5/18/13 Special State Central Committee Report

The State Central Committee convened in a Special Meeting on Saturday immediately before the Republican State Convention.  This meeting was called by 25% of the SCC voting membership (in accordance with URP Constitution Article IV, C) to re-vote on a proposal to raise the convention vote threshold required for a candidate to avoid a primary from 60% to 2/3.  There were 138 credentialed members in attendance.  The proposal to raise the threshold failed — 65 against, 60 in favor.

Both the 60% and the 2/3 threshold have their positive aspects, and while I voted yes on the original proposal vote in April, I voted no on Saturday’s re-vote because I did not like the idea of being pressured to re-vote on an issue in an attempt by some to gain what they perceived as a better outcome.  I wanted our original April vote to stand so that a 2/3 vote of the convention delegates would be required to make the crucial decision about changing the threshold.  Had the re-vote passed the SCC with a 2/3 vote, only a majority vote of delegates would have been required to ratify the change.  Because the re-vote failed, the delegate vote required to approve the threshold change remained the same (2/3).

During the convention, delegates received their chance to vote on changing the threshold from 60% to 2/3; the motion failed, with 55.32% of the delegates voting against, and 44.68% voting for.  The threshold therefore remains at 60%.

Thank you for all of the interest and input you expressed on this issue!

Special SCC Meeting Called for Re-Vote on Convention Threshold Issue

A Special Meeting has been called to ask the State Central Committee to re-vote on a proposal that was already presented and voted on at our April meeting.  At issue is a Constitution and Bylaws proposal that would raise the convention threshold vote required for a candidate to avoid a primary — the proposal in question would raise the threshold from 60% to 2/3 (view the agenda and read the proposal here).  This Special Meeting will be held immediately before the State Convention this Saturday.

At our April SCC meeting, a majority of the committee voted in favor of raising the convention threshold to 2/3 — the vote was 79 for, 46 against.  Now that proposal moves to the delegates for a vote at Saturday’s State Convention.  Here’s the crux of the issue:  because the SCC approved the proposal by a simple majority, it will require a 2/3 vote of the delegates to ratify and solidify the change to our nominating system, if they decide they want it changed.  HOWEVER, if the SCC had approved the change by a 2/3 margin, it would only require a simple majority vote of the delegates to ratify the change.

The purpose of the Special Central Committee Meeting appears to be to force the SCC to RE-VOTE on the issue right before Convention in hopes of getting a more favorable vote (2/3 approval margin) so that a LOWER and easier delegate vote threshold is necessary to ratify the change.  

This special meeting was called in accordance with the URP Constitution, which states that a special meeting can be called at the request of 25% of the voting membership (Article IV, C).  You may view the meeting request and the names of those requesting the meeting here.

A brief history of this issue: 

• Our Caucus/Convention system is under attack by a group who wants to push us into more primaries, direct primaries (no caucus/convention), open primaries (all parties could vote on who our Republican candidate should be), or primaries in which a candidate does not have to go through the Caucus/Convention to reach the ballot.  They are threatening to launch a ballot initiative to force the Republican Party to change how we nominate our Republican candidates for the General Election ballot (see this KSL article for more info).
• In March the SCC met in a Special Meeting to discuss updates to the Caucus/Convention system that might help us avoid being pushed into a ballot initiative aimed at dismantling the Caucus/Convention system.  This was a long meeting with much discussion (including a lot of discussion about threshold levels) and unofficial votes taken on various issues (see March meeting blog post for more info).
• In April we met (with a much higher than average attendance turnout — 127, compared to the normal 100 or so) and again discussed various thresholds and voted on the 2/3 proposal.  The vote was 79 for, 46 against.  Since the SCC approved the proposal by only a majority vote, delegates at Convention must ratify this proposal by a 2/3 vote if they want it to pass (had the SCC approved the proposal by 2/3, only a majority vote would have been required by delegates for this proposal to pass).

UCRP County Convention Election Results

Delegates, THANK YOU for attending Saturday’s Organizing Convention — your participation makes all the difference, and your efforts are very much appreciated.  It was wonderful to meet together, to share camaraderie and ideas, and to work toward common goals.

The election results for the convention have been posted on the Utah County Republican Party website.

THANK YOU to all the candidates who campaigned for State Central Committee positions; I think every candidate was exceptional.

I appreciate the opportunity to serve for another term on the State Central Committee, I thank you for your support, and I look forward to working with you!