It just doesn’t seem to want to go away, does it?
Undeterred by the massive outcry after the Virginia Beach GOP forced slating, the Richmond City GOP has now followed suit. Reports are coming in from social media outlets that 80% of the delegates were slated off by a handful for the VA-03 District Convention, which puts current chairman and liberty-movement conservative Chris Stearns at a noted and decided disadvantage.
Henrico and Portsmouth have yet to vote in VA-03, and with new reports of slating in VA-05 against Tea Party candidate Mark Kevin Lloyd, the question remains what — if anything — will be done about it.
There are two options at this rate:
(1) Conservatives can start slating back. Could happen, but it would be the sign that the GOP Civil War has begun in earnest when the rules of decorum are thrown out by both sides, and not just the reactionary front.
(2) District chairman could deploy the “constitutional option” where everyone if you are a delegate to the state convention in Roanoke, you would be seated as a district convention delegate. This would require the district chair to rule the unit committee slating procedure to be improper, and would further require a vote of 2/3 to overturn the ruling of the chair at the district level. Barring that, the offending unit committee would then have to appeal to State Central Committee, where either the rules committee or the credentials committee would have to make a recommendation to State Central.
Of course, fans of conventions can’t help but watch as primary supporters hijack conventions and then in turn suggest conventions aren’t working while creating chaos in the baggage train. That’s akin to stuffing a ballot box during a primary and suggesting primaries don’t work — total rubbish.
…then again, there is the simple matter of turnout. If you turn out the troops, you don’t have to worry about slating. While in Virginia Beach the photographic evidence was damning enough, in Richmond the conservatives simply got outnumbered. It doesn’t excuse the tactic of slating… but it certainly means that on the balance, where conservatives are getting outnumbered the moderates are playing for keeps.
I doubt seriously that conservatives would turn the tables on the moderates in such a fashion and start slating folks off. Proportionate representation is part of the process (and so we’re told, one of the strengths of having a primary to begin with). Still, if one side is putting nails in the boxing gloves…
