Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul will take his campaign to Maine Saturday to court voters there leading up to the conclusion of the Maine Republican caucuses this weekend.
The ongoing caucuses in Maine have been overshadowed by a number of other polarizing political events this week. The bipartisan bickering over the president’s new contraception rule, Rick Santorum’s three primary victories on Tuesday and the decline of front-runner Mitt Romney have blanketed the political news cycle.
Maine and Wyoming are the only two primary voting states that are holding their caucuses over a time period of more than one day.
The majority of precincts in Maine held their caucuses during this week, starting on February 4th and ending on Saturday February 11th.
As rival candidates Mr. Santorum, Mr. Romney and Newt Gingrich gave speeches to conservatives in Washington D.C. at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Mr. Paul made an appearance on CNN from his home state of Texas and spoke briefly about the caucues in Maine.
CNN Anchor Wolf Blitzer asked Mr. Paul if he believes he would win the Maine Republican caucuses on Saturday.
“I think we have a chance to do that,” said Mr. Paul. “Every time I’ve been up there, the support has been wonderful and I’m so pleased that they’re very receptive to the ideas of liberty and I’m cautiously optimistic about Saturday.”
The Texas Republican still has not garnered a primary or caucus victory thus far in the Republican primary race.
He has an opportunity to win in Maine though, which is considered a state with a large population of independent voters similar to New Hampshire, where he came in second place behind Mr. Romney.
Mr. Paul seems to attract independent and moderate voters who are attracted to his “ideas of liberty.”
In contrast, Mr. Romney has the regional advantage in Maine, as he still enjoys regional popularity from his days as the governor of Massachusetts, evidenced by his wide margin of victory in the New Hampshire primary election.
Mr. Paul has spent more time campaigning in Maine than any of the other candidates in the race thus far. During the week leading up to the Florida primary election, Mr. Paul made several campaign appearances in Maine.
The Maine Republican caucuses will be interesting, considering the first caucuses there were actually held at the end of January, and the very last caucus there will be in March.
While caucusing, in Maine, voters have seen momentum in the race shift from Mr. Romney to Mr. Santorum, while Mr. Paul continues to enjoy his loyal following of voters who likely see a lot of similarities in his rivals while they see a stark contrast in his unique domestic and foreign policy views.
Early in the race, Mr. Paul pledged to focus on courting voters in caucus states, where he has a better chance of obtaining delegate votes and making a case for the nomination at the Republican National Convention in August.
There are a total of 24 delegate votes available in Maine, and Mr. Paul needs all the delegate votes he can get. He currently sits in last place with 13 delegate votes, a total of 20 delegate votes according to CNN. The Texas congressman needs 1,124 more delegate votes to win the 1,144 majority needed for the Republican nomination.
