Sunday, June 01, 2008
Review - Republican State Convention
King has written a number of posts about the statewide Republican Convention held Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Rochester. I attended the convention as a delegate and also the State Central Committee meeting that followed the convention as a Delegate-at-Large.
Here are some of my observations starting with the party and Ron Paulers (RPers).
Talks were by party officials and committee chairs. King covered the details. However, I want to make an observation about the behavior of some people on the floor of the convention. While I have some concerns about they way some issues were handled, all-in-all under the current circumstances, I think the party did ok. Changes need to be made but it was also known that the Ron Paul contingent (RPers) might prove a bit testy. They have been studying and communicating amongst themselves for months. They share information and ideas as to how to work the various state systems and they are very well funded. They had a good many delegates but many were first-timers. It takes a round to learn the system.
The Convention Rules were released close to the convention (too close? who knows? There's always room for criticism.) and review time was limited but there were only seven pages and they could be reviewed in less than 30 minutes. Thus, most people had no problem reading through the rules before the convention started. Unfortunately, even after the rules were approved by attendees, the RPers kept trying to suspend the rules. After the 3rd try, the other attendees became impatient. When the 4th, 5th, 6th (?) attempts were made, there was shouting and some boorish behavior. The RPers were outnumbered significantly. All their attempts to change the rules failed, substantially.
My personal opinion is that the McCain team made tactical errors: posting their list of desired delegates and having floor people attempt to sway votes were practices that were foolish and degrading. We're smart enough to make our own decisions. For the record, they didn't get all their desired candidates.
Here are some of my observations starting with the party and Ron Paulers (RPers).
Talks were by party officials and committee chairs. King covered the details. However, I want to make an observation about the behavior of some people on the floor of the convention. While I have some concerns about they way some issues were handled, all-in-all under the current circumstances, I think the party did ok. Changes need to be made but it was also known that the Ron Paul contingent (RPers) might prove a bit testy. They have been studying and communicating amongst themselves for months. They share information and ideas as to how to work the various state systems and they are very well funded. They had a good many delegates but many were first-timers. It takes a round to learn the system.
The Convention Rules were released close to the convention (too close? who knows? There's always room for criticism.) and review time was limited but there were only seven pages and they could be reviewed in less than 30 minutes. Thus, most people had no problem reading through the rules before the convention started. Unfortunately, even after the rules were approved by attendees, the RPers kept trying to suspend the rules. After the 3rd try, the other attendees became impatient. When the 4th, 5th, 6th (?) attempts were made, there was shouting and some boorish behavior. The RPers were outnumbered significantly. All their attempts to change the rules failed, substantially.
My personal opinion is that the McCain team made tactical errors: posting their list of desired delegates and having floor people attempt to sway votes were practices that were foolish and degrading. We're smart enough to make our own decisions. For the record, they didn't get all their desired candidates.
Labels: Republican Convention
