An open letter on our GOP nominations processes
By John Hardy Willson
My fellow Republicans, it is time to set the record straight on a few issues facing our party.
First I want to address the recent instances of slating that have occurred within our party. Slating is a term describing the act of electing a preferential slate of delegates to a party convention of those who favor the candidate of the electorate present at the Republican mass meeting for that locality.
This is a perfectly legal action allowed by the Republican Party of Virginia (RPV) Party Plan. Many people don’t realize that those who submit pre file forms to be a delegate are not automatically elected as delegates. They have filed to be a candidate (much as one would file to be a unit chair) for election as a delegate. The unit holds a mass meeting, party canvass, or county convention in order to elect delegates to the nominating convention. The call is put out to alert all the Republicans in the area to attend the mass meeting to participate in the election of delegates, and party officials who will be in charge of laying the infrastructure for our party’s nominees.
In cases where the unit committee choses not to include language in its call that guarantees automatic election to everyone who files, it is within the purview of those in attendance at the mass meeting, canvass, or convention to select candidates that represent their views on the nominee or issue being taken into consideration at the nominating convention. Article 8, Section A of the Party Plan states the purpose of selecting delegates as: “In the event a purpose is to elect Delegates to a Convention, the time, place, purpose of, and the basis of representation to the Convention.” So legally this is an allowable practice, and it could be argued that this was the intention so that our local committees would be the vehicles by which our party could elect delegates to the convention to represent the views of the electorate, not the individual. This is a practice, which has been in existence for years in Virginia politics, and has been used by both sides in the fight.
Russ Moulton chaired the recent Henrico mass meeting where grassroots activists were able to turn up enough people to the meeting in order to prevent a slate of delegates from being selected from among several individuals pre filed to attend the third district convention. He has been very vocal in the process claiming that no one should be disenfranchised from participation. What is quite humorous about this is Russ was involved in slating delegates when he chaired the Campbell County Mass Meeting in 2012. What is even more humorous are the descriptions that are given from the time period in which Russ served as the Spotsylvania Party Chairman. In a 2002 article in the Free Lance Star, Spotsylvania activist William Murray wrote of Russ:
“During his direct and surrogate management of the Spotsylvania unit of the Republican Party, dozens of good conservative people, including elected Republican officials, have been purged from the rolls.Many were purged or refused membership two years ago because they supported Jo Ann Davis rather than the primary candidate supported by Moulton.”
The fact is that this tactic has been employed by both sides engaged in the intra-party fight, and it shows how disingenuous it is when one group cries foul over its use, which brings us to the second point of this article, the need for outside groups to get out of our party’s operations.
Just as many of the tea party, grassroots activists are angered by the Young Guns involvement in the delegate selection process, so too are many angered by the continued interjection of outside forces into their party business. One needs look no further than the current race for the 7th Congressional District Chairmanship. Russ Moulton and his group are trying to knock off longtime chair Linwood Cobb, and they’re lying to Conservative activists, telling them that defeating Linwood Cobb will help David Brat win his primary against Congressman Cantor.
Folks, it is common knowledge that the 7th District has been in a class of its own compared to the other congressional districts. Last year the 7th alone donated over $190,000 to Republican candidates compared to $17,000 from all the other ten districts combined. Every single House of Delegates and State Senate members in the 7th are Republican (wish our other districts could say the same), and yes, when Congressman Cantor has won the nomination, the 7th district has done its duty and worked tirelessly to ensure his election, just as Fred Gruber will be required to do should he win the race. Linwood has also offered his personal endorsement of Congressman Cantor,as Cantor has been a huge help in fundraising for the district, which in turn allows the district to have the record it does.
Ladies and gentlemen, wake up. Who the district chair is does not determine whom the congressional candidate for that district will be. That power resides in the people alone, who pick their nominee through the set process. So lets stop buying into the mess being thrown at us that defeating Linwood hurts Cantor. It hurts everyone as Fred Gruber is by no means qualified to be district chair, and our district would suffer hugely from the lack of results Linwood has brought us.
This brings us to the third part of this article. Many have been criticizing what is referred to as the “establishment”, for working to silence the grassroots part of the party while others criticize the grassroots and tea party for seeking to exclude a vast portion of the Republican base we expect to turn out for us in November from participating in picking our nominee.
Let us not forget that had it not been for the work of what some in our party are calling the “establishment”, the Republican Party of Virginia would not have ever been what we were before our slip into decline the past few election cycles. If you look back to the work that many of these people did to grow our party and create a winning platform during the Allen years, once can easily see a record of grassroots inclusion and building. This transitions directly into the last point of this article, which is it is time to have the serious discussion about convention vs. primaries.
Ladies and Gentlemen, it is imperative that we find the manner in which to nominate our candidates that includes all Virginia republicans in the selection process. If we look back over the history of our nominations here in Virginia, we have had a long tradition of strong nominating convention. Even those called the political “establishment” have been in favor of conventions. In his 27+ years on the State Central Committee, Mike Thomas (one of the favorite targets of Russ Moulton and others) has voted for a convention all years prior to the 2012 nomination, with the exception when our candidate was an incumbent (and we had no choice) or when we had a presumptive nominee, as with Jerry Kilgore in 2005.
At the George Allen nominating convention in 1993 there were 12,000+ registered delegates and there were 14,000 in 1994. In 2009 (the highest attended in recent elections) there were 6,000 delegates who participated in the convention compared to around 3,000 that participated in 2008. The 2012 and 2013 conventions were some of the lowest turnout conventions and 2014 is shaping up to be the same (around 4,000 delegates pre-filed).
My fellow Republicans, the stats clearly show that Virginia Republicans are growing weary of year after year attending these nominating conventions. The process of becoming a delegate and then having to attend an all day convention (sometimes multiple day) while trying to balance the problems that arise in everyday life, is entirely to cumbersome for many to participate. However, in spite of having a clear decline in participation in our nomination process, we are still angered by our fellow Republicanswhen they don’t show up in November. It was different in 1993-1994. After our convention, we had an army of 12,000+ republicans spreading our message across the state. With our conventions now, we have coalitions of less than 5,000 trying to fight our ground game. It is time to re-engage the other 200,000 plus who would participate in a primary, in order to really grow our party.
Our convention process has warped from its original structure into a process, which allows for the disenfranchisement of many of our already limited grassroots resources. As previously shown from the Party Plan, the purpose of mass meetings is to select delegates to represent the will of the unit body, to represent that unit at the convention (just as our presidential conventions operate). Many in the party hailed the defeat of the practice of instructing (where delegates were told who to vote for). When they removed the practice of instruction, they left in place the piece of the Party Plan, which allows for slating to achieve the purpose of representing the will of the unit body. This is something that both sides of the internal struggle have chosen to exploit (forget not Russ Moulton Chairing and slating the mass meeting in Campbell in 2012).
We need to do either one of two things. One, we switch our nominations over to primaries. One, this will help our cash-strapped state party save some money to begin to rebuild in the wake of our current defeats, and two, it will allows for all republicans (the ones who door knock, the ones who donate money, and just the average citizen who cares about the future of our country but are to busy with kids, jobs, or are overseas fighting for our freedom, to participate in the selection of our candidates at a convention.
The second option is to return our convention process to its original function. The Mass Meetings elect their delegates to the convention with the purpose of their election being to represent the will of the body by which they were elected. At the very least this must happen on the first ballot. This will allow those in our party who can’t attend the convention, but can go to the Thursday night, hour long mass meeting, to have a say in the selection of our nominees.
Personally, I would argue in favor of a primary as it allows for the selection of our nominee with the greatest participation by our Commonwealth’s republican voters.For those who make the argument that primaries allow for the candidate with the most money to win, I point you to the recent PA State Senate race, where tea party candidate Scott Wagner won the general election as a write-in, independent. Ladies in gentleman, if you win the argument of ideas, you will win the election. If you put in the work to win the primary and you have the right message that the people want to hear, you will win, and when you’re done, you will have an army of 200,000 plus republicans ready to carry your message.
It is time to stop the civil war in which we are embroiled. It is time to unite and work together, just as we did in the 1990’s, and just as we did again in 2009. If we do not, we are forever dooming ourselves to a minority party status. If we do not work to expand our party and include all Virginia republicans in our nominations we will continue to lose and we will continue to shrink our way to oblivion.
John Hardy Willson is Vice Chair of the Hanover County Republican Committee
