Jim Galloway over at the AJC has an article about a new rule that would allow the presumptive nominee for the Republican presidential ticket to vet any delegates elected from each state and disavow them if they weren’t really behind him or her. My initial reaction channels Madea: ”aww hell naw.” If you’re a Ron Pauler (or even someone supporting a candidate other than the presumptive nominee), then you should be most concerned, because it essentially shuts you out of the process. I’m not sure what sort of narcotic may have been slipped into one of the Romney folks’ drinks, but I believe that this is the EXACT OPPOSITE OF THE IDEALS OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. This seems to me like a form of the spoils system. I don’t know if the national GOP folks read our blog, but I know a lot of influential folks in the state of Georgia do, and I hope they are making alliances with other states. I am thankful that both Secretary of State Brian Kemp and Georgia Republican Party Legal Counselor Anne Lewis, both members to the rules committee for the national convention, voiced their opposition to this as this would stifle the voice of grassroots Republicans.
I spoke to Brian a few minutes ago concerning this rule change. He said that the process for the rules committee was very open and allow anyone who wanted to propose a rule change to be heard. Even though the controversial rule change was brought up twice in the 10 hour meeting, there was enough support from the majority of the rules committee to keep it in the committee report. He also said that he would sign onto the minority report if the rule in question were the only thing on there, but there were about four or five additional items on there, so he was uncomfortable to sign it without reading through it, but time wasn’t available for him to do that. However, there are enough people that have signed onto the minority report to move it forward.
There is a new rule in the national rules that would benefit Georgia. We had to allocate our delegates proportionally since we moved our Presidential Preference Primary back to early March. Georgia would be allowed to return to a winner-take-all system without being penalized…which would mean that we could be an even bigger player in Republican presidential primaries in 2016 and beyond. There are other rules changes that would increase penalties for states that try to move back their presidential primaries earlier and earlier (a so-called “nuclear option”). I haven’t seen a copy of the rules, but I’ll be sure to post them if I see them.
The rules now goes to the convention tomorrow where we may see a fight on the floor. Brian said there may be an up-or-down vote on the rules as a whole, but he’s still trying to find out what will go down tomorrow. He assured me that he and Anne will both be on the side of grassroots. Who said that conventions couldn’t be fun?
Article source: http://www.peachpundit.com/2012/08/27/if-youre-a-grassroots-republican-listen-up-and-be-concerned/
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