Republican Colorado delegate Jeremy Strand paid the Watchdog Wire booth a visit today with some breaking developments inside the RNC’s power grab through their new rules changes regarding delegation: Morton Blackwell, a seasoned expert and member of GOP Rules Committees, was allegedly delayed from getting to the Rules Committee meeting with his authored Minority Report; this report would challenge the RNC’s abrupt new rules that essentially undermine the party’s original rules. Since Blackwell missed the meeting, he was not granted permission to submit the challenge.

As Jeremy explained, “So Rule 12 basically allows the RNC GOP elitists—168 guys to basically change the rules whenever they want from this convention on. In other words, to put it simply, they get to change the goal posts and the rules in the middle of the game, which is not fair…[Rule] 15 and 16 also basically give the head campaign or the RNC the ability to cut delegates that they don’t want at the convention.” This has happened in several states including Ron Paul-popular states like Maine and Nevada. Ben Ginsberg, presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign lawyer, submitted these new rules.

Jeremy discloses the dirty details of Blackwell blockade:

So the Minority Report was signed, documented–everything it needed to have to give to the RNC Chair to put on the floor; Morton Blackwell was the man for Virginia with all the Virginia delegates, and it was funny because on the floor, Colorado is right across the aisle for Virginia, and I met up with a couple of Ron Paul guys from Virginia, and I look over and I’m like, “Where are all of your Virginians?”

They’re like, “They’re stuck on a bus with Morton Blackwell.”

And I was like, “Where the heck is Morton Blackwell?”

And they said, “He’s on a bus and he’s being held, he’s not allowed into the convention yet.”

So the story, the official story of what has happened is Morton Blackwell, in his bus with all the Virginia delegates who’s leading the charge, was basically played with and toyed with and they would not allow him in any of the check points and they sent his bus on basically a joy ride for an hour and a half and what he was coming for was they were having a Small Rules Committee meeting apart from the convention to spare an embarrassment on the floor.

Jeremy continues:

Not only his bus…there were other buses from I believe Michigan and Iowa that also weren’t let in and he missed that meeting. He missed that meeting outside. And, of course, he comes late, and they were going to give the Minority Report to the RNC chair, he said I don’t care. He didn’t even present it on the floor even though Morton Blackwell, and all of the states and all of the people on the Rules Committee who were supporting went by their own rules, but we’re quickly finding out, if you haven’t guess it already, for months, the RNC isn’t following their own rules, and if there’s corruption in government, it’s also corruption here and it’s sad.

Like Jeremy, many delegates who were proud to be selected to be effective grassroots leaders at the convention are frustrated with this gaming. Jeremy hinted that today, August 30, there may be a large walk-out of the convention floor by a lot of state delegates in solidarity against this government corruption.

Jackie Moreau

Jackie Moreau is content & outreach coordinator of Watchdog Wire.

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