W.Va. GOP Convention: Let's Make A Deal

As noted here earlier, Mike Huckabee's win at the West Virginia Republican Party Convention was marked by allegations from Mitt Romney's campaign of "slimy" maneuverings by the John McCain camp.

Now, the Ron Paul campaign has joined the mix.

WSAZ-TV is reporting that Paul campaign spokesman Ed Burgess alleges that:

"We struck a deal with the Huckabee people. They came to us and dealt with us honorably and with respect. And so we told them that if Dr. Paul didn't make it through the first round, that we would go for their man. They pledged us three delegates to the republican national convention."

Not so, Huckabee spokeswoman Alice Stewart in Little Rock told The Associated Press.

John Tate, Paul's national political director, told AP that Mike Ankrom helped broker the deal.

One of Huckabee's pledged delegates, Ankrom is also political director of the West Virginia Republican Club. Ankrom told AP that he's a Huckabee volunteer, and not authorized to speak for the national campaign. He also declined to comment on Tate's allegation.

State GOP Chairman Doug McKinney noted to AP the convention's winner-take-all format. And as each candidate had locked in their 18 proposed delegates in December, McKinney also said that "Huckabee would have to force three of his delegates to resign and replace them with Paul delegates."

The Paul campaign has posted a release on the three-delegate boast prominently on its web site. MetroNews is also reporting on the claim.

As for the Huckabee-McCain allegations, Romney campaign manager stoked those flames by stating:

"Unfortunately, this is what Sen. McCain's inside Washington ways look like: he cut a backroom deal with the tax-and-spend candidate he thought could best stop Gov. Romney's campaign of conservative change."

Huckabee responded that "there wasn't even a frontroom deal," reports AP, which added that McCain later said "It's a bit insulting to Gov. Huckabee, who won that, by alleging such a thing."

The convention envisioned up to three rounds of voting, with an hour in between for negotiations and "horse-trading," as planners put it, among the competing camps.