"End of the state GOP as we know it" in Minnesota

The Republican party in Minnesota has gone through a variety of crises recently, including a sex scandal and some financial misadventures, but I thought this was interesting:

Yet it's the third punch that has many within the strong national defense party wondering if there is any chance for MNGOP to survive the upcoming election in November. In a stealthy, below-the-radar maneuver, most of MNGOP has been taken over by the Ron Paul movement.

It appears that most selected delegates to the Republican National Convention in Tampa this summer will cast their votes for Ron Paul and not the presumptive nominee Mitt Romney. At my Second Congressional District convention on April 21, Paul supporters openly bragged that they had 45 to 50 percent of the state convention delegates and that they would capture the remaining 17 at-large delegates to add to the 20 they already have...

When asked whether they would support Mitt Romney if he wins the nomination, many Paul supporters said no, unless he selects U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ron Paul's son, as his vice presidential running mate.

That more than anything has the establishment MNGOP in a dither. Rightly or wrongly, they see many of the young, undisciplined and politically naïve Ron Paul movement members as anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, anti-national defense and pro-legalization of drugs...

I don't have a crystal ball to see how all this will end. But from where I'm sitting it does not look good for MNGOP, which won the state House and Senate in 2010 and whose lawmakers are all up for re-election. The DFL smells blood in the water and sees an opportunity to regain both legislative chambers. We are very possibly witnessing the death of MNGOP as we know it. If so, it will have died from within, not from outside causes.

Some additional details in the op-ed piece at the StarTribune.  Two nights ago, Rachel Maddow discussed this development and noted that Ron Paul may now be the delegate winner in Iowa as well.  I'm not a Ron Paul supporter, but these developments do have some national implications.