“We will be going to the caucus states, and we will be promoting the whole idea of getting more delegates, because that’s the name of the game and we will pursue it,’’ Paul told supporters in South Carolina after his defeat there.
The approach was employed by President Obama, who also had a tightly organized, deeply committed bench of supporters, and benefited from momentum coming out of Maine and other caucus states.
Paul is unlikely to gather enough delegates to claim the nomination. But a significant number of delegates from caucus states could give him a voice at the Republican National Convention in Tampa and put his libertarian ideas on the table for consideration, observers say.
“He wants to affect the Republican platform on some of the issues that he thinks are critical - among them the federal reserve system,’’ said L. Sandy Maisel, a government professor at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, referring to Paul’s calls for the abolition of the Federal Reserve.
Here in Maine, Paul’s caucus efforts are on display in a small storefront in the back of a strip mall on busy Route 1 in this bedroom community of Portland. A recent weekday found two 20-something campaign workers hunched over laptops in the spare space.
They declined to talk with a reporter, citing an impending meeting. National campaign officials did not respond to requests for comment.
The Newt Gingrich and the Rick Santorum campaigns have not been active in Maine.
The Paul campaign has work to do. Mitt Romney won the caucuses here in 2008, and this go-round Romney has the support of some 75 percent of elected Republicans, according to the state Republican Party (though Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe have not endorsed any candidate). Paul is not benefiting from media buzz after coming in last place in South Carolina and Florida.
Meanwhile, a sampling of a dozen voters turned up few planned caucus-goers.
And like the Paul campaign, Romney workers have been calling potential voters, encouraging them to caucus.
