Ron Paul may affect precinct elections

Some candidates for positions subscribe to Paul's brand of politics

COEUR d'ALENE -- Longtime local Republican Party members fear a coup de Paul.

GOP faithful are looking to Tuesday's primary with apprehension because some candidates running for Republican Precinct Committee positions subscribe to Ron Paul's brand of politics.

"It's happened in Spokane, it's happened in Southern Idaho, it's happened in Minnesota," said Brad Corkill, chair of the Kootenai County Republicans. "Every incumbent precinct person who is being challenged is being challenged by a Ron Paul person."

Kootenai County Republican precinct candidates who support Paul say they aren't running to cause problems, but because they believe in certain principles and want to become engaged in the process.

"People on both sides of the aisle, as Democrats or Republicans, are not satisfied with the current conditions," said Mike Oliver, who is squaring off against county commissioner Rick Currie for the 48th Precinct. "It's about principles over politics. I'm tired of cheering just because somebody has an R or a D by their name. It's time we cheer conservative principles that make the Republican Party mean something."

Julie Chadderdon, the Region 1 chair of the Idaho Republican Party, said she first took notice when she saw a person brandishing a swastika at a Republican meeting.

"When we have a neo-Nazi, a Greenpeace person and a Constitutionalist showing up in the Republican Party, what do they have in common? They're not Republicans. They're Ron Paul supporters," Chadderdon said. "We are not talking about people who have been part of the process. We're talking about people who are trying to interrupt the process."

A link on Ron Paul's Web site reads: "If we can turn out enough delegates, we can alter the course of the nation by helping Ron alter the course of the Republican Party. We need your help in Idaho, Mississippi, New Mexico, Utah and Vermont.

"Delegates select the platforms for their county, state and national party. They make the rules, influence their peers, and even pick the presidential candidate! In every step of the process, it is essential that Ron Paul supporters are engaged, active and numerous."

Chadderdon said Paul supporters' "real goal" is to have an anti-Iraq War plank in the Republican Party as well as to send delegates to the Republican National Convention. Precinct committee members do much of the grunt work, she said, going door-to-door and raising funds. She believes that many Paul supporters are sincere, but worries they won't follow through with much of the leg work required of the precinct committee members and weaken the party if and when Paul fails to win the nomination.

Ruthie Johnson has been a precinct committee member for 56 years and still raises the most money every year for the party's annual Lincoln Day Dinner. She said Idaho has the strongest Republican Party in the country and does not want to see that thrown out overnight for "something that sounds good at the time."

"You need some people with experience so they don't make the same mistakes again," Johnson said. "That (participating in the process) is fine, but I started out by helping out rather than trying to take over everything."

Corkill said he is frustrated that Paul supporters, and Ron Paul himself, are not wearing the appropriate label of Libertarian, which the Texas congressman ran as 1988.

"Ron Paul is a Libertarian. Period," Corkill said. "All this is accomplishing is angering a lot of people and alienating a lot of people.

"To undermine what everybody's built is just shameful."

Tenille Nichols, who is running for the 30th Precinct, said she is not part of a large, covert agenda. At 29, Nichols said Paul was the catalyst to involving her in politics, but "it's not all about him."

She has been attending Republican meetings and "they're really nice people and have been friends to me."

"I'm not here to mess with anybody," she said.

She has already canvassed about 75 percent of her district, she said, by going door-to-door and talking with people.

"The main thing I'm running into in my precinct is they feel like they are not being heard," Nichols said. "The people who support Ron Paul are some of the hardest working I've met. They won't get in there and just sit."

As for others who are showing up at Republican meetings wearing swastikas, Nichols said she probably saw them where Chadderdon did.

"I don't know him. He's not a representative of Ron Paul supporters. I'm sure the Ron Paul supporters thought the same thing (Chadderdon) did," Nichols said.

Oliver took issue with Paul being called a Libertarian. He said Paul, and his supporters, have every right to be in the running for Republican positions.

"The guy's been a Republican for 20 years," Oliver said. "It's like how long do you have to live in Idaho before you're an Idahoan?"

Oliver said he has always voted Republican.

"What happened to 'I feel that surge of civic duty.' That's my motive for running. I'm 40. I should have been more involved as a younger man but, damn it, I'm doing it now," Oliver said. "The GOP is called the big tent party, but the big tent doesn't seem to be open for all the Ron Paul supporters -- who is a Republican who won with 73 percent of the voters in Texas."

Joe Malloy, 30, served as a Republican precinct member from 2002 to 2006, he said. He is now a Paul supporter and as for Paul supporters not fulfilling their precinct obligations, he said, "The last couple of times I was at the central committee, there were a lot of empty seats anyway."

"I don't understand what the hubbub is; there are people getting involved. I'm surprised they aren't being welcomed," Malloy said.

Malloy does agree with Paul's war stance that the U.S. should withdraw from Iraq as soon as possible, but said he is not part of a plot to establish an anti-war plank in the GOP platform.

"Basically all we're going to be arguing about is what we're going to do with $10,000 from Lincoln Days (fundraiser). I have no delusions of grandeur," said Malloy, who is running unopposed for the 32 Precinct. "If there is debate on a plank in the platform, I think it is healthy. Now is the time to have that debate."

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