Ron Paul Delegates Booted in Massachusetts

A Republican committee in Massachusetts has dumped 17 presidential delegates and alternates who are supporters of Texas Rep. Ron Paul.

The Allocations Committee took the action because the delegates failed to meet a deadline for filing an affidavit committing themselves to support Mitt Romney, The Boston Globe reports.

The affidavit required the delegates, chosen in caucuses, to support the former Massachusetts governor because of his resounding victory in the primary, held before the caucuses.

Republican Party rules don’t include any provisions for choosing delegates, and delegates have never been required to sign such affidavits in the past, GOP critics say. They suspect the delegates were ousted simply because they support Paul.

But the Romney campaign was within its rights to axe the delegates, Allocations Committee Chairman Ed McGrath said in a statement.

“Gov. Romney’s campaign, through its representative on the Allocation Committee, made the decision not to certify certain delegates and alternate delegates who were unwilling to sign and return on time the affidavit,” he said.

“The Allocation Committee agreed, by a unanimous vote, that these individuals’ failure to sign and return the correct affidavit on time constituted ‘just cause’ for not being certified as national delegates.”

Paul’s supporters want to work at the convention to promote his platform, such as limiting the Federal Reserve’s power to make monetary policy and the president’s power to declare war.

Massachusetts, perhaps the country’s most Democratic state, could gain more attention than usual at the GOP convention in August, thanks to Romney’s status as ex-governor of the state.