Buffalo Bruce
06-03-2008, 05:40 PM
SPECIAL ALERT: ADVANCE LIST GOP DELEGATES TO STATE CONVENTION
Although this will largely be of interest to grassroots GOPers, the IVA has come into possession of an advance list of the pre-approved Ada County delegates to the state convention.
The list can be found below, with names spelled just as they came to us. There of course may be some shuffling of names between now and tomorrow night, when the Ada County Central Committee meets to formalize its list of delegates, but this appears to be a near-final list of names that will be presented to attendees, who will be pressured to approve the slate as presented.
Thus pressure is coming from the top of the party to bypass the normal process by which delegates are selected, which allows precinct committeemen, for instance, to express their desire to serve when they come to the organizing meeting. They’ll show up tomorrow night to find that they have been included out before the meeting even starts.
Similar pre-approved slates have been presented in at least two other counties (Kootenai and Canyon) with accompanying pressure to approve the slate as presented.
In many ways, the Idaho GOP is right now engaged in a battle for its soul, over whether it will be a party of genuine conservatism or become, as it has in many ways at the national level, a big government party with little genuine allegiance to social or fiscal conservative principles.
What is noteworthy about the pre-approved list is how many lobbyists are on it and how few ordinary grassroots Republicans are. It appears as if the party poobahs are systematically squeezing precinct committeemen in particular out of the delegate process, in an apparent attempt to stack the deck in favor of the Republican establishment.
Important issues will be at stake at the state convention, especially the choice of a party chairman and a possible reconsideration of the closed primary rule. Party elites want another term for the current chairman, Kirk Sullivan, and want to undo the party rule which closes primary elections to all but registered Republicans.
Closed primaries make it much more likely that fiscal and social conservatives will be elected to office. Open primaries, on the other hand, are friendlier to moderates, liberals and blue blood Republicans. Open primaries, for instance, are likely responsible for Sen. McCain’s capture of the GOP nomination, as independents and crossover Democrats outbalanced the vote of conservative Republicans in the primary season.
Precinct committeemen will rightly take umbrage at being shown so little regard for their hard, faithful, boots-on-the-ground work on behalf of the party. It looks to the average observer as if the party elite is shutting out the grassroots in favor of lobbyists and establishment types. There certainly are a number of genuine conservatives on this list below, including some names early in the list, but they seem to be clearly outnumbered overall by those who are inclined to do the bidding of the establishment.
Here’s the list of names as they came to the IVA: http://www.idahovaluesalliance.com/news.asp?id=810
The Idaho Affiliate of the American Family Association
Bryan Fischer, Executive Director Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Although this will largely be of interest to grassroots GOPers, the IVA has come into possession of an advance list of the pre-approved Ada County delegates to the state convention.
The list can be found below, with names spelled just as they came to us. There of course may be some shuffling of names between now and tomorrow night, when the Ada County Central Committee meets to formalize its list of delegates, but this appears to be a near-final list of names that will be presented to attendees, who will be pressured to approve the slate as presented.
Thus pressure is coming from the top of the party to bypass the normal process by which delegates are selected, which allows precinct committeemen, for instance, to express their desire to serve when they come to the organizing meeting. They’ll show up tomorrow night to find that they have been included out before the meeting even starts.
Similar pre-approved slates have been presented in at least two other counties (Kootenai and Canyon) with accompanying pressure to approve the slate as presented.
In many ways, the Idaho GOP is right now engaged in a battle for its soul, over whether it will be a party of genuine conservatism or become, as it has in many ways at the national level, a big government party with little genuine allegiance to social or fiscal conservative principles.
What is noteworthy about the pre-approved list is how many lobbyists are on it and how few ordinary grassroots Republicans are. It appears as if the party poobahs are systematically squeezing precinct committeemen in particular out of the delegate process, in an apparent attempt to stack the deck in favor of the Republican establishment.
Important issues will be at stake at the state convention, especially the choice of a party chairman and a possible reconsideration of the closed primary rule. Party elites want another term for the current chairman, Kirk Sullivan, and want to undo the party rule which closes primary elections to all but registered Republicans.
Closed primaries make it much more likely that fiscal and social conservatives will be elected to office. Open primaries, on the other hand, are friendlier to moderates, liberals and blue blood Republicans. Open primaries, for instance, are likely responsible for Sen. McCain’s capture of the GOP nomination, as independents and crossover Democrats outbalanced the vote of conservative Republicans in the primary season.
Precinct committeemen will rightly take umbrage at being shown so little regard for their hard, faithful, boots-on-the-ground work on behalf of the party. It looks to the average observer as if the party elite is shutting out the grassroots in favor of lobbyists and establishment types. There certainly are a number of genuine conservatives on this list below, including some names early in the list, but they seem to be clearly outnumbered overall by those who are inclined to do the bidding of the establishment.
Here’s the list of names as they came to the IVA: http://www.idahovaluesalliance.com/news.asp?id=810
The Idaho Affiliate of the American Family Association
Bryan Fischer, Executive Director Tuesday, June 3, 2008