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Posted: February 9, 2008 5:29 PM
Paul Rules Out Third-Party Run, Will Focus on House Race
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Texas Rep. Ron Paul conceded on Friday that his chances of winning the GOP nomination were rather slim, but he vowed to continue with a smaller campaign staff.

In a message to his supporters posted on his Web site Friday, Paul said he must also focus on retaining his House seat.

“If I may quote Trotsky of all people, this Revolution is permanent,” Paul wrote. “It will not end at the Republican convention. It will not end in November. It will not end until we have won the great battle on which we have embarked.”

He continued: “With [Mitt] Romney gone, the chances of a brokered convention are nearly zero. But that does not affect my determination to fight on, in every caucus and primary remaining, and at the convention for our ideas, with just as many delegates as I can get. But with so many primaries and caucuses now over, we do not now need so big a national campaign staff, and so I am making it leaner and tighter. Of course, I am committed to fighting for our ideas within the Republican party, so there will be no third party run. I do not denigrate third parties — just the opposite, and I have long worked to remove the ballot-access restrictions on them. But I am a Republican, and I will remain a Republican.”

Paul began Saturday with just 14 delegates for the Republican nomination that John McCain, with 719 delegates, has all but officially secured, the Associated Press reported. Romney dropped out of the race Thursday, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has 198 delegates. A total of 1,191 delegates are needed to secure the GOP
nomination.

“From what we can make of the letter, Mr. Paul is staying in the race on a peripheral level, just so he can keep participating in policy discussions (and maybe use up all that money he’s amassed?),” The New York Times’ Caucus blog hypothesized.

Paul faces off in next month’s Republican congressional primary against Chris Peden, a Friendswood, Texas, city councilman.

“If I were to lose the primary for my congressional seat, all our opponents would react with glee, and pretend it was a rejection of our ideas,” Paul’s note continued. “I cannot and will not let that happen.”