The Conservativist blog snapped the above photo of infamous Spartanburg County GOP Chairman Rick “The Trophy Mouth” Beltram planting campaign signs for presidential candidate Mitt Romney outside Wade’s restaurant in Spartanburg prior to a campaign event (larger picture here). Gary Coats, who was at the event and took the picture, added, “I’ve seen him set up the conference rooms, tables, etc. but never place campaign materials as I did today.”
I’ve noted before that Beltram, who as the leader of one of the largest GOP voting bases in the state is expected to remain neutral during primaries, is more or less in bed with the Romney campaign.
In July he told the Spartanburg-Herald Journal “Romney still needs to convince voters, before Fred Thompson gets into the race… that he is the conservative answer to the GOP nominating process.” Beltram further said, “I’m hoping that he’s starting to see, for his sake, more significant traction.”
And in March, Beltram gave a not-so-subtle hint about his Romney allegiance when he turned the Spartanburg Straw Poll into a debacle — a straw poll that appeared to be rigged for Romney. When Beltram announced the results live on FoxNews, he wrongly declared Romney the winner. The next day he reluctantly admitted he had “found” more ballots at his home. The real winner - Sen. John McCain - was announced long after the national media had left Spartanburg.
He’s also lashed out at Romney’s rival Fred Thompson, calling his wife Jeri a “trophy wife.”
In fact, this list could probably go on for another few dozen paragraphs, but I’ve already forgotten what this post is about. Oh yeah, Rick Beltram putting up Mitt Romney signs.
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 20th, 2007 at 4:33 pm and is filed under Primary Season, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Sounds like sour grapes that he’s not endorsing your guy. By the way, when did it become an issue for someone heavily involved in politics to support a presidential candidate? You guys are doing it.
It’s not like he’s throwing the weight of his position as county chairman behind someone, or using the Spartanburg Republican Party’s resources to advance the Romney campaign. In fact, it takes a “super-spy blogger” to dig up evidence that Beltram might be supporting Romney.
You also mention that he lashed out at “Romney’s rival Fred Thompson”. I guess no one else was running against Fred Thompson at the time.
Meanwhile, if you guys really want to impress those Newsweek guys with your credibility, you might want to do some research since it wasn’t Romney that was incorrectly named as the winner of the Spartanburg straw poll, but Rudy Giuliani. In fact, Romney was correctly announced in his final straw-poll position of 5th place at the time. Wow, how times have changed.
When Romney wins the nomination, will you finally take off your anti-Romney goggles and look at him with unbiased eyes?
HELL NO! If Romney wins the nomination, I’m voting for Mickey Mouse.