Ron Paul Leads in West Virginia GOP Delegates

HuntingtonNews.net broke the story ahead of the newspapers, and the GOP is too reluctant to post on their website (while they were not reluctant to collect delegate fees from everyone). This is a big development since the GOP establishment is pushing Romney, Thompson, and Giuliani.

Based on numbers released by wvgopconvention.com, Ron Paul has overtaken Mitt Romney to lead the state's committed delegate count 217-212. The other candidates stack up this way: Fred Thompson 163, Mike Huckabee 129, Rudy Giuliani 90, John McCain 25, Duncan Hunter 7, Alan Keyes 5 and Uncommitted 630.

A list of delegates registered as of 3 p.m. Dec. 6 can be found at: http://www.wvgopconvention.com/conte...ions_12_06.pdf.

As state campaigns launch, Paul's support has not come from a staff of paid consultants or advisors. Most of those supporting Paul have given freely of their time....

After all of the delegate registrations are processed, an online vote will be conducted among at-large candidates competing for more spots than there are vacancies. The West Virginia Convention will have a total of 1,446 delegates.

According to online postings, Kanawha County will be highly contested. As of the latest count, 130 delegates will compete for 51 slots in the online balloting. In Cabell County, 50 at-large delegates will be vying for 27 slots.