Ron Paul’s growing popularity among the rank and file has helped book more events. | REUTERS Ron Paul goes mainstream?

Ron Paul 2008 was a movement. Ron Paul 2012 is trying to be a campaign.

Determined to be a greater force in his third presidential run, the Texas congressman and his team have embraced some of the more traditional aspects of a White House bid: a focus on retail politicking, deeper early-state infrastructure and a full schedule of meetings with party pooh-bahs.


“There was a consensus among Ron and the people around him that it only made sense to do this if it was going to be bigger and better than last time,” said Jesse Benton, a top adviser.

The world of Paul supporters has changed since 2008, too. His ideology has moved into the Republican mainstream, making him more popular with the rank and file and, in turn, helping propel many of his supporters to elected offices or party posts. Those people now form a stronger and more powerful infrastructure, particularly in the early states.

And at the core is a more seasoned Paul inner circle — work for Rand Paul’s 2010 Senate race in Kentucky and the Paul-friendly Campaign for Liberty 501(c)(4) helped — and they’re determined to use that experience to generate more than enthusiastic rallies and first-place straw poll finishes.

“In 2008, the campaign was more idealistic. Now, we have a candidate working within the Republican Party,” said Drew Ivers, a longtime Iowa GOP activist who’s reprising his role as Paul’s campaign chairman in the state. “In 2008, he didn’t really focus on the inner workings of the Republican machine like he is now.”

They’ve added a senior consultant in New Hampshire, but the real difference is in foot soldiers: Paul already has five people working in Iowa, compared with 2007, when his Iowa office opened with a single staffer just one month before the August straw poll in Ames. In New Hampshire, he’s up to seven full-time staffers, compared with just one at this point in the last cycle.

And though there still aren’t many who expect the libertarian godfather to win the GOP nomination — or even a single primary outright — more boots on the ground means more time to plan meetings with undecided voters, more coordination with party activists and more direction for the horde of Paul enthusiasts who still make up his base. Paul has already had at least 16 retail-style campaign stops in the early-voting states this year, a huge increase from last cycle.

Take Paul’s week ahead: After a small meet-and-greet with voters at a hotel in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, on Monday, Paul will spend Thursday in New Hampshire, where he’ll chat with small-business owners in Berlin during the day and attend a private dinner with undecided voters in North Conway in the evening. Aides are already coordinating with local GOP officials and activists to drum up turnout and get party bigwigs in front of their candidate, who fell just 1 percent shy of winning delegates there in 2008.

“His own campaign staff is more on board with the retail politics that’s required in New Hampshire,” said state Rep. Cameron DeJong, a Paul supporter. “They learned a lot from last time.”

DeJong is one of 15 Paul activists from the 2008 campaign who has since been elected to the New Hampshire state Legislature. And they’re not the only ones who’ve made the shift from activist to establishment: Four of the 17 members of the Iowa GOPcentral committee are Paul backers, a trend echoing throughout the early states and beyond.

Paul’s growing popularity among the rank and file has helped book even more events: He’s keynoted at least six fundraising events for local party organizations in early-voting states this year — six more than Paul’s campaign was invited to last cycle.

“The establishment really shunned him four years ago, but now we’ve taken him in as one of our own,” said Ralph McMullen, chairman of the Washoe County GOP in Nevada, which brought Paul in to keynote a fundraising breakfast in April.

The Paul campaign is looking to make all of this possible by building on online fundraising that was surprisingly successful in 2008 and has already proved capable of raising over $1 million in a single day with a June “money bomb” attacking Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts health care plan. On Thursday, Paul announced plans to raise $3 million more by next week’s filing deadline.

“It allows us to be two steps ahead instead of two steps behind,” said Jared Chicoine, who is back as Paul’s New Hampshire state director. “This time, we have the ability to really [plan] the way I would like to.”

And at least so far, that planning and tack toward the conventional isn’t turning off members of Paul’s grass-roots base; it’s exciting them.

“There’s some nervousness waiting to see how the more professional campaign will effectively tap into the very willing supporters still out there, but I’m personally excited to see a more professional operation,” said Aaron Jones, a musician in Bloomington, Ind., who was a videographer for the Paul blimp launched to promote his campaign in 2007.

“A traditional campaign is absolutely essential to win,” said Israel Anderson, who runs the video website RonPaulFlix.com. “Without a traditional campaign, we wouldn’t have a hope.”