Ron Paul quietly scores first popular vote victory
Texas Rep. Ron Paul secured his first popular vote victory of 2012 this weekend in the Virgin Islands. But although he won the most votes in the territory’s Republican presidential caucuses, he didn’t walk away with the most delegates.
According to results released by the Republican Party of the Virgin Islands, Paul received 112 votes, or 29 percent, to Romney’s 101 votes, a 26 percent share. Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum received 23 votes and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich 18 votes.
Paul senior adviser Doug Wead declared victory in a statement posted to his website, but expressed irritation that most media outlets reported the Saturday announcement by Herb Schoenbohm, the territory’s GOP chair and a Romney supporter, that Romney had won the contest, before learning that Paul had indeed clinched the most votes.
Romney emerged with four delegates from the Virgin Island caucuses and Paul came out with just one. Delegates were elected individually, accounting for the disparity. One uncommitted delegate switched to support Romney after the vote.
In addition to the four delegates from Saturday’s caucuses, Romney also has the support of three Virgin Islands super delegates.
In his victory declaration, Wead wrote that it was ironic that Paul’s popular vote victory would be scuttled by a deft delegate-focused rival’s efforts — efforts that the Paul campaign claims to have perfected to snatch delegate-count victories in states where it lost the popular vote.
“The Paul campaign contends that it may have actually won Iowa, Minnesota, Maine, North Dakota, Colorado and other caucus states where Romney or Santorum have been called the winners and where they won the popular vote,” noted Wead.
The Paul campaign has been seeking a statewide victory throughout the 2012 primary season. Immediately preceding the Iowa caucuses, Paul was outpolling his rivals and appeared a potential victor. When he fell a few percentage points short, states where he performed well during his 2008 bid looked promising. These hopes have been sequentially dashed with losses in Washington state, Alaska, Idaho and North Dakota.
Before the Virgin Islands, Paul came closest to victory in Maine, where a vote-counting controversy and a last-minute delay of one county’s vote provoked an outcry from Paul’s supporters. He ultimately came a mere 115 votes short of overtaking Romney’s vote count in the state.
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