rancher89
Constitutional Supporter
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2007
- Messages
- 2,951
I will be posting pictures from the convention later today, I'll send a post when I get that done.
The convention has been a interesting experience to say the least--I've learned a lot. The following posting is not in the order in which things happened, it's just a collection of thoughts on the convention. I think we had more people there than gunny estimated, my count was closer to 90 on Friday and closer to 100 on Saturday.
http://goodrepublican.wordpress.com/ This is a blog post by one of our own, it pretty much covers the important parts. It does leave out a few things that I will cover here.
http://blog.lawsonforcongress.com:80/2008/06/08/thoughts-from-the-ncgop-convention/ This is BJ Lawson's blog, he is modest.
1. To speak of the foul play surrounding the selection of our delegates, I can say that many of the rank and file of the party were confused and upset at the actions of the state chairwoman, Linda Daves. There will be blowback to her actions, she may not get re-elected as she is not universally loved, although most respected her, including me for standing up for NC against the national party. She lost that respect by lying to the convention. {Edit--she may have been fed misinformation, the plot thickens} Part of what we were trying so hard to accomplish behind the scenes with the contacts we had within the party, was to encourage her to treat us fairly and that we would support her re-election next year, bye bye to that.
They disregarded the apportionment being applied to the entire delegation from NC, which is 66 and the generally accepted way things are done by the rank and file and the press and applied the apportionment to just the remaining 27 at large delegates left to be named at the convention. That gave us two additional delegates and two additional alternates, which brought us from 5 delegates and 5 alternates to only 3 delegates and 5 alternates (we had one elected delegate and three elected alternates, including me.) Linda appointed party cronies instead of the people submitted by the Ron Paul Campaign Representative, Gary Hardee, and B J Lawson. She did name two RP supporters as alternates, but not the ones we would have chosen if we had been given the chance. (This is not to say that the two RP supporters didn't deserve to go, just that if we had had the time to decide who would have gone, the two names may have been different) This and the fact that she lied to the convention by stating that we were fighting amongst ourselves so she "had" to appoint someone of her own choosing to those delegate slots were the final straws. BJ Lawson stood up to speak to the chair about the situation but was ruled out of order and could not speak, the matter was closed and the convention went on.
I should have known that we would not get what we wanted, even if we were promised it. My postings (to the private delegate listserve) stating that we should trust the communications between Dr. BJ Lawson, Gary Hardee and the state party seems to have been in retrospect rather "Pollyannaish." I apologize for that, but I still think it was the best route to take. The actions of our people to the situation on the floor Saturday afternoon brought us a lot of good will. We behaved peacefully and properly. That was what I was thinking about when the film was running later that evening. I was and remain proud of each and every one of you. We need to tread carefully but firmly and proudly in resolving the issue with Linda.
I will speak on possible action about Linda's actions directly, after I give it some more thought.
2. Carson Daves (Linda's husband) came up to the Republican Liberty Caucus meeting Sunday before the Executive Committee meeting. He seemed to think that the meeting was a "Ron Paul" meeting and launched into a scathing opinion of our actions this weekend. We listened for a minute or two and then several of the committee rebutted, including informing him that this was not a "RP" meeting, but a RLC meeting, he seemed a little taken aback at that, but did not retract his statements. In a nutshell, he said that we needed to take "baby steps" in becoming part of the party. (As an aside, if I hear that explanation one more time as a reason for us not to stand up for what we believe in, I will lose it, quietly hopefully.) He also was of the opinion that we did more harm to the gop than good. Several of the committee responded to his comments, firmly, but politely as humanly possible under the circumstances. I thank all of you guys for a job well done.
3. We were handed a defeat at the Executive Committee meeting. (EDIT We assumed that those who showed up for the meeting for the Ex Com--all eight of us--for the eight spots--would be on the committee. That did not happen. Politics of the party that I do not wholly understand at play.}
4. Dr. Ada Fisher nominated herself for National Committeewoman and won. We had looked hard for someone to nominate, but could not come up with a viable candidate to run against the anointed party nominee. I've had the pleasure to meet Dr. Ada Fisher several times and most recently listened to her speak to the RLC this morning (Sunday) before the Executive Committee. She stated, among other things, that we need to look to the future and reach out to others and work together. I urged my fellow RP supporters from Meck to support her as she walked up to the podium and by the time she had finished speaking she didn't need my urging for them to vote for her. It's true that she is not perfect in her platform or in her opinions, BUT, she does believe the things she said in her speech Saturday afternoon, which by the way was not written in advance and was completely off the cuff. She is not a fan of Linda Daves or the establishment gop.......and vs./vs... One important fact, she is the first black woman to be elected as a NC National Committeewoman. History was made on Saturday.
5. BJ Lawson was able to propose an amendment to the platform, that passed, regarding the open carry laws in NC. He did a fine job of presenting his case. He also stood up to speak about the delegate issue, but was ruled out of order and did not get a chance to speak. There is no way to know at this point how much, if any damage to BJ's candidacy occurred by his standing up for us in front of the whole convention. The man is awesome and deserves our support, if you cannot support him with money, please support him by letting everyone know that he does deserve our support and that they help him in whatever way they can.
((((((My Post To BJ:
BJ, thank you for your post and thank you for all that you accomplished and attempted at our convention. I appreciate having you as a member of the political landscape of North Carolina. I wish to apologize for the way Ms. Daves treated your attempt to clarify/straighten out the situation with the delegates.
I will give you my solemn vow that I will attempt, to the best of my abilities, to help organize the freedom and liberty lovers in the Greater Charlotte Area, and to work with the other groups in the state to achieve the same goal.
I will post separately on Ms Ada Fisher, a fellow 12th District member, whom I am very proud of.
Thank you again for your candidacy and your hard work))))))
6. Glenn Bradley was nominated by Ken Nelson for National Committeeman. Both Ken and Glenn gave fine speeches, but Glenn never had a chance to win. The up side to the nomination was the chance to speak of freedom and the future of the party. The entire convention was respectful of both speeches and we had plenty of positive feedback.
7. There was an attempt to repeal the support of the 16th amendment and a lively debate ensued. I will have to say that even though we never had a chance at getting it passed, the fact that we had a debate was positive and kept the convention from being a rubber stamp event.
8. Saturday afternoon, people started to leave the convention hall. Resolutions were being voted on and most people don't really care about them, except a few that feel that it is important that they properly reflect the position of the party. We voted on three resolutions after a bit of debate on each. A point of inquiry was raised as to why a resolution passed by one of the districts was not included on the official list of resolutions for the convention to consider. The response was that the resolution committee had decided not to present said resolution and soon after that a call for quorum was called. We decided that if the quorum was there, but slight, we would walk out and leave someone to call a quorum again. It is unfortunate that we didn't think to do this earlier, and that the next resolution was to support the troops, but the next and last resolution was to support McCain and it was getting very late. The quorum count was insufficient to continue and the convention adjourned.
9. Friday and Saturday evening we had meetings in the RP Hospitality suite, chaired by Gary Hardee. The meetings were important, we strengthened our resolve for the next day's activities and for the future. I will say that it was unfortunate that we had to have our meetings there and at that time, perhaps the people that were trying to enter the suite to talk to us were put off by the message that "we were having a meeting and please come back." IMHO the meetings seemed to me to go on forever and the point that I'm trying to make here is that we need to communicate better online, maybe on a forum format rather than an email format, and let the opportunity of having a Ron Paul hospitality suite serve the purpose of providing hospitality to those wishing to learn more, congratulate us or berate us, whatever. Maybe it is just my perception and no one else feels the same way, I WAS extremely worn out and the rollercoaster emotional ride played a big part of that. Again it's just my opinion. It was our only opportunity to meet each other face to face that we've had, unless we had seen each other at a rally.
10. We helped defeat a rule that would have given more power to the central committee and away from the executive committee, it may not have passed if we had not been there on Friday.
The bottom line is that for the most part we did well, we gained a lot of respect, managed to get a few rules and platform changes. We learned a lot and are energized to move forward and increase our numbers. Next year's convention will be different.
The convention has been a interesting experience to say the least--I've learned a lot. The following posting is not in the order in which things happened, it's just a collection of thoughts on the convention. I think we had more people there than gunny estimated, my count was closer to 90 on Friday and closer to 100 on Saturday.
http://goodrepublican.wordpress.com/ This is a blog post by one of our own, it pretty much covers the important parts. It does leave out a few things that I will cover here.
http://blog.lawsonforcongress.com:80/2008/06/08/thoughts-from-the-ncgop-convention/ This is BJ Lawson's blog, he is modest.
1. To speak of the foul play surrounding the selection of our delegates, I can say that many of the rank and file of the party were confused and upset at the actions of the state chairwoman, Linda Daves. There will be blowback to her actions, she may not get re-elected as she is not universally loved, although most respected her, including me for standing up for NC against the national party. She lost that respect by lying to the convention. {Edit--she may have been fed misinformation, the plot thickens} Part of what we were trying so hard to accomplish behind the scenes with the contacts we had within the party, was to encourage her to treat us fairly and that we would support her re-election next year, bye bye to that.
They disregarded the apportionment being applied to the entire delegation from NC, which is 66 and the generally accepted way things are done by the rank and file and the press and applied the apportionment to just the remaining 27 at large delegates left to be named at the convention. That gave us two additional delegates and two additional alternates, which brought us from 5 delegates and 5 alternates to only 3 delegates and 5 alternates (we had one elected delegate and three elected alternates, including me.) Linda appointed party cronies instead of the people submitted by the Ron Paul Campaign Representative, Gary Hardee, and B J Lawson. She did name two RP supporters as alternates, but not the ones we would have chosen if we had been given the chance. (This is not to say that the two RP supporters didn't deserve to go, just that if we had had the time to decide who would have gone, the two names may have been different) This and the fact that she lied to the convention by stating that we were fighting amongst ourselves so she "had" to appoint someone of her own choosing to those delegate slots were the final straws. BJ Lawson stood up to speak to the chair about the situation but was ruled out of order and could not speak, the matter was closed and the convention went on.
I should have known that we would not get what we wanted, even if we were promised it. My postings (to the private delegate listserve) stating that we should trust the communications between Dr. BJ Lawson, Gary Hardee and the state party seems to have been in retrospect rather "Pollyannaish." I apologize for that, but I still think it was the best route to take. The actions of our people to the situation on the floor Saturday afternoon brought us a lot of good will. We behaved peacefully and properly. That was what I was thinking about when the film was running later that evening. I was and remain proud of each and every one of you. We need to tread carefully but firmly and proudly in resolving the issue with Linda.
I will speak on possible action about Linda's actions directly, after I give it some more thought.
2. Carson Daves (Linda's husband) came up to the Republican Liberty Caucus meeting Sunday before the Executive Committee meeting. He seemed to think that the meeting was a "Ron Paul" meeting and launched into a scathing opinion of our actions this weekend. We listened for a minute or two and then several of the committee rebutted, including informing him that this was not a "RP" meeting, but a RLC meeting, he seemed a little taken aback at that, but did not retract his statements. In a nutshell, he said that we needed to take "baby steps" in becoming part of the party. (As an aside, if I hear that explanation one more time as a reason for us not to stand up for what we believe in, I will lose it, quietly hopefully.) He also was of the opinion that we did more harm to the gop than good. Several of the committee responded to his comments, firmly, but politely as humanly possible under the circumstances. I thank all of you guys for a job well done.
3. We were handed a defeat at the Executive Committee meeting. (EDIT We assumed that those who showed up for the meeting for the Ex Com--all eight of us--for the eight spots--would be on the committee. That did not happen. Politics of the party that I do not wholly understand at play.}
4. Dr. Ada Fisher nominated herself for National Committeewoman and won. We had looked hard for someone to nominate, but could not come up with a viable candidate to run against the anointed party nominee. I've had the pleasure to meet Dr. Ada Fisher several times and most recently listened to her speak to the RLC this morning (Sunday) before the Executive Committee. She stated, among other things, that we need to look to the future and reach out to others and work together. I urged my fellow RP supporters from Meck to support her as she walked up to the podium and by the time she had finished speaking she didn't need my urging for them to vote for her. It's true that she is not perfect in her platform or in her opinions, BUT, she does believe the things she said in her speech Saturday afternoon, which by the way was not written in advance and was completely off the cuff. She is not a fan of Linda Daves or the establishment gop.......and vs./vs... One important fact, she is the first black woman to be elected as a NC National Committeewoman. History was made on Saturday.
5. BJ Lawson was able to propose an amendment to the platform, that passed, regarding the open carry laws in NC. He did a fine job of presenting his case. He also stood up to speak about the delegate issue, but was ruled out of order and did not get a chance to speak. There is no way to know at this point how much, if any damage to BJ's candidacy occurred by his standing up for us in front of the whole convention. The man is awesome and deserves our support, if you cannot support him with money, please support him by letting everyone know that he does deserve our support and that they help him in whatever way they can.
((((((My Post To BJ:
BJ, thank you for your post and thank you for all that you accomplished and attempted at our convention. I appreciate having you as a member of the political landscape of North Carolina. I wish to apologize for the way Ms. Daves treated your attempt to clarify/straighten out the situation with the delegates.
I will give you my solemn vow that I will attempt, to the best of my abilities, to help organize the freedom and liberty lovers in the Greater Charlotte Area, and to work with the other groups in the state to achieve the same goal.
I will post separately on Ms Ada Fisher, a fellow 12th District member, whom I am very proud of.
Thank you again for your candidacy and your hard work))))))
6. Glenn Bradley was nominated by Ken Nelson for National Committeeman. Both Ken and Glenn gave fine speeches, but Glenn never had a chance to win. The up side to the nomination was the chance to speak of freedom and the future of the party. The entire convention was respectful of both speeches and we had plenty of positive feedback.
7. There was an attempt to repeal the support of the 16th amendment and a lively debate ensued. I will have to say that even though we never had a chance at getting it passed, the fact that we had a debate was positive and kept the convention from being a rubber stamp event.
8. Saturday afternoon, people started to leave the convention hall. Resolutions were being voted on and most people don't really care about them, except a few that feel that it is important that they properly reflect the position of the party. We voted on three resolutions after a bit of debate on each. A point of inquiry was raised as to why a resolution passed by one of the districts was not included on the official list of resolutions for the convention to consider. The response was that the resolution committee had decided not to present said resolution and soon after that a call for quorum was called. We decided that if the quorum was there, but slight, we would walk out and leave someone to call a quorum again. It is unfortunate that we didn't think to do this earlier, and that the next resolution was to support the troops, but the next and last resolution was to support McCain and it was getting very late. The quorum count was insufficient to continue and the convention adjourned.
9. Friday and Saturday evening we had meetings in the RP Hospitality suite, chaired by Gary Hardee. The meetings were important, we strengthened our resolve for the next day's activities and for the future. I will say that it was unfortunate that we had to have our meetings there and at that time, perhaps the people that were trying to enter the suite to talk to us were put off by the message that "we were having a meeting and please come back." IMHO the meetings seemed to me to go on forever and the point that I'm trying to make here is that we need to communicate better online, maybe on a forum format rather than an email format, and let the opportunity of having a Ron Paul hospitality suite serve the purpose of providing hospitality to those wishing to learn more, congratulate us or berate us, whatever. Maybe it is just my perception and no one else feels the same way, I WAS extremely worn out and the rollercoaster emotional ride played a big part of that. Again it's just my opinion. It was our only opportunity to meet each other face to face that we've had, unless we had seen each other at a rally.
10. We helped defeat a rule that would have given more power to the central committee and away from the executive committee, it may not have passed if we had not been there on Friday.
The bottom line is that for the most part we did well, we gained a lot of respect, managed to get a few rules and platform changes. We learned a lot and are energized to move forward and increase our numbers. Next year's convention will be different.
Last edited:
