Give Us Back Our Convention!

On April 26th in Reno, the Republican State Convention was abruptly and improperly recessed indefinitely on the orders of Sue Lowden, state party chairperson. After a day of parliamentary wrangling, the delegates defeated all the plans of the party leadership to dictate the selection of delegates to the national convention. The crucial vote was approximately 750 to 450 in favor of a plan where the delegates would be selected by the convention rather than the party leadership.

After that critical vote, an election process was put in place where 9 of the delegates would be elected by congressional district, with 3 from each district. Another 22 delegates would be elected by at large voting with that to take place after the election by congressional district. As the election proceeded, it became clear that result desired by the party leadership, which was the election of delegates favorable to John McCain, would fail. The party leadership and the John McCain campaign began searching for a way to stop what to them would be a disaster. The first attempt was to reduce the number of delegates in the hall and so force an end to the convention due to lack of a quorum. That effort failed, probably due to poor communications with the delegates. It was apparently an effort that they were not willing to announce publicly. At about 6:00 p.m., the convention chairman, contrary to the rules of the convention, announced an indefinite recess without any discussion or vote on the matter. This recess hit the convention like a bomb, with strong objections from those who wished the convention to continue.

The original word from Sue Lowden was that the convention would reconvene at a later time. However, the party leaders are apparently discussing plans to handle the remaining elections by mail, rather than to reconvene the convention. At this writing, almost two weeks after the convention, there is no word from the party chairman as to when, if ever, the convention will be reconvened.

As a delegate to the convention, I call on the party leadership to reconvene the convention at the earliest practical time and to adhere strictly to election procedures that were adopted by the convention.

By long tradition and parliamentary rules, a political convention belongs to the delegates and not to the presiding officer of the convention or to the party leadership. Any deviation from this practice will be a bad precedent and will serve to undermine the best traditions of American government.

R. Holloway