Emmer apologizes to Paul supporters for Aplikowski’s comments

Trying to prevent an intra-party rift from expanding into a chasm, Drew Emmer, a member of the Executive Committee of the Wright County Republicans, extended an olive branch and an apology to Ron Paul supporters who felt slighted by the GOP leadership in 6th Congressional District.

Continued: Click “Read more”His apology:

On behalf of at least some of the folks who have chopped wood and carried water for Republicans in Minnesota I would like to apologize to anyone in the Ron Paul camp who has taken offense to a GOP leader who has publicly called your cadre liars in the newspaper. That’s not cool.

The motion to bind the delegates at the 6th CD convention was in fact unconstitutional. We don’t bind delegates to vote any which way. While I certainly understand the party loyalists being freaked out about having new people come in and scoop coveted national delegate positions, the disproportionate reaction is what I would expect more likely from a lunatic democrat. Had the party folks been smart they would have floated their own slate of 3 delegates to offset the Ron Paulite slate. But no such slate was coordinated properly in CD 6. Yous guys won fair and square.

Both the motion and the offensive comment came from the party’s district vice-chairman Andy Aplikowski. The Star Tribune quoted Aplikowsky as saying of the Paul supporters, “[w]e knew they were coming and they were willing to lie, cheat and steal — maybe not steal, but they were willing to say anything.”

Paul, the anti-war Republican with a libertarian bent, won 16 percent of the vote in the Minnesota GOP’s straw poll conducted February 5th and suspended his campaign two days later. His supporters in Minnesota have long planned to secure delegates through elections at local, congressional and state conventions to ensure Paul receives the opportunity to speak at the party’s upcoming national convention.