Ron Paul Beats McCain in Maine

From Businesswire:

While most reports about this past weekend’s Maine Caucus focused on the purely symbolic presidential preference poll, in the meaningful race to secure delegates to the state convention Ron Paul is primed to finish second with likely 35 percent of the total delegates.

Delegates to the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis are elected by the state delegates. Internal results from 10 of 16 counties, including the largest cities of Portland, South Portland, Lewiston, Auburn, Augusta, Waterville, Bangor, and Brewer, show Ron Paul picking up 215 of 608 State Convention delegates so far reported, or 35%.

“Ron Paul’s strong second place finish in Maine, in which he beat John McCain, is proof that this race is far from over,” said Ron Paul campaign manager Lew Moore. “We’ll continue to battle for every delegate in this wide-open race for the Republican nomination.”

In the presidential preference poll, with 70 percent reporting, Ron Paul is in third place just two percentage points behind John McCain. However, the Maine preference poll is purely a beauty contest, and in the actual election of state delegates the so-called “frontrunner” McCain is far behind Ron Paul.

The Seattle Post Intelligencer is predicting Paul will win Washington State:

Paul, a Texas congressman, is running fourth of the four remaining GOP candidates, but he's poised for a dramatic showing -- even a victory -- in Saturday's caucuses, according to a Seattle P-I analysis of campaign finance documents.

And the Wall Street Journal notes the strong possibility of a Ron Paul win in Alaska. And Businesswire reports that Montanans have clearly favored Paul with their wallets.

A strange twist of events is occurring among high-tech companies:

While the U.S. electronics industry isn't a major donor to U.S. presidential campaigns, generally preferring to focus its financial clout on congressional races, something unusual is happening this election cycle. According to early federal estimates, GOP hopeful Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, a libertarian, is attracting the most individual campaign contributions from employees of major U.S. high-tech companies.

According to ABC News, Paul, the only Republican candidate to oppose the war, has received the highest number of military donations among all candidates, Republican or Democrat:

In the 4th quarter of 2007, individuals in the Army, Navy and Air Force made those branches of the armed services the No. 13, No. 18 and No. 21, contributing industries, respectively. War opponent Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, received the most from donors in the military, collecting at least $212,000 from them.