Saturday, May 18, 2013
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul doesn't want a recount of the Maine caucuses' presidential straw poll, but is confident he will win a majority of the state's 24 delegates to the Republican National Convention when all is said and done, Paul's campaign manager tells USA Today.
Jesse Benton told USA Today in an email that a recount of the much-criticized caucuses vote-counting process is "irrelevant" because Paul will wind up with a "strong majority" of the actual delegates when they are decided in May at the Maine GOP state convention.
There has been a furor since Saturday night's announcement, when Washington County realized its caucus postponed a week due to weather wouldn't be included in the final result and then it became evident some other caucuses, such as in Waldo County, that had been held between the state party's prescribed Feb. 4-11 window still weren't counted, either.
"The Maine GOP has a lot of important work to do, and we won't waste their time investigating the meaningless, partial caucus straw poll," Benton said in the email to USA Today.
Some in the Maine GOP are calling for a censure of state GOP Chair Charlie Webster and are pressing for a recount. Webster has said that will be up to the state GOP committee to decide when it meets March 10, but he has insisted the missed votes wouldn't change give Paul the win. Republican Mitt Romney won by 194 votes in the count announced Saturday night by the Maine GOP.
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Kevin Miller is Washington bureau chief for the Portland Press Herald and MaineToday Media. He has worked as a journalist in Maine for 6 ½ years, covering the environment, politics and the State House. Before arriving in Maine, he wrote about politics, government and education for newspapers in Virginia and Maryland.
Kevin can be reached at 317-6256 or kmiller@mainetoday.com
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