“Some of the Ron Paul people have been disappointed,” U.S. Rep. Rand Paul of Kentucky told Iowans at their morning breakfast meeting. “I know there were a lot of delegates here and you guys did great in Iowa and are probably happy with the process.”

Many of the Iowa delegates were not happy with the process, saying they have felt disrespected and sneered at for their support of Ron Paul, a congressman from Texas who is retiring in December after three presidential bids. They also felt changes to the party rules hurt grassroots activists like themselves.

“But there are some states that didn’t get seated and some of them aren’t happy and I say to them, ‘Now look politics is messy.’ You can look at it two ways: Some would say Ron Paul got a very small percentage of the vote and got a much larger proportion of delegates because they worked hard and got through the system. You could argue you had a disproportional influence here. I’m not arguing you had too much influence, but you can look at it both ways.”

Twenty-two of Iowa’s 28 delegates cast their ballots for Ron Paul Tuesday night during the official nominating process of the Republican presidential candidate. Just six voted for Mitt Romney, who nearly tied for first place in the Iowa caucuses in January. Paul finished in third place, but his backers carefully followed the rules to strategize how to get themselves into delegate slots.