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Posted: June 14, 2007 1:55 PM
Paul Intersperses Campaign Stops with House Votes
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Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul’s campaign boasts it now has 10,000 active supporters on the ground, with additional staff being deployed in Iowa, Arizona and New Hampshire. A Washington Post profile of Paul’s “one man band” campaign co-coordinator in New Hampshire noted that the young coordinator doesn’t use a blackberry but instead keeps his phone numbers in a yellow spiral notebook.

Paul visited the studios of New Hampshire Public Radio the day of the Republican debate, and appeared on two local public access television shows where he promised to return to do more radio and public access gigs and to participate in a future episode of Political Chowder , a New Hampshire political talk show.

After Paul’s supporters flooded CNN Political Ticker’s online vote of who won the June Republican debates, CNN decided to take down the post. CNN explained in another “post”: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/06/08/the-ron-paul-%e2%80%98phenom%e2%80%99/ , which itself generated over 1,400 comments, and questioned how Paul’s strong online support compares with his numbers in scientific polls where he registers around 1 percent to 2 percent.

On June 13, Paul was the only dissenting vote in the House debate over new gun control rules that prevent people with criminal records and mental illness from purchasing firearms. He argued it was an unconstitutional restriction on the second amendment.

Later in the day, Paul appeared on Comedy Central’s satire news show the Colbert Report where he discussed his public dissent from the policies of the current administration and the rhetoric of fear-mongering in the government. Colbert asked Paul to raise his hand each time he would elect to dismantle a program from a list including the Department of Education, NATO and Federal Emergency Management Agency. Paul’s hand rose higher and higher, but he demurred over shutting down UNICEF, saying, “That’s not one of my targets.”

Paul planned to be in Washington, D.C., on June 14 to address the National Tax Payers Union with another Democratic presidential candidate, former Sen. Mike Gravel, D-Alaska, before heading west late in the week. On Friday, he planned to appear in Kansas City, Mo., for the 2007 National Right to Life Convention before attending private meetings and various campaign rallies. On Saturday, he was slated to appear at the Arizona Republican Assembly State Convention in Phoenix and then on Fox News.