The Real Deal for West Virginia: An Inside Look

Greg Smith, a Mike Huckabee delegate from West Virginia, spoke to The Virginian Federalist on Saturday to explain the details of a deal made with the Ron Paul campaign at the West Virginia GOP Convention. As we reported shortly after the convention on Super Tuesday, Huckabee’s statewide campaign offered to give three delegates to Paul if his supporters voted for Huckabee after the first round of voting. However, that only scrapes the surface of the negotiations that took place last Tuesday in Parlor A of the Charleston Civic Center.

Prior to the state convention, the Huckabee and Paul West Virginia campaign staffs expected that the voting would go past the first round, so they planned what they would do in subsequent votes. Going into the convention, Huckabee’s statewide campaign had an agreement with the Paul West Virginia campaign that, should no candidate receive a majority in the first round, Ron Paul’s supporters would stay to vote for Huckabee and the Huckabee delegation would trade two of the eighteen delegates to Paul.

Things changed, though, once the voting started. In the first round, Mitt Romney picked up 41% compared with 33% for Mike Huckabee. John McCain, who entered the convention with little pledged support, made a strong showing in the first round with 15%. Ron Paul picked up a considerable 10% of the vote, but it was not enough to keep him in the running in later rounds. The convention recessed for lunch, and all the campaign staffs started working for the votes they needed for a majority.

Romney’s campaign sought to win either by convincing enough Paul and McCain supporters to turn their way or by motivating Romney’s supporters to stay at the convention until enough other people left the convention to give him a majority of the voters remaining at the civic center. The recess was hardly a lunch break, as all the campaign staffs were hard at work negotiating for votes. Romney’s people in West Virginia went so far as to offer Ron Paul supporters five of the delegates to throw their support to Romney. Huckabee’s West Virginia campaign staff, including Greg Smith, countered by increasing their offer to three delegates instead of the two delegates agreed upon prior to the convention.* Paul’s campaign staff accepted the offer from Huckabee, keeping in mind that they had originally agreed to support Huckabee after the first round.

McCain’s statewide campaign leadership knew that Huckabee had an agreement from the Paul supporters and saw the opportunity to prevent Governor Romney from winning the convention. That persuaded them to also push their support to Governor Huckabee, providing the former Arkansas governor the needed majority after the second round of votes.

Huckabee supporters are now looking ahead to the state primary to be held on May 13, which will determine the remaining nine delegates from the Mountain State. Three delegates will be chosen from each congressional district in the state, and Huckabee’s supporters hope to win in at least two of the three CD’s.

The Virginian Federalist is excited to get this fascinating look into the workings of a convention. It is exceptionally instructional for people interested in the political process, especially in this year when at least one of the major parties is likely to have a negotiated national convention this year to determine their nominee.

* According to Greg Smith, the agreement with Paul’s campaign has an exception if Huckabee has earned enough delegates nationwide to win the nomination in the first round of voting. As Greg commented in an earlier TVF post, the agreement “will be honored” by Huckabee’s West Virginia delegation.