State Central Meeting Saturday, February 20 – UPDATE

UPDATED February 20, 2021: The SCC meeting that was to take place February 20 at 1pm was cancelled and this message was posted on Facebook with a note that it was from those who had called the meeting:

A Message About the Upcoming State Central Committee Meeting

In consideration of Chairman Anderson’s notice to reconvene the currently recessed January 23 meeting of the State Central Committee at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 23, the meeting called for 1:00 p.m. today will not be held.

We have been working since the conclusion of the January 23 meeting to resolve the current impasse. That is why, in issuing our Call one week ago, we offered to support a Canvass as a compromise. Although a State Central Committee meeting will not be held today, we remain steadfast in our support of a Canvass. We intend to advance that compromise when we reconvene Tuesday.

A Canvass fulfills the requirements several State Central Committee members who voted against a Primary in our previous meetings publicly stated were necessary for their support.

Specifically, a Canvass allows for ranked choice voting, so our nominee for Governor would earn the support of a majority of Republican voters participating. And unlike a Convention, a Canvass does not limit the number of Republicans who may participate in the process.
Essential to resolving the current impasse, it is not necessary to amend the Party Plan to conduct a Canvass. The State Central Committee could select that method now by majority vote.

Finally, a Canvass does not require Republicans to pre-register to participate, nor would any of our unit committees have to conduct Mass Meetings in the midst of a pandemic to elect delegates to a Convention. At our previous meetings, several State Central Committee members who voted against a Primary indicated they would not support an in-person Convention as the method of nomination.

Canvasses, which have been successfully conducted to select nominees for Congress in the 10th District, for many House of Delegates and Senate of Virginia districts, and for local and constitutional offices in localities, are a proven party-run method of nominating candidates who win general elections. As evidenced by canvasses held recently in the 38th Senatorial District, and the 2nd and 90th House of Delegates Districts, a Canvass can be conducted in a manner that does not invite the intervention of the Governor.

While a Primary has been and will remain our “first choice” as a method of nomination, we have committed ourselves to supporting a Canvass to resolve the current impasse. Our candidates and Republican voters deserve certainty in the nominating process. By selecting a Canvass, State Central can deliver that certainty without further delay.

We hope more State Central Committee members will support this compromise. We urge all of our colleagues to join us in resolving this impasse and uniting our party by selecting a Canvass to choose our statewide nominees for the November 2 General Election.

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What? You hadn’t heard about Saturday’s State Central meeting? It was posted on the Republican Party of Virginia website but then removed.

Here are the details: