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Kent W. Snyder, chairman of Rep. Ron Paul’s most recent presidential bid, died of pneumonia on June 26 in Inova Fairfax Hospital. He was 49 years old.

Paul’s Campaign for Liberty Web site published a letter on June 29 remembering Snyder as “a true lover of liberty” and “an American patriot.”

“He will be missed,” wrote Paul, referring to his friend as a man “filled with conviction, and principles of decency, loyalty and respect.”

Paul and Snyder had worked together since 1987, when Snyder served on Paul’s first presidential bid. Twenty years later, Snyder urged Paul for another presidential race last year.

The letter concludes celebrating Snyder’s mark on liberty. “Without Kent Snyder, the fight for liberty would not be where is it today. We all owe him a great debt.”

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MISSOULA, Mont. — Sen. John McCain may be the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, but supporters of Ron Paul in Montana refused to abandon their candidate.

The group led an impassioned fight Friday at the Montana GOP convention, shaking things up in a failed effort to secure the state’s 22 national convention delegates for Paul — who suspended his presidential bid earlier this month.

While the battle jazzed up a normally dull delegate selection process, Paul supporters could not muster enough votes to trump McCain’s backers. In the end, McCain received all 22 delegates despite a close vote, party officials said.

Earlier in the evening, Paul told the crowd that his support in Montana was the best he had received anywhere.

“Montana’s been treating me quite well,” he said. “The spirit is alive here.”

The Texas congressman praised the Montana GOP for letting him speak at their evening dinner and for giving his delegates a chance.

“This is has been one of the best — if not the best — in the way we have been treated,” Paul said.

Paul was not a typical GOP convention headliner. He criticized nearly as many Bush administration ideas, such as wartime spending and No Child Left Behind, as he did Democratic ones.

But he received a warm reception from the crowd anyway with a message heavy on cutting government.

“We are talking about the fundamental beliefs of the Republican Party,” said Paul, in what he characterized as likely the last speech of his suspended campaign. “These are issues that are important to me.”

Paul’s supporters said they would continue to fight for delegates at the national convention to honor the principles of the campaign, and as a way to continue pushing their ideals.

Paul finished second in Montana’s Super Tuesday caucus — behind Mitt Romney and ahead of McCain, who came in third.

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HOUSTON — Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul said Thursday night he is ending his campaign but will keep spreading his message by working to help elect libertarian-leaning Republicans to public office around the country.

“The campaign is going to shift gears. It’s going to accelerate. It’s going to get much bigger,” Paul told The Associated Press in an interview before a rally where he was making the announcement. “To me, it’s a technical change.”

Paul formally announced the move — his new “Campaign for Liberty” — in a speech to supporters attending the Texas Republican Party state convention. He said he expected many at his Thursday night rally and other supporters from around the nation to attend an alternative mini-convention he will host Sept. 2 in Minnesota to coincide with the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

“Freedom is very popular. Not only is freedom popular, freedom works,” Paul told supporters.

Hundreds of people rushed into a Houston hotel ballroom to hear Paul speak. They listened to a guitar player perform peace and freedom songs and gave loud cheers when Paul said the U.S. needs to bring home the troops from the Middle East. They also broke into applause when he spoke out for following the law and the Constitution.

He repeated his stances on other major issues, speaking against the United Nations and the income tax.

“Get more people,” he urged. “They’re paying attention, and it’s across the political spectrum.”

In the AP interview, Paul said his political message would not change and that he’ll continue to speak out, just as he has since he first ran for Congress from Texas.

“It’s just now that there’s so much more enthusiasm, and so many more people involved,” he said. “This last year has been astounding. … We have to keep it going.”

The announcement is a formality. The 72-year-old congressman won few delegates during the Republican primaries, but he raised large amounts of money online and developed a huge grass-roots following.

Jesse Benton, Paul’s campaign spokesman, said Paul is beginning a “Campaign for Liberty.”

The presidential campaign still has about $4.7 million in the bank, which can now be used for the new effort, Benton said, describing it as a “permanent campaign.”

“We’re going to work with the grass roots,” Benton said. “People are really eager to continue and grow these efforts.”

Paul opposes the war in Iraq and is a champion of small government. His campaign also drew support from independents and Democrats opposed to the war. His supporters have been pushing for him to have a speaking role at the GOP national convention.

But Paul has refused to endorse likely Republican presidential nominee John McCain, and he told the AP that was unlikely to change.

“I don’t plan to,” Paul said, explaining that he doesn’t feel he can make an endorsement because of their disagreement on issues. “I’ve tried to soften that by saying ‘unless he changes his position, unless he lets us bring the troops home.”‘

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Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, technically still in the race despite having lost by all measures to presumptive nominee John McCain, is planning to stage a sort of counter-convention during the Republican National Convention in September.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Tuesday that the libertarian-leaning Texas congressman is hoping to rally about 11,000 supporters at an arena at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis on Sept. 2.

That would coincide with the GOP convention, from Sept. 1 to Sept. 4, in next-door St. Paul.

Paul has 24 convention delegates, compared with the 1,504 who are in the McCain column, according to Associated Press tallies. He did not win any primaries or caucuses but amassed a loyal and enthusiastic base of supporters.

According to the Tribune-Review article, Paul is set to announce details for the rally Thursday in Houston. An aide told the newspaper Paul hopes the Minneapolis event will “send a message to the Republican Party.”

Click here to read the full article on Paul’s rally in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

The 2008 Republican candidates line up on stage at a debate in Florida before the state's Jan. 29 primary. (AP Photo)

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Remember the Republican race? We know, that’s so three months ago.

The Democratic battle has been so long and so hard-fought that the GOP primary battle seems like a political blip.

But while Washington is in one those rare reflective modes, as Hillary Clinton closes the books on her bid for the Democratic nod, it’s worth recalling how much of a scramble the Republican primary once was.

Presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama summed it up when he described his conversation with presumptive GOP nominee John McCain Wednesday night.

“We … joked about the fact that if you had asked any of the pundits a year ago whether it was gonna be him and me as the two nominees, we wouldn’t have gotten many takers,” he said.

Obama’s and McCain’s campaigns put fresh value on the impact of the first two states on the primary calendar — Iowa and New Hampshire.

Those states served as the gauge, even when the race developed to a point where there was no clear front-runner, for who would be left standing.

And the race was one of the the most crowded in recent history — three candidates scored victories in the first six contests.

But at the start of the campaign, there looked to be four clear candidates in the running.

Rudy Giuliani, an icon for his handling of the Sept. 11 aftermath as mayor of New York City, soon became the odds-on favorite last year. Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, as a “Law & Order” actor, garnered heavy attention with a late entrance in the race in September, generating hopeful comparisons to President Reagan from his fans.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney built buzz off his win in the summer Iowa straw poll, and poured resources into the first two primary/caucus states.

And McCain, as a 2000 contender and Senate veteran, started with the air of an establishment favorite - but after summertime staff shakeups and fundraising woes, he slipped far behind in polls.

But then came Iowa, and dark horse Mike Huckabee. The former Arkansas governor’s plain-spoken, folksy demeanor, on display at every televised debate, helped him carry the lead-off contest. Romney placed second.

From then, Huckabee’s face was a common sight on the glossy front pages of newsmagazines. The game had changed.

Huckabee surged in national polls, and began to mount a more formal campaign. He signed on former Reagan operative Ed Rollins, at a time when his biggest surrogates were still actor Chuck Norris and wrestler Ric Flair.

McCain saw his opening. He won the next New Hampshire primary Jan. 8, and was again a legit choice for the Republican nominee.

The chiasmus had already started. As Huckabee and McCain built momentum, Thompson faded. He was accused of being lazy on the campaign trail and was unable to command a following for his so-called consistent, conservative message. After he finished third in the South Carolina primary, he dropped out.

Giuliani, too, was basically off-the-radar in the early primaries and caucuses. In Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Michigan and Nevada, he finished in single digits.

His strategy was to score a major victory in the Jan. 29 Florida primary, and use that momentum to snatch up wins across the country on Super Tuesday. Only by the time the Florida primary came around, Giuliani was an electoral afterthought. His strategy tanked.

McCain won South Carolina, and then he won Florida.

Giulaini endorsed him a day later, and dropped out before Super Tuesday.

Giuliani’s past didn’t help either. His former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik was indicted on fraud and corruption charges in November.

McCain too suffered a blow in mid-February when The New York Times ran a story suggesting he had a romantic relationship with a female lobbyist and did favors for her clients from his position as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. He battled the story, and the tables seemed to turn on The New York Times.

As McCain ascended, there was still grumbling in Republican circles. McCain has made foes with his work on comprehensive immigration and campaign finance reform, and his early opposition to the Bush tax cuts.

Huckabee and Romney remained about even in the race, but it was Romney who took on McCain the hardest. He railed against him as a conservative outsider, but McCain traded with charges that Romney was a flip-flopper on social issues.

Romney dropped out of the race Feb. 7, two days after McCain dominated the major states on Super Tuesday.

Though Huckabee dug in his heels, after that the race was basically McCain’s. Texas Rep. Ron Paul, whose supporters were among the most enthusiastic of the campaign, kept up his campaign when everyone else was on the way out.

But McCain clinched it in the March 4 primaries, and began to mend fences with the Republican establishment.

The next day he fielded the endorsement at the White House from President Bush.

“John McCain is the nominee of the Republican Party,” Bush said. “John showed incredible courage, strength of character and perseverance in order to get to this moment, and that’s exactly what we need in a president.”

Click here to see a timeline of campaign highlights.  

Click here to read more about the 2008 Democratic race. 

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CARSON CITY, Nev. — A Sparks dentist and Ron Paul supporter said Wednesday his offer to pay for a Reno hotel-casino room big enough for nearly 1,400 Nevada Republicans stands even though party leaders want to find their own solution to completing a chaotic state GOP convention. “This is a bona fide offer,” said Dr. Wayne Terhune, adding that other potential solutions such as a mail-in process to complete a national GOP convention delegation from Nevada wouldn’t be fair.

Terhune said he has reserved a large room at the Grand Sierra Resort for June 7. He said he didn’t know what the final cost would be, although he figured it would be at least $2,000. He added he hasn’t put a cap on what he’s willing to spend.

Party officials say the convention will reconvene in Reno in the next several weeks to complete the event abruptly shut down on April 26 prior to final votes on what was shaping up as a national convention delegation with more backers for Paul than for presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain.

Zach Moyle, the state party’s executive director, said Tuesday the idea is “to maximize participation, not to pick a random rate,” and various dates and locations still are being considered with that goal in mind. He added the party is doing its own legwork and doesn’t intend to use the Grand Sierra Resort.

Moyle has said that completing the convention by mid-June would be good, but the goal of a big turnout is more important even if it means the event can’t occur until some time in July.

Ron Paul backers were upset by the recess at the April 26 convention and expressed concern about getting fair treatment when it resumes. Party leaders have insisted the Paul supporters won’t be disenfranchised.

Paul’s organizers have said supporters of the Texas congressman will turn out in force for the rest of the convention and want to make sure that the 31-member national convention delegation from Nevada isn’t picked in secret.