Romney and Paul allege 'dirty tricks' by Santorum supporters

Republican presidential candidate former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum speaks as his wife Karen, right, listens during a primary night watch party Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012, in St. Charles, Mo.

/ AP Photo/Jeff Roberson

The campaigns of Mitt Romney and Ron Paul have filed a complaint alleging "serious and prejudicial misconduct" by supporters of rival Rick Santorum at the March 17 Missouri caucus that they say amounted to "voter suppression."

The complaint, filed with the state Republican party and several caucus officials and dated Monday, demands that the state party refuse to recognize the delegates from Jefferson County, where the campaigns say the improprieties took place.

At that caucus site, the complaint says, Santorum supporters deliberately delayed the proceedings when they realized they were outnumbered by a combination of Romney and Paul supporters. After the Romney and Paul voters left in frustration, the proceedings were allowed to resume, and by that time, Santorum voters had the majority, the complaint says.

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Ryan Williams, a Romney spokesman said, "Facing a likely defeat, Senator Santorum's supporters used dirty political tricks to marginalize conservative activists and suppress votes in order to elect their delegates. The serious misconduct committed by Sen. Santorum's cronies is appalling, and should be denounced by every candidate in this race."

The Romney and Paul campaigns are demanding that the delegates selected at the Jefferson County site be barred from participating at congressional and state party conventions in April and June, when the selection of actual delegates bound to specific candidates takes place.

The county selected 72 delegates to take part in the April and May conventions. Of those, Santorum got 65, Romney got seven. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich got no delegates.

[soap-suds]

Funny!

[John782011]

What dirty tricks, it just took them that long to finish saying their Hail Marys, do the rosery and get their prayers answered by having the others leave the room.

[rightontarget]

"Dirty tricks" from the selfrightious, far right wing camp??? Really?????? Say it isn't so. (LOL) Who woulda thunk it? Not with all their precious "values" and everything. LMAO!

[Henri_Rochard]

Rick Santorum and his followers don't care a whit about the economy, taxes, Afghanistan and Iraq, etc.

Rick Santorum and his followers care about two things and two things only: Abortion and homosexuals. And they want to eliminate both of those entirely.

[mountainstates1]

The conservatives have become the party of intolerance, hate, and shame in this country.

[rightontarget]

Speaking as a person who USED to consider themselves one years ago, I totally agree!! Been there, done that UNTIL they became selfrighteous fanatics!! Left that crowd a long time ago. What a disapointment!!!!

[bileven]

lol, funny, from all the posts I have seen, hate and shame would go to describe a great deal of people on both sides of party lines. Seems people support their candidate more than their candidates abilities. Which explains why nobody is calling Obama on the promises, they are way too ashamed to admit the obvious failure, and they hate the opposition too much to really pay attention to what they support.

Which also explains why people just reprocess the media slants without full understanding the truth behind it.

Newsflash, to all the supporters of the media slant, they lie. They distort the truth. They are not under any legal authority to tell the whole truth, and they, like many here, would rather just project their opinions and anything that supports that opinion.... half of it coming from Press Releases from the "spin doctors" and same lobbyists that are buying out politicians.

Half a truth is still a lie... half the facts does not equal the whole truth...

[RikkiH]

Voter suppression and vote fraud is unacceptable. It doesn't matter if it is perpetrated by Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Gingrich, Paul, Romney, Obama or Santorum. Come on people, where is your sense of dignity and fairness? Our elections are supposed to be based upon fairness and integrity towards our fellow Americans. It seems as though integrity flew out the window so long ago. While I have a specific candidate that I support, what really matters is that truth and honesty prevail, no matter who wins.

[bileven]

So, if I read the facts presented, two groups are saying a group representing a thrid party didn't play fair by opening the door and letting other cut in line? And those two groups grew impatient and left. Obviously, anyone that buys this has never been to a convention. There are lines EVERYWHERE! It's not the individuals in line, it's the people doing crowd control.

Of course, now if they send away all the delegates from this, then Romney loses 7 delegates. Ron Paul is just playing the Devil's Advocate, at this point and has no stake in anything, other than to possibly ruin other's chances. Truth be told, it's down to Romney and Santorum, anyone else is just helping the media with a story.

[akcoins]

The Repub are passing all these voter fraud bills in the states that in actuality are nothing more than voter suppression bills. Yet 99% of voter fraud or suppression is committed (see above story) by the Repubs.

[bileven]

Ahem, the candidates did not do anything, they are accusing supporters of blocking them out... key word accused...

Fraud is a purposeful disseption, like Obama's "Change", when all that changed was the date.

Had challege to this, and in the article above..

"After the Romney and Paul voters left in frustration". In other words, they got tired of waiting in line and they are blaming others for holding up the line. Not quite the definition of "suppression", unless they have some way of proving that someone laid in the doorway...

The whole story is theatrics... something to rally the sheep, and by the posts here, it worked like a charm.

[TimeToEvolve]

How did American slide so far down the toilet to even consider backing this party of extremists? I mean these free market freaks are actually certifiable. They have become so violent, so extreme and so intent on taking down Obama they will do anything. Are these crazies the people we want to be in power? People who hate the government and want to kill it but still want to work for it. Anyone else suspicious?

[Ferrahayes]

Suspicious? No, more like worried that a person such as Santorum can possibly become President and destroy countless lives.

Let's say Santorum does become President and is able to pass laws against abortion and gay rights. The women who is unable to terminate her pregnancy is forced to either give the child up or raise it. More then likely, if that woman has to keep the child, it will grow up in poverty or the woman would have no choice but to rely on public assistance (if he doesn't ban that too). If the child becomes a ward of the State, then that child would be subjected to many foster homes if that child is not adopted.

Then there is the gay issue. He wants to criminalize people for being gay. ***???

People don't realize that there would be an obscene amount of lives that would be destroyed by Santorum if he were to become President. I just hope that it NEVER happens.

[bileven]

Ferrahayes.. CIVICS 101... The President makes ZERO Laws!!! None, nada, zero, zip, nil... That is the job of the Legislative Branch!!! The Executive Branch is the "Manager". He signs the checks, makes choices as an extension of law. He isn't even suppose to appoint members to key positions without approval from Congress... even though Obama did and is now in hot water.

People seem to have President mixed up with Monarch or Dictator, which explains the current state of the country.

As for the abortion issue, there have been 6 out of the last 8 Presidents who were pro-life, yet abortions still proceeded....

As for Gay Marriage, just because the President does or does not support a lifestyle has NEVER reflected the majority of Voters. The fact that the only way they have passed any laws in support has been to circumvent the vote. Which is odd, because the majority vote IS the final word in any laws, based on the Constitution...

So, let's recap. President can't make any laws, he would need a Super Majority to get the House of Representatives and Senate to pass any measures.

[NadePaulKuciGravMcKi]

dirty deeds ... done dirt cheap

[slvrsurfer3]

AC-DC. I like it!

[WHAT-IS-HE-SMOKING]

It will be very interesting to see how the Republicans Party will handle this, because it will show how much integrity they have.

[bileven]

So, if the Republicans accussing are wrong, and they determine that the accusations are unfounded, guess your going to still question their integrity?