Update: Nevada Republican Delegation to the National Convention

The following is an email from Robert Terhune, one of the many faces behind the Ron Paul movement.


Hi everyone,

Here is a rundown of everything that's been going on with the Nevada Delegation to the Republican National Convention. Thanks to all who have helped with and supported this process, and please be assured that the fight is not over. I included our Press Release below.

OK...

Due to the fact that the Nevada State Republican Convention was shut down abruptly and illegally in April (when Party leaders weren't getting their way), and because the State Party leadership never intended to (and never did) complete the convention, we decided to finish it ourselves. We reconvened on June 28, and legally elected a full delegation to represent Nevada at the National Convention.

The Party leadership of course never acknowledged the June 28th gathering, and submitted their own list of delegates, appointed by the leadership. Their list was comprised of party regulars and contributers. A Party official was heard boasting at a meeting that "not one of those Ron Paul people" were on the list.

The party's list was submitted to the RNC, while we submitted an appeal to the RNC to try and stop them. The RNC's initial decision was to reject both delegations as illegal, and to seat only the three automatic delegates. The state party appealed that, and the matter was sent to the RNC's Contest Committee.

The Contest Committee heard the appeal on Sunday, August 24, 2008. The Party was represented by high-powered Washington DC attorney Ben Ginsberg, and we were represented by Mike Weber, a long-time Republican activist (and McCain supporter) from Washoe County, Nevada. The hearing was set up like a Senate hearing, with the committee seated at a table at the front of the room, with the two parties facing them, seated at their own tables. Each side was allowed opening and closing statements, and in between the committee peppered both sides with questions. The committee was obviously very knowledgeable about the situation, and seemed very interested in getting to the truth and conducting a fair process. As the day wore on, it was apparent that the committee started to realize how poorly the state party had been conducting itself. In one instance, a committee member was trying to find out how people became state delegates. Between Sue Lowden (NV GOP Chair) and Ginsberg, the State party was unable to answer the question, to the frustration on the member. In another instance, another member was trying to learn if the party knew who the state delegates were. After receiving no firm answer to several questions, she exasperatedly asked, "You accepted money to register for the State Convention, right? So there must have been some bookkeeping of some kind!" She never got a satisfactory answer.

Mike Weber closed with a stirring closing statement that basically told the committee that they could chose righteousness or corruption, and that the country was watching. No final decision was reached that day, and several smaller meetings between Weber and Party attorneys took place over the next few days. The outcome clearly was not going to be good.

So here is where the process stands now: The Contest Committee released its report on Wednesday. The report strongly chastised the state GOP, calling the Nevada GOP’s handling of the delegate selection process “flawed, inadequate, and unacceptable,” and added that they were “deeply troubled by the ineptness of the State Party in conducting its process to elect delegates."
The National Party has confirmed that, in their opinion, BOTH delegations were selected illegally, and that they would not accept either. The only exceptions were the CD1 and CD3 delegates that were elected during the original convention in April-- they will seat them. Ron Paul is represented by four of those six delegates.

However, there is a little-known rule that allows the National Party to appoint delegates to fill open slots within ten days of the National Convention. So, in order to fill all of the now-open seats from Nevada, they decided to invoke this rule and fill the vacancies. They did so using names from the State Party's appointed delegation.

So, in summary, the Nevada state party did not like what was happening at the State Convention, so they took the ball and went home, cheating the delegates out of their vote. They tried to appoint delegates to the National Convention instead. We tried to stop them and ensure the voting rights of ordinary Nevada Republicans. The National Party sided with the State Party and, after slapping them on the wrist, accepted their appointed delegates.

From now on, there is little to stop any state's GOP from ignoring the voices of it's people, and instead appointing their own cronies to attend the National Convention-- where our next potential President is selected.

Here is our press release from this afternoon:

-------------------------------
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE

RNC Labels NV Party “Inept,” but Seats Most of
State-Appointed Delegation

MINNEAPOLIS, MN, 8/28/08 – The RNC’s
Committtee on Contests handed down a recommendation yesterday regarding the
ongoing Nevada delegate debacle. The Committee condemned the State Party’s
handling of the delegate selection process, and declined the State Party’s
ability to appoint delegates. However, the Committee then recommended seating
the majority of the State Party’s appointed slate, as well as six delegates
elected in CD 1 and CD 3 at the April 26th State
Convention.

“We definitely do not consider this a just resolution,”
said Wayne Terhune, a Nevada Republican activist who traveled to Minneapolis to
support the appeal. “Despite some strong language from the Committee,
their actions have backed up the illegal delegate appointment of the State
Party.”

The Committee on Contests held a hearing on Sunday,
August 24th when they heard statements from both sides. The
Committee’s statement released on Wednesday called the Nevada GOP’s handling of
the delegate selection process “flawed, inadequate, and unacceptable,” adding
that they were “deeply troubled by the ineptness of the State Party in
conducting its process to elect delegates […].”

“This game seems to
have been fixed from the start,” Terhune said. “It was obvious to
everyone at the Committee’s hearing that the State Party was inept, but the
Committtee decided to back them up anyway and seat the majority of their
slate. This is a miscarriage of justice, and smacks of
tyranny. All the Republican voters of Nevada have been
disenfranchised. ”

####
Thanks again to everyone who helped.
In Liberty,
Robert

My recap on the Nevada State Convention

I just returned home to Las Vegas from the Nevada Republican Party Convention in Reno, NV. The weekend was a whirlwind of drama, chaos and adrenaline. The following is my recap of what happened, based solely on my perception of things I witnessed and heard.

Our convention was scheduled for Saturday, April 26th. After a surprisingly short wait we were signed in as delegates and seated. We were called into order with 1,347 delegates shortly after 9am.

That’s about where it started going wrong. The first two and a half hours of our day were spent listening to teary speeches and patriotic poetry, while watching black and white movie clips that were quite frankly offensive to my friends, family members and neighbors who consider themselves Democrats. I wasn’t the only person in attendance to find them divisive, immature and unnecessary. I also wasn’t the only person ready to get down to business rather than waste our time socializing.

One highlight of the morning was one of the best speeches I've heard Ron Paul give, earning him a standing ovation by most of the room, including McCain supporters.



However much the majority didn’t complain about the morning’s “entertainment”, they sure did complain when actual business was being conducted and taking longer than presumed necessary. I can’t remember the number of times I heard the phrase “in the interest of time” being uttered by party leaders and other delegates. The fact that many of us had driven over 400 miles to come to a convention to work, and were instead made to suffer through pointless banter and being rushed through the actual business at hand was frustrating.

Our chairperson, Senator Bob Beers was another frustration. Many of us support Bob Beers but his smugness and apparent inability to conduct business or understand the rules of order was unacceptable. Many times a delegate more rehearsed in parliamentarian law, Mike Weber, had to go to the microphone to (thankfully) correct Senator Beers’ procedures. This was at one point not very appreciated by Senator Beers, as he attempted to have this gentleman unduly removed by the Sergeant at Arms, which the entire room objected to having done. (This gentleman, although not with the Ron Paul camp, has received much respect and support of his fairness.)

And the frustrations continued. Apparently the reason we wasted so much time in the morning was because the party assumed we were simply there to rubber stamp their agenda - their rules, their by-laws, their platforms and their delegates. That’s right, they had already selected the delegates they would allow us to vote on after hand-picking from the nominations that were required to be sent into the Nominations Committee prior to the convention. Luckily this was voted down by both McCain and Paul supporters.

To comply with state rules, we were required to vote for 3 delegates from each of the three congressional districts in Nevada, aside from an additional 22 delegates to bring the total to 31. Their second solution - after we voted down their rubber stamp idea - was to have each one of us only pick 5 delegates and the top 31 vote getters would be placed. This also was unacceptable to both sides and we managed to vote it down as well, enabling us to allow nominations from the floor and bringing fairness to those who had not received the nominations packet via mail and who therefore could not nominate themselves by the predetermined deadline.

Little did they tell us that these changes to the rules would throw us into overtime. Apparently long gone are the days when political conventions take more than their desired afternoon. Our convention hall was only booked until 5pm that evening, with no contingent plans for a run-over.

Shortly after we had taken our first vote to secure our 9 congressional district delegates (but before we had voted on the other 22 delegates-at-large), it started becoming apparent to vote counters and party leaders that the Ron Paul campaign had secured at least 6 and possibly 7 of the first 9 delegate spots up for grabs. This has been confirmed by vote counters of both sides - McCain’s and Paul’s.

However, in the middle of voting and before one district had finished, Beers swung the gavel, ending the convention without discussion or debate (against the rules of the convention) and notifying us that it was our fault because we had changed the previous rules that would have apparently safe-guarded us from running out of time (with no mention to the over 2 hours of wasted time that morning). He stated the party would inform us of when we would reconvene within the week. Senator Beers and other party officials quickly shut off the microphones, turned off most of the lights and left the building.

As you can imagine, mayhem ensued. Beers stated that our contract was up on the room, disallowing any discussion for alternatives, despite the fact the hotel managers came in shortly after and informed us we could extend the contract. Most delegates were even willing to help cover the added cost of the convention hall, in order to save themselves the expense of additional travel in the future and waved their cash in the air to prove it.




During this time, our fair and friendly McCain delegate, Mike Weber (mentioned above) called for a quorum, essentially allowing us to continue the convention and giving us the possibility to vote in a new chairperson should Senator Beers choose not to return. Unfortunately to have any of our conducted business count, a quorum requires one half the delegates from the original delegate count. 674 delegates must have remained which we narrowly missed with only 590 delegates willing to continue.



Although many McCain supporters were equally outraged and stayed in attempts to conduct a continuation via quorum, many others strategically waited in the hall to ensure we didn’t have the numbers to conduct business (but staying close by to reenter, just in case we did). Because of this and because of the many Ron Paul supporters who left too quickly (despite the fact that we’d been counseled time and time again to remain past the end of the convention for just this reason), we were not able to continue working.

I almost forgot to mention the angry protesters, the near fist-fights by outraged delegates on both sides, and the McCain supporters saying we had "bought out" the chair person, Congressman Beers in order to win the delegates. At least it’s not only Ron Paul’s supporters who are uttering the word “conspiracy”.

The following morning it was brought to our attention by hotel personnel that the Republican Party had booked the same room for half the morning. Because of this, many of us (quickly calling and text messaging as many as we could) waited in hopes of reconvening. Unfortunately our hopes were unfounded, as by 10am it became apparent that all our efforts and expenses in coming to the State Convention had been a near waste and we would instead have to foot another bill for another convention at a later date.

There were many rumors flying. One was that phone conversations were overheard that implied the National Convention leaders had been watching Nevada closely and would rather cut us off than allow us to get a majority of delegates for Ron Paul and had therefore ordered the meeting shut down until they could formulate a plan to lock us and our delegates out. This however was hearsay and although possible, not easily provable.

Another rumor was that the reconvening was to be held at another convention center in town, which turned out to be untrue. Yet another rumor was that “the McCain people” were hiding in the wings of the hotel waiting for us all to leave the Peppermill so they could reconvene without us. This was unlikely but even if it were true, they would require the same quorum of 674 delegates and would not be able to meet the requirement, just as we had not been able to the previous night.

What do I personally think of all this?

I believe most of this is a result of poorly orchestrated and incompetent plans. Had we not wasted several hours with out-of-order and meaningless activities, fundraising or divisive joking that morning, we could have done the job we came to do. Instead convention planners assumed this new wing of the party would simply play along as the old guard has for decades.

Also, had the party leaders been happy with the results they were seeing, I do not believe they would have been so quick to walk out and would instead have sought solutions, such as meeting at a local high school or passing a collection plate to pay for the extended contract on the hall. Where was the consideration to those who had traveled long distances at their own expense and have to now do so again?

Do I believe this is a top-down conspiracy? Not exactly. However I do believe the favoritism and goal to squelch our efforts was apparent in their actions. Not because of a "vast motive to take over the world", but simply because they’ve become accustomed to the relative ease and comfort of the herd mentality and have given away all independent thought that does not fall in line with party loyalty.

It is my opinion that for too many Republicans, it’s become about sticking their heads in the sand and refusing to admit the fault of losing their conservative way. Let’s have our banquets, wear our lapel pins, wave our flags on our lawns and trust someone else to sort out the decisions. At this convention it become apparent to me that many (no, not all) of them cared more about their frivolous socializing and the label of “conservative”, than the true meaning behind that label or the meaning of why we were there at all.

What did Caesar say when asked what to do about citizen dissent? “Give them bread and circuses.” We now have proof that Caesars formula works well for most Republicans. All but those pesky and highly organized Ron Paul Republicans, of course.

[For anyone worrying about the Clark County platform that supported more regulations on homeschooling, I can assure you the State platform was very acceptable. The exact platform read as follows: 8. We support a parent's right to choice in education including vouchers, charter school, and home schooling. We also support the elimination of the U.S. Dept. of Education. We further oppose requiring licensure for parents who choose to home school. We support the elimination of the No Child Left Behind law and require the State of Nevada to replace the No Child Left Behind concept.]

Update: Here are some preliminary videos from the State Convention.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5iKzVTl-eHI
http://youtube.com/watch?v=XUMjySV72p8&feature=user

State Convention coming soon

The campaign has slowed down but the foot soldiers are still working. The issue in the last post has been taken care of and the homeschooling delegates are getting ready for the Nevada Repubican State Convention in just over a week.

Anyone in need of transportation, lodging or anything else need only contact briank@ronpaul2008.com.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Update on County Convention

Today was a long, arduous day at the Clark County Republican Convention. I was proud to see homeschoolers in full force there as well as many homeschooling supporters.

One particular concern has come of this. The Republican party is currently attempting to adopt into their state platform a change to homeschooling laws. Yes you heard me right. They understand fully our current law stating a one-time notification of intent to homeschool and wish to change this to an annual notice.

Don't worry! I've been talking to Kime who was one of the instrumental (although less public, more behind-the-scenes) people who helped passed our current laws. She is also a member of the CCRCC, as well as the Active Republican Women's group and has assured me she is working on this. Because she is already involved in the very organization that wishes to make these changes, she has much clout over the situation. She is planning to meet with the Platform Committee before the next CCRCC meeting and explain to them the expense which the public school system would incur in establishing a yearly notification.

We are working on this and will let you all know if there is anything you may need to do to help (which my include joining the Clark County Republican Central Committee o assist us in voting this down at the next meeting). Stay tuned for more details on that.

Other than that hiccup and a very confusing process, the county convention went well. We had many, many Ron Paul supporters in attendance and all who applied to go to the State Convention will be going (including me!).

We were also able to make some great changes to the platform and resolutions, and although we still have some to make, we are heading in a great direction!

P.S. If any of our homeschooling supporters in Washoe County can host a few homeschooling families for the State Convention in late April, please email me at taraewagner att yahoo dott com.