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State GOP’s caucus picks leave Romney slate slighted

When Massachusetts Republicans went to their caucuses on Saturday, many didn’t vote for Mitt Romney’s picks. Instead, they went for Ron Paul.Matt Sullivan/Reuters

Having all but locked up the Republican nomination for president, Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, assembled a slate of delegates to support him at the Republican nominating convention in Tampa.

But when Massachusetts Republicans went to their caucuses on Saturday, many didn’t vote for Mitt Romney’s picks.

Instead, they went for Ron Paul.

Less than half of Romney’s 27 chosen delegates won, and the losers included some notable Massachusetts Republicans - including Kerry Healey, the former lieutenant governor, and the House minority leader, Bradley H. Jones Jr., according to two Republican State Committee members who did not want to be named. Even some prominent alternate delegates lost - including 2010 gubernatorial candidate Charles D. Baker and Sheriff Frank G. Cousins Jr., the Republicans said.

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A spokesman for the state Republican Party said he could not confirm numbers because results included provisional ballots yet to be verified. Some of those who turned up at the caucuses on Saturday could not be immediately identified as registered Republicans in Massachusetts, according to a spokesman, Timothy Buckley. Additional delegates at large will be elected at a convention in June.

The complexion of the delegation may not matter much to Romney’s nomination: All delegates and alternates are committed to vote for him.

But the delegates will get to choose the chairman, vote on a platform, and support whomever they choose for vice president. And the team that Romney brings to the convention may not all be rooting for the home-state nominee.


Stephanie Ebbert can be reached at ebbert@globe.com.