“Old Put” Escapes the British at Greenwich, CT in 1779 from the original painting by Alonzo Chappel
I am not among those who fear the people. They, and not the rich, are our dependence for continued freedom. And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. - Thomas Jefferson, 1816
Every four years, the people have a great opportunity to shape the direction of the active political parties in America. This is accomplished by becoming a delegate to the national convention of these political groups. If Constitutional Conservatives fill these positions, we have the greatest chance of keeping the political parties faithful to our Founders’ Success Formula, reducing our national indebtedness, and protecting the private property of all our citizens.
In order to shape this process, patriots must understand the nature of the process from the county level to the national convention, the agenda for these meetings, and the rules that will govern them. To facilitate your understanding, we present the Missouri Model to give a context for building your own state’s process. If you are not in Missouri, you will have to make an effort to learn how to adapt this process to your state’s requirements.
First, understand the flow of meetings that leads to the delegate selection process. In Missouri:
County Caucus
// \\
// \\
Congressional State
District Convention
Convention //
\\ //
\\ //
Republican National
Convention
Second, call your party’s County Chair to learn the dates and locations of all meetings. To locate your County Chair, look for your Party’s state website using this MAP Link, then search by county. If the information on these links is not current, call your county’s Election Office. Ask your County Chair for a copy of your state’s “Call to Convention” which should include the dates and order of business. Within each state, time and dates may vary by the rules of each political party, so be sure to confirm EVERYTHING with your County Chair who is the gateway to accurate information. Don’t be discouraged if they are not immediately forthcoming with this information since they have a power base they may feel they have to protect. Start early and be PERSISTENT until you get all the information you need! Then seek another reliable source and verify everything a second time. Believe it or not, some corrupt party bosses have been known to give out misleading information to people they perceive as a threat.
In Missouri, Republicans will meet as follows:
_(Your) COUNTY CAUCUS (CC):
Time: 10:00 a.m., Saturday, March 17, 2012
Location: to be named by County Chair and advertised publically at least 15 days prior.
Purpose:
1. to choose ___# Delegates and Alternates to the CDC on April 21, 2012
2. to choose ___# Delegates and Alternates to the SC on June 1-2, 2012
3. To submit amendments to the State Party Platform.
(Note: Supporters of various candidates should be given an opportunity to “caucus/organize” with other supporters once the rules are read and approved. Be prepared to firmly declare a “point of order” if someone tries to “move that nominations cease” before you have had a chance to nominate your slate of delegates if that is what the rules call for. Roberts Rules of Order requires a specific, deliberate process that you should know and demand to be honored. )
_(Your)_ CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT CONVENTION (CDC):
Time: 10:00 a.m., Saturday, April 21, 2012
Location: to be named by your Congressional District Chair
Purpose:
1. To choose three (3) Delegates and (3) Alternates to the Republican National Convention (RNC) to be held Aug 27 – 31, 2012 in Tampa, FL.
2. To advance amendments to the State Party Platform that were submitted at the County Caucuses.
3. To choose one (1) presidential elector.
Requirements: Delegates and Alternates to the National Convention will be required to declare allegiance to a candidate prior to the voting, and will be bound to that candidate on the first ballot of voting at the RNC – unless they are released prior to the convention.
MO REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION (SC):
Time: Friday & Saturday, June 1-2, 2012
Location: University Plaza Hotel, 333 S John Q Hammons Pkwy, Springfield, MO 65806
Purpose:
1. To choose 25 at-large Delegates and Alternates to the Republican National Convention.
2. To choose 2 at-large Presidential electors.
3. To elect a National Committeeman and women to the Republican National Committee.
4. To approve the final version of the MO GOP Platform for the next four years.
Note: The State Party Chair, the National Committeeman, and the National Committeewoman are automatic delegates to the RNC with no alternates.
Requirements: Delegates and Alternates to the National Convention will be required to declare allegiance to a candidate prior to the voting, and will be bound to that candidate on the first ballot of voting at the RNC – unless they are released prior to the convention.
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION (RNC):
Date: August 27-31, 2012
Location: Convention Center, Tampa Bay, FL
Purpose:
1. To choose the Party’s 2012 Presidential Nominee
2. To approve the Party’s Vice-Presidential Nominee.
3. To approve the final version of the national GOP Platform for the next four years.
Third, know the meeting agenda for each of the above meetings so you can be ready to participate at the right time. Things will move VERY fast to the uninitiated.
Sample Caucus Agenda
- 1) Call to order by County Chairman (or designee) as Temporary Caucus Chair.
- 2) Pledge of Allegiance
- 3) Invocation
- 4) Appointment of Credentials Committee
- 5) Appointment of Caucus Parliamentarian
- 6) Credentials Committee Report – certification of eligible voters and guests.
- 7) Nomination & Election of Permanent Caucus Chairman
- 8) Nomination & Election of Permanent Caucus Secretary
- 9) Reading of the Call to Convention by Caucus Secretary
- 10) Appointment of additional committees
- a) Rules
- b) Tally
- 11) Candidate caucuses and/or speech(es) while the Rules Committee meets.
- 12) Rules Committee Report – Reading and Approval of Caucus Rules.
- 13) Election of _(#)_ Delegates and _(#)_ Alternates to the 2012 7th Congressional District Republican Convention for the purpose of electing three (3) Delegates and three (3) Alternates and one Presidential Elector to the Republican National Convention.
- a) Nomination of Delegates Slate(s)
- b) Nomination of Alternates Slate(s)
- 14) Election of _(#)_ Delegates and _(#)_ Alternates to the 2012 Republican State Convention for the purpose of electing 25 at-large delegates and alternates and two Presidential Electors to the Republican National Convention.
- a) Nomination of Delegates Slate(s)
- b) Nomination of Alternates Slate(s)
- 15) Submission (and optional consideration) of Platform Planks. (Submissions must be written and legible.)
- 16) Adjournment
Fourth, know the rules for the meeting BEFORE the meeting begins. The meeting rules are developed by party leaders before the meeting begins and submitted to the Rules Committee for final approval after the Permanent Chair is elected. Insist on a copy of the “Working Rules Draft” before your caucus begins. You might be stone-walled because the Chair can legitimately claim that the rules are not “finished” yet. If so, ask the Chair to put you on the Rules Committee so you can know them as they are being developed. If the Chair refuses, use parliamentary procedure to delay the passage of the rules until you fully understand what they entail. Ideally the supporters of each viable candidate for president should have a concerned member of their team on the Rules Committee, the Credentials Committee, and the Tally Committee so their interests are represented. In a worse case scenario in which the a tyrant Caucus Chair is trying to railroad his pre-picked list of delegates through the meeting, you need to know the Caucus Rules and Robert’s Rules of Order well enough to put the breaks on if the train gets going too fast. Here is a good “cheat sheet” on Parliamentary Procedure. For a copy of suggested rules for the Missouri County Caucus use the following form and we will send you our latest working draft:
A word about using slates of delegates:
If every delegate were to be elected individually out of a large number of individuals who may want to be delegates, the meeting could go on for hours while voting and re-voting takes place. People would get “fed up” and leave the caucus. Consequently, the rules usually call for delegates to be presented as a group. If your group is organized and meets ahead of time and then comes to the Caucus as a block, it should be no problem to either nominate your slate or combine with another slate at the caucus who will work with you to gain an effective majority of the votes present. The Caucus will go a lot smoother if these arrangements can be worked out ahead of time. If not, refer to the Note above under the section above about the County Caucus.
A word about platform resolutions:
Most states usually use their previous convention’s platform and carry it forward with amendments rather than recreate it from scratch at every convention. Go to your state party’s website or contact their state office and ask how to get a copy of the current platform. Use that copy as your basis for making new resolutions or amending a previous plank. The Caucus Rules should require that submissions for Platform changes are in a written, legible format, so work on your resolutions in advance and type out your language so they are not tossed out because you were unprepared. (The current Missouri Republican Platform (2008) can be found at: 2012_MOGop_Platform_DRAFT.pdf
