Topic: Presidential Campaign 2008
Update On Nevada III The Republican Party of Nevada opts for the Tammany Hall Solutionby rtbohan
(libertarian)
Friday, May 16, 2008
This is, I believe, my final report on the Republican Party of Nevada and the political chicanery involved in efforts to send a delegation to the Republican National convention pledged to the man who finished third in the primary and apparently second in the state convention before it was abruptly adjourned.
Immediately after the State Convention was abruptly recessed before the election of delegates to the National Convention was completed, the chairman of the convention,Bob Beers, announced that the convention would be reconvened in a little more than a week and that the credentialed and present delegates at the recessed convention would be the only persons allowed to participate. The Chairman of the state party did not immediately contradict State Senator Beers, and it seemed that, despite some obnoxious comments by a few Paul supporters, that the matter might be equitably resolved
After several weeks of dithering, the Nevada Republican Party seems to have opted for the Tammany Hall solution to send a delegation pledged to the man who finished third in the primary and whose delegates were clearly a minority at the state convention. The delay in making this decision and the crudity in announcing it would indicate that the decision was not so much made by the state party but imposed on it by the leadership of the national party.
When the promise was made that the convention would be reconvened with only the delegates who were credentialed and present at the time of adjournment, apparently the Paul campaign was promised a list of those credentialed and present. On May 7, Sue Lowden, the Republican state chairman said that if Senator Beers had made that promise he could not keep it. The Party, she said, had the list and intended to keep it confidential "for various reasons."(www.nevadagop.org)
On May 14, she posted another message, and the "various reasons" had been reduced to one: "Many delegates d not wish to be solicited or contacted for any reason other than official notifications from the party...and that seems a reasonable request to us." The party said tnat the list will not be released to the campaign of any candidate, but since the party is acting on behalf of the McCain campaign this statement rather insults the intelligence of the voters.
The Bush administration has given us anonymous judges sitting in judgement in secret courts. In Nevada, the McCain campaign seems to be offering us anonymous delegates voting in closed conventions. Ms Lowden holds out a promise of reconvening the convention, but then snatches it away.
Ms Lowden says that the party is considering two means of finsihing the convention business. One method is to call the convention back into session, but there is no indication that only the delegates present when the convention began voting will be admitted. This means that the party leadership is leaving itself two options: to bring in the elected delegates who did not bother to come to the convention in April to try to overcome the Paulite majority which attended, or to order their tame delegates to stay away, in which case they intend to declare the lack of a quorum and adjourn again.
Either in lieu of calling the convention back into session, or after going through the motions, the party intends to elect the delegates to the national convention by a mail in ballot. There seems to be real doubt as to whether conducting a mail ballot in lieu of a convention is allowed under the bylaws of the party. This means that however the state manipulates the situation, the sending of a McCain delegation to the National Convention will be done. Since it will not be done under the rules of the party, it is certainly open to challenge at the convention. Since the National Party is pulling out all stops to make the party seem unanimously behind their chosen candidate, a challenge is bound to fail.
It is no fun reporting on Tammany Hall tactics. If "We make the rules and we count the votes" is the way the Nevada Republican Party intends to operate, than anyone interested in open and responsive government will lose interest.
Did you like this article? If you did, Thumb It! 17 thumbs so far
The views expressed in this
article are those of rtbohan only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. rtbohan is
solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an
employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
Contrary to some beliefs, Ron Paul was no where near the favored candidate by the majority of the candidates. While McCain may have been in third place at the caucuses, those that supported the winning candidate are firmly behind him now. Ron Paul delegates, on the other hand, make up a MUCH smaller contingent and the only way they could have any impact is to be the loud, offensive people they showed themselves to be at the Nevada Republican Party Convention.
"While Mccain may have been in third place at the caucuses, those that supported the winning candidate [Romney] are firmly behind [McCain] now."
Stephanie, perhaps you'd be interested in this:
http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1505
76% of Republicans nationwide are dissatisifed with McCain. Wake up! McCain and the GOP leadership are trying to pull a fast one on everyone because they want to seal up the nomination and focus on the Democrats, let it be damned if the voters don't like their choice.
Want to comment on this
article? Leave your comment here. Your email address is
required to track your comment. However, we will neither
publish your email address nor distribute it to other
organizations or persons. The only reason we might use
it would be if we needed to contact you regarding your
comment. All comments are subject to our
terms of use policy.
