Ron Paul has already put teams in place in 12 caucus states through March 6. Paul gears up for long primary slog

In a far cry from his ragtag 2008 effort, Ron Paul is looking beyond the traditional early state contests and gearing up for a long primary slog that lasts at least through Super Tuesday.

It’s a strategy that could make Paul a player at the Republican convention in Tampa, Fla.


The Texas congressman’s long-haul approach is designed to take advantage of new GOP proportional allocation rules that enable candidates to amass delegates without finishing in first place, and to leverage the unique attributes of his campaign — an intensely loyal following and a steady flow of money that will likely enable him to continue for as long as he chooses.

Paul has already put teams in place in 12 caucus states through March 6, when about a dozen Republican primaries and caucuses will take place. On Wednesday, the campaign announced five office openings: Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, North Dakota and Washington.

None of it means Paul is dismissive of the early states.

Rather, he’s assembled an infrastructure aimed at giving him staying power and a voice at the national convention — a strategic approach that few other candidates besides Mitt Romney are pursuing at the moment.

“Obviously, Iowa and New Hampshire are very important to us because of both their historic position and the intense vetting of candidates that their citizens provide,” Paul’s campaign manager Jesse Benton told POLITICO.

“Our campaign has worked very hard in both of those states, and we plan to do very well,” he said, but he added, “We are also, however, looking beyond those states to the delegate selection process and have organizational structure and voter contact programs in multiple states that will caucus through February and on Super Tuesday.”

“Our campaign has a comprehensive plan to win the delegates needed to either secure the nomination or enter into a brokered convention in Tampa,” he said.

Benton declined to detail what their convention plan would look like. But if the nomination is still not settled by then — a scenario that is not as outlandish as it seems — a candidate with a significant bloc of delegates would wield significant power at the Tampa convention this summer.

In a recent Huffington Post interview, Benton ticked off a list of states where the campaign is eying slices of the delegate pie — among them Louisiana, Missouri and Nevada, where Romney has been campaigning for years, and where there is a sizable Mormon population.

Benton has said in the past that he believes Paul needs to either win, place or show in Iowa — and several campaign sources have acknowledged that finishing in the top three can’t include a distant third place.

According to recent polls, Paul ranks among the top three candidates in Iowa and New Hampshire.

But unlike most candidates, given the war chest Paul has amassed and his ability to raise money, there’s no pressing reason for him to drop out quickly even if he begins with a string of disappointing early state performances.

As of the fundraising quarter that ended Sept. 30, Paul had raised more than $12 million, the bulk of in small donations. Few others in the field can claim an ongoing donor base to raise money from once voting starts winnowing out the candidates.

Paul has built heavily on a core of supporters he developed in 2007 during what was a far more quixotic effort, in which he grew famous for his libertarian streak, opposition to U.S. foreign policy in the Mideast and push for smaller government.

He’s put together a more professional team this time around, with a traditional campaign structure. He has spent more than $2 million on ads, including a national cable buy on Fox News, which helped elevate his standing in the latest numbers in Iowa. He’s also been highlighting lesser-examined aspects of his positions, like his opposition to abortion, in an effort to woo social conservatives.

His campaign remains focused intently on growing his percentage in Iowa, and is making repeated contacts with its most likely potential backers in the state, sources said.

In the latest Bloomberg poll, Paul got 17 percent there – the first polling movement he’s seen beyond what had been for months a 10 percent ceiling. Pollster Ann Selzer, who conducted the survey, said on the “second choice” round of questions, Paul draws support almost equally from both Romney and Gingrich.

“We feel like we have the ability to grow in states where we’re playing and being active and you don’t necessarily see that in the national numbers,” said Paul adviser Trygve Olson.

His team sees a parallel to Barack Obama’s strategy in the 2008 cycle, which involved a focus on capturing delegates across the national map.

Paul’s limits as a candidate, however, remain in place. He is still, at the end of the day, Ron Paul — the rare Republican who rails against American military interventions and is deeply critical of the U.S. financial aid to Israel in every candidate debate.

Those positions haven’t endeared him to a broader swath of the electorate — and could prove especially damaging with evangelical voters in Iowa who view Israel more sympathetically. (Notably, Paul is the lone candidate who was not invited to take part in the Republican Jewish Coalition forum Wednesday in Washington).

In fact, the debates, which helped launch Paul as a force in 2007 as he warned about a coming fiscal reckoning, have not been his time to shine this cycle: his predictable contrarianism has left him unable to grab the spotlight to the same degree.

It remains an open question how Paul will expand on his base to crack into a higher position in Iowa and New Hampshire.

“Ron Paul has a great advantage in Iowa and other early contests, and that’s the fact that he was here four years ago, pleading with voters to realize the financial crisis awaiting us due to our enormous debt,” said Tim Albrecht, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad’s communications director, who was a Romney adviser in the 2007 race.

“This year, he is in many of those same hotel ballrooms, and voters are recognizing he warned of this and that maybe they should give him a try,” he said. But he warned: “The biggest hurdle for Ron Paul in getting above his base of support is with regard to foreign policy. The conservatives who make up today’s Republican Party do not agree with him with regard to Iran and other foreign threats to the U.S.”

Chuck Muth, a Republican strategist in Nevada, said he was not seeing much evidence of a Paul surge in his state so far.

“I wish it was otherwise,” Muth lamented. “I just don’t know that there is enough of the Republican electorate that can appreciate his positions [against] unlimited government.”

The pro-Paul Revolution PAC, which is sending direct mail into Iowa in support of the candidate, argues otherwise.

“I just think he needs to keep doing what he’s doing,” said Revolution PAC’s Gary Franchi. “That’s sort of the magic of Ron Paul, that he just is himself. It’s just a steady pace that he maintains … He’s coming into his stride. It’s not that he’s doing anything different, it’s just speaking the message that he’s always been speaking.”

He added that in a year where consistency has been the mantra, Paul has led that contest.

“They’re seeing the false fronts these candidates put on,” he said. “They’ve been hearing these talking points for years and years, and they’re tired of it.”