Delegate Selection Process Explained

By Brent Regan, State Rules Committee Chairman

Get Dorothy Moon is the battle cry of former chairmen Trent Clark and Tom Luna in their mission to tear down the Republican Party. They are making false accusations that are completely unsupported by facts. They are lying. The latest lie is that Madam Chairman Moon is picking the delegates to the Republican National Convention (RNC).

Idaho has 32 delegates to the RNC. Three of those delegates are the IDGOP Chairman, the National Committeewoman and National Committeeman, leaving 29 and 80% of those (23) are selected by the candidate that won 51% of the Idaho Caucus vote. The remaining 6 are nominated by the Delegate Nominating Committee which is composed of one member from each of the seven Regions. All 32 delegates must be confirmed during a special meeting of the Executive Committee, which is this coming Saturday. The 14 voting members of the Executive Committee are specified in the Idaho Republican Party State Rules Article II, Section2.

Even the Party Chairman’s role as Chairman of the Delegation is subject to change at the will of the delegation.

Under Idaho law, during the May 21st primary all Precinct Committeemen stand for election. The PC’s term in office spans from the 8th day after the primary to the 8th day after the following primary. Between 8 days and 10 days after the primary the County Central Committees organize and select their delegates to the IDGOP Convention, which begins this year on June 13th, two weeks after the organizing meetings. This is barely enough time for delegates to make travel and hotel accommodations.

The date of the primary is set by the legislature, not the Republican Party, so our Convention is as early as it practically can be.

The RNC is unable to accommodate a delay due to the need to conduct background checks and other security measures. If we miss the deadline we lose all but 12 of our delegates (RNC Rule 17(a)). Clearly, moving the Primary and or moving the Convention to an earlier date is not practical.

The RNC proposed we have the Delegate Nominating Committee convene in a timely fashion and then have the Executive Committee review and approve the delegate list. Because the short timeline created an emergency, the State Central Committee granted the authority to the Rules Committee to amend the rules as needed to comply with the requirement of the RNC. The amended rules were then submitted to the RNC where they were reviewed and approved.

Finally, had the legislature not deleted the March Presidential Primary, the IDGOP would have still have had to amend the rules to allow the timely delegate selection and approval process we now have in place. It is the only way to satisfy RNC rules while changing the IDGOP rules as little as practical. Informed, fair minded and honest people understand this to be true.

Brent Regan
Chairman, Rules Committee