Brent H
06-01-2008, 06:16 PM
http://goldismoney.info/forums/showthread.php?t=270179
We got screwed too. There was a last minute rule change announced 2 days before the convention, saying that half the delegates and alternates for the national convention would have to be approved by the McCain and Huckabee campaigns before they could even be placed on the ballots for these slots. They called this slate the "Unity slate" because it had supporters of all the various candidates from the primary(except of course RP!) Anyway, the temporary chair Luke Esser (or Uke the Lesser as he is being called now) steamrolled right over us. It didn't matter how we voted, because he got to count the votes. We have compiled a list of over 100 violations of state and national party rules, as well as state law, that were violated this weekend. There was a real time video of Uke up on a projection screen, you could actually see his eye twitching and his veins bulging as he worked the room. After the rules and credentials were accepted, Uke the Lesser was replaced as permanent chair by radio talk show host Kirby Wilbur. Kirby was a very good chair, well versed in parliamentary procedure and very fair minded.
The second day, we rubber stamped their Unity Slate (because we couldn't fight it), so we would have more time to debate the platform and vote on resolutions. The GOP old guard tried to stifle debate on the platform, but we did manage to get some amendments inserted. Oddly enough, the old guard was so "against us", that they voted against language protecting the 2nd amendment rights of veterans, and voted against inserting pro-homeschooling language in the education plank. We did manage to come together on some issues, however. After the platform was adopted, we broke for lunch. There was a bargain struck, where if we didn't try to vote in any anti-McCain or anti-war resolutions, they would stop telling their delegates how to vote, and instead just allow them all to vote their conscience. If we didn't hold up that end, they would walk out of the room and break the quorum. After lunch, we moved on to the resolutions. This was where we really got pissed... there was a stack of "Yea" resolutions, and a stack of "Nea"... The yeas would be automatically adopted and the neas not adopted if we didn't get a chance to vote them up or down. We tried to get the order switched so that we could vote on the Neas first, but we didn't have the 2/3s majority to do that. Instead, we approved the Yeas en masse, so we could move on to the Neas, some of which we really wanted to vote on. As soon as the Yeas were passed, the Old Guard stood up and walked out of the room, trying to break the quorum. We conducted a count(which was made difficult, since several of the county chairs walked out, too), and just barely managed to maintain the quorum. As soon as we had established that we still had a quorum, someone stood up and moved that we pass said anti-war resolution, and called the question(ends debate) in the same sentence. The resolution passed(there weren't many people to vote against it ;), and there was immediately another motion to suspend the rules and extend the convention cutoff time indefintely until business was finished. Before we had a chance to vote on the motion, they started filing back in again and challenged the ruling of the chair that there had been a quorum(requires 2/3s vote to overturn), since there were many county chairs missing(bastards!). I don't know the exact vote, but it was almost 2/3 voting to affirm the ruling. The next vote to extend the time did not have the 2/3s necessary, it was more like 50.5%, so we adjourned immediately anyway. Still, we did have a few successes. In the Yea packet there was a resolution supporting the repeal of the 16 amendment, and we got the anti-war resolution passed, too. We also managed to elect 4 RP delegates and 6 alternates for the national convention.
There were a certain number of McCain supporters who were very disturbed by this behaivor by their "leaders", and did not participate in the walkout(this is almost certainly how we managed to sustain the quorum). This behaivor may have really hurt them, since it just galvanized us to replace party leadership statewide, and it seemed to make a lot of non RP supporters feel that the party leadership is corrupt and needs to be replaced.
Anybody here living in WA state that wants to bring the republican party back to it's roots of liberty, please contact me. We still need your help in the coming months.
Julian
We got screwed too. There was a last minute rule change announced 2 days before the convention, saying that half the delegates and alternates for the national convention would have to be approved by the McCain and Huckabee campaigns before they could even be placed on the ballots for these slots. They called this slate the "Unity slate" because it had supporters of all the various candidates from the primary(except of course RP!) Anyway, the temporary chair Luke Esser (or Uke the Lesser as he is being called now) steamrolled right over us. It didn't matter how we voted, because he got to count the votes. We have compiled a list of over 100 violations of state and national party rules, as well as state law, that were violated this weekend. There was a real time video of Uke up on a projection screen, you could actually see his eye twitching and his veins bulging as he worked the room. After the rules and credentials were accepted, Uke the Lesser was replaced as permanent chair by radio talk show host Kirby Wilbur. Kirby was a very good chair, well versed in parliamentary procedure and very fair minded.
The second day, we rubber stamped their Unity Slate (because we couldn't fight it), so we would have more time to debate the platform and vote on resolutions. The GOP old guard tried to stifle debate on the platform, but we did manage to get some amendments inserted. Oddly enough, the old guard was so "against us", that they voted against language protecting the 2nd amendment rights of veterans, and voted against inserting pro-homeschooling language in the education plank. We did manage to come together on some issues, however. After the platform was adopted, we broke for lunch. There was a bargain struck, where if we didn't try to vote in any anti-McCain or anti-war resolutions, they would stop telling their delegates how to vote, and instead just allow them all to vote their conscience. If we didn't hold up that end, they would walk out of the room and break the quorum. After lunch, we moved on to the resolutions. This was where we really got pissed... there was a stack of "Yea" resolutions, and a stack of "Nea"... The yeas would be automatically adopted and the neas not adopted if we didn't get a chance to vote them up or down. We tried to get the order switched so that we could vote on the Neas first, but we didn't have the 2/3s majority to do that. Instead, we approved the Yeas en masse, so we could move on to the Neas, some of which we really wanted to vote on. As soon as the Yeas were passed, the Old Guard stood up and walked out of the room, trying to break the quorum. We conducted a count(which was made difficult, since several of the county chairs walked out, too), and just barely managed to maintain the quorum. As soon as we had established that we still had a quorum, someone stood up and moved that we pass said anti-war resolution, and called the question(ends debate) in the same sentence. The resolution passed(there weren't many people to vote against it ;), and there was immediately another motion to suspend the rules and extend the convention cutoff time indefintely until business was finished. Before we had a chance to vote on the motion, they started filing back in again and challenged the ruling of the chair that there had been a quorum(requires 2/3s vote to overturn), since there were many county chairs missing(bastards!). I don't know the exact vote, but it was almost 2/3 voting to affirm the ruling. The next vote to extend the time did not have the 2/3s necessary, it was more like 50.5%, so we adjourned immediately anyway. Still, we did have a few successes. In the Yea packet there was a resolution supporting the repeal of the 16 amendment, and we got the anti-war resolution passed, too. We also managed to elect 4 RP delegates and 6 alternates for the national convention.
There were a certain number of McCain supporters who were very disturbed by this behaivor by their "leaders", and did not participate in the walkout(this is almost certainly how we managed to sustain the quorum). This behaivor may have really hurt them, since it just galvanized us to replace party leadership statewide, and it seemed to make a lot of non RP supporters feel that the party leadership is corrupt and needs to be replaced.
Anybody here living in WA state that wants to bring the republican party back to it's roots of liberty, please contact me. We still need your help in the coming months.
Julian