(Newser)
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Mitt Romney has a lead that can't be beaten but the GOP race still isn't over—at least not for Ron Paul and his supporters. The Texan's supporters took over Maine's GOP convention on the weekend and won 21 of the state's 24 delegates to the Republican National Convention. The libertarian narrowly lost the state's nonbinding caucuses in February to Romney. Paul supporters also took 22 out of 25 delegates awarded at Nevada's GOP convention yesterday but unlike in Maine, party rules require them to vote for caucus winner Romney at the RNC—at least in the first round of balloting.
Paul's supporters are hoping for a brokered convention and while that outcome is highly unlikely, they aim to at least give the candidate a bigger voice within the GOP. Romney aides say they don't see the Texan as a threat, but they have been careful to avoid alienating his intensely loyal and highly organized supporters. "I think he's being very careful because he knows how important the Ron Paul voters are—they obviously represent a very different dynamic," GOP strategist Mike Dennehy tells the AP. "They are the most passionate and the most frustrated of any voters heading to the polls. And many of them are independents."
