Alaska Republican Convention Report

[Xenophage]

The Alaskan Republican Party State Convention took place in Anchorage from March 13th to 15th. I just got back home. This is my informal report.

There were somewhere in the neighborhood of 350 to 360 total delegates to the State Convention, as I recall (I don't remember the exact number and I could be significantly wrong on that).

As you may have heard, the Alaskan Ron Paulites were very organized and aggressive during our February 5th and 9th district conventions. We organized state-wide to crash the Republican convention, passed amazing platform changes and resolutions, and got a lot of us elected as delegates to the State Convention. After those successful district conventions, we kept working hard to organize and prepare for the State Convention. All told, we were able to secure 105 delegates to State, or roughly 30% of the total by my estimation. While we were not a majority, this made us a force to be reckoned with.

The convention was rife with controversy, the majority of it surrounding an attempted unseating of the chairman of the Alaska Republican Party by other forces within the party, including our governor Sarah Palin. The atmosphere was pretty intense and the news reporters were ready for big headlines. Our Ron Paul group, which according to some was the largest and most organized group of individuals at the convention, had to decide which powers we could ally ourselves with to best further our agenda, and during the course of the convention we had to craft and change strategies constantly to stay in the game. I won't go into great detail concerning everything that happened, because you could probably write a novella about this convention, but I will say that it was better drama than television. I never expected to be quite so entertained by political maneuvering or parliamentary procedure!

We had several goals going into the convention, and although we were not successful on all fronts, we were overall *very* successful.

First the good news: We passed a LOT of platform changes and resolutions. The convention broke into subcommittees for these, focusing on general topics from the Alaska Republican Party platform including Constitutional Rights, Health & Family, Education, Jobs & Economy, National Defense, and others. For the most part we had very little control over which subcommittees we ended up on (aside from indicating a preference), because each subcommittee had to have as close to even representation from each district as possible, and we were assigned by the central committee which consisted mostly of party insiders (although we got a few RP'ers on there as well). As a result, some of the subcommittees ended up with great Ron Paul representation (as was the case in the Constitutional Rights subcommittee where we apparently had over half the delegates) and some of them ended up with poor Ron Paul representation (the unfortunate case in the National Defense subcommittee that I was on).

The amendments, changes, and resolutions that we had passed at local district levels (as well as some that we had not passed) showed up for consideration by these subcommittees. What came out of the subcommittees were effectively recommendations, and eventually reached the floor of the General Assembly the following day for consideration by the entire convention. Among these were platform changes and resolutions to abolish the IRS, oppose the Patriot Act and Real ID, eliminate the Department of Education, eliminate the Certificate of Need program for health care providers, support jury nullification by allowing defendents to argue the mertis and application of laws under which they are tried, eliminate the word "hemp" from the plank "we are against the legalization of marijuana/hemp," and many others. After considerable debate and a battle on the floor over parliamentary procudures that threatened many times to kill them entirely, these platform planks and resolutions were adopted by the Alaska Republican Party. The platform plank and corresponding resolution opposing the Patriot Act, NAIS, Real ID, and Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, and demanding their immediate repeal, both narrowly passed after many (increasingly panicky) attempts to defeat them by the anti-Paul crowd.

We were unsuccessful in attacking the party's support for the war in Iraq. We were simply unable to pull support from anyone outside of the Ron Paul delegates for this purpose and therefore unable to secure a majority.

In the Rules committee there was a heated battle to secure more national delegates for Ron Paul in the face of the Romney and Huckabee drop-outs. The essential argument was over the definition of "dropping out" of a presidential race, and our argument was that according to the state party's own rules we were entitled to 14 national delegates, and McCain was entitled to 12. Unfortunately, both the Romney and Huckabee campaigns sent letters to the convention explaining that their campaign "suspensions" were intended to reserve delegates rather than release them. In light of this, it was still possible we could move during the General Assembly to apportion those delegates to Paul and McCain, and maybe even win, but we determined it was unlikely so we took the following deal: In exchange for not bringing up the rules issue on the floor, we could pass a resolution stating the Alaska Republican Party would like Ron Paul to speak at the Republican National Convention. The deal happened and the resolution went through.

Overall, we made a lot of good inroads in the local party, made some great changes, established ourselves as a force, and got some great people in to go to national for Ron Paul. We learned a lot about parliamentary procedure, and I would recommend anyone planning on attending a convention read up on Robert's Rules of Order first, or you may find yourself and any issue you bring forth utterly defeated by the process.

I met and worked with some of the most amazing, intelligent, driven people at this convention. Its amazing what can happen when 100 Ron Paul supporters get together all at once. The camaraderie was astounding to me. Although we only controlled 30% of the delegates at the convention, I'd wager we accounted for approximately 90% of the total IQ points.

Anyway, there's TONS more to report, but I'm really tired, and I need to go to bed, and I've lost my train of thought.... I hope I can get copies of resolutions that passed.

[bucfish]

Bump

[devil21]

Oooooh nice! So MO and AK made headway yesterday. Gotta keep up this energy!

Roberts Rules of Order seems to be a very important part of this process regardless of the state.

[Fields]

Great to hear!

[MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2]

Very encouraging. Thanks for the report.

[LibertyEagle]

Way to go, Xenophage. :) Go get some well-deserved sleep.

[billyjoeallen]

Great Job, Alaska.

[Phantom]

Way to go Alaska.

For those who are interested, here is a link to Robert's Rules of Order Revised (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/9097/9097-8.txt)

[w00ter]

The Alaskan Republican Party State Convention took place in Anchorage from March 13th to 15th. I just got back home. This is my informal report.

There were somewhere in the neighborhood of 350 to 360 total delegates to the State Convention, as I recall (I don't remember the exact number and I could be significantly wrong on that).

As you may have heard, the Alaskan Ron Paulites were very organized and aggressive during our February 5th and 9th district conventions. We organized state-wide to crash the Republican convention, passed amazing platform changes and resolutions, and got a lot of us elected as delegates to the State Convention. After those successful district conventions, we kept working hard to organize and prepare for the State Convention. All told, we were able to secure 105 delegates to State, or roughly 30% of the total by my estimation. While we were not a majority, this made us a force to be reckoned with.

........

Anyway, there's TONS more to report, but I'm really tired, and I need to go to bed, and I've lost my train of thought.... I hope I can get copies of resolutions that passed.

w00t! Thanks for giving an example to Texas on how it can be done. District conventions are coming up here in a couple of weeks, and the state convention in a couple of months. We'll see if we can get similar or better results.

w00ter
district convention delegate

[joemiller]

Now that you have gained some party experience, just think what you and your fellow Ron Paul supporters could have accomplished if you were in the majority. To accomplish this next time around, please place your names on your November ballot as a precinct committee member with your local county GOP.

Remember, this is only the first shot fired at Lexington in the R3volution. To continue the R3volution we must act as one in the most politically effective manner possible. We all must be precinct committee men and women of our local Republican Parties.

joe

[Spirit of '76]

This is wonderful! You Alaskans have set an excellent example for us all. I salute your dedication, patriotism, and courage.

Keep up the excellent work!

[seapilot]

bump. for liberty.

[Banana]

Great job!

Can you clarify whether the national delegates are pro-Paul or at least leaning toward Paul?


Still, this is great job, for a minority and I congratulate every Alaskans who participated. :)

[slamhead]

phenomenal job....mucho kudos

[Zera]

Sort of confused here. Were all the national delegates chosen? And, how many would you think were Paul supporters?

Did you guys propose to unbound any of the delegates?

[Cowlesy]

We have some serious 21st century Sons of Liberty in Alaska to applaud today!

[xCakex]

noice job, wish I could've been there.

[kirkblitz]

so we got 5 delegates?

[runderwo]

so we got 5 delegates?

I don't think they got any since Paul didn't win AK.

[pinkmandy]

Great job!!!!!

[paecontrol]

We indeed walked away with 5 delegates and 5 alternates that were hand-picked by the "Ron Paul Republicans", confirmed by the Nominations committee, and voted on by the Party as a whole, to represent Alaska at the National Convention. These delegates are bound to vote for Ron Paul in the initial ballot at the National Convention.

Alaska is NOT a winner-take-all state.

I will say that in general, our fellow Republicans at the State Convention treated us VERY fairly and with respect; I know I was definitely made to feel welcome. It was a very educational and rewarding experience that I hope others get the opportunity to take part in.

[N13]

Great thread.

[runderwo]

Well, that's good to know! And McCain lost AK in a big way, so now you just need to work on getting the rest of those delegates on board. One or the other, Romney or Huck will fully withdraw and run for VP. I don't think every Romney supporter will be happy with a VP to McCain. None of the Romney supporters here could stand McCain because they know his history.

[LEK]

Unfortunately, both the Romney and Huckabee campaigns sent letters to the convention explaining that their campaign "suspensions" were intended to reserve delegates rather than release them.

This is legal?

And THANKS!!!!!!!

[Give me liberty]

So now we have good news from alaska and Kas city Mo

and i wonder how many delegates does ron paul now have?

[therealjjj77]

Iowa had it's county conventions a week ago last Saturday. We had outstanding results as well. Congressional district 1 has 48 identified Ron Paul supporting delegates going to the district convention. We do realize that to grab the national delegate and alternate delegate spots, as well as the rules committee and platform committee spot, will require that we do a little campaigning. Such as calling the other delegates who aren't RP supporters and asking them to vote for us. Also, mailing out a brochure with our picture, name, biography and where we stand on the issues to the other delegates(worded within a conservative frame).

Each state is allowed 2 people(one male, one female) for each committee. The important ones are the platform committee and the rules committee.

The rules committee will write the rules for the Republican National Convention which will be presented and voted on to accept them.

The platform committee will write the platform for the Republican National Convention and this will be voted on by the delegates there.

The rule that I would like to see added is one that defines majority as 66% of the delegates present:

RULE NO. 40
Nominations
(e)"Majority" when used in RULE NO. 40 shall be defined as 66% of the votes of the delegates present.

I will need 4 Ron Paul supporters(2 male and 2 female) from each state committed to campaigning for these spots. One male and one female from your state for the rules committee and one male and one female from your state for the platform committee. It will require a significant amount of time as writing the platform and rules is no small task. You will also need to be a delegate to the national convention.

Now is the time to organize to acheive victory in September. We don't have much time left for our country to it's change course. We must take full advantage of the opportunity we have set before us.

[A Ron Paul Rebel]

Iowa had it's county conventions a week ago last Saturday. We had outstanding results as well. Congressional district 1 has 48 identified Ron Paul supporting delegates going to the district convention. We do realize that to grab the national delegate and alternate delegate spots, as well as the rules committee and platform committee spot, will require that we do a little campaigning. Such as calling the other delegates who aren't RP supporters and asking them to vote for us. Also, mailing out a brochure with our picture, name, biography and where we stand on the issues to the other delegates(worded within a conservative frame).

Each state is allowed 2 people(one male, one female) for each committee. The important ones are the platform committee and the rules committee.

The rules committee will write the rules for the Republican National Convention which will be presented and voted on to accept them.

The platform committee will write the platform for the Republican National Convention and this will be voted on by the delegates there.

The rule that I would like to see added is one that defines majority as 66% of the delegates present:

RULE NO. 40
Nominations
(e)"Majority" when used in RULE NO. 40 shall be defined as 66% of the votes of the delegates present.

I will need 4 Ron Paul supporters(2 male and 2 female) from each state committed to campaigning for these spots. One male and one female from your state for the rules committee and one male and one female from your state for the platform committee. It will require a significant amount of time as writing the platform and rules is no small task. You will also need to be a delegate to the national convention.

Now is the time to organize to acheive victory in September. We don't have much time left for our country to it's change course. We must take full advantage of the opportunity we have set before us.

Bump for reading that strategy again!
Still sinking in. ;)

[UK4Paul]

Way to go, Alaska.

[jblosser]

While I love the work you guys have done and you have been an inspiration to the rest of us out here, I can't claim to think your deal regarding the national delegation was a good thing. I'm hestitating to post this because I am not interested in splintering and I don't want to be a backseat driver, but other states are yet to go and we need to learn from each other.

Resolutions and platform changes and speeches are not going to fix our current problem. The delegation is what matters. Their strategy is to winnow us down at each step along the way, until all we have left are a few resolutions they can ignore just like the other ones they have been ignoring for years. You saw it yourself with what happened to your war resolution.

That doesn't mean I don't think resolutions are valuable. I wrote most of the ones that have been used across Texas. But they are mostly useful in keeping people going and showing success and as a metric for how strong we are. When all our resolutions are passing, we are in the majority. When fewer pass or we have to make deals, we are losing the majority. And if we reach a point we can't pass our big ones no matter what, we are becoming marginalized.

Ron Paul has been speaking before Congress and America for 30 years. A speech at the RNC is not going to change anything. It's not going to turn the party around, it's not going to save the dollar, it's not going to save lives. We want him to speak there, sure, but because the delegation demands it, not because of resolutions that have as much chance of being ignored by the RNC as anything else right now.

If we want to fix things in the party the path lies through boots on the ground inside the convention in St. Paul, whether people think we can get the full nomination or not. To those that will argue that if you hadn't cut the deal you might have somehow lost all your progress and delegates -- fine. I have no problem saying this is all or nothing time. Incrementalism is what got us where we are and we do not have the time left to us to try to adopt a minority position and fight our way to the top across multiple cycles. If we don't make a strong stand now we will see our numbers only get weaker and more divided as we bring in the hangers on and lose our no-compromise high ground.

I guess the other argument and the one you're probably making is that it wasn't going to happen anyway so you at least got something out of them. I respect that but if they were willing to offer anything I think the fight was worth having. People are dying and it's only getting worse.

My .02, adjusted for inflation, worthless.

[speciallyblend]

While I love the work you guys have done and you have been an inspiration to the rest of us out here, I can't claim to think your deal regarding the national delegation was a good thing. I'm hestitating to post this because I am not interested in splintering and I don't want to be a backseat driver, but other states are yet to go and we need to learn from each other.

Resolutions and platform changes and speeches are not going to fix our current problem. The delegation is what matters. Their strategy is to winnow us down at each step along the way, until all we have left are a few resolutions they can ignore just like the other ones they have been ignoring for years. You saw it yourself with what happened to your war resolution.

That doesn't mean I don't think resolutions are valuable. I wrote most of the ones that have been used across Texas. But they are mostly useful in keeping people going and showing success and as a metric for how strong we are. When all our resolutions are passing, we are in the majority. When fewer pass or we have to make deals, we are losing the majority. And if we reach a point we can't pass our big ones no matter what, we are becoming marginalized.

Ron Paul has been speaking before Congress and America for 30 years. A speech at the RNC is not going to change anything. It's not going to turn the party around, it's not going to save the dollar, it's not going to save lives. We want him to speak there, sure, but because the delegation demands it, not because of resolutions that have as much chance of being ignored by the RNC as anything else right now.

If we want to fix things in the party the path lies through boots on the ground inside the convention in St. Paul, whether people think we can get the full nomination or not. To those that will argue that if you hadn't cut the deal you might have somehow lost all your progress and delegates -- fine. I have no problem saying this is all or nothing time. Incrementalism is what got us where we are and we do not have the time left to us to try to adopt a minority position and fight our way to the top across multiple cycles. If we don't make a strong stand now we will see our numbers only get weaker and more divided as we bring in the hangers on and lose our no-compromise high ground.

I guess the other argument and the one you're probably making is that it wasn't going to happen anyway so you at least got something out of them. I respect that but if they were willing to offer anything I think the fight was worth having. People are dying and it's only getting worse.

My .02, adjusted for inflation, worthless.

the gop has 2 options ,Choose Ron Paul and win the general election or choose mccain and lose the election either option works for me;)

[itshappening]

thank you for this update, i enjoyed reading it, very inspiring !!!!

[Tdcci]

Unfortunately, both the Romney and Huckabee campaigns sent letters to the convention explaining that their campaign "suspensions" were intended to reserve delegates rather than release them.

This is legal?

And THANKS!!!!!!!

They did not drop out, they were just not going to campaign any longer. If John McCain has a heart attack, Mitt Romney would step up and take the nomination.

[Broadlighter]

Thanks for the Report. That was awesome!

[Xenophage]

While I love the work you guys have done and you have been an inspiration to the rest of us out here, I can't claim to think your deal regarding the national delegation was a good thing. I'm hestitating to post this because I am not interested in splintering and I don't want to be a backseat driver, but other states are yet to go and we need to learn from each other.

Resolutions and platform changes and speeches are not going to fix our current problem. The delegation is what matters. Their strategy is to winnow us down at each step along the way, until all we have left are a few resolutions they can ignore just like the other ones they have been ignoring for years. You saw it yourself with what happened to your war resolution.

That doesn't mean I don't think resolutions are valuable. I wrote most of the ones that have been used across Texas. But they are mostly useful in keeping people going and showing success and as a metric for how strong we are. When all our resolutions are passing, we are in the majority. When fewer pass or we have to make deals, we are losing the majority. And if we reach a point we can't pass our big ones no matter what, we are becoming marginalized.

Ron Paul has been speaking before Congress and America for 30 years. A speech at the RNC is not going to change anything. It's not going to turn the party around, it's not going to save the dollar, it's not going to save lives. We want him to speak there, sure, but because the delegation demands it, not because of resolutions that have as much chance of being ignored by the RNC as anything else right now.

If we want to fix things in the party the path lies through boots on the ground inside the convention in St. Paul, whether people think we can get the full nomination or not. To those that will argue that if you hadn't cut the deal you might have somehow lost all your progress and delegates -- fine. I have no problem saying this is all or nothing time. Incrementalism is what got us where we are and we do not have the time left to us to try to adopt a minority position and fight our way to the top across multiple cycles. If we don't make a strong stand now we will see our numbers only get weaker and more divided as we bring in the hangers on and lose our no-compromise high ground.

I guess the other argument and the one you're probably making is that it wasn't going to happen anyway so you at least got something out of them. I respect that but if they were willing to offer anything I think the fight was worth having. People are dying and it's only getting worse.

My .02, adjusted for inflation, worthless.

None of us were happy that we could not secure 14 delegates to national. Trust me when I say we approached this problem from every reasonable angle we could. There are probably different ways we could have approached things, but hindsight is 20/20, and we really worked hard to achieve every victory we did.

Unfortunately the Romney and Huckabee people at our convention, which comprised almost everyone who wasn't a Ron Paul supporter, were not willing to give up those delegates to us, no matter how much they disliked McCain. Since we were a minority, we could not win that fight. We tried on the rules committee, nominations committee, and central committee, and failed. A failure was guaranteed during the general assembly.

Some other people who were present might have a different perspective about what happened. Not everyone agreed on what to do all the time. I was not involved in any of the deal making that took place and I'm not privy to every piece of information, but I do know that the people we entrusted to lead us in this battle were philosophically strong, very intelligent, and extremely hard working. Everyone argued our various options and courses of action and a consensus was reached. We had good reasons for what we ended up doing.

I do hope that other states can succeed in getting more delegates to national than we did. I believe it will require taking the conventions over with a majority, or very close to a majority, of Ron Paul delegates.

[acroso]

Missouri seems to be undergoing a semi-hostile take-over right now.

I don't think we should give any delegates to Romney, Huckabee, McCain if we ever take a majority at one of the state conventions.

[Paul Revered]

Great news! Thank you.

[PismoPam]

"Overall, we made a lot of good inroads in the local party, made some great changes, established ourselves as a force, and got some great people in to go to national for Ron Paul. "

This is JUST ASTONISHING!! REALLy gives me hope that we are on the right path.
And Murray. Murray gives me a TON of hope.
GO MURRAY!
Bless you, Alaskans!

[orlandoinfl]

success is beauty.

[defe07]

Question: is it true that we were able to get McCain's delegates on our side?