(Gem State Chronicle, January 6, 2023)
Looking at the schedule for today’s events, I figured I had time to write my recap for yesterday and then liveblog the afternoon session. Not so. The meeting proceeded so quickly that both rules and resolutions were finished before lunchtime.
Secretary Maria Nate called the roll, officers shared their reports, and the vice chairs presented the Hall of Fame awards to the great volunteers and staff who give of their time to promote the Republican message.
- Outstanding Republican Worker: Nina Beesley, Chairwoman of District 3
- Outstanding Republican Precinct Committeeperson: Sandra Coulter-Stoner of Ada County
- Outstanding Republican County, Legislative, and Regional Chairman: Nick Woods, Chairman of Nez Perce County
- Outstanding Republican State Legislator: Sen. Glenneda Zuiderveld of Twin Falls
- Outstanding Republican Administrative Official: Kiira Turnbow, Idaho GOP Executive Director
- Most Valuable Person: Steve Bender, Idaho GOP Treasurer
- Lifetime Achievement Award: Ronalee Linsenmann of Nampa
All that took barely an hour, so the body voted to move forward with proposed rules. Kootenai County GOP chairman Brent Regan chaired the Rules Committee on Friday night and presented the committee’s report to the full body. After his presentation, the State Central Committee voted to approve the rules as a block with no debate.
When a set of items is presented to a deliberative body, any member has the right to divide the question and remove one or more items for a separate debate and vote. This happens all the time in meetings like this, so I was surprised to see them approved so quickly. Click here to read the proposed rules. The ones that were approved were:
- 2024-2: A state chair’s decision remains in force during the appeals process
- 2024-3: Clarifying language regarding the upcoming caucus. (A section that would have allowed Republican voters who moved after December 31 to vote in their new location after signing an affidavit was stripped in committee on Friday.)
- 2024-7: Ensures that anyone conducting a judicial review meeting must attend the meeting in person, not via remote
- 2024-8: Clarifying language regarding the platform enforcement rule that was passed over the last year and a half. More on this below.
- 2024-9: Adds language that if only one candidate had filed for the presidential nominating caucus then the caucus would be canceled and all pledged delegates would be awarded to that candidate.
- 2024-10: Clarifying language regarding the term of office of PCs if counties rearrange their precincts during non-election years.
2024-8 was the most controversial proposal. Article XX of the Idaho GOP rules, passed and amended over the last few meetings, gives legislative district and county committees the right to call their elected officials to task for voting contrary to the Idaho GOP platform. If these elected officials continue to vote in such a way, they risk censure, and after two such censures, they can be prevented from using Republican branding in their campaigns.
2024-8 sought to strengthen this provision by giving committees the ability to keep twice-censured lawmakers from running in the Republican primary. However, when it was clear that this would probably not pass the committee on Friday night, author Hari Heath of Benewah County moved to amend his own proposal with a version that lacked that clause. What ended up passing was mostly just minor changes in wording. It also included a clause that allows the censured lawmakers to appeal to the State Central Committee.
Platform enforcement is a very contentious issue in the Idaho GOP right now, and I can’t do the dispute justice in just a few paragraphs. Look for a longer piece diving into this controversy in the future.
Christy Zito, former state senator and current candidate in District 8, delivered the Resolutions Committee report. Resolutions are not binding in any way, but represent the will of the Idaho Republican Party and urge lawmakers to take action. The full list of proposed resolutions can be found here, and the following were approved by the State Central Committee:
- 2024-1: Changes the threshold for a citizen’s initiative to become law to a 2/3 super-majority.
- 2024-6: Illegal aliens should not be permitted to be peace officers
- 2024-7: Porn filters for children’s mobile devices should on by default
- 2024-8: County committees should be able to submit just one name to the governor to fill a county commissioner vacancy
- 2024-10: Cities and counties should not force landlords to accept Section 8 housing vouchers
- 2024-14: Condemns “dark money” in politics and urges the state party to investigate and publish funding sources that are not reported on the Sunshine website
- 2024-19: Marijuana is bad and children shouldn’t have it
- 2024-21: There should be mandatory minimum sentences for fentanyl
- 2024-22: Regarding the loophole that allows private entities to restrict carrying guns on public property for certain events, this resolution urges the Legislature to force those entities to provide adequate security if they restrict the right to bear arms
There were two minority reports for resolutions that failed with a high threshold of “yes” votes:
- 2024-4: Parents should have the ability to work with public school systems [to] choose alternative curricula or create microschools
- 2024-11: LD14 Chairman Steven Thayn wrote this resolution to encourage the Legislature to work to transfer power in society away from government and back to families.
The sponsors of the those two resolutions were given the opportunity to speak, but neither were considered today.
Two of the resolutions were pulled from the report for separate debate. On 2024-1, an amendment in committee Friday night had reduced the threshold for certain types of initiatives to 60%, but a delegate divided the question this morning and moved to amend it again, putting it back up to 2/3. It passed after that amendment.
2024-14 was pulled by a delegate who apparently just wanted the opportunity to ask about money the state party has received. Chairwoman Dorothy Moon suggested she stop by the state party office any time to discuss it and ruled the statement out of order.
With that, the 2024 Idaho GOP Winter Meeting was done, way ahead of schedule. Last year, there was a hard deadline at the Riverside Hotel, and I suspect that some delegates tried to run out the clock to avoid certain resolutions. There was no point in doing so here, since there wasn’t a hard deadline, so everyone took care of business. I enjoyed the fellowship at the chairwoman’s luncheon and I look forward to more at the Winter Gala tonight.
On that note, it’s been great to meet so many people who like what I’m doing and support my work on this platform. I really appreciate all your support and encouragement. I am proud to be working alongside so many great people for the cause of liberty in Idaho.
