In Iowa, Ron Paul Rally Outdraws Six-Candidate Forum

JBS | July 3, 2007
Brian Farmer

Ron Paul 2008 campaign manager Kent Snyder told the following story, relating to Dr. Paul's exclusion from the Iowa forum:

We heard about this forum from numerous supporters in Iowa who asked why Dr. Paul was not going to participate. Those supporters assumed that Dr. Paul was invited. The campaign office had not received an invitation so we called this morning; thinking we might have misplaced the invitation or simply overlooked it. Lew Moore, our campaign manager, called Mr. Edward Failor, an officer of Iowans for Tax Relief, to ask about it. To our shock, Mr. Failor told us Dr. Paul was not invited; he was not going to be invited; and he would not be allowed to participate. And when asked why, Mr. Failor refused to explain. The call ended.

Lew then called Mr. Steve Scheffler, president of the Iowa Christian Alliance, to talk with him. Mr. Scheffler did not answer so Lew left a message. He has yet to respond.

After learning this, a number of other people called Edward Failor to inquire about the exclusion of Ron Paul from his candidates' forum, particularly in light of Dr. Paul's extraordinary record on taxes. Mr. Failor explained that the event had been scheduled months ago, and that at that time they had made a decision about who the most credible candidates would be.

That raises some interesting questions: If Ron Paul was not invited because he wasn't deemed a credible candidate, then why were Tommy Thompson and Senator Sam Brownback invited? Why were Governors Mike Huckabee and Jim Gilmore invited? Why were Congressmen Tom Tancredo and Duncan Hunter invited? Paul's numbers in the polls are roughly the same as those for these other candidates. Still, Mr. Failor declined to elaborate.

Also, why would a person running a "tax relief" organization exclude the presidential candidate with arguably the best record on taxation, someone who favors the abolition of the income tax and the drastic reduction or elimination of nearly all other federal taxes? Ironically, the very day the Paul campaign discovered it had been barred from this Iowa event, they got a call from ABC News confirming Ron Paul's participation in the August 5 debate in Des Moines, Iowa!

As it turns out, Edward Failor is a contributor and activist in the John McCain campaign. Considering that Ron Paul has been rising in the polls, as McCain has been falling, well, draw your own conclusions.

What about the Iowa Christian Alliance (ICA)? It claimed that it has nothing against Ron Paul and had nothing to do with excluding him. But those who looked into the situation discovered that, up until June 21, the ICA did not even list Ron Paul as an announced candidate. Yet, amazingly, it listed Hugh Cort, John Cox, and Mark Klein as announced candidates! Go figure!

I don't know about you, but I think I smell a rat.

In the end, though, Ron Paul may have had the last laugh. Despite being planned in less than a week, Dr. Paul's event outdrew the forum and its six participating candidates by several hundred attendees, a news release from the Ron Paul 2008 campaign reported.

A video of Ron Paul's Iowa speech is here .