Paul supporters try to affect platform as the true conservatives

SPOKANE -

At many of the Republican presidential debates, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) proclaimed that he was the real Republican in the race, and the most authentic conservative. Today at the Washingotn State Republican Convention, his supporters felt the same way and hoped to impact the Party platform on those principles.

One of the leaders of the Spokane County Ron Paul delegation, the state's largest, is Jeff Whiteside. Whiteside is a nearly full time volunteer for the campaign and led the organization of the massive Ron Paul congregation across the street from the convention. He explained some of the tactics and purposes of their efforts at the convention to PolitickerWA.com.

Ron Paul supporters gather near the convention center.: Politicker Photo

First of all Whiteside was sure to point out that the convention was marked by a distinct set of factions, with the Paul supporters pushing for an agenda markedly separate from that of the majority of the delegates.

"There is definitely a division in there," he said, "it's quite clear. I wouldn't say it is an ‘us against them' kind of feeling, but there is definitely a conservative vs. non conservative feel to the voting."

At the midday break, Whiteside was optimistic about their attempts to influence the convention.

"In the Congressional District caucuses yesterday we did make some headway," he said of earning 4 national delegates and 6 alternates. "So that was a fantastic move, its 10 percent of the delegates."

Then today he said they voted on the unity slate of electors, despite the fact that it was made up of McCain and Huckabee supporters, in order to buy time for debating platform resolutions later in the day. He felt they were instrumental in keeping five issue platforms from passing in the morning in order to be further debated in the afternoon.

"We did get five platforms that we are going to discuss and our people are pretty much going to present ideas on each one of those platforms. We certainly didn't get every one that we wanted, we wanted to debate all of them. There's no provisions for pro-life," said Whiteside. "There's no provisions for the 2nd Amendment. These are things that we are fighting for."

One such plank was the family plank, where they hoped to include direct language on supporting a pro life stance. Another was the education plank where they wanted to include language in support of home schooling, and they wanted to include 2nd Amendment language in the personal, civil and religious liberty plank.

Despite it being one of Rep. Paul's major campaign issues, Whiteside said that Paul's supporters were by and large avoiding a discussion on opposing the Iraq War.

"No, we're avoiding that issue," he stated. "There is even division on that issues amongst our own supporters. It is not a wise tactic, and we know for sure where they stand on it so we are trying to avoid that issue entirely."

That turned out not to be true of all Paul supporters. The Spokesman-Review reported this afternoon that a resolution requiring the House of Representatives to vote for a Declaration of War for any military action was passed at the convention while many McCain supporters were out of the room.