Greetings Liberty Lovers,
I spent June 20th and 21st at the Idaho State Central Committee Summer Meeting held at Calvary Chapel Church in Pocatello.
REGION MEETINGS
Friday’s agenda started off with regional meetings. Each of the ten regions gathered in different rooms. The Magic Valley is in region 7, which is chaired by Senator Risch’s liaison, Mike Matthews, and contains Blaine, Camas, Cassia, Gooding, Jerome, Lincoln, Minidoka, and Twin Falls Counties. A representativefrom each county gave a brief report on what their county has doing to promote the Republican party.
RULES AND REGULATIONS COMMITTEES
After the Executive State Central Committee met (I did not attend, although the public is welcome), the Rules Committee met in the main Sanctuary, while the Resolutions Committee met in a largeroom in the basement. Each committee met from 4P to 9P, so you have to choose which committee you want to attend. I chose to attend the Resolutions Committee meeting. While 5 hours seems long, it is very interesting, at least to me, and goes rather quickly. Each Committee is made up of a Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Parliamentarian, and two reps from each region. The Rules Committee was chaired by Brent Reagan and our region 7 reps were Twin Falls County Prosecutor Grant Loebs and Attorney Paul Ross from the Mini-Cassi area. The Resolutions Committee was chaired by former State Senator, Scott Herndon. Our region rep was State Representative Steve Miller (LD24). The other rep was supposed to be Mike Elliot, but as far as I am aware, he did not attend as his chair was empty.
WHAT DOES A RESOLUTION COMMITTEE DO?
County Central Committees from around the state send resolutions to the IDGOP. The resolutions are then presented to the committee, where they are debated and voted on. If these submissions pass the committee, they go on to the full Idaho State Republican Central Committee. If they pass the State Central Committee, they are taken to the state house to start the long process of becoming law.
TWENTY-THREE HOPEFULS
Out of the 23 resolution submissions, several were rejected or withdrawn before presented. Of those, almost all of them passed the committee either as written or amended. Resolution topics ranged from re-instating the March Primary, eliminating odd-year elections, transparency in weather modification, raising thejudicial retention threshold, and stronger immigration enforcement. One resolution also eliminates non-partisan races, because let’s face it… there is no such thing. Well, it wouldn’t eliminate the races, it would force candidates in traditionally non-partisan races to reveal their party affiliation. A couple of the other resolutions that made it through committee would oppose an Article V convention, and another would add a stiff penalty to last year’s new law regarding governmental agencies flying flags.
EDUCATION TIME
All State Central Committee members and registered guests were invited to attend one of four different presentations in the early morning hours on Saturday. Dar Moon spoke on Strategic Minerals, Steve Bender spoke on Bylaws, Brandon Woolf spoke on Transparency Idaho, and lastly, Cornel Rasor spoke on Parliamentarian Procedure. I attended the Parliamentarian Procedure presentation by State Representative Rasor and it was very informative, again, it was for me. I did find out that there are other County Central Committee members that are having the same kind of issues with the “establishment” and how their meetings are manipulated.
GATHERING OF THE FULL IDAHO STATE REPUBLICAN CENTRAL COMMITTEE
After the educational presentations, the IDSCC met as a body. It consists of the State Executive Committee: Chairwoman, Dorothy Moon, along with the 1st and 2nd Vice Chair, Treasurer, Secretary, State Committeeman and State Committeewoman. The ten Region Chairs, including Mike Matthews from our region; the thirty-five Legislative District Chairs, including Gretchen Clelland (LD24), Grant Loebs (LD25), and Lyle Johnston (LD26). Finally, there are four representatives from each of Idaho’s forty-four County Central Committees. Twin Falls County reps are Chairman, Tom Wageman, State Committeeman, Chris Reid (absent), State Committeewoman, Cherie Vollmer (absent), and State Youth, Kiel Wilmore (absent from this and last winter’s meetings).
GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS
After the very long roll call and U.S. Senator Jim Risch and Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador addressed the assembly, it was finally time to get down to business. Most of the Rules and the Resolutions were passed in bundle votes, but there were several that were pulled out and debated, amended, and then voted on individually. If you want to see all of the Rules and Resolutions, please visit the IDGOP website.
OUT OF TOUCH WITH THE REPUBLICAN PARTY
The Twin Falls County representatives that actually attended held the proxies for the absent members, which is no big surprise. Another detail that will probably not surprise my regular Liberty Lover readers is how many times our reps voted opposite of the majority of the IDSCC members or decided not to vote at all.
CALL TO ACTION
July 9th – Twin Falls County Central Committee – will meet at 6:30 at County West. The reps should provide their recap of the IDGOP summer meeting.
July 16th – Magic Valley Republican Women – will meet at noon at Pebble Ponds in Filer. This month’s speaker is Teresa Roth. She will speak on electronic fraud, including voter rolls and driver licenses.
