There were two issues on the agenda for last night’s SCC meeting. The first was a request regarding the ILRNHA internal dispute. The motion was withdrawn by Angel Garcia. So the main focus of the evening was the motion to change the method of delegate selection for next year’s national convention.
The proposal would have allowed the winning presidential campaigns to select delegates after the primary in relationship to the percentage of the popular vote received in the primary on a statewide basis. Concerns were raised that this had not been carefully enough considered. Interestingly, the proposal joined Dan Rutherford and Doug Ibendahl together in opposition to the proposal (a VERY unusual combination) and Tom Cross and Jack Roeser together in support of the proposal (an equally unusual pairing).
While the RNC has said they want proportional allocation of delegates, we were told that they also said they will defend our present system of direct election of delegates against possible challenges. In the end, the proposal was defeated 58% against 42% with SCC members voting on a weighted vote basis. Pat Brady has indicated he will try to get further clarification from the RNC today.
I believe there are good arguments on both sides and I don’t feel strongly for or against the proposal but, at the margin, I believe letting voters vote directly for the presidential candidate of their choice with that vote translating into delegates is the easier scenario for voters to understand rather than our current system which has a meaningless “beauty contest” along with a delegate election.
Many speakers at the event felt that having delegates run for election is a positive because it might get more “grass roots” involvement by more people. If that is true, that is certainly a plus of the current system.
Jim Oberweis