Ron Paul’s Most Ardent Fans Split on Sagging Rand – US News

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., seeks to expand his father's base. The plan, some Ron Paul supporters say, has backfired.

Preaching peace, drug legalization and getting government out of people's lives, libertarian champion Ron Paul won more than 20 percent of the vote in Iowa and New Hampshire during the 2012 Republican presidential primary contest,as his impassioned campaign supporters swamped state parties and gave him a majority of convention delegates in several states.

These are things the former Texas congressmans son, Sen. Rand Paul, and his presidential campaign staff know well. In fact, they reckonedthe Kentucky lawmakercould build upon his father's respectable showings four years later by tactically assuaging the GOP mainstream.

They gambled that activists deserting the younger Paul over his endorsement of establishment Republicans, or for opposing the Iran nuclear deal and proposing war on the Islamic State group, or for crafting nuanced stances on whistleblower Edward Snowden and drug legalization, would be few.

But now, the Paul family ishaving toreassure jittery members of the so-called liberty movement. RandPauls brother, Ronnie,said earlier this year that father and son have the same beliefs. And last month, Ron Paul said even where Rand and I do have minor differences of opinion, I would take Rand's position over any of his opponents' in both parties every time.

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As Rand Pauls once-promising campaign registers as low as 1 and 2 percent in national polls, a survey of his fathers 2012 state-level leadership reveals continued cause for concern among the passionate base that was crucial for Ron Paul, with some of those leaders having utterly lost faith inthe younger family member as a candidate and a bearer of their message.

Ron had paved a path that was ripe for a continuation, says Marianne Stebbins, a small businesswoman who chaired Ron Pauls 2012 campaign efforts in Minnesota. If [Rand Paul] had a little more of his dad's background, philosophy and demeanor, he would be doing much better.

Ron Paul at the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa

Stebbins and her compatriots won for the elder Paul 32 of 40 Minnesota delegates to the GOP national convention in 2012. Their commitment to game the system and flood the state party brought their candidate victory, even though he came in second in the states caucuses.

Stebbins soured on the younger Paul over some of his positions, including his signing of a Senate GOP letter that aimed to undermine the Iran nuclear deal and what she calls his not standing up for Edward Snowden. Though Paul sued to end one of the mass surveillance programs Snowden exposed, hes avoided a full-throated endorsement of the exiled whistleblower, suggesting he share a cell with Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who allegedly perjured himself when speaking about the scope of dragnet data collection.

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At this point in the game, Stebbins says, Rand needs to go back to the Senate and emulate his father there. A vast change now wouldn't be taken as sincere.

At the opposite end of the MississippiRiver, Ron Pauls 2012 campaign teamsnagged him a majority of Louisianas national convention delegates (before furious pushback and a deal reducing the haul). That state teams co-chairman, businessman Charlie Davis, doesnt share Stebbins frustration.

When the Iowa caucus finally arrives, it is very likely that liberty-leaning Republican activists will pick Sen. Rand Paul as the candidate that is most ideologically aligned with them, Davis says. Ron surged at the end and I think that Rand will as well.

The stark difference in opinion among veterans of the 2012 campaign is also seen between leaders of the Paul team that year in Iowa and New Hampshire.

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New Hampshire state Sen. Andy Sanborn, co-chairman of the 2012 campaign in his state, where RonPaul placed second, supports Rand Pauls campaign strategy and believes he ultimately will surge.

Unlike the race between Dr. Ron Paul and Mitt Romney, this race with its 17to18 candidates combined with the individual narrativesis resulting in temporary wide swings in support and polling, but no question there continues to be one common thread: that voters are just fed up with the establishment, Sanborn says. No candidate has been fighting the Washington machine with more passion than Sen. Paul [and] I fully expect that when the race begins to settle down from these expected summer flings, that Sen. Paul will continue to consolidate both his base, as well as those new, disaffected voters.

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But in Iowa, where Ron Paul supporters took over the state Republican Party and won their candidate22 of 28 convention votes, despite his coming in a close third in the state caucuses, longtime campaign leader Drew Ivers has become disillusioned.

Ivers served as Ron Pauls Iowa campaign chairman in both 2008 and 2012 and isnt endorsing Rand Paul this year. He says the senatorhas ruined a golden opportunity for the liberty movement.

Updated on Sept. 16, 2015: Comment from Sergio Gor was added to this article.

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Ron Paul's Most Ardent Fans Split on Sagging Rand - US News