GOP appoints convention delegates - News

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Jul. 26, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

GOP appoints convention delegates

Judge rules court has no jurisdiction to intercede in political rift

REVIEW-JOURNAL

Nevada Republican Party officials appointed a slate of delegates Friday evening to September's Republican national convention after the party failed to elect delegates at its state convention in April.

The move came after a judge ruled Friday morning that the party's executive board could appoint the delegates. A group of party dissidents, many of them supporters of former presidential candidate Ron Paul, had sued to stop the action, contending it was not democratic.

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Washoe County District Judge Jerry Polaha denied a preliminary injunction sought by more than two dozen delegates at the April convention who contended state law requires national delegates to be selected by state convention delegates.

Polaha said the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case.

Party officials abruptly shut down the state convention before final votes were taken on the national convention delegation when outnumbered supporters of presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain were out maneuvered by well-organized Paul supporters, who were able to get a rule change positioning them for more national convention delegate slots than expected. Party officials said the convention was running too long and would have taken several more hours to conclude.

Polaha sided with an attorney for the Nevada GOP, David O'Mara, who argued that case law shows such internal disputes should be settled by the parties, not courts. The judge said disaffected Republicans could contest the state party's decision to the national GOP.

"There's no jurisdiction (for the court) because it's a purely a political dispute," he said in ruling from the bench. "You'll get different results in different courts, and that's the problem."

O'Mara praised the judge.

"I think the court is correct. This is an internal party dispute that the court shouldn't be involved in," he said.

"Appointing our delegates was the best course of action to take and we are excited to see so many first time delegates," party Chairman Sue Lowden said. "We had every hope to reconvene the State convention but feel strongly the nominating committee has chosen a wide range of delegates who will make our party proud."

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit said they were unhappy with the ruling and would decide whether to appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court. If the courts fail to intervene, they said they would take the dispute to the Sept. 1-4 national convention in St. Paul, Minn.

"It still has to be settled," said plaintiff Wayne Terhune, a Paul supporter who helped organize an insurgent state convention in June after the party's state convention in Reno was recessed.

"Our overall goal is to restore lawfulness to the GOP in its delegate-selection process," he added.

Nevada has 34 delegates to the national convention and 31 alternates.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Please enter your name Name: Please enter your email Email: Please enter a comment COMMENTS : (word count limit is 300) You have reached the maximum number of words allowed Current Word Count: Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background. sheepdog wrote on July 28, 2008 05:33 PM: Sadly the media continues to present their opinions and biases as facts. As Registered Republicans - and more so as Activist Republicans - the key to promotion of ideals is TEAMWORK. The Republican Delegate Process began way back at the Caucus where any Republican in attendance could offer themself as a Delegate to the County-level Convention. At the County-level Convention Republicans selected their Delegates to the State Convention. Every State Delegate was mailed a packet that included venue for the convention, date of the convention, and TIME THE CONVENTION WOULD START AND END. ALSO included in the packet was an application to the delegate nominating committee. The application packets were submitted 1-month prior to the convention by those who were willing to serve as Natl Delegates - and could afford the costs of the trip. Delegates Pay their own Way. IF you did not get selected as a Republican Delegate to National Conv - be happy! You have just saved yourself about $8,000! Special Interests wrote on July 26, 2008 04:45 PM: Tee-hee! I am so excited we swindled the citizens of Nevada again. Those infantile Ron Paul people hadn't a clue. What fools! What fools! They actually thought they were taking part in the political process. Hahahaha This is real Nevada politics we are talking about here. Democracy is something they practice somewhere else. In Nevada the power brokers rule, and the common folks have no say in the affairs of their own government. Those fools! HAhahaha. Those silly partisans! Don't they understand the two main political parties are just a facade! Hahaha. HAHAHA. Liberal or Conservative. Democratic or Republican. We bought them all! We bought them all! Tee-hee! I'm jumping with glee! imjessayin wrote on July 26, 2008 01:41 PM: Give me a break. I was at the convention and I saw how the Ron Paul supporters tried to derail the process. They came in with a plan to filibuster until most attendees were exhausted. Then the plan called for them to vote on delegates, in the hope that the majority would have left the convention hall and they could get a bunch of Paul supporters at National. It was an ugly, divisive move and it backfired on them. At lunch break Party leaders began to understand that the Paul supporters were attempting a coup. After lunch Party leaders attempted to get the process back on track. The Paul supporters continued their filibuster, but it bit them in their collective butts when they ran on too long. This gave the party the perfect out. Should there be a more fair process for picking delegates? Probably. But don’t let the Paul supporters get away with crying foul when they are just peeved their play didn’t work. If you don’t believe the Party wants a fair system, ask yourself why Sue Lowden was one of the very few leaders nationally who invited Paul to speak at the convention. She didn’t have to do that. I tend to think she has a sense of fair play and that the Paul camp used that against her and the entire party. I’m Jess sayin. Nancy wrote on July 26, 2008 12:54 PM: So disrepectful on its surface. At the Democtratic state convention I watched people campaign their hearts out to be delegates to National and I for one an perfectly comfortable with each of the delegates that we elected. I trust them to represent my interests and was really proud of how hardworking and articulate they all were. Even though I would never vote Republican I feel so sorry for all of the good Republicans who are now being represented by folks once again selected in a back room by the "all powerful". Sad. Tom wrote on July 26, 2008 11:39 AM: I guess the Nevada Republicans are like Bush, votes and people just don't matter Bob Beers is responsible for all of this Nope wrote on July 26, 2008 11:02 AM: Nope...the NV Reps' reputation has suffered the most. Where are we to turn when our GOP won't even follow its own rules??? Worse is the fact that the GOP is pulling all these strings for the faux-conservative McCain??? Wake up sheeple!!! Jim Nance wrote on July 26, 2008 09:07 AM: Who's reputation got hurt more by the state convention? In my book, it is Ron Paul. Fausto wrote on July 26, 2008 08:43 AM: "The Nevada GOP ran a pre-ordained circus, and they are going to lose the rank-and-file support that will be essential for electing local candidates." The will lose the support of the Ron Paulites, no doubt. It's questionable they ever had that support however. Really questionable. Mike Erks wrote on July 26, 2008 06:58 AM: By appointing delegates to national, the Nevada GOP has shown disrespect for the people who went to caucus and went to the first state convention. The Nevada GOP ran a pre-ordained circus, and they are going to lose the rank-and-file support that will be essential for electing local candidates.