How to Become a Republican Delegate

HOW TO BECOME A REPUBLICAN DELEGATE 2012 – PART 1

by Larry J. West

Note: This document was last updated on Dec. 9^th, 2009. It is a work in progress as I am in the process of updating it for the 2012 conventions. Most of the dates are still related to 2008. If you see any errors, omissions, or have any comments for improvements, please let me know and I will update this document.

A little history about this document: In early 2008, someone wrote in a blog that I followed at the time that they wanted to participate in the Republican process and become a delegate, but needed to know how. (I stopped following that blog when the main writer accused a group of people he disdained of spreading feces in the Republican Party headquarters bathroom, and was not willing to apologize or consider himself wrong when it was shown that it was caused by a member of the group he supported who had an intestinal problem.) Having been involved in the party, although as an “outsider” not well liked by certain people, I wrote the first part of the following document to help that person. Somehow, it got in the hands of Francene of WHAS radio, who invited me on her program to discuss it and the Republican delegation process. This led me to be considered de-facto one of the leaders of the “opposition” to the way things were run, a position that I did not seek, but accepted, due to the way I have been treated by the local party in the past.

In 2004, many Republicans (including myself) in Jefferson County (Louisville), Kentucky were not allowed to become delegates to the County, District, State, and National Conventions for various reasons. These reasons include:

(i) the convention locations were not made public until a couple of days prior to the convention, thus hurting the ability of some people to adequately organize their supporters, while giving those who supported the people currently in power who knew the places and times an unfair advantage;

(ii) the bylaws and convention rules were not made public, thus people who did not know if the convention was preceding accordingly (which most weren’t), and people did not know that their rights were being violated;

(iii) convention officials lied about the rules in various legislative district conventions, including but not limited to:
(a) not letting people know that they could modify the rules

(b) telling people that resolutions had to be typed, when all the rules require is that they be “written.”

(d) not letting or telling people that they could vote for a new Legislative District chairman and other positions that were supposed to be elective

(e) not letting or telling people that they were allowed to submit their own slate, or immediately throwing out any slate submitted

(f) failing to submit passed resolutions to the county convention

(g) failing to follow proper Parliamentary procedures in order to allow a minority to hold onto power

[I could state more, but you get the idea]

(iv) the credentials committee eliminated many slates of active grassroots Republicans, sometimes replacing them with people who were not as active in the party (for example, in the 29^th District, only 4 people in the credential committee approved slate attended the County Convention, two of whom were metro councilmen who would have shown up anyway, as apposed to more than double that amount in the legislative district approved slate), in effect telling these people that their participation in the party was not desired. This resulted in not only fewer voting attendants at the County Convention, but also in fewer people helping in recent campaigns, which may have contributed to Anne Northup’s narrow defeat in 2006. (Anne’s refusal to condemn the above activities contributed somewhat also to the reluctance of some volunteers.)

If you need a reminder about what happened in 2004, visit http://www.jeffersonreview.com/articles/2004/032204/theparty.htm.

2008 was slightly better. The meeting times were announced in advance, with all legislative district conventions taking place at the same spot.

Thankfully, all of these problems have been (or can be) fixed, so it is expected and hoped that we will have a better convention this year. Of course, I said the same thing in 2008, and we know the result of that!

Most people now realize that, as it states in the Jefferson County Republican Executive Committee Bylaws, “As Republicans, we are and we must be committed to encouraging the broadest possible participation in the affairs of our Party.” The truth is that the “Country Club” Republicans (who provide most of the money) and the “non-Country Club” or “grass root” Republicans (who provide most of the “shoe-leather” needed to win campaigns) need each other. Recent history has shown that excluding one group or another has resulted in losing elections, as the last gubernatorial, congressional, and special elections for state senate has shown.

Unfortunately, there are still a few people who are obstructionists to party harmony, who want to put personal desire against what is best for the party. These are people who want some elite group to choose the candidates, for example, instead of trusting the voters of the Republican Party. This document assumes that these people will try to duplicate what they were successful at in 2004 and 2008. People from all sides need to work together to defeat these people.

I believe that the post-Richardson era needs to break totally with the mistakes of the past, and work towards common support so that we can together defeat Democrats, regaining the Congressional seat in Louisville and keeping the seat in the Second District and the United States Senate, as well as increasing our numbers in the Metro Council, the State House, and State Senate.

In other words, we need to forgive and forget the fact that we have hurt each other. As one who has been one of those hurt greatly by what others have said and done towards me, I am willing to extend the olive branch to those who have been against me. – Lets fight Democrats, not each other.

So, this document is only for those people who are willing to work together for the betterment of the party, regardless of what you thought of me or others in the past. If you are not such a person, I ask you to not read this document.

Here then are my suggestions:

Prior to the Conventions:

1. Verify that you are registered to vote as a Republican prior to Jan. 29^th, 2008 [the candidate filing deadline date]. If you are not sure, you can visit or call the Board of Elections office on Barrett Lane (on the ground floor of the old Baptist Hospital). You can also check your status at https://cdcbp.ky.gov/VICWeb/VIC . It will also give you your precinct number and legislative district. I would recommend that you print out the results page just in case.

2. Make sure that your driver’s license address matches the address on the voter record.

3. If you do not have a driver’s license, be sure you have and bring a government-based ID card that has your picture and address on it. In 2004, my son, 19 at the time, did not have a driver’s license or government ID, and was not allowed to participate, even though he was a registered Republican in the Precinct and many people there were willing to validate who he was. This arguably violates the bylaws, which do not state that a government ID is required (see Article XII, Section 1.0), but they will probably enforce it if you are not perceived to be part of the obstructionist’s group.

4. Obtain a copy of the Jefferson County Republican Executive Committee bylaws, the temporary rules for the precinct convention and the legislative caucus, and my “Guide to Parliamentary Procedures,” and study them. The former can be found at www.rpk.org/About, and the latter three at my website: http://larrywest.spaces.live.com .

5. Study the latest version of this document as well, also available on my website. I shall be updating it frequently as people make suggestions. Please help me improve it.

6. If you have a copy of "Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised" (any edition from 1970 on), bring it. Also, if you can bring a camcorder, we can tape the activities, which may be needed if lawsuits are required in order for all Republicans to get justice.

7. The whole thing should be over by 12:30pm, but you might want to bring a snack just in case it goes longer.

8. If you want to become a delegate or alternate to the Republican National Convention in September in Minneapolis, be aware of the following rule:

(a) Any registered Republican who desires to be nominated at either the District or State Convention to be a Delegate or an Alternate Delegate to the National Convention, shall submit a letter which must be received by Republican state headquarters at least four (4) working days before the applicable District or State Convention. Said letter shall be addressed to the Nominating Committee, state the person's interest in becoming a Delegate or Alternate Delegate, and set forth the reasons why they should be considered by the Nominating Committee. The state headquarters staff will immediately convey the would-be nominee's letter to the Nominating Committee of the appropriate convention. No person may be nominated or elected by a District or State Convention to be a Delegate or Alternate Delegate to the National Convention unless this procedure is followed. … The Nominating Committee at the District and State Conventions shall consider at least two criteria in selecting Delegates and Alternate Delegates to the National Convention; namely, (1) the letter received in accordance with this rule, and (2) any current political involvement on behalf of the Republican party and/or Republican candidates at any level.

This means you have approximately one month in which to write your letter giving reasons for being a delegate. Requirements include “political involvement”, so make sure you document your work. If you don’t think you have done enough, here are some tips:

a. Find a Republican candidate running in a primary (including President) and try to become a precinct officer for that candidate. If you can, get that candidate to write you a letter of recommendation, and include it.

b. Write letters to the editor advocating the elections of Republicans, and include them with your letter to the Party. Especially consider Leo, the Voice, etc.

c. Encourage people to come to the various conventions, and of course, make sure you yourself participate.

(If you don’t get it this year, keep up the Republican political involvement and try again in 2016.)

On the morning of the Caucus/Convention:

1. Registration begins at 9am on Saturday, March 1^st at Ballard High School. Registration closes promptly at 10am. In 2004, the “obstructionists” only allowed their supporters to register late, so you must be on time. [Note: if you are a Republican from a different county, you are welcome to come watch – it would be nice if you monitor the people doing the registering to verify that they are not discriminatory towards any of your fellow Republicans.]

2. If you do not have transportation, you can take the TARC Bus, Route 15 (Market Street). The bus you want leaves Shawnee Park at 7:54 am, 5^th and Market at 8:15 am, and arrives at Ballard around 8:52 am.

3. Once you get registered, find the classroom your legislative district meets in, and introduce yourself to the people there. Especially talk to people in your precinct and find out where they stand on what happened in 2004. Undoubtedly you will find one or more people trying to create a slate of delegates to the upcoming conventions. Try to get on as many lists as you can.

4. In 2004, someone in the party (probably Jack Richardson, since he signed them) printed red flyers at party expense accusing his opponents of having a ‘hidden agenda.’ Given that it was Jack’s group that kept the rules from getting into the hands of the people in order to make it easier to violate the rights of Republicans, it was his group that had the ‘hidden agenda.’ If a similar flyer is printed in 2012 that goes against party harmony, remove them.

During the Precinct Caucus:

The order of business of this convention is supposed to be as follows (with my comments in italics). Note that if the chairperson does not follow this order, you can, except during a motion to suspend the rules, say “I call for the orders of the day.” A two-thirds vote is then required to allow the chairperson to not follow the specified order:

(a) The call to order

If at any time you feel that you are not ready to continue, move that the Precinct Caucus recess for a couple of minutes.

If the temporary rules that the temporary officers are using does not match what they had announced in early February (see above on how to get a copy), make a motion to “suspend the rules” and to substitute the previously announced rules. A two-thirds vote is required, but if you explain to the attendees how despicable such an action the temporary officers are doing, that the rules you want to use are those approved unanimously at the last executive committee meeting and was good enough for them then, they should support you.

Note that in all actions requiring seconding, that the party requires a thirding (two people to second), not just the standard one.

(b) Announcement of Temporary Officers (of, if all precinct officers are absent, the election of the Temporary Chairman, who then appoints a Temporary Secretary)

If the temporary chairman, the previous Precinct Captain, is not present, be sure to choose someone who is knowledgeable regarding Robert’s Rules of Order. Ideally, the person should have or be given a copy of my “Guide to Parliamentary Procedures.”

I don’t understand why they included this. Theoretically, anyone not entitled to vote should not be allowed to enter the classroom. If they try to say someone whom you believe is entitled to vote is mentioned as not being entitled, and the chair doesn’t give a valid reason for the exclusion (the only valid reasons, by the “temporary rules,” are that the person was not a registered Republican on January 29^th, or else the person does not reside in the Precinct), say the following: “I appeal the decision of the chair.” (An appeal can interrupt a speaker.) A majority vote is needed to seat the person in question, a tie vote doesn’t. (See below if the chairperson ignores your appeal.)

(d) Deciding whether the temporary rules need to be amended in any way.

If there are some positions that would not be filled because no one is under 35 and/or there is only one gender present from your precinct, move to suspend the rules so that the positions of Precinct Captain, Precinct Co-Captain, and Precinct Youth Captain can all be filled. (Some may say that this can’t be done, but the precedence was made by the county being allowed to change the Youth Captain’s age requirements.) Otherwise, your precinct won’t have the representation in the Legislative District caucus that it deserves. This motion requires a two-thirds vote to pass.

(e) Election of Permanent Chairman of the meeting; election of Permanent Secretary of the meeting.

If the temporary chairman has done a good job, and has not been combative, in the interest of party unity, let him or her continue as Permanent Chairman of the Precinct if the person so desires and if he or she did not try to substitute different rules. The secretary is supposed to be taking minutes. Make sure that she is during any important occasion.

(f) Nomination and election of Precinct Captain.

It really doesn’t matter which of these positions you hold, as all three of these are allowed to vote in the Legislative District convention. If there are only three (or less) people there from your precinct, regardless of where they stand, in the interest of party unity, give each person a position. While you are allowed to choose someone who is not present, but still a registered Republican in your precinct, only do this if there are two or less people from your precinct present.

(g) Nomination and election of Precinct Co-Captain (must be of opposite sex from Captain)

(h) Nomination and election of Precinct Youth Captain (must be less than 35 years old when elected)

The temporary rules state “must be less than 35 years old,” but the JCREC bylaws state “who when elected will be thirty-six (36) years of age or younger”. To be certain that it doesn’t get overturned, if you have a 35 or 36 year old for this position, move to suspend the rules in item (d) anyway.

(i) Any other business

This is the place to introduce your resolutions if you weren’t elected to a precinct officer position. Be prepared to have any resolution you introduce in written form.

(j) Announcements

If you are a member of any Republican Club, this would be a good place to announce your next meeting. There will undoubtedly be some people present who don’t even know your organization exists.

(k) Adjournment sine die

“sine die” means adjournment without a set date for meeting again. Have someone state “I move that we set a fix time to adjourn to. That unless the Jefferson County Republican Party announces a date, time, and place for the precinct caucus to meet prior to two weeks prior to the date set, that we meet at 10am on the first Saturday in March, 2012, at the place where the 2012 Legislative District Caucus is held.” That motion, in the Roberts Rules of Order, would have a greater order of precedence than the movement to adjourn without mentioning when to return has.

Between the Precinct Caucus and the Legislative District Caucus:

Even if you were not elected Precinct Captain, Co-Captain, or Youth Caption, I would recommend that you stay through the Legislative District Caucus anyway. It will increase your chances of being elected to a further position. Volunteer to keep track of the votes made by those who can vote.

There will probably be some people still trying to create delegate and alternate slates. Try to get on as many of these as you can.

At the Legislative District Caucus meeting:

The order of business of this convention is supposed to be (again, with my comments in italics):

(a) The call to order

(b) Announcement of Temporary Officers (of, if the Legislative District Chairman is absent, the election of the Temporary Chairman, who then appoints a Temporary Secretary)

For (a), (b), and (c), see my comments above under Precinct Caucus. If you know of some precinct caucuses that have not finished, move for a recess until ten minutes after all precincts have finished their caucus.

(d) Deciding whether the temporary rules need to be amended in any way.

Here is where the first possibly controversial item will take place. Move the following: “I move that the temporary rules be modified as follows. Since the Jefferson County Republican Executive Committee Bylaws as stated in Article XII, Section 4.5-A does not require the Credentials Committee to eliminate an entire delegation simply because some of the delegates were not properly accredited, the __^th district’s Credential Committee member may not vote to eliminate entire delegation(s) unless everyone in that delegation are not eligible.” Make a note of everyone who votes against this motion. If you can’t make a note of everyone who voted against this and/or you think the chairperson announced the wrong results, say “I call for the division of the body.” Moving for a “division” does NOT require a second, and can be met by the chair taking the vote count by raising hands instead of by voice vote. If you still did not get a list of everyone, you can call for a roll-call vote, but surprisingly, this is not listed in Robert’s Rules of Order, so don’t complain if the Chair doesn’t allow it.

Another suspension of rules recommended is “I move that the temporary rules be modified as follows: Whereas, the County bylaws, in Article XIII, Section 2.1A(d)4 do not require Social Security numbers, the words “Social Security Number” shall be stricken from the bottom of the Legislative District Caucus Rules.”

(e) Election of Permanent Chairman of the meeting; election of Permanent Secretary of the meeting.

Again, if the temporary chairman has done a good job, and has not been combative, in the interest of party unity, let him or her continue as Permanent Chairman of the Legislative District if the person so desires and they voted for the above motions. You might wish to ask him or her first if they are next going to bring up the nomination and election of the Legislative District Chair.

(f) Nomination and election of Legislative District Chairman.

In most, if not all, Legislative District caucuses in 2004, they did not bring this up for a vote. If the chairperson fails to bring this up for a vote, announce “I call for the orders of the day. At this time we are supposed to have ‘Nomination and election of Legislative District Chairman.’.” If the chair of the meeting fails to acknowledge you, raise a “Point of Order.” If the chair says you are out of order, say “I appeal the decision of the chair.” A two-thirds vote against your appeal is required to allow the chair to ignore your call. If the chair continues, state “According to Section 61 of Robert’s Rules of Order, Newly Revised, I raise to a question of privilege, to declare the chair vacant and to proceed to elect a new chairman. All those in favor say aye…. opposed ….” Let us hope it doesn’t come to that.

The Legislative District Chairman is a very important position. He or she is one of the people who will decide Jack Richardson’s replacement. Make sure that the person you vote for did not vote against the amendment disallowing the Credentials Committee person the right to vote to disallow an entire slate, even if you had previously planned on voting for him or her.

One of the problems with many of the LD Chairpeople that Jack Richardson chose, such as Chris Thieneman, is that they would not attend Executive Committee meetings. You are only allowed to miss four of the monthly meetings all year (no more than three consecutive). They must also be willing to donate $50 to the Jefferson County Republican Party. If you are not willing to do these two things, plus do what you can to help get out the vote on election day, then don’t run for LD Chair. (Note: I plan to run for LD Chair of the 29^th District, so please don’t run against me.)

Newly elected members of the Jefferson County Republican Executive Committee are sworn in during the April JCREC meeting.

Note that the LD Chairman does not have to be a precinct officer – any registered Republican who lives in the legislative district is eligible.

There may be multiple elections if there are multiple candidates. If this happens, the candidate with the fewest votes is dropped and election begins again until someone gets over half of the votes. If your candidate is dropped, and you don’t know who to vote for, ask for a five minute recess, then ask the remaining candidates their views.

(f) Nomination and election of Delegates to the County and District Conventions. (The LD Chairman shall automatically be granted the position of delegate to the county and district conventions.)

At this point, in the interest of party unity, if there are less people present than delegates allocated for the legislative district, I recommend the following motion: “I move for a division of the question, that first, all registered Republicans in attendance right now be placed on the County and District convention delegations, with the remainder of the delegates and all the alternates to be voted on separately.” If there are more people present than delegates allocated, change the wording to, “I move for a division of the question, that first, all registered Republicans in attendance right now be placed on the County and District conventions in an order chosen by the new LD Chairman, with those present who are not delegates placed on the top of the alternate list, and with the remainder of the alternates voted on separately,”. (This assumes, of course, that the LD chairperson elected is not an obstructionist to party harmony.) If anyone attended a precinct caucus, but had to leave for some reason, these people should be added next on the list.

I am certain that some people will develop their own slates, trying to exclude those whom they don’t like, but we need to put our differences aside and keep all Republicans who are active enough to come to an LD caucus to keep participating in the Republican Party.

If the above motion passes, and you end up on the alternate list, don’t worry, as most likely not all delegates will attend the other conventions and you will probably get to serve.

If the above motion fails, and there are slates that you are not on, ask for a fifteen minute recess and try to get on those slates.

Make sure that you note all those who voted against the above motion, and note them as obstructionists to party harmony.

Note that some Legislative Districts have some precincts in the Second Congressional District as well as the Third. These LD’s will end up with three slates – one for the County Convention, one for the Third District, and one for the Second District.

Although traditionally the County Delegation and the District Delegation have been the same slate, there are no rules that it has to be that way, except that the LD chair has to be on both. If you have more people than delegate and alternate slots, perhaps your caucus can solve the problem be delegates to only one of the conventions (with most being alternates to the other one).

In all that you do this convention, try to follow Steven Covey’s “Seven Habits for Highly Effective People,” especially ‘Think Win-Win.’ ^TM

(g) Nomination and election of Alternate Delegates to the County and District Conventions.

Most likely there will be less people attending than there are delegates plus alternates for the conventions. If you know of someone who will attend the county convention on March 15^th, nominate them to fill one of the vacant positions. Please don’t submit names of people who you know will not attend just to keep other active Republicans from serving.

(h) Nomination and election of one person to each of the standing committees for the county convention. Each person elected must be a resident of Jefferson County and reside in the Legislative District they are nominated to represent.

Again, notice that these people do not have to be precinct officers. It is very important that even if the motion to not disallow delegation elimination failed, that someone who voted in favor of allowing it does not get on the Credentials Committee.

(i) Any other business

This is the place for resolutions.

(j) Announcements

If you are a member of any Republican Club, this would be a good place to announce your next meeting. There will undoubtedly be some people present who don’t even know your organization exists.

If the convention and caucus were both done in a proper manner, make a motion thanking the organizers that it was not run like in 2004.

(k) Adjournment sine die

Again, “sine die” means adjournment without a set date for meeting again. Have someone state “I move that we set a fix time to adjourn to. That unless the Jefferson County Republican Party announces a date, time, and place for the legislative district convention to meet prior to two weeks prior to the date set, that we meet at 11am on the first Saturday in March, 2012, at ______.” You can choose a location in or near your district, such as the meeting room of your local library, or some other place not out of the way of the majority of people there. That motion, in the Roberts Rules of Order, would have a greater order of precedence than the movement to adjourn without mentioning when to return has.

Delegation counts

NOTE: The 2012 Delegate count cannot be made until after redistricting takes place as a result of the 2010 census. Most likely this will be announced mid-to-late January of 2012. I will update the below at that time:

Since the person in charge of determining the number of delegates is one of those who orchestrated the 2004 Legislative Caucuses that disenfranchised hundreds of Republicans by throwing out their slates, and since the state party is in error in regards to the number of delegates that the third district is supposed to have (the state website states 395, but the number should be 402, since President Bush received 160,772 votes), I decided to publish my calculations.

The state party mistakenly believed that since the county has 411 delegates, and the second district has 16 delegates, that the third district has 395. But the second district only has 16 because of the 3 delegate minimum per legislative district rule. In actually, President Bush only received 3,794 votes in the Second District part of Jefferson County, thus entitling the county to 9 votes without the minimum rule. (411 minus 9 is 402).

Here are the numbers based on my calculations. The 401 is due to rounding. It will be interesting to see, if the state doesn't change their numbers, which legislative districts will lose their deserved delegates. Note: if the state does allow the 402 that we deserve, LD E(32) deserves the extra delegate as they were only 10 Bush votes away from getting it.

The voter information taken from http://www.jeffersoncountyclerk.org/voter-info/elect_arch.asp which did not break down the walk-in/mail-in by precinct. I am proportionally dividing this number among the various LDs.

I would be glad to provide the Excel file that I used to calculate these numbers upon request.

Legis- Countywide | Second District | Third District

lative Raw # Modified | Second District Raw # Modified | Raw # Modified

District Votes Del. Votes Del.| Precincts Votes Del. # Del.| Votes Del. # Del.

A(28) 10103 25 10651.6 27 | A122, A130 543 1 563.5 3 | 9560 24 10082.9 25

B(29) 16180 40 17058.6 43 | B127, B130, B131 869 2 901.8 3 | 15311 38 16148.5 40

C(30) 6554 16 6909.9 17 | 0 0 0 0 | 6554 16 6912.5 17

D(31) 11518 29 12143.5 30 | 0 0 0 0 | 11518 29 12148.0 30

E(32) 13265 33 13985.3 35 | 0 0 0 0 | 13265 33 13990.6 35

F(33) 16553 41 17451.9 44 | 0 0 0 0 | 16553 41 17458.4 44

G(34) 9954 25 10494.5 26 | 0 0 0 0 | 9954 25 10498.5 26

H(35) 8400 21 8856.1 22 | H138,H145,H148,H149 1617 4 1678.0 4 | 6783 17 7154.0 18

I(37) 6132 15 6465.0 16 | I138 91 1 94.4 3 | 6041 15 6371.4 16

J(38) 7586 19 7997.9 20 | 0 0 0 0 | 7586 19 8000.9 20

K(40) 3897 10 4108.6 10 | 0 0 0 0 | 3897 10 4110.1 10

L(41) 3890 10 4101.2 10 | 0 0 0 0 | 3890 10 4102.8 10

M(42) 2549 6 2687.4 7 | 0 0 0 0 | 2549 6 2688.4 7

N(43) 3786 9 3991.6 10 | 0 0 0 0 | 3786 9 3993.1 10

O(44) 7800 20 8223.6 21 | 0 0 0 0 | 7800 20 8226.7 21

Q(46) 10388 26 10952.1 27 | Q129 536 1 556.2 3 | 9852 25 10390.9 26

S(48) 16424 41 17315.9 43 | 0 0 0 0 | 16424 41 17322.4 43

T(59) 1111 3 1171.3 3 | 0 0 0 0 | 1111 3 1171.7 3

subtotal 156090 389 164566 411 | 3656 9 3794 16 | 152434 381 160772 401

unknown 8476 | 138 | 8338

total 164566 | 3794 | 160772

Between the Legislative Caucus Meeting and the County Convention:

Immediately after the meeting, email me at LarryWestMCSD@hotmail.com the names of your Legislative District chairman, as well as the names of the people on the five convention committees: Credentials, Rules, Resolutions, Nominations, and Permanent Organization. Also include a list of those who are obstructionists to party harmony (those who voted against disallowing the removal of entire delegations), as well as the results of the proposed rules changes.

I will try to publish this list as soon as possible.

If you desire to be on the Executive Committee and weren’t elected Legislative District Chairperson, contact each member of the Nominations Committee and plead your case to become an ‘At-Large Member.’ An At-Large Member of the Executive Committee still has the attendance requirements, and still gets to vote for Jack Richardson’s replacement, but since they don’t have the Legislative District maintenance duties, the dues required are $200/year.

Temporary 2008 Republican Precinct Convention Rules

These are the rules for the Jefferson County Republican Party Precinct Convention and Legislative District Caucus to be held March 1, 2008 at Ballard High School in Louisville, Kentucky:

Note that the "2004" in the LD caucus and the two (f)'s are in the original. Merv Brandes guaranteed to me that these are the 2008 rules.

Temporary 2008 Republican Precinct Convention Rules

1. Floor Privileges – All registered Republican voters who reside in this Precinct (except those who switched their registration to Republican after January 29, 2008) (“Registered Republican Voter”) shall be entitled to vote on matters that may come before the convention.

2. Temporary Convention Officers – The Temporary Chairman of this precinct convention shall be the precinct Captain, or in his absence the precinct Co-Captain, or in his absence, the precinct Youth Chairman. In the event that none of these persons is in attendance, the said Registered Republican Voters shall select by majority vote the Temporary Chairman. The Temporary Chairman shall appoint the Temporary Secretary of the convention.

3. Recognition – Recognition by the chair shall be accorded to any aforesaid Registered Republican Voters who shall show their desire to be recognized. Upon recognition, the speaker shall state his name and address.

4. Limit on Debate – Debate shall be limited to a maximum of three minutes per person per item subject to debate. The Chairman may grant reasonable extensions to this limit. The chair shall, as much as possible, first accord recognition to Republican Registered Voters who have not previously debated.

5. Nomination – Nominations shall be made as provided in Rule 6.01 of the Republican Party of Kentucky. (The positions of Precinct Captain, Co-Captain and Youth Captain will be filled in that order by nomination(s) from the floor followed by balloting; if after any ballot, no candidate has a majority of the votes cast, the candidate receiving the fewest number of votes will be eliminated, and another ballot will be taken, and so on until a winner is elected by a majority of votes cast.)

6. Voting – Every Registered Republican Voter in attendance may cast one vote.

7. Method of Voting – All voting shall be by voice vote unless otherwise provided in these rules, or upon direction of the chair be in doubt, or upon the request of any three Registered Republican Voters, by hands or otherwise.

8. Recording and Announcing Votes – The Secretary shall record each vote and shall deliver said results to the Chairman who shall announce the results to the convention. If the vote is cast by other than a voice vote, the number of yeas and nays shall be stated.

9. Tellers – In the event the Secretary shall need assistance in counting the votes, the Chairman shall appoint such additional tellers as may be reasonably required. All election results shall be certified by the convention Chairman.

10. Resolutions – Resolutions may be made from the floor so long as a written copy thereof shall be delivered to the Secretary immediately after the resolution has been made and seconded. Copies of all resolutions adopted shall be forwarded by the Secretary to the Chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party, who shall see that copies are forwarded to such persons as are deemed appropriate.

11. Other Officials – The Chairman may appoint a parliamentarian, sergeant at arms, and other assistants, if needed.

12. Appeals – Appeals of rulings of the chair must be seconded by at least two Registered Republican Voters. Upon an appeal being taken, the Chairman will vacate the chair, and the parliamentarian will immediately put to question, “Shall the ruling of the chair be sustained?” A majority of yeas shall sustain the chair; a majority of nays shall override him. No other business will be in order while an appeal is pending. Immediately after such a vote, the Chairman shall resume the chair.

13. Supplemental Rules – These rules will be supplemented, where not in conflict, by the rules of the Jefferson County Republican Party; and where not in conflict with these rules or the rules of the Jefferson County Republican Party by Roberts Rules of Order, Newly Revised.

14. Order of Business – The order of business of this convention shall be:

(a) The call to order

(b) Announcement of Temporary Officers (of, if all precinct officers are absent, the election of the Temporary Chairman, who then appoints a Temporary Secretary)

(d) Deciding whether the temporary rules need to be amended in any way.

(e) Election of Permanent Chairman of the meeting; election of Permanent Secretary of the meeting.

(f) Nomination and election of Precinct Captain.

(g) Nomination and election of Precinct Co-Captain (must be of opposite sex from Captain)

(h) Nomination and election of Precinct Youth Captain (must be less than 35 years old when elected)

(i) Any other business

(j) Announcements

(k) Adjournment sine die

** Note: The newly elected Precinct Captain shall maintain minutes of the proceedings conducted at the Convention for a period of two years and shall deliver a copy within three (3) days to the Executive Director, Chairman or Secretary of the JCREC certifying the convention.

Temporary 2004 (sic) Republican Legislative District Caucus Rules

1. Floor Privileges – All elected Precinct Officers who reside in a respective Legislative District shall be entitled to vote on matters that may come before the Legislative District Caucus.

2. Temporary Convention Officers – The Temporary Chairman of the LD Caucus shall be the LD Chairman. If the said officer is not present, the Temporary Chairman will be the designee of the JCRP Chairman, as provided for in JCRP Bylaws. The Temporary Chairman shall appoint a Temporary Secretary. A Permanent Chairman and Secretary for the convention will be nominated and elected to chair and record the convention.

3. Recognition – Recognition by the chair shall be accorded to any Precinct Officer who shall show their desire to be recognized. Upon recognition, the speaker shall state his name and address.

5. Nomination – Nominations shall be made as provided in Rule 6.01 of the Republican Party of Kentucky. Any Precinct Officer may nominate any Registered Republican Voter to serve as a Delegate or Alternate to the County and District Conventions. The positions of Delegates and Alternates to the County and District Conventions will be elected by a vote of the LD Caucus. A Legislative District Caucus that has precincts within two (2) Congressional Districts will elect a representative number to the Second and Third Congressional District Conventions.

6. Voting – Every Precinct Officer in attendance may cast one vote.

7. Method of Voting – All voting shall be by voice vote unless otherwise provided in these rules, or upon direction of the chair be in doubt, or upon the request of any three Precinct Officers, by hands or otherwise.

11. Other Officials – The Chairman may appoint a parliamentarian, sergeant at arms, and other assistants, if needed.

14. Order of Business – The order of business of this convention shall be:

(a) The call to order

(b) Announcement of Temporary Officers (of, if the Legislative District Chairman is absent, the election of the Temporary Chairman, who then appoints a Temporary Secretary)

(d) Deciding whether the temporary rules need to be amended in any way.

(e) Election of Permanent Chairman of the meeting; election of Permanent Secretary of the meeting.

(f) Nomination and election of Legislative District Chairman.

(f) Nomination and election of Delegates to the County and District Conventions. (The LD Chairman shall automatically be granted the position of delegate to the county and district conventions.)

(g) Nomination and election of Alternate Delegates to the County and District Conventions.

(i) Any other business

(j) Announcements

(k) Adjournment sine die

** Note: It will be the responsibility of the LD Caucus Chair to present a list of the names, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses and social security numbers of the delegates, alternates, and proxies to the county chair within ten (10) days. It will be the responsibility of the LD Caucus Secretary to submit copies of the caucus minutes to the Jefferson County Republican Party Chairman, Secretary or Executive Director within ten (10) days.

My thoughts on the convention of March 1, 2008

All in all, I thought it went fairly well, I would like to hear reports if it was otherwise in your legislative district.

I heard of one district where the "pro-Richardson people" beat the "anti-Richardson people" by a score of 17 to 15.

But that's okay - at least they didn't resort to trickery to do it (or else they were very good at it), and they let all 32 people be on the delegation list. (Let's stop calling it a slate - that word has too many negative reminders of 2004.) Who knows, perhaps they still would have won if everything was done fairly four years ago. It is a shame that we will never know.

I didn't see any red paged flyers either, and the rules were actually handed out (although in most rooms they didn't have enough).

And, most surprisingly they didn't change the rules like they allegedly did four years ago, so the rules I handed out were the same and in some LDs filled the gap.

And this time, they told us how many delegates had to be for which Congressional District. I haven't checked their numbers for accuracy yet. We were told there were 2 delegates for the 2nd Congressional District, so I wonder if the state party corrected the numbers.

In my LD, I was elected "permanent chair" (why do they call it that when the position only lasts a couple of hours?), and in the interest of party harmony allowed David Toborowsky to be elected Legislative District Chair. (If you are on the Nominations Committee, please nominate me to be an At-Large Member of the Executive Committee, thanks). Almost all of the voting was 38 to 0, with in all but one case only one person wanting the job -- so I actually followed their script for the most part. (How ironic is that!) We did have one tie vote, and as "permanent" chair I felt I shouldn't vote (plus I wish I could have split my vote because all three candidates were very qualified and deserving). A revote occured and a couple of people who voted for one candidate abstained and the other candidate won.

Still, they had at least three police officers there (for intimidation purposes, perhaps), and supposedly two parliamentarians, but although I wanted to meet them (to ask them to help me to make my chart more accurate [if need be] and more readable [most definitely needed]), I never got the chance.

After it was all over I got to talk with some of the "old guard" (but not Mr. Richardson). We all agreed that we needed to have some social event, perhaps a potluck supper that everyone could afford (since it would be free) where people from all sides can come to know each other in a friendly environment and learn to not only to live with each other, but to work towards the common goal we all share in common -- electing Republicans and defeating Democrats.

Everyone seemed optimistic about the future, and I agree it is greater than it has been in years. In fact, the only sour-puss I met there was Merv Brandes. Perhaps he is afraid of losing his job as Executive Director (if he is in charge of the county party webpage, he should lose it), so I guess I am not surprised.

I hope to have Part II of my "How to become a Republican Delegate" ready by Tuesday or Wednesday. If you have any suggestions on things to include, I look forward to hearing from you. (And, yes, that includes you past and/or current supporters of Jack Richardson.)

I look forward to seeing you all on Saturday, March 15th, at Eastern High School, in Middletown. [Note the change of location - suggestion to those in charge, place a sign at Ballard that morning giving directions to Eastern.]

Yours for a strong, vibrant, unified, and victorious Republican Party,

Larry J. West

P.S. Thank you, Francene. If any reader of this post doesn't listen to her broadcast on WHAS-AM 840 from 9:00 a.m. to 11:40, you should. A link to the live streaming is in another post.

HOW TO BECOME A REPUBLICAN DELEGATE – PART II

by Larry J. West

Note: This document was last updated on Tuesday, March 4, 2008. If you see any errors, omissions, or have any comments for improvements, please let me know and I will update this document.

This document is the continuation of my “How to Become a Republican Delegate – Part I,” available at http://LarryWest.spaces.live.com . If you haven’t read that document, it is recommended that you read that first.

If you had attended the Legislative District Convention, chances are you were chosen as a Delegate or Alternate to the County Convention. If you weren’t there, there still may be an opportunity to go on by asking the credentials committee to add you to a supplemental list. I was told that in 2004, they allowed some eliminated slates to replace their invalid delegates with delegates that were valid. You might be able to get on the bottom of the alternate list, which means that you would only get to vote if there were not enough delegates and alternates to fill out the delegation list. If you can’t get on your legislative district delegation list, then ask a nomination committee member to add you to the list to the District Convention. To be fair, ask only if you can replace someone who hasn’t shown up to anything yet.

You might even be a delegate or alternate and not know it. Most, if not all, of the Legislative Districts did not have enough names to fill their delegation lists, and so added names of people who are Republicans in their district. Perhaps your name was chosen.

There are a total of five committees that are used for the County and District Conventions. These committees are as follows:

1. Credentials Committee:

The County Bylaws state: “The Credentials Committee will meet no later than five (5) days before the County Convention to certify the accuracy of the final reports of the LD Caucuses in order to make a proper registration list of eligible delegates and alternate delegates for the county convention. Upon conclusion of the registration at the County Convention the Credentials Committee will report a list of the properly accredited delegates and alternate delegates to be seated by the Convention. They will hear and make a report to the convention on any disputed delegations, delegates, or alternate delegates. The Credentials Committee shall NOT certify as an accredited delegate or alternate any person who they do not believe was duly elected as such by his respective convention.”

They are supposed to double-check the list to verify that everyone that was voted on by the Legislative District caucuses actually live in the district and were registered as a Republican prior to Jan. 29^th.

Last time in the 29^th District, they threw out our slate, supposedly because we didn’t have the proper proportion of 2^nd District and 3^rd District representation (although no one told us what the numbers were, and actually the congressional district breakdown is not required for the County Convention, just the District Convention, but let bygones be bygones), and replaced it with a slate that we had specifically voted down. This year they (we) can’t do that. This year also, language is included allowing elimination of delegates and alternates separately instead of just eliminating the entire delegation. As a member of this committee, I plan on publishing the name of any other member that proposes or votes for the elimination of an entire delegation. In my LD, we modified the rules so that I am specifically forbidden to wipe out entire delegations. This eliminates any chance for me to play tit-for-tat or practice “turn about is fair play,” since I was one of those eliminated last time, but it is best for the party.

2. Rules Committee:

The County Bylaws state “The Rules Committee shall report a proposed set of rules to the Convention which will not conflict with these rules or the rules of the RSCC unless passed by two-thirds (2/3) of the Delegates.”

It bothers me that the only real rules so far is the ones put forth in the bylaws themselves, and they are missing certain areas.

Whoever is on this committee needs to make certain that nothing fishy is written within the rules. If you have suggestions for improvement that will promote party harmony and unity (without compromising Republican Party values), by all means make the suggestion that they be added.

3. Committee on Permanent Organization:

The County Bylaws state.” The Committee on Permanent Organization will nominate a permanent Convention Chairman and a permanent Convention Secretary.”

This is the person that basically emcees and guides the program after the beginning part. Be certain that the person that you choose understands parliamentary procedures and can be trusted on to be fair to all participants. You might want to give that person a copy of my “Guide to Parliamentary Procedures.” I still don’t know why they call it “Permanent” when it only lasts for a couple of hours.

4. Nominating Committee:

The County Bylaws state “The Nominating Committee will nominate candidates for any positions to be filled by the Convention under these rules unless otherwise noted.

1. At the County Convention, the Nominating Committee will nominate three separate slates, one each for:

a. Delegates-at-large and alternate delegates-at-large to the respective District Conventions; and

b. The remaining twenty-two (22) at-large members of the JCREC; and

c. Eighteen members (18) to each of the seven permanent committees of the District Convention.

2. Each slate will be voted on separately by the Convention and if rejected, the Nominating Committee will submit a new slate. This procedure will continue indefinitely until a slate is approved by the Convention.

3. Each slate must be complete and without vacancy in any position to be a valid slate.

4. The same person’s name may appear on more than one slate.”

This committee is asked to do a lot in just an hour. It would be best to have the people you want to recommend written out. You can, of course, just re-elect the delegates of the County Convention to the District Convention, and those nominated at the LD level to the various committees to the District committees (except when someone opts out). Note that according to the state rules, the District convention doesn’t have the same LD limitations. If anyone approaches you about being added to the district delegation list (see above), it might be best in order to get that person to hopefully do even more things for the party to replace someone whose name is on the delegation list only as a space filler and hasn’t shown up for anything.

I have no idea, nor did I find it mentioned anywhere, what the other two of the “seven permanent committees” are. The State Party’s “TEMPORARY 2008 REPUBLICAN DISTRICT CONVENTION RULES” only list the five here.

5. Resolutions Committee:

The County Bylaws state “The Resolutions Committee shall have a preliminary meeting no later than five (5) Days before the county convention, so that most resolutions can be debated, amended as necessary, adopted and then typed prior to the Convention. The Committee may decide to not report a resolution to the Convention. A resolution may be reported to the Convention as a Minority Report if at least five (5) members of the Committee vote to do so. The Chairman of the Resolutions Committee will present the Minority Report, if any, to the Convention after the Convention has completed action on the (“majority”) report of the Resolutions Committee.”

All resolutions passed by the various Legislative District Caucuses and Precinct Conventions are supposed to be considered and modified as necessary to make them more readable before passing them on to the convention floor. There is nothing that would prohibit you from adding more resolutions, but you should act on the ones previously passed first.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 (Jefferson County Republican Executive Committee Meeting):

If you were elected Legislative District chairperson, or plan on being an At-Large member, it might be a good idea to attend a meeting of the Jefferson County Republican Party Executive Committee so that you will know what you are getting into.

By this time, the Credentials Committee and the Resolutions Committee should have met, and we should know whether or not they acted in a fair manner. If they were, we should thank Jack Richardson for finally doing something right (yes, even if he has a majority won fair and square). Otherwise, those who acted in an unfair manner should be named, and we should demand an explanation as to why he (Jack) allowed it to happen and what he is going to do to fix it.

The meeting takes place on the Second Tuesday of every month, starting at around 6pm or so, at 232 West Muhammad Ali Blvd., about 1 ½ blocks southeast of Fourth Street Live.

After the meeting, if things were not done properly, and Jack Richardson’s actions were inadequate, we will probably have some sort of reaction, perhaps an e-mail campaign to the state and national Republican party officers, the media, blogs, etc., in order to get restoration by the following Saturday. I really hope that this will not be necessary.

Saturday, March 15, 2008 (At the County Convention):

According to the bylaws of the Jefferson County Republican Party, the purpose of the county convention is:

(a) Electing the twenty-two (22) remaining Jefferson County Executive Committee members;

(b) Electing delegates and alternate delegates to the respective District and State Conventions; and

(d) Unifying and motivating the Republicans of Jefferson County; and

(e) Demonstrating the values of the JCRP.

Hopefully (d) and (e) will be done this time.

The future of the Jefferson County Republican Party depends greatly on whether or not the Credentials Committee was operated in a manner “committed to encouraging the broadest possible participation in the affairs of your Party,” or if they act as they did in 2004, to thwart the democratic process by not allowing duly elected delegations of people who desire to serve their party from doing so.

I am an optimist, so this document assumes the former. If the latter occurs, an alternate county convention will be called to discuss what should be done to counteract the injustices done by those who seek to divide and destroy the party.

Like the Precinct Caucuses of two weeks earlier, registration begins at 9 am on Saturday, March 15^th, at Eastern High School, 12400 Old Shelbyville Road in Middletown (take TARC bus 31 if needed, there’s one that leaves 5^th and Market at 7:30, arriving at the school around 8:09, and another one that leaves 5^th and Market at 8:40, arriving around 9:26). It is important to arrive on time if you want to register as a delegate or alternate.

If you are on one of the committees, they meet starting at 9am, so you will need to arrive a little earlier.

You don’t have to be a delegate or alternate to attend the convention, although if you do come, you will not get voting rights unless you are a delegate (or an alternate acting as a delegate because you are replacing a delegate that did not show up), and thus you are not allowed to speak. You are allowed to clap at appropriate times, however, and will probably be required to sit at the back of the auditorium.

The order of business of each convention shall be (again, my comments in italics):

A. The call to order;

This is supposed to be done by the current County Chair, or in his absence, the vice-Chair. The County Secretary shall serve as the temporary secretary.

The JCREC Bylaws state “The temporary rules of the convention will be made available to the delegates in printed form, or read to the meeting, unless a motion is passed to waive the reading.” If you don’t receive a copy of the rules, be sure that the temporary rules are read out loud. Also have the rules read out if there are any visually impaired persons present. If someone makes a motion to waive the reading when a printed rules sheet has not been given to you, be sure to call for “a division of the body” to force those who want to hide information from fellow Republicans to be made known. Note that such a request can interrupt a speaker and does not require a second.

B. Announcement of Temporary Officers;

The Bylaws state “The Temporary Chairman of each convention will appoint a Parliamentarian, Sergeant-at-Arms, Teller and other necessary personnel. Such persons shall continue to serve for the entire convention in the offices to which they were thus appointed unless and until they are replaced by appointment of the Permanent Chairman of the Convention, who is permitted but not required to appoint different persons to such positions.”

C. Report of the Credentials Committee;

If they announce that none of the delegation slates have been eliminated, stand up and applaud wildly. It means that a new, much needed day has come to the Jefferson County Republican Party.

D. Report of the Rules Committee;

Permanent rules for the convention will be adopted once the report of the rules committee is approved. If not stated by the committee chair, ask what the differences are, if any, between the new rules and the ones read previously.

E. Report of the Committee on Permanent Organization;

Here is where the “Permanent Chair” takes over. He can replace the other temporary officers, and should replace the Parliamentarian if he or she has made any decisions that counteract “Robert’s Rules of Order.”

F. Report of the Nominations Committee;

At this point, we will be voting for the 22 at-large members of the Executive Committee. These people, the 18 Legislative District Chairpeople, and five other people, namely:

1. The Republican Member of the Jefferson County Board of Elections;

2. The Chair of the Third Congressional District;

3. The Governor of the Kentucky Federation of Republican Women for the Third Congressional District;

4. The Chair of the Kentucky Federation of Young Republicans for the Third Congressional District; and

5. The immediate past Chair of the JCREC,

will decide the new chairperson of the Jefferson County Republican Party. Note that the above five people are not included in the slate for the nominations and elections.

(g) Report of the Resolutions Committee [Note: This is in the state’s “TEMPORARY RULES 2008 REPUBLICAN COUNTY MASS CONVENTION” but not in the County’s “Bylaws of the Jefferson County Republican Party Executive Committee”]

The “Temporary Rules” also state “Resolutions may be made from the floor so long as a written copy thereof shall be delivered to the Secretary immediately after the resolution has been made and seconded. Copies of all resolutions adopted shall be forwarded by the Secretary to the Chairman of the Republican Party of Kentucky, who shall see that copies are forwarded to such persons as are deemed appropriate.”

(h) Any other business [Note: This is in the state’s “TEMPORARY RULES 2008 REPUBLICAN COUNTY MASS CONVENTION” but not in the County’s “Bylaws of the Jefferson County Republican Party Executive Committee”]

If everything was done properly, make a motion thanking the convention organizers for fulfilling the goals of “unifying and motivating the Republicans of Jefferson County,” and “demonstrating the values of the JCRP.” Then give them a standing ovation.

G. Announcements;

If you are a member of any Republican Club, this would be a good place to announce your next meeting. There will undoubtedly be some people present who don’t even know your organization exists.

H. Adjournment Sine Die.

Again, “sine die”(pronounced syn’-ee dye’-ee) means adjournment without a set date for meeting again. If you still don’t trust the new leadership, state “I move that we set a fix time to adjourn to. That the Jefferson County Republican Party meets at the same date and time that the other 119 Kentucky counties are to meet.” You can set a location if you wish. That motion, in the Roberts Rules of Order, would have a greater order of precedence than the movement to adjourn without mentioning when to return has.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008 (at the latest)

The Republican Party Website states: “Any registered Republican who would like to serve as a National Convention delegate should submit a letter to the Republican Party of Kentucky Nominating Committee four days prior to the applicable state or district convention. The letter should state their interest in becoming a delegate and include specific qualifications for holding this position.

(a) Any registered Republican who desires to be nominated at either the District or State Convention to be a Delegate or an Alternate Delegate to the National Convention, shall submit a letter which must be received by Republican state headquarters at least four (4) working days before the applicable District or State Convention. Said letter shall be addressed to the Nominating Committee, state the person's interest in becoming a Delegate or Alternate Delegate, and set forth the reasons why they should be considered by the Nominating Committee. The state headquarters staff will immediately convey the would-be nominee's letter to the Nominating Committee of the appropriate convention. No person may be nominated or elected by a District or State Convention to be a Delegate or Alternate Delegate to the National Convention unless this procedure is followed. If an insufficient number of persons thus qualified are elected at the District or State Conventions, the remaining slots will be filled as if they were vacancies which occurred AFTER the State Convention. The Nominating Committee at the District and State Conventions shall consider at least two criteria in selecting Delegates and Alternate Delegates to the National Convention; namely, (1) the letter received in accordance with this rule, and (2) any current political involvement on behalf of the Republican party and/or Republican candidates at any level.

If you are planning on applying to be a delegate in Minneapolis, then you probably ought to start your letter as quickly as possible.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Today is the Third District Convention, also at Eastern High School, Middletown, KY. The five committees will meet at 9am to discuss anything that needs to be discussed, and the general meeting itself starts at 10am.

HOW TO BECOME A REPUBLICAN DELEGATE – PART III

by Larry J. West

Note: This document was last updated on Tuesday, Mar. 25, 2008. If you see any errors, omissions, or have any comments for improvements, please let me know and I will update this document.

As you know, the Jefferson County Convention was a failure in that it failed in “unifying and motivating the Republicans of Jefferson County,” and “Demonstrating the values of the JCRP,” unless those values include stifling debate, treating fellow Republicans as criminals by using police and threatening arrests, yelling at each other, et al (which are not values I would like to see), two of the goals listed on the Jefferson County Republican Executive Committee Bylaws.

This means that those of us who truly care about electing Republicans and helping the Republican cause (as opposed to those merely interested in obtaining and maintaining power, in spite of the cost) have either given up hope, are in damage control, or like me, some of both.

What happens now to the local party depends a lot on what happens on the state level. I am hoping for a “do over” of the county convention, since not all those from the second district who wanted to attend got to attend and since the nominations committee did not consist of only those elected by their legislative district caucus on March 1^st.

Part of my “giving up hope” is my not expecting the state party to do anything. When I asked the party leaders earlier for guidance, their basic response was that they let the county parties do their own thing (despite the harm it may cause the party as a whole). To me, this is like a parent who does nothing to an unruly child when an “intervention” is necessary.

But you know all this. You’re not reading this to hear me just complain, but to give a little guidance as to how to help change things for the better.

So here we go:

Prior to Tuesday, April 1^st, 2008, 4pm:

One of the problems with the current leadership is that they did a poor job recruiting candidates. Of course, now we know why – unless you met their limited requirements (which included loyalty to Jack Richardson), you were strongly discouraged from running for office. As a result, there are many Democrats who do not have Republican opponents that should have.

Do you know of any liberty-minded people who are registered as “Other”? Can you get them to think about running for office against some of these Democrats? If so, then they must file a “Statement of Candidacy” (declaration of intent) with the County Clerk or Secretary of State (depending on the office) on a form provided by that office (See KRS 118.367(1)). This will not cost the candidate any money and is required mainly as an incumbent-protection racket as most people do not know that it is required. Filing such a statement does not obligate the person to actually run for the office.

Note that you will still have to file petitions and pay a fee based on the office you desire. These are due on Tuesday, August 12^th at 4pm (KRS 118.365, KRS 118.375, KRS 83A.045). If they are not running against a Republican, I bet there will be many people that would be willing to help them with their petitioning process (myself included).

If you fail to file your petition in time, you have until Oct. 24 to file as a write-in candidate (KRS 117.265(2)). Note: The fees that the state requires for write-in candidates are unconstitutional according to Bullock v Carter, and Lubin v Panish. Other specific cases striking down fees for write-ins are Phillips v Hechler (from West Virginia), Dixon v Maryland State Bd. of Elections (from Maryland), and Steiner v Mihaly (from California).

For more information, see http://sos.ky.gov/NR/rdonlyres/383E17C6-0E7E-4D03-A8F2-52FFC6656F48/0/FinalCopyOfDeclaringYourCandidacy.pdf.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

As I write this, those who hold the information regarding who actually can attend this meeting has been kept hidden even from the Secretary of the Nominations Committee, so even if you were a delegate to the county convention, it is assumed, but not guaranteed, that you are a delegate to the District Convention.

The main fireworks will again be in the Nominating Committee, where the decision will be on who the representatives to the National Convention from the Third District, as well as one person who will be on the Electoral College from the Third District.

Here are the District Convention Rules, as provided by the State. Note that Articles 8 and 16 specifically mention the Third Congressional District, meaning that the state fully expects Jefferson County to use these rules:

TEMPORARY 2008 REPUBLICAN DISTRICT CONVENTION RULES

1. FLOOR PRIVILEGES. - Designated seating shall be provided by the convention committee for delegates, alternates, and guests, and such other sections as deemed necessary either by the Congressional District Committee or the convention committee. Access to the floor shall be limited to only accredited delegates, alternates serving in the capacity of delegates, elected or appointed officials of the convention, elected Republican Officials, and such members of the press and other persons as designated by the Congressional District Committee. Registration shall be as provided by the Convention Committee under the authority of the Congressional District Committee. No person may be certified as a voting delegate or alternate who has not paid the Convention Registration Fee, if any.

2. ALTERNATES. - Each county delegation may designate so many of their accredited alternates as necessary to act for absent delegates, but not more than necessary to reach the total number of delegates to which their county is entitled as accredited by the credentials committee.

3. RECOGNITION. - Recognition by the chair shall be accorded to any delegate or alternate serving as a delegate who shall show their desire to be recognized by waving at the chair or giving other suitable signal. Upon recognition, the speaker shall state his name and county.

4. LIMIT ON DEBATE. - Debate shall be limited to a maximum of three minutes per person per item subject to debate. The Chairman may grant reasonable extensions to this limit. The Chairman shall, as much as possible, first accord recognition to delegates who have not previously debated.

5. UNIT RULE. - Unit rule (block voting) shall not be used.

6. TEMPORARY CONVENTION OFFICERS AND NOMINATION. - The Temporary Chairman of the Convention shall be the District Chairman, or in his absence, the District Vice Chairman. In the event neither person is in attendance, the District Chairman may appoint the Temporary Chairman, or if no such appointment has been made, the delegates shall elect a Temporary Chairman. The Vice Chairman of the District shall serve as the Temporary Secretary, or in his absence the Temporary Chairman shall appoint a Temporary Secretary. Nominations shall be made as provided in the rules of the Republican Party of Kentucky.

7. VOTING. - No county delegation may cast more votes than it has duly certified delegates or alternates serving in the capacity of delegates present and voting on the floor up to the total number of delegates authorized for that county.

8. METHOD OF VOTING. - All voting shall be by voice unless otherwise provided in these rules, or upon direction of the chair if the chair be in doubt, or upon request of three county delegation chairmen (or Legislative District chairmen if in the Third Congressional District).

9. ROLL CALL VOTE. - On all roll call votes, the Secretary shall call the roll alphabetically by county. Once the call of the roll is commenced, no other business will be in order except a Point of Order concerning the call or a demand for a poll pursuant to Rule 11 of these rules.

10. ANNOUNCING VOTES. - Each county delegation chairman shall poll his delegation and as his county is called shall announce the results, yeas, nays, and abstentions, or make other such responses as provided by these rules. A county may pass once.

11. POLLING A DELEGATION. - Only a member of a delegation may demand a poll of that delegation unless the chair be informed by the sergeant of arms or his assistant that a delegation is casting more votes than are represented by delegates or acting delegates on the floor with that delegation. In the event that the delegation is to be polled, the name of each voting member of that delegation will be called by the secretary.

12. VOTE CHANGE. - After the call of the roll and re-call of passed delegations, county chairmen will be recognized to announce changes in the votes reported for their county.

13. TELLERS. - The Assistant Secretary and Vice-Chairman of the District convention elected by each County convention shall act as the tellers. All election results shall be certified by the convention Chairman and Secretary and in the case of particular forms being required by law or rules of the national or state party, in that form.

14. RESOLUTIONS. - All resolutions considered by the convention must be first considered by the Resolutions Committee. Proposed resolutions must be submitted in writing to the Resolutions Committee prior to its adjournment. A majority vote in favor of a resolution shall be required for a resolution to be favorably reported from the Resolutions Committee. For a minority report to be reported, at least 3 members of the committee must favor the resolution. Before the convention shall consider any action on the pending resolution it must be submitted in writing to the chair. Copies of all resolutions adopted shall be forwarded by the convention Secretary to the Chairman of the Republican Party of Kentucky, who shall see that copies are forwarded to the national resolutions or platform committees, the Republican Party of Kentucky State Central Committee, appropriate members of Congress, appropriate members of the press, the persons or institutions cited in the resolutions, or such other persons as are deemed appropriate.

15. OTHER OFFICIALS. - The Temporary Chairman may appoint, in addition to any other appointments provided in the rules of the Republican Party of Kentucky, a temporary parliamentarian, sergeant at arms, and assistants. He shall also appoint a temporary chairman for each convention committee to serve until the committee elects its own permanent chairman. The permanent Chairman may appoint a different parliamentarian, sergeant at arms, and assistants.

16. APPEALS. - Appeals of rulings of the chair must be seconded by at least two delegates from different counties (except in the case of the 3rd Congressional District, where the delegates must be from two different Legislative Districts). Upon an appeal being taken, the chairman will vacate the chair, and the parliamentarian will immediately put the question, “Shall the ruling of the chair be sustained?” A majority of yeas shall sustain the chair, a majority of nays overrule him. No other business will be in order while an appeal is pending. Immediately after such a vote, the Chairman shall resume the chair.

17. SUPPLEMENTAL RULES. - These rules will be supplemented, where not in conflict, by the rules of the Republican Party of Kentucky; and where not in conflict with these rules or the rules of the Republican Party of Kentucky by Roberts Rules of Order, newly revised.

18. ORDER OF BUSINESS. - The order of business of this convention shall be:

(a) The call to order

(b) Announcement of Temporary Officers (or, in the event that the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the District are both absent, and the the District Chairman has not appointed someone as Temporary Chairman, the election of a Temporary Chairman)

(d) Report of the Rules Committee

(e) Report of the Committee on Permanent Organization

(f) Report of the Nominations Committee

(g) Report of the Resolutions Committee

(h) Any other business

(i) Announcements

(j) Adjournment sine die

Note a couple of differences between the rules here and the ones used in the County Convention. First, a minority report from the Resolutions Committee only requires 3 votes instead of 5. Since the County Nominations Committee has removed the “Ron Paul people” from the Credentials Committee, it will be interesting to see if anything controversial comes out of that committee.

The Resolutions Committee is supposed to consider all resolutions passed by the county convention. If I read Section 14 above correctly, then additional resolutions can be submitted to that committee for their consideration. You might want to make at least 18 copies (one for each member) if you wish to introduce the resolution to the committee. Of course, the county convention was supposed to handle all resolutions from the LD conventions, which they didn’t in regards to the 29^th LD.

Note also that the Resolutions report comes after the Nominations report. It is supposed to be this way at all conventions, but the county party leadership felt correctly that if they had the nominations after the resolutions, that people would pass whatever the leadership wanted in order to go home for lunch and to get out of the extremely warm auditorium. For this reason, I recommend that YOU BRING YOUR LUNCH to the district convention and WEAR LAYERS. That way, if the nominations committee tries to put people in place who are not advocates of unity and harmony, they can be defeated and you can eat your lunch while the nominations committee goes back and tries to do it right. (Actually, the District rules do not state that delegates must be approved as a slate and the nominations committee go back if not approved, and so you can request to “divide the question” and elect people individually and can move to substitute one person for another.)

Be sure that the people voted this time represent a cross-section of the community, and not just from one isolated sector as was done with the At-Large slate.

In fact, I would recommend that we elect delegates to the national convention who have not been to the convention as delegates before, to give as many Republicans the chance to serve in this capacity as possible. Ask if the nominees to the convention have been before, and vote them down if they have.

Another big difference is that it is stated that DEBATING IS SUPPOSED TO BE ALLOWED (See section 4)! Whether it will be or not is “debatable.” Only elect as permanent chair someone who will allow discussions before the body to take place.

Note to Rules Committee members: If what the leadership wants passed is different from the above, ask them why they feel that the Third District should be different than the others, and point out to as many people as you can what changes they are trying to make.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

This is the regular meeting of the Jefferson County Republican Party Executive Committee. This is the meeting where the retiring County Chair swears in the new members with an oath of office.

The oath is as follows:

"I am a believer in the principles of the National Republican Party. I am in favor of an active, aggressive campaign in every election, and will endorse and support, as long as I am a member of this committee, each and every candidate nominated by the Republican Party."

Yes, this means that even if you oppose a candidate in the primary, once he or she is the nominee you need to endorse and support him or her for the general election, and this includes Ernie Fletcher or Peppy Martin. (Remember the Eleventh Commandment.) It is supposed to be only AFTER one takes this oath that a person can be removed from the Executive Committee, not before they are even on.

One order of business at this meeting is the election by ballot of a nominating committee consisting of five members and two alternates. The five candidates receiving the largest number of votes in descending order shall serve as the members of the committee and two candidates receiving the next largest number of votes in descending order shall be the alternates. The member receiving the largest number of votes shall be the chairman. In the event of a tie vote, lots shall be drawn to determine who shall serve as chairman. No member may serve two consecutive terms on the committee.

The nominating committee shall meet shortly after the April meeting and submit at least one name for each office to be filled (County Chair, County Vice-Chair (opposite sex), County Treasurer, and County Secretary) to be published in the Call to the May meeting (an agenda for what will occur at the meeting). No name shall be placed in nomination without consent of the nominee.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

This is the last day to register to vote for the primary. Remember, if you going to be 18 on Nov. 4^th, even if you are 17 now, you can still register to vote and vote in May.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

The Second District Convention takes place at the Sloan Convention Center, Ballroom A, in Bowling Green. Like the Third District, the committees meet at 9am CDT, and the meeting itself starts at 10am CDT. Remember that Bowling Green is on Central Time, so keep that in mind. The second district also charges a $10 fee.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

This is the first monthly meeting of the Executive Committee meeting with the new officers. The first sign of whether things will change will be whether the Treasurer’s Report contains any specifics, or if it still tries to hides where the money is being spent.

The JCREC nominating committee will submit their candidates for the four county offices, with additional nominations taken from the floor.

Elections will take place and the new officers, including the new County Chairman, takes office at the end of the meeting.

May 14

JCREC Meeting - May 2008

I went to the Jefferson County Republican Party Executive Committee meeting again on Tuesday, May 13, 2008. Since the Louisville Dulcimer Society, of which my wife and I are members, meets later the same evening, it is actually easier for me to attend the meeting than go home after work and immediately have to leave again. Plus, I wanted to see if Jack Richardson would go quietly or not.

Brad Cummings and the rest of the new leadership won their positions by acclaimation (although there were no nays, one could tell by the volume that not all said aye, nor did those who did do so enthusiastically).

I have mixed feelings about Brad Cummings' acceptance speech. On the one hand, he praised Jack Richardson, whom many consider to be the worst chairman this county has ever had. On the other hand, he did say he would have an "emphasis on connection," which hopefully was a repudiation of Jack's policy of trying to disenfranchise large parts of the local party, then joke about it. He also said he would "give Jerry [Abramson] a migrane." Jack Richardson filled the board with people who had donated to Abramson's campaigns, so this will be a nice change if it happens.

Brad also said that he would work on recruiting more candidates. I hope that this is a condemnation of Jack's policy of discouraging people from running, but it wasn't so stated. Brad also said he is going to have a better website, start a newsletter, and have a picnic where all Republicans can get together (and not just those able to pay $75 or $100 at a Lincoln Day dinner) -- all good ideas.

Anne Northup also showed up at the meeting. It would have been nice if the other candidates have shown up. It would have been nice if some certain Legislative District Chairpeople could have attended also.

Mention was made of a fundraiser with Mike Huckabee. They sort-of implied that the cost was "if you have to ask, you can't afford it." (See http://www.rpk.org/images/KY/Huckabee_Flyer.pdf). I was able to mention the fact that the Ron Paul meeting on Saturday, May 17th from 1 to 4 at the Louisville Palace was FREE.

I was leaning towards voting for Mr. Huckabee, with the idea being that the Presidential election should be about who the vice-president should be, but the differences between the Huckabee and the Paul events have lead me to support Ron Paul on Tuesday, although I am still not 100% certain.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Today is primary election day. I encourage you to vote, even if you think your candidate won’t win. There are primaries for most of the major races, such as President, US Senate, Congress, etc.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

This is the date for the Kentucky Republican Party State Convention, at the Sloan Convention Center in Bowling Green. There is a $20 fee to attend. At this convention, the remaining of the national convention delegates will be selected, along with other Kentucky Republican Party business.

June 02

Kentucky State Republican Convention - my thoughts beforehand

've been asked by several people (okay, four people) about the Kentucky State Convention coming up this Saturday in Bowling Green.

I'll be honest with you -- I've never been to a state convention before, so I don't know what to expect. But it is important that as many people who believe in liberty and believe in a Republican Party where both the social conservatives / grass roots people and the economic conservatives / country club people should both be involved together (and not one side eliminated as has been the norm the last several years here in Jefferson County) attend, so that we can better plan for a unified party in 2012.

Judging by the fact that the Nominations Committee is again only given one hour to do its business, expect the decision of who to seat at the National Convention and other positions to again be chosen by some group in advance, without any input or much discussion involved at all. Unless I am convinced that those chosen are not some kind of "slate," and that these people represent a broad spectrum of the party, I plan on voting against the first round of people, and I will vote against any slate that involves Jack Richardson and/or Merv Brandes. These people should not be rewarded for their exclusionary tactics. I do hope the state party will look at the letters the people who want to go to Minneapolis wrote -- the 3rd district committee ignored them.

It would be nice if we could get a chance to talk to and meet the nominees before voting for or against them. The first thing I would ask the new State Executive Committee to do is extend the Nominations Committee to beyond one hour, and to accept nominations from the floor. The second thing I would ask is that they reduce the power of a County Executive Committee and increase the power of the Legislative District Committee, especially in regards to choosing who leads them.

In other news, I got an e-mail from Bradford Cummings that the new louisvillegop.org website is up and running. I hope that it is maintained, and I hope that all the candidates will use it to drum up some volunteers and let people know about their fundraisers. It will be interesting to watch. There are several good things here. On the candidates page, there is a link to the web page of the candidates. If you know of a candidate without a link on this page, contact the party to add it in. That way, if people ask us "do you know where Bob Heuglin's webpage is," we can tell them where to find it. (Earth to Bob, you need to have a webpage. Even if it only gets you two more votes, ask Renay Davis how important that may be.)

Things found on the website: The 44th LD is missing its duly elected LD Chairman, and the 38th is listed as 39th. Also, since Betty Drexler is already on as the 3rd District KFRW Chair, in would be nice if she resign her at-large seat so that it can be given to someone else. I would recommend Barbara Davis myself.

On the club page, the South Jefferson Republican Club is missing.

There should also be a links page as well. You can get to the county page from the state page, but not vice-versa.

I'm still looking for car-poolers.

KY Rep. State Convention

I apologize, but I was not able to go to the Kentucky State Convention on Saturday for several reasons, the main one being that my son was hit in the eye on Friday and had not yet calmed down.

But from what I heard, it was just another railroading of previously made decisions. For example, in regards to the resolutions, from what I was told, most of them were passed en-masse without the resolutions even being read. If this is true, it is more of a reason why we need to stay active and work towards improving the party by 2012.

I don't know all of the delegates to the National Convention, but as she-who-should-not-be-named is on the list, the list does not include your average Kentucky Republican, a vast majority of whom are pro-life, for example, but extremists on one side. I wonder if they actually read the essays written by people wanting to be delegates.

For one account of the convention read the following (especially the comments):

http://www.politickerky.com/treypollard/833/paul-supporters-stopped-cold-during-noisy-state-gop-convention

This whole thing reminds me a little bit of the politics of Mexico. There, one group of people, the PRI, controlled things with an iron fist and won every election. Eventually they were so rough that people started to rebel. Over a couple of elections, the results were close, but the PRI still won because they controlled the election process [this is the state that Kentucky Republican politics is in now]. Finally, the opposition party won an election, and things are somewhat better in Mexico because the leadership actually has to listen to the general public and do what is best for the public if they want to stay in power. Wouldn't it be nice if they had to listen here as well.

We need to come up with a plan on how we can return the party to the people by 2012.

My suggestion: In 2008, let's concentrate on the election of good Republicans to office. Since there will be no elections in 2009, we should meet on a regular basis to create a step-by-step plan, which would include not only how to handle parliamentary procedures, but also how to handle meeting chairpeople who don't follow them, for example.

Monday, September 1, 2008 to Thursday, September 8, 2008

2008 Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Note: I may or may not release a “Part IV” covering the State Convention, depending on demand and time.

Miscellaneous Stuff from 2008 that may or may not be incorporated in the above document:

May 02

Third District Race in LP Presidential Campaign

A wacko Libertarian Party presidential candidate (who believes that abortion clinic bombers are a greater threat to America than Islamic terrorists, for example) recently quoted "Kentucky Congresswoman Anne Northrup" as a reason to vote for him instead of former congressman Bob Barr for the Libertarian Party Presidential nominee.

Having read some of the writings the anti-religious George Phillies has written, if I was Anne Northup, I would try to distance myself from him and renounce his views immediately.

She already has anti-democratic (small d) people like Jack Richardson supporting her, now she has the anti-religious as well.

For more information, see http://thirdpartywatch.com/2008/05/02/phillies-real-libertarians-support-freedom-of-religion/

Here is the post regarding Phillies beliefs on terrorism: http://thirdpartywatch.com/2008/04/22/phillies-issues-defense-policy-statement

April 30

Result of JCREC Appeal

Here is the letter I received from the State Party regarding the actions of the JCREC.

I am not surprised by the ruling, especially the complete ignoring of the suggestion that the Bylaws be clarified in case this happens again.

But then, that would be the state admitting to people that their votes in their Legislative District Caucuses don't really matter.

My response to Mr. Robertson is below also.

I am open to suggestions as to what to do next.

> Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:21:22 -0400
> Subject: Republican Party of KY Executive Comm. Ruling on Appeal
> From: steverobertson1@mac.com
> To: larrywest@hotmail.com
> CC: snoe@bowlesrice.com; Holly@rpk.org
>
> Dear Mr. West,
>
> In my capacity as Chairman of the Republican Party of Kentucky (RPK), and
> pursuant to RPK Rule 9.04, I appointed an Ad Hoc Committee for the purpose
> of holding a hearing regarding the appeal filed by you and Mr. Chris
> Thieneman in relation to actions taken by the Jefferson County Republican
> Party Executive Committee (JCRPEC).
>
> The Ad Hoc Committee held this hearing on Thursday, April 17, 2008 and
> notice of this hearing was provided by the RPK to all parties involved in
> the appeal.
>
> As you are aware, no representative on behalf of you or Mr. Thieneman
> attended this hearing to address the Ad Hoc Committee.
>
> Pursuant to RPK Rules, the Ad Hoc Committee made its recommendation to the
> Executive Committee of the Republican State Central Committee (RSCC) at its
> next regularly scheduled meeting on Saturday, April 19, 2008.
>
> The Ad Hoc Committee's recommendation was to uphold the actions of the
> JCRPEC.
>
> The Executive Committee of the RSCC voted unanimously to adopt this
> recommendation.
>
> Please do not hesitate to contact me on this or any other matter.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Steve Robertson
> Chairman
> Republican Party of Kentucky
> P.O. Box 1068
> Frankfort, KY 40602
> (502) 875-5130

Dear Mr. Robertson:

I was unable to attend due to jury duty. I do not know the reason for Mr. Thieneman's absence.

I am not surprised at your ruling, although I still disagree with it. I don't understand why we even have a separate Credentials Committee then, or for that matter, even precinct conventions or legislative district caucuses. It seems like a waste of time if the Executive Committee can undo all the work that the committee does so easily, and then lie to the Credentials Committee chairperson about it.

If an Executive Committee is so out of touch with the rank and file party members (and not representative of the party membership as a whole, but just one faction), what is a person to do? You know as well as I do that Mr. Thieneman was only removed because he was a member of the nominations committee, and the votes on that committee would have gone differently if he was not removed. (The vote to choose At-Large members singularly instead of by slate lost by one vote.)

I do hope that the bylaws will be modified and clarified so that if (more likely, when) this situation happens again, we will know whether the Executive Committee acted appropriately or not. You need to emphasize to people that if an Executive Committee does not like how a legislative district caucus votes, they can undo it. Frankly, I would trust the people to choose their representatives more than the JCREC, and you should have required the JCREC to file a 9.04 appeal and take time off of work or jury duty to drive to Frankfort if they didn't like what the 44th District Caucus did, not me nor Mr. Thieneman.

There are serious problems in Jefferson County, and I am afraid that because of them we will again lose the Third Congressional District election. I hope that the State Party will do something to ensure that local parties involve everyone in their activities, not just one faction as was done these last two months. The State Party, in its hands-off attitude, has hurt the Republican Party.

Also, in Jefferson County, there needs to be more than one hour for the Nominations Committee to meet, so that real discussion can be held as to the 22 at-large members on the Executive Committee.

Larry J. West

It's not just the 3rd District

If you think that only Jefferson County and the 3rd district has problems, read this:

http://www.kentucky.com/news/state/story/383130.html

At least we didn't walk out of the convention.

I was unable to attend the appeal of the JCREC actions due to jury duty. I'll let you know if I hear anything.

April 09

April Executive Committee Meeting - JCRP

I attended the April meeting of the Jefferson County Republican Party Executive Committee (Louisville, KY) on Tuesday, April 8, 2008.

I overheard someone saying they had to be talked into becoming an At-Large member. That angers me quite a bit as there are many active Republicans who really want to serve, and wouldn't have had to be talked into it. These are people that would have been enthusiastic, and would be able to help the party in areas that need help.

At least several people complained about the non-specific Treasurer's Report, which is a positive sign for change. Jack Richardson said that they don't want to tell the Democrats how much we have, as if there were Democrat spies in the room. (Some may argue that the Democrat spies are in charge!) Jack did admit it was over $20. Personally, I think the party ought to take a chance and announce the figures. I would not donate to any group that refuses to say how my donations were being spent.

Releasing an expense report, if the money is being spent wisely, should result in more donations. Hiding what you are spending the money on leads people to believe that you're trying to hide something. Is the Jefferson County Republican Party paying some money to a "Jessica Hahn" to keep her quiet? Is someone skimming hundreds or thousands of dollars? (How does a certain person pay the taxes on his house in Prospect on his supposedly meager salary?) The county party already had to pay an FEC fine once. We should release our finances, and then shame the Democrats into releasing theirs, if they don't already. Given how much bigger the Democratic Party is in Jefferson County, I really don't know how they would use the information, unless, of course, we're trying to hide a scandal.

They also talked about the poll-worker shortage -- 201 people short. I wonder how they are going to get those new members who really didn't want to be on the Executive Committee active in trying to find poll-workers, or active in anything for that matter.

There were only 29 of the 45 members present. I wonder how many of the missing also didn't want the job. I do know of 2 that were out of town and for that reason could not attend.

If I counted correctly, only 41 names were called, meaning up to 3 may have already resigned (the fourth person being Chris Thieneman, who wasn't there).

Finally, they taked about some of the Women's Club not being able to get the word out on their meetings. If I was allowed to, I would have suggested that the county party website calendar would be a good place to list all meetings, fundraisers, and other activities, although after years of neglect, it might take awhile for people to realized that it is being populated.

A Third District Convention Report

For those who missed the Third District Convention of Kentucky today, I wished you could have been there. But even my wife was so disgusted as to what happened three weeks ago that she decided not to attend. Basically, again, all of the decisions were made prior to the Convention (the Nominations Committee only met for about fifteen minutes, and did not even consider the applications that people made to become national delegates - it would be interesting to know if Hal Heiner, Kevin Kramer, and Glen Stuckel submitted applications as required), and they rammed through everything. Once again, they went so fast that they did not allow time for discussion.

Whoever was responsible for developing and cramming a slate did the party a disservice that will probably cost some elections down the road.

The highlight of it all was the last resolution, reprinted below. It failed by a score of 89 to 104. A couple of interesting things about the vote:

1. If you exclude the 48th District (located in the Prospect area), the resolution would have passed 89 to 81, and

2. If you exclude the votes of the Executive Committee members themselves, it would have passed also, and

3. There were no minority resolutions, meaning this resolution had a majority on the resolutions committee, a group that had been decimated of its "Ron Paul people" and filled with those who were approved by the back-room politicos that unfortunately still run this local party.

Plus, I have been told, but obviously cannot confirm, that again votes were cast for people who had already left.

Remember that they kicked Chris Theineman off unanimously. The vote on the resolution shows that if the board was truly representative of Republicans as a whole, the vote on the JCREC would not have been 25-0, but rather 13-12 or 14-11. The county is about evenly split -- the JCREC should be also, but it's not. I hope that the new board realizes that they represent only about half the party, and will try to reach out and include the rest - something the old board should have done but didn't, costing Northup the 2006 election. If I was a director on the Anne Northup campaign, I would recommend that Anne urge the new board to do so quickly if she wants any chance of winning.

Here is the resolution I submitted. Note that the Resolutions Committee eliminated a couple of important words, printed in red:

RESOLUTION REGARDING THE JEFFERSON COUNTY REPUBLICAN EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OVERSTEPPING ITS BOUNDS

WHEREAS, the 44^th Legislative District Caucus, meeting on Saturday, March 1, 2008, unanimously elected Chris Thieneman as a delegate to the county convention, as their legislative district chairperson, and as their representative to the County Convention Nominations Committee, knowing of his statements made in anger on the Francene Show on WHAS Radio, and

WHEREAS, the Jefferson County Convention Credentials Committee voted unanimously on Monday, March 10^th, 2008 to seat the delegation approved by the 44^th Legislative District Caucus, including Chris Thieneman, knowing of his statements that were made and retracted, and not considering them a matter worth not accrediting him for nor even worth discussing, since he had met all the residency and voter registration requirements, (and there being no other requirements), and

WHEREAS, on Tuesday, March 11^th, 2008, in secret session, the Jefferson County Republican Executive Committee overthrew the valid elections by the 44^th LD and the Credentials Committee by illegal removal of Chris Thieneman from all of his elected positions, stating that he violated the oath of only supporting Republican candidates, even though he was not under the requirements of the oath at the time the comments were made, and

WHEREAS, the Executive Committee did not follow due process in that Chris Thieneman was not given the required 30 days notice and was not there to defend himself, and even though the Chairman of the Credentials Committee was present, he was not allowed to explain or defend the actions of the Credentials Committee, and

WHEREAS, the Credentials Committee met again on Thursday, March 13^th, but did not receive any written instructions to remove the accrediting of Chris Thieneman, and no one, not even the member of the Executive Committee who was on the Credentials Committee, even made such a motion, and

WHEREAS, the Secretary of the Jefferson County Republican Party took it upon herself to remove Chris Thieneman from the Delegate List for the County Convention, without any instructions from the Credentials Committee to do so,

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Jefferson County Republican Executive Committee is hereby censured for the actions of March 11^th in regards to the removal of Chris Thieneman, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the actions of the Committee is declared null and void, and that Chris Thieneman shall be restored to all positions elected by the 44^th Legislative District Caucus, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Third District Convention hereby invite Chris Thieneman to be a delegate to the Third District Convention, to the Third District Nominations Committee, and to the Kentucky State Convention.

Third District Convention on Saturday

Just a reminder that the Third District Convention will be held tomorrow (Saturday, April 5, 2008) at Eastern High School in Middletown, Kentucky with registration beginning at 9am.

I hope to have at least two new resolutions, one on home schooling that I wrote myself, and one on Israel originally written (I think) by Matt Singleton that I converted to resolution format.

It is important that all liberty-minded people attend this convention to elect people to the national convention who also support liberty (including Sheri Quinn, Robert Strickland, and myself), to vote for any good resolutions and vote down any bad ones, and to send a message to the party leadership that we are sick and tired of their tactics and divisive, illegal actions.

For more information on the convention, see "How to Become a Republican Delegate, Part 3" in another blog entry.

Here is the resolution I wrote - please let me know of any suggestions for improvement before I submit it at 9am on Saturday:

A RESOLUTION SUPPORTING HOME SCHOOLING AND OPPOSING JUDICIAL ACTIVISM

WHEREAS, a judge in California legislated from the bench that all Californians who instruct their children at home must have a teaching credential, despite the lack of evidence that having such a credential is all that is required to make a better teacher, when dealing with a case involving only a single home-schooling family, and

WHEREAS, here in Kentucky there have been similar rulings by judges who have an anti-home school bias, in spite of Article 5 of the State Constitution that allows a parent to teach their children in the way the parent thinks is best, and

WHEREAS, children who have been home-schooled usually score better than their publicly schooled counterparts on standardized intelligence tests, spelling bees, geography bees, etc., and

WHEREAS, studies have shown that the more intelligent you are, the more likely you are to be a Republican,

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Republican Party condemns the actions of that California judge and all judges who legislate from the bench and who let their personal biases affect their decisions, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the laws and tax structures should be modified so that all who desire to home-school their children have the right and ability to do so, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the standards of all educational institutions, especially public schools, should be raised in such a way that will result in the populace becoming more intelligent, resulting in a greater percentage of the people becoming Republicans.

ADDENDUM: The resolutions committee removed that last wheras and the last be it further resolved, which is a shame, as I included them in order to provide a little levity to the convention, which it really needed. The rest of the resolution did pass.

Appeal to State Party from Credential Committee Chairman

Here is the letter I am sending to the Republican Party of Kentucky State Executive Committee:

To the Republican State Executive Committee (including the Chairman of the Republican National Committee):

I wish to file a formal complaint against the Jefferson County Republican Party Executive Committee (JCREC) for what I believe is overstepping the bounds of the Jefferson County Convention Credentials Committee, of which I was chairman, and for other actions they have taken.

On Monday, March 10, 2008, our committee met for the purpose of accrediting delegates to the following Saturday’s County Convention. The Secretary of the County Party, Deanna Brangers, a member of your body, brought us a list of Republicans that were elected by the 18 legislative district caucuses of March 1, 2008. This list had a column for each person with either a ‘Y,’ meaning that the person was a valid Republican living in the district in question, or an ‘N,’ which indicated that person had not been found in the voter database under that name and address.

Chris Thieneman, a former Executive Committee member, had a ‘Y’ after his name, meaning that he met all of the requirements for inclusion as a delegate to the County Convention, according to Ms. Brangers.

The active Republicans of the 44^th Legislative District Caucus not only voted for Mr. Thieneman to be a delegate, but also as LD Chairman and member of the Nominating Committee. If they did not feel he was qualified to represent them, it should have been their responsibility to not elect him.

The Executive Committee overthrew Mr. Thieneman’s position. If the Committee has the authority to overthrow the fair election of a legislative district or overturn the actions by the Credentials Committee, then why have such bodies? The very existence of such bodies makes the Executive Committee actions suspect.

The Executive Committee actions were not due to Thieneman’s statements on WHAS radio’s “The Francene Show.” If you listen to a recording of that show, you will see that he was under great stress and anger, causing him to say things that he obviously did not intend. It is said that when he got to his automobile after the show was over, he realized his statements were a mistake.

As a former guest on “The Francene Show”, I can tell you how Francene Cucinello operates: During the commercial breaks she will ask you questions to determine what riles her guests. In my case, it was questions about John McCain, whom I totally disagree with on the amnesty/immigration issue. Expecting me to condemn John McCain, she asked me the same question on-air. You should have seen her crest-fallen face when I said that I could live with John McCain, that he is a great war hero, whom I agree with on the fighting terrorism issue, and that he is certainly better than Obama or Clinton. That is probably the reason why I have not been asked back on her show. She also refuses Chris’s requests to go back on the show and recant what he said. Mr. Thieneman wants to make sure that everyone knows that what he said was not the way he truly believes, but has not been given the opportunity to make this fact public. He contacted the Courier-Journal, but they refused to run his statement. He also wanted to speak at the County Convention, but Jack Richardson refused.

Remember that during the times he made those statements that he has recanted, he was not under any oath or requirement to support all nominees of the Republican Party (indeed, none have yet been nominated).

Evidently, the reason for Chris Thieneman’s “removal” was that he was elected to the Nominations Committee. This is evidenced by the fact that Mr. Thieneman made the statements on “The Francene Show” before the February JCREC meeting, and any concerns regarding who the 44^th Legislative District could choose as their LD Chair should have been addressed at that meeting. Apparently, the JCREC was fine with his statements until he won his elections. I believe that without the nearly equal division on the Nominations Committee between those who oppose Jack Richardson's ruination of our local party and those who support him, the removal might not have occurred.

With the removal of Thieneman, plus the seating of representatives in the 40^th Legislative District, which, according to at least two of the attendees did not elect any representatives to any of the committees, thinking that it was to be done later (I have heard second-hand from several people that the same thing happened in the 59^th, but not first hand), the balance of the committee turned to those who desired that the northeast section of Jefferson County should be overly represented on the Executive Committee, rather than those who favored a balanced organization.

After the Executive Session at the March JCREC meeting, I asked the chairman, Jack Richardson, if the topic of the meeting dealt with anything involving the Credentials Committee or anything dealing with the credentialing of any delegate. He assured to me that it didn’t. (Mr. Frank Friday said that he overheard this conversation.) Thus, either Mr. Richardson lied to me or he lied to everyone else.

The Credentials Committee did not complete its work on Monday, March 10, and adjourned until Thursday, March 13. At that time neither I nor the Credentials Committee received any written instructions about the results of the secret Executive Session, and there was no motion from the member of the JCREC who was on the Credentials Committee, nor anyone else, to remove Mr. Thieneman, who was approved the previous Monday.

The Secretary of the Jefferson County Republican Party took it upon herself to remove Mr. Thieneman – she received no such instructions from the Credentials Committee.

I hereby request that the Jefferson County Executive Committee be censured for their actions in overturning the desires of the fellow Republicans of the 44^th Legislative District Caucus, and that the wishes of the 44^th District be restored – that Mr. Thieneman should serve as the 44^th LD Chairman.

I also request that the Nominations Committee be reconvened for the purposes of choosing the At-Large members of the JCREC, consisting of only those people who were actually elected to that committee on March 1^st.

I further request that the State Rules and County Bylaws be rewritten in such a way that the actions of what a Legislative District caucus can do, what the Credentials Committee can do, and what a County Executive Committee can do, would be spelled out in case this situation happens again.

Another item that needs clarification is the handling of second district delegates to the county convention. The Secretary of the JCREC told us the number of delegates from the Second District to the county convention could not exceed the number assigned to the Second District Convention. Is this true? If so, then it should be definitely be stated somewhere. If not, then the county convention should be redone, since several people from the second district would have been credentialed, and would have attended the county convention, probably enough to change the results of some of the close votes.

I have other concerns with how the Jefferson County Convention and the Jefferson County Republican Party Executive Committee operate – these are just a few examples. I understand that the changes to the delegate and alternate list for the district convention as well as the district convention committees have not been released, and as a result, we do not know if they are accurate.

If you wish, you may reach me any time at 502-303-2775.

Yours for a Republican majority,

Larry J. West

Credentials and The Chris Thieneman Letter

The Jefferson County (Kentucky) Republican Party County Convention Credentials Committee completed its work tonight and I am happy to state that unlike 2004, every person nominated at their respective Legislative District Conventions who were Republicans living in the district nominated from, with the exception of a couple of people in the Second Congressional District in certain LDs who over-nominated people from the second district in their LD, were credentialed.

And yes, that includes Chris Thieneman, whom we credentialed on Monday and did not take up a vote to "uncredential." (Nobody made such a motion.)

In fact, the biggest name we did not approve was Norman Pepper, the owner of that fish store on Dixie Highway that has the large fiberglass catfish displayed in front and is running for Council. It turns out that Mr. Pepper is registered as an "Other." He should be removed as a Republican candidate for council as well.

I was handed a letter supposedly by Mr. Richardson instructing me to vote to decertify Mr. Thieneman, but when I opened the letter, it turned out to be the wrong one. It was the letter that they supposedly sent to Mr. Thieneman by certified mail. The letter states as follows:

Dear Mr. Thieneman,

Please be advised that pursuant to a unanimous vote of the Jefferson County Republican Party Executive Committee on even date and pursuant to Local and State Party Rules you were declared and are ineligible, disqualified and removed from all capacities of service, election and/or appointment within the party by reason of your endorsement of John Yarmuth, the details and facts of which are not necessary to repeat.

We sincerely hope that with the passage of time you will be able to demonstrate your commitment to the Republican Party through your actions and once again be of service to the party.

Yours very truly,

Jack L. Richardson, IV, Chairman

Note the lack of any mention that keeping Chris on would hurt Jefferson County's status at the State and National Conventions. I have yet to get any evidence that such is the case, and would be such a major item that surely Jack would have mentioned it, or else Steve Robertson would have mentioned it in his email to me.

It seems to me that all this is is getting back at Chris for Jack letting Francene reveal how much of an elitist [insert your own words here] he is.

Now I had asked Jack after the Executive Committee meeting was over on Tuesday if anything they covered during the Executive Session related to anything that the Credentials Committee had done or had to do. He said that it didn't.

As far as I am concerned, Chris was duly elected as a delegate to the county convention and to other positions by the 44th LD, and I was told in effect on Tuesday night that nothing the Credentials Committee did on Monday night credentialling him needed to be modified. I have not been given any instructions to myself or the Credentials Committee stating anything different.

I am expecting a major floor fight over this on Saturday. This may or may not be a good thing. For once, it will reveal how much the Executive Committee is in touch or out of touch [I suspect the latter] with the average Republican.

It is my hope that Mr. Thieneman will get a chance to state publicly that he renounces what he said in frustration on the Francene Show, and that those supporting the Executive Committee's decision will offer forgiveness and allow him at least to be seated as a delegate and respect the decisions of the 44th district Republicans. I know that he has renounced it, but it should be done in a public body, because some don't realize that he did. I really don't think that Jack Richardson has the guts to let him speak however. If he doesn't, then that means deep down he is a coward.

Remember, we are the "Party of the Open Door," and that includes people who have made mistakes.

Credentials Committee and Executive Committee Meetings

Well, I was going to write a post about how well the Credentials Committee went Monday night - we basically approved everyone who was nominated whose address was verifiable as being in that district, giving each LD credentials committee member until Thursday to find out if the one's not approved should have been (there were no more than five per LD) - and to announce that divisiveness appears to be a thing of the past, until I attended the Executive Committee meeting tonight (Tuesday).

First of all, only 31 names were called out, and only 24 people were in attendance, out of 46 people that are supposed to be there (I'm including Merv Brandes, who as Executive Director is required to attend the meetings but is not officially a member of the body). Thus, they had 15 vacancies, or one-third of the seats! Jack has stated elsewhere that it is his responsibility to help fill the seats - he is doing a terrible job and I wish the committee members would open their eyes to this fact.

I noticed that the Treasurer's Report stated that the finances were fine, but he did not give amounts. At most meetings, the treasurer lists income and expenses in his report. I hope that the new board will require more accountability from the Treasurer than the current board has. I used to think that it would be good to have some continuity between boards, but now I realize that the current Executive Committee does not know how to be an Executive Commitee. During next year, when there are no elections, I would like to see the body undergo training on how to be a great Board of Directors.

They went into something called "an Executive Session" (where they throw visitors such as myself out, but they let Merv stay even though he is not on the Executive Commitee, along with the wives of a couple of members) to act on something refered to on the agenda as a "Removal Resolution." The rumor is that they were going to try to get Chris Theineman kicked off the Executive Committee (even though he is not on yet) and/or the Nominations Committee for the County Convention, something they do not have the power to do.

The Credentials Committee, of which I was elected Chair, voted unanimously for Chris Theineman to be seated. Now we are going to meet again at 5:30pm to finish our work (we have not approved the 59th District yet due to the fact that they did not put their LD Chair as a delegate as required), and at that time someone could make a motion to reconsider, but I doubt that such a motion would pass. (I shudder to think what would have happened if someone else was chair of this committee.)

If someone does make such a motion, I will make counter-motions to remove both Merv Brandes from the Nominations Committee and Jack Richardson from the Convention for reasons stated in the post below.

I had hopes that Jack Richardson would go out quietly so the rest of us could work together for the harmony and unity that this party needs. With his actions at the Executive Committee tonight, that unfortunately seems less likely to happen. I am especially disappointed that no one complained about the move to Executive Session, but then, even after nine years as chair, Jack knows zip about Parliamentary Procedures and did not even ask for "all opposed." Frankly, if the County Chairman had asked me to make the motion to move to Executive Session to do an action that the Executive Committee is not allowed to do, especially to try to stifle someone who has the ability that Chris has of coordinating a $50,000 campaign against an "opponent" with $1 million and winning, I would have told him where he could shove it (but in more polite terms). Unfortunately, winning elections has not been a priority with this board.

It is very important that you come out to the County Convention at Eastern High School this Saturday to show the Executive Committee that you will not accept how things are currently done, and invite your friends as well. I look forward to seeing you there.

COMMENT:

It amazes me how the Jefferson County Republican Party Executive Committee continues to flex political muscle when someone steps on their sensitive toes. Chris Thieneman was elected from his L.D. as a delegate and member of the nominating committee. If this Party wants to give more than Monica Lewinsky-like lip service to the Constitution and rule of law, they should start showing some good fruit. If they truly want to be a grassroots organization, rather than a top-down dictatorship, they would let Thieneman move on to his committee and elected position. But Jack Richardson is a weak little man who wants to thumb his nose at anything Constitutional, from calling a pathetic press conference to undercut the then sitting Republican Governor Ernie Fletcher to tearing apart the County Party from the inside out to the convention controversies four years ago to the events of this year. Because of strong Republican men like Mitch McConnell, wanna-be power Richardson was forced to resign from the Executive Committee this year. Don't go away mad, Jack, just go away.

Is perception reality?

Deanna Brangers and I have been having a fairly pleasant e-mail chat regarding perceptions. It seems that someone new to the party saw her leave the room after she had lost as district chair and didn't come back. I told her that I was upset after losing an election for LD chair I should have won back in August 2002, but I stayed involved in the party, and I wanted to encourage her to stay in the party and help us work towards unity and harmony. I also asked her when the Credentials Committee meeting was to be held.

Deanna wrote back and stated that she was hanging around the back of the room, keeping quiet, but that she was there. She also wrote me back this morning and said that the Credentials Committee would be held "Sunday afternoon or Monday evening."

This evening (Friday, March 7), she e-mailed me that the meeting would take place at party headquarters downtown on Saturday at 1pm.

Less than 24 hours notice is not very nice, but what really makes it bad is that this is the worst snow storm in over ten years, and it is doubtful if the city will be operational in the morning.

The perception is that they are trying to reduce turnout by having it on Saturday rather than the previously mentioned Sunday or Monday. I have talked with some members of the credentials committee, but some had not been contacted by e-mail or phone, and I haven't been able to contact them all. If you know who your member to the credentials committee is, please tell them to be there tomorrow.

I have heard rumors that they are trying to get Chris Thieneman kicked off of the LD Chair and the nominations committee because of statements he had made on the Francene show. However, at the time he made those statements, he was not on the Executive Committee, so the rules requiring not endorsing someone who is not a Republican does not apply. I have been assured that he has retracted his statements made in frustration. The only way that Chris can be kicked off will be if he refuses to take the oath of office, which states that he will actively support all Republicans running, or if he endorses Yarmuth after that date. Actually, since Jack Richardson did not "actively support" Ernie Fletcher while in a position requiring him to do so, it could be argued that it is he that should be removed.

Another issue is the fact that Merv Brandes has been elected to the Nominations Committee. However, Merv is currently Executive Director, which is considered an employee of the Executive Committee, and it is the Nominations Committee that chooses the 22 at-large members of the Executive Committee, so basically, Merv is on a committee that chooses the people on the committee that is his employer and chooses what his salary will be. It will be interesting to hear Merv's defense as to why this is not a conflict of interest. But if Merv is given a chance to defend himself, then anyone who might be kicked off should be given a chance to defend themselves.

Since we are "the party of the Open Door" to quote the JCREC bylaws, you are all welcome to come to 232 W. Muhammad Ali Blvd. on Saturday, March 8th, at 1pm. It should be quite a show.

ADDENDUM: I just got a call from Donna Lawlor that the meeting has been postponed until Monday at 6pm. No verification from Deanna Brangers or Merv Brandes as of yet.

COMMENTS FROM DEANNA:

Larry,

I wanted to write you about the comments on your webpage. I think some of them are a bit disingenuous with regards to my actions during the LD Caucus last Saturday. You may check with Chris Thieneman, Bill Stone and a whole host of others who I was trying to help with their paperwork and questions, exactly as I stated in my previous email to you. You leave the impression that I am a sore loser and I take offense to that. I congratulated Frank Friday last Saturday and fully intend to continue to serve Rep Ron Crimm and whoever else can benefit from my help. Frank can call me for help at any time and I will do whatever I can to be of assistance to him. I will tell him the same thing.

I can understand the perception around the calling of the Credentials Committee Meeting. I had thought that Sunday or Monday would be the best time to call it. Jack was appointing Ken Fleming as the Temporary Chairman and he (Ken) thought that Saturday afternoon would be best. You should have received a call earlier in the day, but I am not going to get into that right now, as it was just a big mistake. The forecast changed for the worse and of course, we canceled it as we didn't want anyone to risk being injured trying to make it to this meeting. The reason you didn't get a call from me or Merv is that when I called Donna Lawlor to inform her, she offered to help make the calls and I took her up on her offer.

I am working very hard to make this a fair and open process. I can understand your wanting to trust the process, but being cautiously optimistic about it. There was no grand conspiracy in the calling of the meeting, but there was an unfortunate mixup in the notification of the Credentials Committee members. I apologize for that. I am telling you now that the meeting will be on Monday evening and every member will be contacted with the time. I want everyone to participate in this process.

Thank you for your dedication to the party.

Best,

DeAnna

Note: I have never called (or meant to call) Deanna a "sore loser" and I apologize if anyone gets (or got) that impression. - Larry

COMMENT:

Brangers can say whatever she wants. Let's see if the elitist countr club Republicans play fair at the County and District Conventions.

Precinct Convention & LD Caucus Script

Someone sent me a copy of the script that the leaders of the Jefferson County [Kentucky] Republican Party is supposed to follow. Note that it seems that what their plan is for each election, they will get a nomination, presumably someone favorably to their side since they get to choose the order of people recognized, then immediately close nominations (note that they don't have "all those opposed to closing nominations, say nay" in their script) and elect the person of their choice. Note the lack in this script of what to do in case of a contested election. (Actually, if no one gets over 50% of the vote, the lowest vote-getter is dropped and elections are supposed to be redone. There is no documentation anywhere what to do in case of a tie.)

The script sent to me had the precinct and LD number listed, but I blanked them out so that the person who leaked them doesn't get in trouble. (Thanks whomever you are.)

Precinct Conventions Script

(The Acting LD Chairman should call the meeting to order and explain what is to occur.)

The Precinct Conventions will be the first thing that happens and we will help to facilitate them one at a time. Please listen for your precinct number to be called and then come to the front so that your precinct convention can be conducted. In each Precinct we will elect a Captain, Co-Captain, and Youth Captain. The Co-Captain must be of the opposite sex of the Captain and the Youth Captain must be 35 years of age or younger at the time of his or her election.

____: All participants for ____ please come forward.

The Temporary Chairman of this precinct convention shall be the precinct Captain, or in his absence the precinct Co-Captain, or in his absence the Youth Chairman. In the event none of these persons is in attendance, the said Registered Republican Voters shall select by majority vote the Temporary Chairman. The Temporary Chairman shall appoint the Temporary Secretary of the convention.

(Turn the Convention over to the elected Precinct Captain at this time, if one is present. If one is not present, then explain that they need to elect a Temporary Convention Chairman from those present, so that they may begin their Convention.)

Is everyone here a resident of ____ and entitled to vote?

Does everyone have a copy of the temporary rules for the Precinct Convention? Is there a motion to adopt the temporary rules as the permanent rules for the ____ Precinct Convention? Is there a second? All in favor please signify by saying Aye. The rules have been adopted.

The next order of business is to elect the Permanent Precinct Convention Chair and Permanent Precinct Convention Secretary. Do I hear a nomination for Convention Chairman? Is there a second? Are there any other nominations? Is there a motion that nominations cease? Do I have a second? All in favor of closing nominations please signify by saying Aye. All in favor of the election of _______ as Precinct Convention Chairman please signify by saying Aye.

Do I hear a nomination for Convention Secretary? Is there a second? Are there any other nominations? Is there a motion that nominations cease? Do I have a second? All in favor of closing nomination please signify by saying Aye. All in favor of the election of ____ as the Precinct Convention Secretary please signify by saying Aye.

The next order of business is the nomination and election of the Precinct Captain for ____. Do I hear a nomination for Precinct Captain? Is there a second? Are there any other nominations? Is there a motion that nominations cease? Do I have a second? All in favor of closing nominations please signify by saying Aye. All in favor of the election of ___ as the Precinct Captain please signify by saying Aye.

The next order of business is the nomination and election of the Precinct Co-Captain for ____. Do I hear a nomination for Precinct Co-Captain? Is there a second? Are there any other nominations? Is there a motion that nominations cease? Do I have a second? All in favor of closing nominations please signify by saying Aye. All in favor of the election of ___ as the Co-Precinct Captain please signify by saying Aye.

The next order of business is the nomination and election of the Precinct Youth Captain for ____. Do I hear a nomination for Precinct Youth Captain? Is there a second? Are there any other nominations? Is there a motion that nominations cease? Do I have a second? All in favor of closing nominations please signify by saying Aye. All in favor of the election of ___ as the Precinct Captain please signify by saying Aye.

Is there any other business to come before the Precinct Convention for ____? Hearing none, are there any announcements to be made?

All newly elected Precinct Officers should stay to participate in the Legislative District Caucus immediately preceding the adjournment of the last Precinct Convention.

Is there a motion to adjourn the Precinct Convention of _____ sine die? Is there a second? All in favor please signify by saying Aye.

Repeat the script for the following precincts: ________________________________________________

Legislative District Caucus Script

(The Acting LD Chairman should call the meeting to order and explain what is to occur.)

The Legislative District Caucus is hereby called to order.

The Legislative District Chairman or the designee of the Jefferson County Republican Party will serve as the Temporary Chairman of the Legislative District Caucus. The Chair appoints ____________ to serve as the Temporary Caucus Secretary.

Those entitled to vote in this Legislative District Caucus are the newly elected Precinct Captains, Co-Captains, and Youth Captains of the precincts within the ___^th Legislative District. All guests please remain seated in the back of the room.

Everyone should have a copy of the Temporary Legislative District Caucus rules. Is there a motion to adopt them as the Permanent rules for this Legislative District Caucus? Is there a second? All in favor please signify by saying Aye.

The next order of business is the election of a Permanent Caucus Chairman and Permanent Caucus Secretary to serve the remainder of this meeting.

Do I hear a nomination for Caucus Chairman? Is there a second? Are there any other nominations? Is there a motion that nominations cease? Do I have a second? All in favor of closing nominations please signify by saying Aye. All in favor of the election of __________ as the Legislative District Caucus Chairman please signify by saying Aye.

Do I hear a nomination for Caucus Secretary? Is there a second? Are there any other nominations? Is there a motion that nominations cease? Do I have a second? All in favor of closing nominations please signify by saying Aye. All in favor of the election of __________ as the Legislative District Caucus Secretary please signify by saying Aye.

The next order of business is the election of a Legislative District Chairman. Are there any nominations? Is there a motion that nominations cease? Do I have a second? All in favor of closing nominations please signify by saying Aye. All in favor of the election of __________ as the Legislative District Chairman please signify by saying Aye.

The next order of business is the election of delegates and alternate delegates to the County Convention. The ___^th Legislative District is allocated ___ delegates. We need to elect ___ delegates and an equal number of alternate delegates.

Are there any nominations for those to server as Delegates to the County Convention? (Compile the list until you have the allotted number.) Those nominated are: _____read back the list to those present____. Is there a motion that nominations cease and this list be elected as Delegates to the County Convention by acclamation? Is there a second? All in favor please signify by saying Aye.

Are there any nominations for those to server as Alternate Delegates to the County Convention? (Compile the list until you have the allotted number.) Those nominated are: _____read back the list to those present____. Is there a motion that nominations cease and this list be elected as Alternate Delegates to the County Convention by acclamation? Is there a second? All in favor please signify by saying Aye.

The next order of business is the election of persons to serve on each of the 5 standing committees to the County and District Conventions. Those committees are: Credentials, Nominations, Permanent Organization, Resolutions, and Rules.

Are there any nominations for someone to serve as the ___^th Legislative District representative to the Credentials Committee? Are there any other nominations? Is there a motion that nominations cease? Is there a second? All in favor please signify by saying Aye. All in favor of electing _________ to serve on the Credentials committee please signify by saying Aye.

Are there any nominations for someone to serve as the ___^th Legislative District representative to the Nominations Committee? Are there any other nominations? Is there a motion that nominations cease? Is there a second? All in favor please signify by saying Aye. All in favor of electing _________ to serve on the Nominations committee please signify by saying Aye.

Are there any nominations for someone to serve as the ___^th Legislative District representative to the Permanent Organizations Committee? Are there any other nominations? Is there a motion that nominations cease? Is there a second? All in favor please signify by saying Aye. All in favor of electing _________ to serve on the Permanent Organizations committee please signify by saying Aye.

Are there any nominations for someone to serve as the ___^th Legislative District representative to the Resolutions Committee? Are there any other nominations? Is there a motion that nominations cease? Is there a second? All in favor please signify by saying Aye. All in favor of electing _________ to serve on the Resolutions committee please signify by saying Aye.

Are there any nominations for someone to serve as the ___^th Legislative District representative to the Rules Committee? Are there any other nominations? Is there a motion that nominations cease? Is there a second? All in favor please signify by saying Aye. All in favor of electing _________ to serve on the Rules committee please signify by saying Aye.

Is there any other business to become before the Legislative District Caucus? Hearing none, are there any announcements to be made?

Is there a motion to adjourn the ___^th Legislative District Caucus sine die? Is there a second? All in favor please signify by saying Aye.

Someone on the JCREC still doesn't understand what happened in 2004.

This was in another blog regarding what I have said in the preamble of my document "How to Become a Republican Delegate."

I am printing it here, along with my response, just in case people tell you the same thing.

If they passed out the bylaws and/or convention rules in your LD meeting (and gave you time to read it), could you please let me (Larry West) know. They didn't pass it out in mine.

This tells me that they might try the same confrontational things they did in 2004 - be aware.

Here is their post:

A member of the JCRP Committee has written in to refute some of the claims made here in the comments section. Here you go:
1.) The locations were made available more than just a few days in advance, but I don't remember the specific number of days. An ad was run in the Courier-Journal.
2.) The bylaws and convention rules are always public documents. The convention rules were passed out in the Legislative Districts. It would be hard to know the procedure that was followed in each LD, as there were 18 different locations which seemed to partially be a problem. However, each Precinct Convention and Caucus must adopt rules and they were voted on. The Jefferson County Republican Executive Committee had passed standing rules to clarfy provisions recently written into it's bylaws that seemed confusing. As you can tell from the different stories that you get,it was certainly up to interpretation and people could easily have different views on them, which created the need for clarification by the JCREC. Since then, the bylaws have been changed to try to eliminate those problems.
3.) It is not up to convention officials to tell people that they can amend the temporary rules of the convention. You can't amend the bylaws at this level.
4.) I don't know of a circumstance where people were told that slates had to be on a certain form, but forms were provided to LD Chairs with the appropriate number of positions, dependent upon the number of delegates allotted to the district.
5.) Legislative District Chairmen were not up for election at this level in 2004. There were no votes taken on the LD Chairmen in the caucuses, if any district tried that, it would have been out of order.
6.) Any voting member of the LD Caucus could present a slate, this shouldn't have be told to attendees.
7.) All resolutions submitted at the LD Caucuses were presented to the Resolutions Committee. If they chose not to pass it out of Resolutions, then it never made it to the County Convention floor. Larry had submitted one that was very critical of Jack Richardson. The Resolutions committee chose not to take it up.
8.) Parliamentary Procedure was followed at the County Convention. I know it was followed in many of the LD's as there were people who were either Parliamentarians present or who had much Parliamentary experience there to observe. Given the 18 locations, it is hard to definitively say that it was followed to a tee in every location.
9.) Slates that had issues had the following problems: Democrats on the slates, people not living in the district, people not living in the county, no apportionment for those areas with second district precincts, etc.

My response:
1. A small ad was run hidden in the Velocity classifieds the Wed. before - nothing was run in the CJ itself. Nor has any article been run in the CJ this time (unless its in a section that I don't usually read, like the classifieds). In fact, the only public printing of the Precinct and LD rules THIS time is on my blog page. It should be prominently on www.lougop.org, along with the information regarding the convention itself. The website still states "No events in March."
2. They were not released (made available) in my LD, nor of any others that I know of, but they certainly had their "hidden agenda" red sheets available. Given that they didn't publish the rules, and admit that "it's not up to the convention officials to tell people" their rights, which is the side with the "hidden agenda?"
3. Correct, but since #2 did not place, people did not know they could change the rules, which is what I said. Note that I am not advocating changing the bylaws, just changing the temporary rules making it illegal for our LD representative to eliminate entire delegate slates.
4. I read this in an account on what happened in the 43rd district. I have no reason to believe that person was lying about it.
5. If the 2008 rules were the same as 2004 (based on the not changing the title from 2004 to 2008), then your person (why are they anonymous - I'm not) is lying.
6. So at least they are willing to admit that their side made one mistake. That's a start.
7. The Resolution Committee met in secret (so much for the "Party of the Open Door") and did not include anyone from non-Richardson slates. I doubt if all 18 LDs were represented that there weren't at least 5 who would have supported it. Again I had other resolutions that I wasn't allowed to submit because they weren't typed.
8. I know that our's didn't follow it properly, and judging by Jeff Klusmeier's post that it wasn't followed in his.
9. This was due to not knowing or having access to the rules. So why eliminate those that were valid Republicans? As I've said elsewhere, if they just eliminated bad delegates, instead of the entire delegation when only a couple were bad, we probably wouldn't be having this discussion.

The only "litmus test" I am advocating is whether you think it is okay to eliminate valid Republican delegations (instead of just the invalid delegates) just because of a couple of invalid people slipped through.

Files added to SkyDrive

You should notice a link to something called "SkyDrive." It is a spaces feature that allows one to upload documents for others to download. I have never used this feature before, so I am not sure if it works.

The direct URL if you don't see it is http://cid-2dc19a3b70481285.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Public

There, you will find my "Guide to Parliamentary Procedure" as well as the Jefferson County Republican Party bylaws, the rules for the Precinct Convention and LD Caucuses, as well as a word document of my "How to Become a Republican Delegate, Part I".

If my font is too small for you, bring the document up in word, click ctrl-A (or Select All from the Edit menu), then choose Font from the Format menu, then choose the number for the font size you want.

A final bonus Excel file is a listing of all the results for all the Presidential Primaries I could find.

Let me know if you have problems downloading them.

If you don't have Microsoft Office, you can download the Word Viewer from here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=95e24c87-8732-48d5-8689-ab826e7b8fdf&DisplayLang=en

Someone pointed out to me that the bylaws state that everything has to be seconded by two people. Be aware of that when making motions requiring seconding.

Also, be sure that any resolutions you introduce are available in written form. In fact, I would suggest making several copies and find other people in other Legislative Districts to pass the same resolution. If any resolution passes at least five LDs, then that resolution is supposed to be presented at the County Convention.

See you on Saturday.

Welcome to AnyOtherSource.com

The benchmark that others compare themselves with. The website of Larry J. West, MCSD, of Louisville, KY. Better than a blog -- it's information you can hopefully use!

JCREC Meeting - May 2008

Kentucky State Republican Convention - my thoughts beforehand

Third District Race in LP Presidential Campaign

Result of JCREC Appeal

April Executive Committee Meeting - JCRP