The Denver Post:
Colorado Republicans are heading to their national convention with their most conservative delegation in years, as supporters for Ron Paul and Rick Santorum masterminded a stunning upset in electing delegates.The Republic:
At the state convention in Denver today, Paul forces easily were the most vocal, adding their candidate's name at almost every opportunity. When Republicans sang "Hey, hey, hey, good-bye" to President Barack Obama, Paul backers changed the words to "Hey, hey, hey, Ron Paul."
The momentum was painful for Mitt Romney supporters, who had assumed when Santorum dropped out of the presidential race this week they'd have a much easier time in winning Colorado's delegate and alternate seats to the Republican National Convention.
Instead, some of the Santorum's supporters united with Paul's backers to form the "Conservative Unity Slate" to win a slew of delegate slots. Four years ago, only one Paul supporter was elected to attend the national convention.
"This is a revolution," said Florence Sebern of Denver, an "unpledged" delegate who was wearing a Paul pin. She was part of the slate.
Slate supporters said they wanted to send a message to Romney about the importance of sticking to conservative values.
More than 800 Republicans — easily double the number who sought to attend the RNC in 2008 — ran for the 33 elected delegate and 33 elected alternate slots.
At congressional assemblies Thursday and Friday, Republicans elected 21 delegates and 21 alternates. Thirteen of the 18 winning delegates elected Friday were on the Paul/Santorum unity slate.
Today, to the relief of Romey backers, eight of the 12 at-large delegate slots, and six of the 12 at-large alternate slots went to Romney supporters. Former Congressman Bob Beauprez and former U.S. Sen. Hank Brown, both Romney supporters, were the top two vote getters.
What happened overnight?
Romney supporters realized they couldn't dilute their vote and had to stick with their slate, although plenty of other Romney backers were running as delegates, said Attorney General John Suthers.
"The wake-up call was how much discipline you have to have when you have a slate," said Suthers, a Romney delegate.
The Wyoming Republican Party has chosen 14 delegates to this summer's Republican National Convention and all of them are committed to support former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
The voting happened Saturday at the Wyoming Republican Party convention in Cheyenne.
Romney is the presumptive Republican nominee after former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum suspended his campaign this week. The Wyoming delegates put Romney a small step closer to formally clinching the nomination.
Wyoming will send a total of 29 delegates to the Republican National Convention in Tampa. Of those, 23 are committed to Romney, two to Santorum and one to Texas Rep. Ron Paul.
Three other delegates are uncommitted or have not yet decided.
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