Part of Ron Paul Revolution reaches party pinnacle: new IA GOP chairmanship

A. J. Spiker, one of the lieutenants in Ron Paul’s 2012 Iowa Caucus campaign aparatus, is now chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, replacing Matt Strawn.  Strawn announced a couple of weeks ago that he’d step down, effective February 10.  The party’s state central committee met today and elected Spiker.  At least four of the 17 members of the state central committee publicly backed Paul in the Caucuses.

Governor Branstad, the top elected Republican official in Iowa, had publicly said he hoped the state central committee would choose to elect Bill Schickel, the party’s co-chair, as interim chairman. Last week Schickel (a former state legislator & former Mason City mayor)  expressed reservations about taking the job.  Schickel ran for the job today, along with Polk County GOP co-chairman Dave Funk. TheIowaRepublican.com live blogged the meeting.  It was a contest between Schickel and Spiker, as Funk got one vote on the first ballot.

Having a Ron Paul backer as the Iowa party chair should be interesting if there’s a “brokered convention” in Tampa.  Last night, during an appearance on MSNBC, a Ron Paul advisor talked about Caucus states (like Iowa) and the delegate strategy the Paul campaign is employing.  Doug Wead, a “senior advisor” to Paul’s campaign, told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that Ron Paul has more delegates right now than any other candidate.  Ron Paul supporters uploaded the segment to youtube. 

“Not a single delegate has been awarded from Iowa…We’re tracking this at the precint level….We think we’ve won in Iowa,” Wead said on MSNBC.

Here’s the news release the Iowa GOP sent out this afternoon about Spiker’s election:

Republican Party of Iowa Central Committee Elects New Chair

Des Moines, IA—The Republican Party of Iowa State Central Committee voted to fill the Chair vacancy created earlier this month with the resignation of Matt Strawn.

A.J. Spiker was elected to fill the remainder of the term that expires in January, 2013. Spiker, a former Story County GOP Chairman, and 4th Congressional District State Central Committee Member, is an Ames businessman.

“I am honored to be elected by my colleagues on the Committee and look forward to serving as Chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa. I will work diligently with fellow Republicans across the state to energize voters and work to elect our candidates.”