Rick Santorum received 54% of Greene County Republicans vote during the primary election on February 7, 2012, and his supporters were almost half of the attendees at the Greene County caucus last Saturday.
However, when all of the delegates were awarded at caucus, Santorum only received 6 delegates out of 111, representing less than 5%. Romney and Paul split up the remaining 95% of the delegates who will now go on to represent Greene County during the coming Congressional and State Conventions.
The question is: How did the voice of the conservative majority in Greene County and the candidate they supported get suppressed twice in five weeks?
After analyzing the results the conclusion is disturbingly clear: Romney operatives, made up primarily of SW Missouri Republican party officials, unfairly manipulated the caucus process to benefit their liberal leaning candidate while arrogantly disregarding the will of conservative voters and caucus attendees.
Caucus observers claimed Romney supporters numbered less than 5% of attendees, which is understandable due to the lack of votes he received from traditional conservative voters on February 7th. However, Romney was disproportionally given almost 45% of the delegates. That is truly fuzzy math!
Romney party operatives unfazed by the lack of support for their candidate at the caucus, decided to make an end run around the conservative majority. By combining their efforts with the libertarian leaning Paul operatives they were able to virtually shut out conservative champion Rick Santorum.
The audacity of party leaders to openly scorn the conservative majority in our local party is rare. Greene county republicans have proudly represented core conservatives values for decades and proudly declare SW Missouri as the most conservative section of the country.
For the most part our elected officials and party leadership have reflected those bedrock conservative principles displayed by our residents. However, the inexplicable outcome of the Greene county's caucus did not reflect our conservative majority and primarily due to the deceitful and self-serving actions of our own leaders.
Conservative republicans should demand that their local leaders reflect their majority opinion in party functions. If they refuse, we should replace them.
I ask authentic republican conservatives to get involved in up coming Republican central committee elections in your legislative districts. The filing dead line is fast approaching.
A majority of conservatives in our local party can unite to appoint genuine conservative party leaders in Greene, the 30 Senatorial District, 7th Congressional District, and the State committee. The positions are important as we shape the future of our party and its impact upon Missouri and our nation.
Commentary by Mark Wright, former assistant majority leader, Missouri House and Greene County Republican Central Committee member
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