Ron Paul Ignores Florida to Campaign in Maine – MPBN News

Ron Paul addresses a crowd this morning at the Brick Church in Bangor.

For Ron Paul, traveling to snowy Maine while his competitors battle down south makes perfect sense. To compete in Florida, you’ve got to have the cash to saturate the state’s 10 major TV markets with ads. Ron Paul doesn’t have that kind of dough. What he does have are networks of intense grassroots supporters, ready to go to bat for him in caucus states like Maine.

Voters like Jeff Cash. “He’s not mainstream. He’s not bought and paid for like several of the other people trying for the same nomination,” Cash says. “So, he’s got my vote right to the end.”

Cash, who’s from Ellsworth, is one of hundreds of people—young, old and in-between—waiting for Paul to appear inside a Bangor church. It feels like there’s a live wire running through the center of the room. Chattering supporters clutch cameras and campaign signs. “Welcome, Mr. President, Ron Paul” reads one.

“We’ve been working behind the scenes. You know, I’m a town captain,” says Glen Quintal, who’s from Bucksport. Quintal says his precinct has already done some mock caucusing for Paul.

“Delegates are elected at the caucuses. And then the delegates go to the state convention. And from the state convention, there are delegates selected again and they go to the national convention. Our main goal is to get a different guy in the White House,” Quintal says.

Crowd cheering: “Ron Paul! Ron Paul! Ron Paul!”

“You know, I’m starting to suspect, even with last night’s debate, they’re starting to respect what we’re talking about,” Paul told them.

For 30 minutes, the crowd interrupted repeatedly, as Paul laid out his uncompromising vision.

On the nation’s budget woes: “What’s wrong with balencing the budget? Is there anything wrong with that? No! I mean, that sounds like a pretty good idea to me. We have to do it with our own budgets.”

On the Federal Reserve: “What’s wrong with the idea of taking away the power from a secret group of individuals to print money at will?”

On the U.S. Constitution: “Those who will mock us for wanting to follow the Constitution–I don’t know whether they just don’t read it or don’t care or they don’t understand it.”

And on the ongoing military involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq: “What is the solution now? We’re involved over there and how do we resolve this and how do we get out of it? I say, ‘Just come home. Just bring the troops home from around the world.”

“Awesome,” Jeff Cash said after the event, as he waited to have his picture taken with Paul.

Jay Field: “What was the best part? What spoke to you the most, would you say?”

Jeff Cash: “Hearing him communicate that message first hand, live and in person.”

Waiting behind Cash was Paula Gardner. I asked her the same question.

“Oh my god. I have to pick one?” she said. “I think when you get right down to it, it’s personal liberties. I think if we protect individual rights, so many things can be solved.”

Paul held a second event this afternoon at Colby College in Waterville. He’ll appear tonight in Lewiston and tomorrow in Gorham, Freeport and Alfred.

So what are Paul’s chances here? Sandy Maisel, who heads the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement at Colby College, expects Paul to do well in the GOP caucuses.

“I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he finished first,” Maisel says. “You drive around Waterville, for instance, and there are many more Ron Paul signs out than Romney. And you see no Gingrich signs and no Santorum signs at all.”

Maine’s caucuses formally begin on Feb. 4, though some towns may begin voting as early as this weekend.

Photos by Jay Field.