Bryan Fischer
Potentially historic Idaho GOP convention underway today
By Bryan Fischer
The tide continues to run in Norm Semanko's favor as he challenges moderate Kirk Sullivan for the post of Idaho GOP party chair. Despite Mr. Sullivan's claim in today's Statesman that "I am conservative," he has tried to remove both God and the family from the party platform and is manifestly uncomfortable with social issues and would prefer that such issues would just go away.
Note: you will hear the GOP leadership talk about the "big tent." But if you listen carefully, you will discover that the only time they use this language is when they're telling genuine conservatives to sit down and shut up. You will never hear them pointedly tell moderates that the "big tent" means that moderates have to accept the presence of outspoken conservatives under the same canopy.
This means that the election for party chairman is really a battle for the soul of Idaho's Republican Party. Will it be a party which stands unapologetically for conservative principles such as smaller government, lower taxes, less regulation, and family values, or will it be a party which is about power and the preservation of power?
Grassroots Republicans belong to the party because of their allegiance to principle, but they suspect that their party leadership has a greater allegiance to power. And the grassroots wants their party back, just as grassroots conservatives reclaimed the reins of GOP party leadership in Virginia two weeks ago.
They are hungry for party leadership which unapologetically believes in conservative principles of governance and will promote them and defend them proudly.
Conservatives are convinced that the way to win elections is not to run to the center, as party elites want them to. They are convinced the way to win elections is to articulate clearly a message of authentic conservatism, because it is a message that resonates in the heart of the vast majority of Idahoans and will pull independents toward them.
In other words, genuine conservatives do not believe they have to move toward independents to win elections. They believe that independents will move toward them if they hear an authentically conservative message from candidates.
How many Idahoans want higher taxes, more government regulation of every part of life, exploding state budgets, and legislation that tramples on the historic values of the Judeo-Christian tradition that have made the U.S. the greatest nation in the world and Idaho the destination of choice for families all across the country?
News came yesterday that Rep. Bill Sali has endorsed Semanko. This, coupled with State Superintendent of Education Tom Luna's endorsement the day before, may lead to a cascading effect as these two prominent conservatives will allow other prominent GOP conservatives to draft behind them.
According to the word on the street, Luna only signed the original letter of support for Sullivan under duress, and his support for Semanko is the truest expression of where his sentiments lie.
Significantly, former party vice-chairman Tracy Lotz also endorsed Semanko yesterday. Lotz served for two years under Sullivan's leadership, and his endorsement of Sullivan's challenger thus represents a significant "no-confidence" vote.
Party insiders are now conceding that Sullivan's chances of surviving are slim, and the possibility exists that the GOP elites will make only a tepid effort to prop Sullivan up at the state convention and turn their attention to a frantic effort to support Blake Hall, a former party chairman and current national committeeman.
Hall is being challenged for the national committeeman post by Rod Beck, who graciously withdrew from the race for party chairman and threw his weight behind Semanko. Hall, according to my sources, has privately indicated that he is worried about surviving the challenge from Beck.
Hall, who has been wired into the GOP establishment in Idaho for years, alienated many in the party's base two years ago at the state convention, when he led the charge to violate parliamentary procedure in order to snuff a "truth in advertising" plank in the party platform.
This plank would have required every candidate for office under the GOP banner to declare his allegiance to the GOP party platform, and to publicly identify any places where he differed from party principles. This plank passed unanimously out of the platform committee and was sent to the convention floor without even a minority report.
Yet as soon as the plank was introduced, Hall was on his feet to propose an amendment to the plank that essentially destroyed it, complaining that the GOP should have no "litmus test" (his words) for its candidates for public office. This, of course, is a ludicrous position for a leader in a party which claims to stand for conservative principles to take.
That's exactly what a party platform is and should be: a litmus test for what it means to belong to the party.
Parliamentary rules, however, do not permit a unanimously approved plank from the platform committee to be amended on the floor. But after furious parliamentary discussions were held, party poobahs allowed Hall's amendment to proceed and the "truth in advertising" plank was gutted.
Party regulars are unlikely to forget this improper exercise of raw political power, and this may prove costly to Hall as he desperately seeks to cling to his party post this weekend.
The likelihood of Semanko's elevation to party chair means that the party platform will once again be a significant document instead of just a throwaway that party elites toss as a soupbone to the grassroots. The meeting of the platform committee this weekend thus may be the most important session of the convention, and may prompt a return of the "truth in advertising" plank to the party platform.
One other wrinkle: the party platform calls on the party chairman to issue a report at the end of each legislative session, scoring every GOP legislator on how faithfully his votes lined up with the party platform. That directive — never obeyed by the current chairman — may well mean something under Semanko's leadership, which would result in the embarrassing exposure of Republican legislators who have virtually no allegiance to conservative principles.
This prospect ought to scare moderate and liberal Republicans to death. And it should.
© Bryan Fischer
The tide continues to run in Norm Semanko's favor as he challenges moderate Kirk Sullivan for the post of Idaho GOP party chair. Despite Mr. Sullivan's claim in today's Statesman that "I am conservative," he has tried to remove both God and the family from the party platform and is manifestly uncomfortable with social issues and would prefer that such issues would just go away.
Note: you will hear the GOP leadership talk about the "big tent." But if you listen carefully, you will discover that the only time they use this language is when they're telling genuine conservatives to sit down and shut up. You will never hear them pointedly tell moderates that the "big tent" means that moderates have to accept the presence of outspoken conservatives under the same canopy.
This means that the election for party chairman is really a battle for the soul of Idaho's Republican Party. Will it be a party which stands unapologetically for conservative principles such as smaller government, lower taxes, less regulation, and family values, or will it be a party which is about power and the preservation of power?
Grassroots Republicans belong to the party because of their allegiance to principle, but they suspect that their party leadership has a greater allegiance to power. And the grassroots wants their party back, just as grassroots conservatives reclaimed the reins of GOP party leadership in Virginia two weeks ago.
They are hungry for party leadership which unapologetically believes in conservative principles of governance and will promote them and defend them proudly.
Conservatives are convinced that the way to win elections is not to run to the center, as party elites want them to. They are convinced the way to win elections is to articulate clearly a message of authentic conservatism, because it is a message that resonates in the heart of the vast majority of Idahoans and will pull independents toward them.
In other words, genuine conservatives do not believe they have to move toward independents to win elections. They believe that independents will move toward them if they hear an authentically conservative message from candidates.
How many Idahoans want higher taxes, more government regulation of every part of life, exploding state budgets, and legislation that tramples on the historic values of the Judeo-Christian tradition that have made the U.S. the greatest nation in the world and Idaho the destination of choice for families all across the country?
News came yesterday that Rep. Bill Sali has endorsed Semanko. This, coupled with State Superintendent of Education Tom Luna's endorsement the day before, may lead to a cascading effect as these two prominent conservatives will allow other prominent GOP conservatives to draft behind them.
According to the word on the street, Luna only signed the original letter of support for Sullivan under duress, and his support for Semanko is the truest expression of where his sentiments lie.
Significantly, former party vice-chairman Tracy Lotz also endorsed Semanko yesterday. Lotz served for two years under Sullivan's leadership, and his endorsement of Sullivan's challenger thus represents a significant "no-confidence" vote.
Party insiders are now conceding that Sullivan's chances of surviving are slim, and the possibility exists that the GOP elites will make only a tepid effort to prop Sullivan up at the state convention and turn their attention to a frantic effort to support Blake Hall, a former party chairman and current national committeeman.
Hall is being challenged for the national committeeman post by Rod Beck, who graciously withdrew from the race for party chairman and threw his weight behind Semanko. Hall, according to my sources, has privately indicated that he is worried about surviving the challenge from Beck.
Hall, who has been wired into the GOP establishment in Idaho for years, alienated many in the party's base two years ago at the state convention, when he led the charge to violate parliamentary procedure in order to snuff a "truth in advertising" plank in the party platform.
This plank would have required every candidate for office under the GOP banner to declare his allegiance to the GOP party platform, and to publicly identify any places where he differed from party principles. This plank passed unanimously out of the platform committee and was sent to the convention floor without even a minority report.
Yet as soon as the plank was introduced, Hall was on his feet to propose an amendment to the plank that essentially destroyed it, complaining that the GOP should have no "litmus test" (his words) for its candidates for public office. This, of course, is a ludicrous position for a leader in a party which claims to stand for conservative principles to take.
That's exactly what a party platform is and should be: a litmus test for what it means to belong to the party.
Parliamentary rules, however, do not permit a unanimously approved plank from the platform committee to be amended on the floor. But after furious parliamentary discussions were held, party poobahs allowed Hall's amendment to proceed and the "truth in advertising" plank was gutted.
Party regulars are unlikely to forget this improper exercise of raw political power, and this may prove costly to Hall as he desperately seeks to cling to his party post this weekend.
The likelihood of Semanko's elevation to party chair means that the party platform will once again be a significant document instead of just a throwaway that party elites toss as a soupbone to the grassroots. The meeting of the platform committee this weekend thus may be the most important session of the convention, and may prompt a return of the "truth in advertising" plank to the party platform.
One other wrinkle: the party platform calls on the party chairman to issue a report at the end of each legislative session, scoring every GOP legislator on how faithfully his votes lined up with the party platform. That directive — never obeyed by the current chairman — may well mean something under Semanko's leadership, which would result in the embarrassing exposure of Republican legislators who have virtually no allegiance to conservative principles.
This prospect ought to scare moderate and liberal Republicans to death. And it should.
© Bryan Fischer
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
