The Post Register’s David Pace recently asked Dorothy Moon, Chairwoman of Idaho’s once-vaunted Republican Party, “Can I see the document causing the resignation of Idaho’s Republican National Committeeman?” Moon’s answer: “No, (the Idaho Republican Party) is a private club.”
To understand the chairwoman’s answer, one must understand how this gadfly from Stanley got elected to lead Idaho’s Republicans, most of whom she ridicules and wishes to remove from the party. Topping her list of “undesirables” are all those Republicans who didn’t vote for her or her friends McGeachin, Giddings or Durst for Idaho’s top government jobs.
Something like this only happens by cheating — openly violating an Idaho Republican Party rule, one essential to the centuries-old functioning of political parties in America. Party chairs are elected at conventions held after primaries, but before general elections. Their purpose is to unite factions who just clashed fiercely in the primary, to better support the party’s final “ticket” in the general election.
This is key because parties are about persuasion: doing the work of canvassing, engaging with voters, supporting the ticket, and countering the other side.
For generations the rule has been: “Work to win votes for your candidate and earn a voice at the party’s convention.” This is how parties reward and support good workers. A county’s convention delegation should mirror the vote in that county’s primary election.
But in 2022, at the party’s convention in Twin Falls, counties showed up with delegations completely un-representative of how the county voted. Brad Little won almost half Kootenai County’s votes, but among 70 delegates from Kootenai interviewed, not one had voted for Gov. Little.
Bonneville County fielded the fourth largest delegation in Twin Falls. Caribou County was seated next to them. Surveying Bonneville’s delegation you would expect to see many “Brad Little” campaigners. Amazingly none were to be seen, even though the governor won Bonneville County handily.
How can a delegation be un-representative of who actually worked and won the votes? Authoritarian party regimes do this. It’s called “slating” delegates, which means power brokers handpick delegates on criteria not reflecting work and success in the primary. Using cronyism as a basis for picking convention delegates actually destroys parties, and so party rules make “slating” illegal.
When citing how illegitimate the Twin Falls convention was, a few honest defenders counter that 1) “the establishment” attempts to cheat this same way, and 2) the “rule” is more explicit for national conventions than for state conventions.
Both comments are true, but not persuasive. The “establishment” is often wrong. And the same principle that makes it “right” for national conventions applies even more to conventions in Idaho.
In Idaho’s presidential primary of 2000, Texas Gov. George W. Bush was backed by Idaho’s political establishment, but Ambassador Alan Keyes won 20 percent of the popular vote. Under GOP rules, Keyes was entitled to some of Idaho’s delegates.
Idaho’s governor, desiring an “all-in for ‘W’” delegation, pressured the party to pick a few “former Keyes supporters” now declaring for Bush, and “call it good.” Instead, Idaho Republicans picked Ron Vieselmeyer of Kootenai and the late Renee Stucki of Jefferson, two unwavering Keyes loyalists.
At the Philadelphia convention Stucki and Vieselmeyer insisted Keyes get a speaking slot. Following the rules worked as it should, and a persuasive conservative voice was heard in primetime.
Allocating convention delegates by who worked and won votes is more than just “honest,” it is also how parties are different from “just another service club, or chamber.” Parties have higher donation limits, get to name replacement candidates, and appoint vote-counting observers — all privileges that “private clubs” do not have. This is because true parties facilitate broad participation, not narrow interest.
But now you know. Flaunting the rules of what makes “a party” is how Dorothy Moon got elected. No wonder she doesn’t really see herself leading “a party.” To her, it really is just her private club.
