Ron Paul Supporters Allegedly Push Denver GOP Meeting ‘Into Madness’

Democrats and Republicans held a number of county assemblies in Colorado Saturday, including meetings in Denver County, where Kelly Maher tells The Daily Caller that a group of Ron Paul-pledged delegates plunged the meeting "into madness."

“The Ron Paul chair here went around the GOP chair and committed $900 worth of security from the Denver Police,” Maher said of the Paul supporters in Denver, while warning that Colorado may have caught a sneak peek of possible insurrection to come at Republican events later this year. “And now they’re sending out strategy emails on how to ‘shanghai’ the assembly.”

Maher told The Denver Post that Ron Paul delegates were trying to shout down Denver County GOP Chairman Danny Stroud, Treasurer Alex Hornaday and Secretary Brett Moore. Maher explained the melee to the Post:

“The Ron Paul people showed up with an alternate set of rules and calendar for the day. (One woman) was standing at the mic and kept demanding to be recognized. She kept calling point of order and that was the first yelling. Once the rules were adopted the Ron Paul people demanded they be read aloud so Danny called up Brett to read them, which made everyone flip out again because he did it in his fast reader voice (he used to be the reader for the state House.)”

Maher said the meeting "descend into madness" once Paul's supporters "started screaming from the floor," and has since released this video from the event:

In a statement to the Post, Denver County GOP Chairman Danny Stroud did not deviate too much from Maher's account of the meeting, but did not label the malcontents as Ron Paul supporters:

"The Republican Party is fortunate to have four great presidential candidates for the 2012 election. We love that activists are passionate about their respective candidates; however, we can never let passion trounce on the rights of others.

Unfortunately, that was exactly what was attempted at the Denver GOP Assembly. A small, loud group attempted to hijack the assembly and trample on the rights of those who took time out of their busy lives to participate in the political process.

We have a responsibility at the Denver GOP to stand up for the rights of all of our activists, not simply the loudest. We believe that we were able to preserve the political process for the rest of the participants yesterday, despite the disruptions."

Raymond Rivera, a congressional district vice chair from Minnesota, reached out to the Post to say that Maher was omitting "that many … chairs in anticipation for the number of Ron Paul people changed the rules … to try to make sure that the establishment delegates could take their entitled district, state and national seats. These leaders within the State/District Party believe they are entitled to these seats therefore making it difficult for not only Ron Paul delegates but other campaigns like Newt and Santorum."

What do you think of the behavior of alleged Ron Paul delegates shown in Maher's video? Simply acting on their Freedom of Speech, or transforming a civil party meeting into an Occupy Wall Street-like general assembly?