Viva La Revolution

To say today’s Republican Central Committee meetings were exciting would be an understatement, particularly if you’re a political geek. It would not be an overstatement to say that it was one of the most momentous in County History.

For me, it began with the District 18 reorganization meeting. While, I’m no longer a Committeeman, I attended to meet and greet. The room had a feel of real unity. District 18 presents the GOP with its best chance to reclaim seats. The ideological disagreements of the primary were over. Dean and Shelia Sorensen were there and I spoke briefly with Mrs. Sorensen. Whenever you meet someone who you’ve been critical of on the blog, you wonder if there’ll be fireworks. Not Mrs. Sorensen. She asked me what “blog” meant.

Our meeting had a surprise guest. None other than Kirk Sullivan, Idaho Republican Party Chairman. Well, I still have some things against Sullivan as chairman, but he has a remarkable ability to connect with people. So anything on the level of “animosity” isn’t there. Sullivan makes a good impression as a genuine Southern Gentleman. His first campaign was J. Strom Thurmond’s 1954 U.S. Senate Campaign (when I was -26 years old.) He actually expressed opinion that what I was doing was important and that we need more people blogging. Yes, I’m still a Sullivan critic, but he made a good impression.

The business end of the meeting was short and sweet. We elected our precinct officers without opposition and after a reminder about the round up, the committee moved to the important stuff: Pizza had been delivered, and this South Beach Republican headed for the exit.

I was extremely early for the Ada County Central Committee meeting. This was my first meeting as a non-Precinct Committeeman and I had moments of regret about not running. The meeting was packed liked I’d never seen. 99 Members were present.

The big item was the election of delegates to the convention. The list that came out publicly was a huge topic of concern. Our longtime Secretary, Dawn Hatch, explained that the list was not final, and that it was taken in order of people who contacted the committee with interest in serving. In the defense of her and Chairman Marcel Bujarski, there has never been a problem like this: too many delegates interested in representing Ada County at the convention. A man who sat next to me who is a past legislative District Chairman told me that in 20 years, Ada County has never sent a full delegation.

Former four-term Speaker Bruce Newcombe acted as a parliamentarian and his services would be needed before the night was out. A motion was made to approve the list in the order submitted. There was then another motion to amend the list to remove the spouses and move people up the list.

This is when Freshman State Representative Raul Labrador became the hero of the night. His alternate substitute was a far more thoughtful arrangement. The District Parties would convene off to the side and each would propose five nominees to the convention with a limit of one per household. Nineteen delegates would be chosen by the Chairman. Labrador’s motion passed overwhelmingly and then eight chaotic unplanned district meetings broke out. The Chairman hoped to have the meetings resolved in ten minutes.

Unfortunately, we had barely figured out what was going on in our group by the time he asked everybody to come back, and none of the other districts were ready, either. District 18 settled things pretty easily. We had six people who wanted to go present, and one was likely to make the Chairman’s nineteen. We submitted our five candidates and yours truly was one of them.

We then proceeded to Officer elections. To make a long story short, Ron Paul supporters won the positions of 2nd Vice-Chairman, 3rd Vice-Chairman, and State Youth Committeeman. Redgie Bigham of the Pachyderm Club was the surprise nominee to challenge Ada County Chairman Bujarski. After the results of the 2nd Vice-Chairman race, I thought for sure the party’s venerable County Chairman was going to lose. In the end, though, Bujarski was victorious.

What came out of the results was a shake-up in Republican leadership the likes of which I’ve not seen at the county level in my lifetime. I’m hopeful about the changes that have been brought. The new officers are young professionals who believe in key conservative principles.

Of course, with any change, there are risks. Will the new officers be up to the task? Candidate recruitment, fundraising, and organizing young Republicans are not easy tasks. The committee ended up with the best of both worlds, in a way. Bujarski and Hatch provide the party with seasoned leadership, new Treasurer Keith Johnson will bring competence and energy to his job (you may recognize the name, he was controller for a much larger enterprise than the Ada County Republican Party; the State of Idaho). The new officers will provide fresh blood and new ideas that are long overdue, to go along with First Vice-Chairman Brad Bolichek’s conservative leadership.

Sometimes, when I hear people talk about Republicans taking back Districts 16 and 18, it seems that they think all we need to do is more of the same in greater quantities. It’s time to get back to honest, practical conservatism and communicating to people where they are at. I remain hopeful that our officers will embrace that.

The Ron Paul Revolution achieved much tonight, but I must offer some criticism. They could have achieved much more with some knowledge of the rules and foresight. The pointman of the Paul movement, Ryan Davidson, sat towards the back of the room, making it hard for him to be recognized or heard. Points of order came, in some cases, a day late and a dollar short.

The big example was that the committee had voted nearly unanimously to approve an agenda that included simply the election of delegates and officers. One person had a resolution that amounted to a “no confidence” vote on Chairman Kurt Sullivan. The problem? It wasn’t on the approved agenda and couldn’t be added without a 2/3 vote. 48 people voted to allow discussion of the item, which, as 99 people were present when the roll was called, was not enough. Ryan Davidson then brought forward a belated point of order that many people had left since the beginning of the meeting. While this was a valid point (if you need to know if 48 is 2/3 of the whole you have to know what the whole is,) it was once again too late to raise the point. It was quite literally too late as the meeting was more than 45 minutes past the alloted time.

A minor error also occurred when Davidson raised the point that we were not nominating a corresponding secretary, a position that had been eliminated several years before. I’ve expressed my annoyance at Davidson’s abseenteeism in the past. Tonight, we saw the results, and it was a lesson to Ron Paul “Revolutionaries.”

When people talk of “Revolutions,” they picture an instantaneous change of affairs, but when I think of our nation’s Revolution, I think of a long process involving tedious hard work full of little thanks and much frustration. Despite the many urgings from Republican leaders that night, I know I’ve seen the first and the last of many of the newly elected committeemen. The ones who will make the difference are those who stick around and fight for what they believe in.

Who is willing to drink the cup of defeat in the pursuit of principle and keep going? These are the people who will make the difference. If the newcomers are willing to be these people, they will have my respect and when they are right, they will have my full support.

Those in other parts of the state will be interested to know what this all means for the election for Party Chairman. Former Senator Majority Leader Rod Beck’s potential challenge was helped by the process used to select delegates, if by nothing else than the fact that Beck will be a delegate.

Also, given that 48 committeemen, at that moment representing the majority of Ada County Delegates present, were prepared to support a vote of no confidence against Chairman Sullivan, I can safely say that the Chairman will be in serious trouble at the upcoming convention, given that Ada County has been a bulwark for establishment Republicans up to this point.