Free Republic

The noes clearly had it, but the party bosses gaveled the dissenters down, shutting off the microphones and ignoring cries of "Roll call! Roll call!" Yesterday, the Republican National Committee in Tampa adopted some rules changes that shift power from the state parties and the grassroots to the RNC and the GOP presidential nominee. Former Governor John Sununu of New Hampshire touted the new rules as providing “a strong governing framework” for the party over the next four years. But in fact the the new rules should be very troubling and disappointing to conservative grassroots activists, because they move the...

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a key supporter of Mitt Romney, received $62,500 in campaign contributions since 2008 from state and federal political committees set up by supporters of Mitt Romney, records show. Funds came from so-called “leadership PACs” in five different states and the nation’s capital. By spreading the funds around, Romney’s supporters were able to give far more than the state limit of $3,500 per election. The contributions came from “Free & Strong America” leadership PACs, run by Romney supporters, a Center for Public Integrity analysis of campaign finance records found. Leadership PACs are separate from campaign committees...

The King County Republican Party says it has received multiple reports of robo calls to voters falsely claiming the Saturday caucuses have been delayed a week. Lisa Shin, executive director of the King County GOP, said the calls came in Friday evening bearing the caller-identification number of the county party headquarters in Bellevue.

A recount of the Jan. 3 Iowa Republican caucus results has Rick Santorum leading Mitt Romney in the race for the GOP presidential nomination by 34 votes, with data from 8 precincts missing and never to be certified, GOP officials told The Des Moines Register on Wednesday. Despite Santorum's advantage, the state Republican party views the results as a wash.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Iowa Republican Party will certify this month's presidential caucuses as a split decision between former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, citing missing data from eight precincts, the Des Moines Register reported on Thursday.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is shrugging off reports that the vote count from Iowa’s caucuses might be wrong, saying the errors appear not to change the fact that he and Mitt Romney were nearly tied. Santorum tells Fox News that a party official says the two cases in which errors were reported in the count from Tuesday night nearly cancel each other out. A Ron Paul supporter told Des Moines TV station KCCI that the posted count from his precinct in Appanoose County gave Romney more votes than he actually received. The GOP chairman...

The Drudge Report made it the headline story Saturday night: ROMNEY WINS STRAW POLL RESULTS. At the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, the former governor of Massachusetts, who, incidentally, signed into law the state health care system upon which Obamacare is based, narrowly edged Ron Paul in the informal poll of potential GOP candidates for 2012. Sarah Palin was third in the polling, with Newt Gingrich finishing out the top four. Some of the big guns in the conservative movement and the Republican Party will make a big story out of this, as they have been pulling for Romney since the...

Mitt Romney, the once and likely future presidential candidate, didn’t show up to address the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, but that didn’t stop him from walking away with the big prize from the gathering. The former Massachusetts governor bested the competition in a straw poll conducted here over the past two days. Romney received 24 percent of a total of 1,806 ballots cast when voters were asked to name the candidate they would support if the Republican primary for president were held today. [snip] A group whipping votes for Romney, Evangelicals for Mitt, spent the day handing out plastic pink...

April 10 Mitt Romney Wins Presidential Straw Poll at Republican Leadership Conference Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won the straw poll by one vote over Rep. Ron Paul, 438-437. The person who didn't attend the Southern Republican Leadership Conference won the 2012 GOP presidential straw poll. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won the straw poll by one vote over Rep. Ron Paul, 438-437. Sarah Palin finished in third place with 330 votes, while Newt Gingrich rounded it out with 321 votes. Several potential candidates addressed the three-day gathering which ended Saturday. Eyeing another presidential bid, Texas Rep. Ron Paul told...

Mitt Romney: 439 votes Ron Paul: 438 votes Sarah Palin: 330 votes Newt Gingrich: 321

Nina Easton, Fortune's Washington bureau chief and a Fox News regular, helped out Mitt Romney on his new book that hits shelves today, "No Apology: The Case for American Greatness." That's according to the book's acknowledgements, where Romney writes she "advised me on ways to make the message of what I had written more clear and compelling." Should a political analyst and journalist be helping out a former (and future?) presidential candidate with his book? Boston Globe correspondent Sasha Issenberg reached out to Easton and looked at whether there's any conflict given her role as political analyst, along with the...

SALT LAKE CITY - Over the course of two weeks, Utah Republicans had the chance to see the two most talked-about potential presidential candidates in their party. Mitt Romney attended an event for ADX security systems and Sarah Palin visited to sign her bestselling book. The Utahpolicy.com, Fox 13 Insider Poll finds that Mitt Romney is taken far more seriously as a potential presidential candidate. 53.5 percent of Republicans say they expect Romney to be the Republican party candidate to face Barack Obama. 31.3 percent of Democrats think Romney will be the candidate. Only 4.7 percent of Republicans and 6.3...