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Republican presidential candidate Texas Rep. Ron Paul has maintained his campaign strategy of focusing on collecting delegates for the long haul, speaking in Minnesota Saturday while rival opponents Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich focused on Nevada for the state's Saturday GOP caucuses.
“It sounds like the revolution has already come to Minnesota!” Paul exclaimed on the stage in Arden Hills, Minnesota, a state where he took nearly 16 percent of the vote in 2008. The Associated Press notes that Paul is in Minnesota looking to accumulate support from anti-war Republicans and Tea Party members, but still keeping a close eye on the results in Nevada. Paul was a surprise second-place finisher in the 2008 Nevada GOP caucuses, and now his campaign has taken that victory and applied it to their national strategy. The Los Angeles Times reports on why Paul was not in Nevada Saturday, when the state's 28 delegates are to be decided:
"Four years later, Paul has turned the lesson of Nevada into a national campaign strategy, focusing his attention on caucus states where his loyal followers could keep him in the delegate hunt.That’s why the Texas congressman skipped the Florida primary and focused his efforts instead on Maine, a state that has been holding something of a multi-day caucus that Paul could very well win.
Tonight marks the beginning of a stretch of caucus contests in Nevada, Maine, Minnesota, Colorado, and Washington. They represent Paul’s best bet to gain a boost in the delegate count before Super Tuesday.
So as his supporters made their pitch for Paul at Nevada caucus sites today, Paul was off to Minnesota to rally voters there, who will caucus next Tuesday."
In addition to organization on the ground, Paul's campaign has spent $350,000 on television ads in Nevada, just behind Romney, who's spent $371,000, according to the Smart Media Group which tracks political advertising.
Rachel E. Stassen-Berger of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports that Paul's Minnesota events Saturday were packed with fans hungry to hear the long-time congressman's libertarian-leaning message:
"'We don't need more government,' Paul told a standing-room-only crowd in a Rochester high school. 'The American people are waking up.'Paul may have some reason to find optimism in Minnesota. His campaign has been organizing for the caucuses for months and claims to have the structure to, as one supporter said, 'storm the caucuses.'"
Stassen-Berger notes that while Romney swept Minnesota's 2008 caucuses, his fans may go to another more conservative candidate in 2012. Paul's remarks on monetary policy and tax reform to a crowd of 3,000 people in St. Cloud Saturday may be playing into that:
"At a Saturday morning rally, Paul rarely mentioned the current president and did not use the names of any of his Republican rivals, instead hearkening back to what he said were the bad government decisions of 1913, 1971 and 2007.'I'd like to repeal 1913' to get rid of the income tax and the Federal Reserve, he said.
He promised to cut $1 trillion from federal spending, repeal the Patriot Act and refocus government on liberty, not entitlements.
'I find that there is a great interest in the cause of liberty,' Paul said. 'Our liberties are still under attack.'"
The Wall Street Journal reports that Paul will continue on a series of stops in Minnesota over the next several days ahead of Tuesday night’s caucuses.
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