Rigell Resigns from GOP, Ouster Push Spawns Negative Press Coverage

This weekend, Congressman Scott Rigell said he’d vote for Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson in an interview published in the New York Times. Predictably, this caused quite an outrage among party members, who took to social media calling for his public banishment from his local unit committee at tonight’s meeting of the Republican Party of Virginia Beach.

The prolonging of the controversy has spawned avoidable follow-up headlines continuing the negative media coverage. This didn’t have to happen if the issue had been handled quietly and in a manner which kept Republicans from going off message.

The provision invoked would have been pursuant to Article VII, Section C of the RPV Party Plan, which provides that:

“…a member of an Official Committee is deemed to have resigned his Committee position if he … (c) makes a written or other public statement supporting the election of a candidate in opposition to a Republican nominee in a Virginia General or Special Election…”

For an in-depth examination of the Party Plan provisions governing a member’s removal under these circumstances, please see Bearing Drift’s coverage and analysis from earlier today.

Rigell’s opponents never got to see the public shaming they hoped, for as of this afternoon, Rigell had resigned his membership in the RPVB unit committee.

“The wheels were in motion to remove me, so I thought it best to resign,” Rigell told WAVY’s Tom Schaad, as quoted in an article published at 3:18 PM. “I understand and respect the party’s bylaws and how they apply to me.”

Instead of letting the matter die quietly, the ouster push forced his hand and spawned another unnecessary, negative headline calling additional unneeded attention to fissures within the GOP.

“Congressman Scott Rigell resigns from local Republican party,” the headline read, with a probable follow-up on tonight’s broadcast news.

Members of the general public who don’t understand the intricacies of RPV’s Plan of Organization have no clue that, according to internal party rules, Rigell was “deemed to have resigned” as of the moment the New York Times published the interview this weekend. The action was by operation of the Party Plan subject only to affirmation of the facts; he need not announce his resignation, nor was the local committee required to entertain a motion to remove him by vote of the membership.

All the public sees is a headline which suggests Rigell has renounced the Party in its entirety, rather than choosing to sit on the sidelines while he disagrees with one nominee.

As far as they know, Rigell has departed Republican shores, never to return. His supporters see a Congressman who can’t be a Republican anymore.

Except, though, that’s not the case and not what he said.

In the Times interview, Rigell said he considered himself to be a Republican, though that could change, he said, if the Republican Party became synonymous with Trump and his ideas.

“Then I’m done,” Rigell told the Times, “and I’ll be an independent.”

Rigell isn’t an independent yet. He still identifies as a Republican, not that the public would know from the avoidable negative coverage resulting from the need for ceremonial banishment.

This isn’t an issue of whether one agrees with Scott Rigell in supporting Gary Johnson. This author certainly doesn’t, and won’t be supporting Gary Johnson.

Likewise, Congressman Rigell shouldn’t be spared the consequences under the Party Plan because of his title. Rather, the plan should be applied fairly, justly, and equally, according to the plain meaning of its words.

That doesn’t mean a public banishment and denouncement ceremony was necessary, though.

Under the provisions of the Party Plan, Rigell lost his membership when his statement of support of a nominee opposed to a Republican nominee became public, subject only to the affirmation of its existence by a majority vote of the elected officers of the RPVB. That vote could have been taken quietly. It did not need to occur tonight, in an open meeting, while the controversy circulated in the public media.

Any delay in affirming his deemed resignation wouldn’t have matterd, since pursuant to the Party Plan, it would be effective as of the publication of his statement, not as of the moment of the vote. Whereas motions for removal of a member under other provisions are prospective, actions occurring under Art. VII, Sec. C are retrospective, looking back to the moment of publication once confirmed by the officers of the official committee.

These look-back provisions could have allowed this matter to die quietly without risk of impact to the committee’s business, due to the retrospective nature of Sec. C in identifying the moment at which the action equivocated with resignation occurred.

Rigell’s statement of support for the Libertarian was exactly what Sec. C deemed it to be: an expression of intent to no longer participate in the proceedings of RPVB, which the Congressman confirmed in his interview with WAVY.

When some members wanted to so forcefully show Rigell the door, he found the exit all on his own.

The result is an avoidable cycle of negative press coverage. Those who wanted to publicly express their disapproval with Rigell’s refusal to support Donald Trump have generated headlines which siphon more votes from Donald Trump. The public shaming ceremony planned for tonight was entirely counterproductive, and now the nominee must pay the price.

The moral of this story: when a course of events brings negative media attention to your candidate or cause, let the issue die. Do whatever it takes to make the negative coverage go away.

In the case of the Rigell situation, the prudent action would have been ignoring the story and not creating any new controversies or twists, allowing it to quickly fade away before any more of Rigell’s supporters hear any more coverage and decide to join the Congressman in not supporting the Republican nominee.

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