The Nevada Republican party suspended its convention on Saturday night with no delegates elected to attend the party's national convention in September. The state party chairman, Sue Lowden says that the party will reconvene to nominate the state's 31 delegates in Las Vegas at a later date.

An argument over the delegate nominating process sent the party into disarray.  The nominating committee put forth a list of candidates and called for a vote.  Ron Paul supporters on the floor were unhappy with the list of candidates. Through a rule change, delegates were able to start nominating candidates from the floor of the convention.

The new nominating process more than doubled the number of candidates for Nevada's national delegation.  Lowden says the convention was overwhelmed and did not have the capacity to process the number of ballots.

"Unfortunately, with the rule changes implemented this morning, we did not have time to complete the process.  Our contract for the meeting space had expired, as had our budget, and ballots were unable to be physically produced by the nominations committee," Lowden said in a written statement.

Chairmen Bob Beers told the crowd that they were out of time to use the room at the Peppermill in Reno, and called the convention to a recess.  He was booed loudly and left the convention with a security escort.

An argument over how to proceed swept through the convention.  Delegates shouted across the convention floor.

"McCain people leave."

"Paul people stay."

"McCain people stay,"

"We're all here for the same reason."

Some delegates walked out.  Others stayed to express their dissatisfaction with the process or to make sure party business didn't reconvene without them.  Convention Chairman and state Senator Bob Beers eventually called a recess and left the building with a security escort.

Party member Mike Weber tried unsuccessfully to reconvene the convention. 

"This is not what the Republican Party is about," Weber said.

In the end, there were not enough people left at the convention to continue with party business. Party leaders say the same people present at Saturday's convention will eventually come to an agreement and elect delegates to represent Nevada at the national convention.

"It is my intention to ask the Cox Pavilion to grant us the same accommodations as they did the state Democrat party- to let us use the building for one day to complete our election process.  We will reconvene with the same state delegates and elect our national delegates," Lowden said.

The party has not yet determined when the second date of the convention will be held.

Rumors were going around on Sunday afternoon that Republican Party leaders were having a secret meeting at the Peppermill.  We contacted the Peppermill and determined that those rumors were not true.