Thread: Republican Convention Rules

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The media and the Washington chattering class are very focused on the prospect of a "brokered" Republican convention – despite the fact that, as former Republican National Committee chairman Haley Barbour has pointed out, there are no "brokers" in smoke-filled back rooms anymore.

Seriously: Who do people think the brokers are – Bob Dole? John McCain? Mitt Romney? Maybe a bunch of cigar-chomping scotch-drinking fat-cat lobbyists? Things don't work that way anymore, and they haven't for years. Voters wouldn't stand for it.

"Our nominee is going to be picked by the voters in the primaries and the caucuses," Barbour told MSNBC's Chris Matthews in January. "And if nobody gets a majority, those people selected by them are going to work that out."

[READ: RNC Members Fear Convention Floor Tug-of-War]

The people who will work it out, as Barbour puts it, are the delegates to the Republican National Convention. RNC Chairman Reince Priebus isn't going to work it out, and unlike the Democrats, the GOP doesn't have unbound superdelegates who can fix any "mistakes" the primary voters make.



This spring, in states and localities all over the nation, delegates to the convention are being selected. Primaries and caucuses may decide the number of delegates each candidate receives, but the actual names of the delegates are yet to be determined. In fact, we won't know for a few more months exactly who is going to the convention. We can make some guesses, though, because in the past many of the attendees are people who tend to run for delegate every four years. They're regulars.

Over the last few election cycles, it didn't matter too much who the individual delegates were, since their candidate had won a majority of pledged delegates so everything was pretty much decided in advance.

But this time may be different. Already, there's been a tremendous amount of speculation regarding the role of the convention's Rules Committee: How many candidates will be allowed to appear on the first ballot? Will delegates be able to switch candidates after the first ballot? Can they retroactively change some states from winner-take-all to proportional?

Bottom line: Can they change the rules to keep Donald Trump off the ticket?

Questions like those are the talk of the town right now in Washington. Everyone has an opinion, and it seems everyone is suddenly an expert on arcane Republican convention rules. "Republican convention rules" is getting searched on Google 100 times more in mid-March than it was in mid-January.

[OPINION: 'Brokered Convention' Becoming the Next 'Stop Trump' Battlefield]

With all this in mind I consulted with an actual authority on these matters: Sean Spicer, the RNC's spokesman and chief strategist.

Here's what I learned: Spicer says that while the media is focused on the convention nominating a candidate for president, its real function is to pass the rules which provide the mechanism for the party to exist for four more years. "It's like going to a [Parent-Teacher Association] meeting and thinking that the primary business of the PTA is to elect a PTA president," he says.

There's also this: The GOP's convention rules are based on a modified version of the same rules used to run the House of Representatives. (In fact, traditionally the speaker of the House runs the convention, as will be the case this year.) Just as in every new session of the House, the first order of business at a GOP convention, after the call to order, is to pass a rules package.

Spicer compared it to a condo board or neighborhood association meeting, where people need to know the process and how the meeting will run before they start voting on new business.

Most people think that the last convention's rules are the default – that the 2012 rules are in effect until the 2016 committee changes them – but that is not the case.

The Rules Committee doesn't get to pick and choose from among the previous rules; it has to come up with a complete package from scratch every four years.

"The 115th Congress cannot operate until it first passes a rules package, and we're the same way," Spicer says. Each convention passes its own new set of rules, and they can be similar to prior ones – or they can be vastly different. It depends on what the delegates want.

In terms of how much the rules can differ from year to year: "The Romney delegates wrote rules to ensure a Romney nomination; the McCain delegates wrote rules for a McCain nomination.

Those rules were written by delegates whose candidates are not on the ballot this time," Spicer says. Contrary to popular belief, the 2016 rules don't exist yet – and won't until a new set is passed by the 2016 delegates. Those who talk about "changing the rules" don't really understand the process, he says. It's a blank slate: There are no rules to change yet.

[PHOTOS: The Big Picture – March 2016]

That is why the remaining Republican campaigns are working hard to make sure that people friendly to their candidates are being selected as delegates, no matter who won the state. The RNC chairman selects the chair of the Rules Committee, but the rest of the committee is comprised of delegates from all 50 states and the territories, one man and one woman from each.

Those delegates can write whatever rules they'd like.

"The thing so interesting about this year's process," says Spicer, "is that for the first time in 40 years, people are paying attention. And it's not because the process has changed, because it hasn't. We're not doing anything different."

One final thought: In addition to writing the rules, the delegates will also be writing the party platform and voting on it. And while we've seen platform fights in the past – mostly on hot-button social issues – this year, the Platform Committee will likely be negotiating on a wider range of issues such as immigration, free trade and foreign policy. If Donald Trump becomes the nominee, will the Republican Party platform really call for building a wall with Mexico, imposing a 35 percent tax on goods made by companies that have left the United States and temporarily banning all Muslims?

Stay tuned.

http://www.usnews.com/news/the-repor...-any-rules-yet

Further crumbling of the government run state primary elections system.

Those delegates can write whatever rules they'd like.

"The thing so interesting about this year's process," says Spicer, "is that for the first time in 40 years, people are paying attention. And it's not because the process has changed, because it hasn't. We're not doing anything different."

THE RULES

The rules of the Convention are unique to each Convention and voted upon by the delegates.

THE RNC’S ROLE

The RNC plays a purely administrative role at Convention, ensuring that the rules and processes are carried out in a transparent manner.

GOP launches contested convention website to explain the rules

http://www.alipac.us/f9/if-trump-doe...idency-331235/

Meet the Rules Committee: 112 people who may decide the Republican nominee

Gifting is allowed by political pacs and individuals. Delegates are not allowed to accept funds and contributions from corporations, foreign nationals, labor organizations or federal government contractors. The Republican National Committee rules are also quiet on what can be done to curry favor with delegates, but the party pointed to the need to comply with FEC rules. While there are limits and gray areas, there is sure to be a total full court press on engaging these individuals if there is a contested convention. Clearly, the only delegates that should be able to change are the ones that don't support either Trump or Cruz and freeing up 75% of them after first vote doesn't necessarily reflect the will of the people.

4/17/16

RNC chief: No changes to delegate requirement likely

Have the rules governing the 2016 Republican National Convention been established?