday, March 30, 2012, 8:02 AM

 

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Hello Ron Paul activists,
Those of you that made the February 25thRon Paul rally probably got an earful of how political campaigns were usually organized around a pseudo-military style organization.  No, at the National campaign we don’t dress up in baggy BDUs and run around the hills but the hours are can till can’t, we follow a chain of command that has a plan, and zero tolerance for certain types of actions like blogging about activities or speaking to the press.   That day I spoke of the need for a libertarian army composed of people who were willing to band together and give up certain liberties so as to mold the political landscape so that we would eventually be left alone.

Those of you that have joined the National Campaign as County Coordinators filled out the application, agreed to stay on point with the official campaign message, and signed a Non Disclosure Agreement.   National wanted to know who you were, what your politics were, what your core values were, and if you would put aside your interests and defend Dr. Paul’s interests for the duration of the campaign.

After being asked to take the State Director position I learned that National wanted some say in who ultimately became the National Delegate Candidates for Oklahoma.   Like so many of you out there that have asked me questions about the National vetting and approval process I wondered how an expert in delegates could be an expert on our delegates.

That said, it wasn’t my place to question, I had agreed and signed a contract to support Dr. Paul, not to second guess him or the staff that he depended on to run his campaign.   I’d heard of the “delegate expert” responsible for sorting through lists and pulling out the best candidates and I was beginning to feel like the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz, going off to meet the Wizard.

The process turned out to be quite different than I had anticipated.   The major part was the background check and we did lose a few in that process.   The campaign didn’t want some reporter looking into any of our delegate’s background and finding sufficient innuendo or rumor to harm Dr. Paul’s campaign or reputation.   There will be 43 people from Oklahoma in charge of helping elect a GOP candidate, they will be under a microscope whether we like it or not.

In the end I was asked a lot of questions about the people on our list and the most important qualities once the candidate had cleared the background check was whether or not the person was a team player and would they follow directions at the convention?

See, it turned out that the very fact that a delegate candidate would submit to a background check, sign a Non Disclosure Agreement, and agree to follow the campaign strategy was a pretty important test in of itself.   Given the election results, we aren’t going to win this outright with 1400 plus delegates wrapped up; it is going to take a fight at the National GOP Convention or a brokered convention to pull the numbers together for a victory for Dr. Paul.

Key to having a chance in a brokered convention is knowing that your delegates will do what they are asked. We wound up with six candidates making it past the background check and all were excellent choices given the political landscape of the current Republican Party.   We should have the numbers to put our candidates in the top two slots on the initial ballot that forces a runoff vote between the top two.  But only if all the Ron Paul activists fall in step and support the official Ron Paul delegate candidates. Here are the delegate candidates for Congressional District 2 ranked in order of Delegate candidate down to Alternate Delegate candidate:

Carol Ashley Bryan redriver74701@yahoo.com
Mike Stopp Cherokee mikestopp@gmail.com
Noel Baker Okmulgee grassynoel@hotmail.com
Russell Wittie Mayes cyclejockey6@msn.com
Christie Graham Bryan clgraham@hughes.net
Brandy Olson Mayes bolson39@gmail.com

No doubt there are some grassroots candidates running for the same National Delegate slots but on Saturday you have a choice.   Do you support Dr. Paul or do you support unofficial candidates that are unknown to the Ron Paul National Campaign.

Someone that I used to really, really, respect and trust called a few days ago trying to get me to abandon Dr. Paul’s desire to have a hand in the delegate selection process and one of the tactics they used was asking why I was doing something that they didn’t want me to do (they being the dozen or so grassroots leaders here in the Oklahoma City area) and something that no one would appreciate anyway.  I didn’t answer them as at the time I had this feeling in the pit of my stomach that this person had completely turned on me and the National Campaign.  Yes they had also called for me to resign earlier but that could be explained as sheer panic and not waiting to see if I was right for calling out a corrupt GOP official (I was, that county had over 40 cases of delegates thrown out, demoted to alternate status, or new people added to closed precincts).  This time there was no doubt, this person was working against my best interests as well as Dr. Paul’s best interests, blinded by what I know not.  But what I would have told them was this; Dr. Paul bestowed a great honor and a great responsibility on me by choosing me as a state director.  How could I turn on such a great man, one that was so sorely needed at this place in history?

So Saturday please vote for the list of official delegates, in order that is given, so that Dr. Paul has delegates that he has faith in, that will vote for Dr. Paul if they are unbound, and not “helping us repair things with the “Establishment”.”

Here is the official delegate candidate list again.  Please put this in your cell phone if you can keep notes or write it down and take the list with you.

Carol Ashley Bryan redriver74701@yahoo.com
Mike Stopp Cherokee mikestopp@gmail.com
Noel Baker Okmulgee grassynoel@hotmail.com
Russell Wittie Mayes cyclejockey6@msn.com
Christie Graham Bryan clgraham@hughes.net
Brandy Olson Mayes bolson39@gmail.com

If you are a convention delegate for the second district please send me your cell phone number and I’ll add you to the texting list.  We can send out texts from a cell phone to hundreds of delegates so as to coordinate voting.  If we stick together we can pick up at least three delegate positions on Saturday.

During the selection process, I was asked by the National Delegate expert if any of our people would drop out if a better candidate was found and I replied that I was certain that all of them would.  The expert asked me what that told me and the answer can only be that we had the right people.  They are focused on the goal, not who gets the prize.  That is the attitude that changes the political landscape, activists in this for change rather than in it for themselves. I’ll be attending my own District Convention on Saturday but here is a list of the National Ron Paul County Coordinators for the 2ndCongressional District.  Get in touch with them before the convention and trust their judgment during the process.  They are a great bunch and have worked very hard to organize their counties for Dr. Paul.  If there is no name or email address by the county name, we don’t have a County Coordinator and would love to hear from anyone that is interested Here is a list of County Coordinators for the 2nd Congressional District.
ADAIR ATOKA BRYAN redriver74701@yahoo.com Carol Ashley CHEROKEE feargod@atruechurch.info Qadoshyah Fish CHOCTAW jonguy_2000@yahoo.com Jonathan Garrison COAL CRAIG port@junct.com Jim Porter DELAWARE Notsotraditional69@yahoo.com Wayne Springer HASKELL HUGHES JOHNSTON LATIMER LEFLORE MAYES cyclejockey6@msn.com Russell Wittie MCCURTAIN Mcintosh MUSKOGEE jodiephipps@hotmail.com Jodie Phipps NOWATA OKFUSKEE OKMULGEE grassynoel@hotmail.com Noel Baker OTTAWA PITTSBURG PUSHMATAHA ROGERS SEQUOYAH primo360@gmail.com Anthony Jones Rally for the Republic, Al Gerhart Oklahoma State Coordinator, Ron Paul 2012 alg@ronpaul2012.com 405-412-6233


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  1. JJ, 03 April, 2012

    Al Gerhart is marching to the beat of his own drum. I wonder if all those people gave permission for their email addresses to be published and made publicly available like this.

  2. Kaye Beach, 03 April, 2012

    I am the person that Gerhart is referring to as someone that he used to “really, really respect and trust”. I called him before the 2nd and 5th District conventions. If he had listened to me he would have realized that I was not trying to get him to “abandon Dr. Paul’s desire to have a hand in the delegate selection process” I was making a last ditch effort to get him to abandon the losing strategy of Al Gerhart’s ham fisted way of controlling the delegate selection process and everything else to the detriment of all involved.

    Anyone that knows me knows that I believe every activist is valuable and every one of them has their niche, they just have to find it. I have gone to great lengths to help activists find that niche, whatever it may be because I think it will take all of us doing everything we can to fix what is wrong in this country.

    That being said, Al’s niche is his newsletter. You have to admit that he certainly has no competition there. His newsletter is usually outrageous, often discomforting to read but always, at least until recently anyways, it was worth wading through because it was usually laced with bits of valuable information that was not being exposed anywhere else.

    What I was trying to tell Al Gerhart when I called him, was that he was risking his niche for something that was, in my opinion, is neither effective nor appreciated; his work as the state coordinator for the national Ron Paul 2012 campaign.

    When I read the email that Gerhart sent out the night before the 2nd and 5th District Conventions, I was livid!

    Aside from the statements that no liberty-minded person would ever make, (was he really calling for a collectivist libertarian army to fight for a Republican presidential candidate?!) He was trying to pit the Ron Paul movement against itself! I knew that the Ron Paul supporters who answered his call for the national vetting were likely dedicated, idealistic people that were, unfortunately, too new or unconnected to know that they did not have to deal with Al in order to participate. The thought that this might be their intro to the Ron Paul movement in Oklahoma made me furious.

    Gerhart’s email made repeated references to being a “team player”, the importance of taking orders, following instructions, being obedient and falling in step. A better theme could not have been chosen- if the goal was to completely alienate Ron Paul supporters! Gerhart also admonished these activists for Paul whose dedication to the man and his cause is legendary, to put aside their interests to serve the interests of Ron Paul. Seriously?! His interests ARE their interests. Al tried to manipulate them by saying that they had only two choices, they could either support Ron Paul which means that they must vote for the “official delegates” (chosen by Al) only or not. We do not do things this way Al Gerhart!

    In another email, Al Gerhart fills pages of space casting aspersions on grassroots Ron Paul supporters who wouldn’t toe the line for him. This did little more than expose himself further as being petty, manipulative and crass. Al Gerhart would make Goebbels proud I’m sure but these tactics are useless on the Paul supporters who are better and smarter than Al Gerhart.

    I may as well confess, before it ends up in one of Al’s newsletters, that I actually promised him that I would do him physical violence on the very next occasion that the opportunity presented itself. Temper, temper. . .the result of a momentary loss of reason. Had I been thinking, I wouldn’t have reacted so strongly. I know the character of Ron Paul supporters better than this. We are a diverse group to be sure but what we have in common like the love of liberty and respect for the free will of others to name just two of those things, preclude even the machinations of “Al the Terrible” from turning us against one another. I am still insulted and incredulous that he would even try.

    As it was relayed to me, as soon as the Ron Paul supporters who were under the iron fist of Al saw the lay of the land at the 5th District convention and realized that they were not bound to the dictates of Al Gerhart in order to participate they fled to the greener pastures of the grassroots. I am guessing that this was a great relief for them because Gerhart’s leadership bears precious little in common with the man he proclaims to represent, Ron Paul.

    Maybe Al should have just listened to me when I told him, regarding Ron Paul supporters, you can’t force them, you can’t guilt them, you can’t trick them, you can’t MAKE them do anything!

    But here is the trick, and another thing Al missed, you can always count on them to do the right thing which is exactly what they did on Sat. in the 5th District’s GOP convention.

  3. Qadoshyah, 03 April, 2012

    This email is what did it for me. I’m working with others to draft up a letter to the official campaign to request his removal.

  4. Jesse, 03 April, 2012

    From al’s e-mail;
    “That day I spoke of the need for a libertarian army composed of people who were willing to band together and give up certain liberties so as to mold the political landscape so that we would eventually be left alone.”

    Disturbing.

  5. Re. Craig A, Corbin, 03 April, 2012

    I was Al Gerhart’s Cleveland County Coordinator until my resignation the day after the Cleveland County Convention. I had warned Al that I would resign after he sent a bullying email to Cleveland County Vice Chair Lisa Shrieves, threatening that if she didn’t post the precinct delegate list as reqired by the rules 10 days before the county convention.

    Lisa Shrieves was six hours late when Gerhart made this threat. Lisa Shrieves had just reason to be late and I’ll tell you why: Lisa was waiting for me, as the Ron Paul 2012 Coordinator to give her the list of any Ron Paul
    GOP delegates that believed that they were missing or place as an alternate unfairly. Lisa Shrieves could not get that information from me. The person that Gerhart had recruited to provide that list (not me), a grass-roots Norman Ron Paul volunteer.

    That person is “Mr. X.” Mr. X was combative towards the grass-roots Ron Paul volunteers. Instead of asking the person that he recrutited (me, recruited by Al), he laid in on Mrs. Shrieves. To this I took a great amount of disappointment as after being a home-study on Dr. Ron Paul, on his topics such as; Liberty; Austrian economics; and grass-roots conservatism. Congressman Paul and his wife Carol have never displayed in any way shape or form.

    Reluctantly, before the Cleveland County Convention, I stayed on board. Al told me that I was a good leader and that I had done a good job with working to help with communication and conflict resolution between Ron Paul national, Norman Grass Roots, and the Cleveland County Republican Office in Norman, OK.

    Between an incredible precinct meeting this past February 6th, thanks to Bobby Cleveland, a high number of current elected, appointed and candidates was as good a job as ANY could do. (Joy’s Palace in Norman is a very fine facility I might add).

    The turnout from Ron Paul Supporters at that precinct meeting ended up with a 600% increase in attendance over the 2008 Cleveland County Precinct delegate meeting.

    I wish that I had held firm and not continued. The night before the County Convention Gerhart shows up at the Ron Paul Grassroots Norman office and interrupts a meeting already in session. I was in OKC at another event and darned glad I wasn’t there. Gerhart had to be escorted off of the property. As he was being forced to leave he then made the critical error and soiled himself for good in Cleveland County. He used every curse word in the book and screamed at Lori Steen from Moore, who is highly respected and active in the Constitutionalist GOP movement in Cleveland County.

    The next day, I sent out a press release resighning from Ron Paul 2012 National Campaign. i sent Al Gerhart the following email:

    Subject: Resigning

    Message:

    Best regards, Thank you,

    Craig A. Corbin, Precinct 32 Vice Chair Cleveland County Republicans
    P.S. If you ever speak to another woman in the sphere of my influence in the remainder of this campaign, I promise, you will become Craig Corbin’s personal “whopping post.”

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