Republican Second Congressional District Convention

Republican Second Congressional District Convention  –  State Central Committee Elections

Raw Results — There were 546 in attendance at the beginning of the Republican Second District Convention held Saturday in Mount Pleasant. Each of Iowa’s four districts are authorized four positions on the Republican Party of Iowa (RPI) State Central Committee (SCC). There were eight individuals running in the 2nd CD, two of whom were incumbents.  Delegates could vote for up to four of the candidates with the top four vote getters being elected.  Listed below are the candidates and vote totals in order of votes received. (results provided by convention secretary).  The indication of presidential preference is gleaned from an article / survey conducted by The Iowa Republican weblog or solid “word on the street” presumption.

Jeff Shipley,  Jefferson County             334          Ron Paul
Mark Doland,  Mahaska County           322          Bachmann
Bob Anderson,  Johnson County          309          undeclared
Marcus Fedler,   Washington County  281          Ron Paul
Trudy Caviness,  Wapello County        253          undeclared (not Ron Paul)
John Ortega,  Scott County                    217          undeclared  (not Ron Paul)
Thomas Rutherford,  Scott County      208         Ron Paul
Mark LeRette,  Muscatine County        196          Santorum

John Ortega and Trudy Caviness were the incumbents and were defeated for reelection.  Appreciation should be extended to them for their dedicated service.

Random and opinionated vignettes  from a participant observer  . . . no hard back up data . . .

• I noticed probably three or four “slates” were circulated  from different sources.

• Local incumbent John Ortega circulated one by mail and he was on another one circulated on site.  It was ironic as he seemed to decry the practice of slates of late even though he benefited from them frequently, indeed they may have been crucial to some of his wins in the past. Not this time, wrong slate. Curiously he must have gone through a lot of white-out —  there were three copies  of his bio on seats near me, all with the candidate preferences from past years whited out.  No doubt he thought it would confuse the issue regarding his own re-election platform of “no candidate” endorsements.  The older endorsements were not necessarily an inconsistency and he arguably had more current inconsistencies as a philosophical matter anyway.  

• Perhaps more than any factor, no one was impressed with incumbents.  They tended to go down across the state.  People want the Party to mean something and to push the Republican agenda with a degree of discipline, authenticity and consistency.

• Other than some grumblings about the process, Ron Paul supporters, as usual from my experience with them, played by the rules and did not seek to fall on their swords at every breach. If that seems patronizing I apologize. They want rules, just the same ones for everybody.

• The seated delegates up to even the three quarter time mark seemed to be steady at  450 plus and displayed a full compliment for more than half of the time. Not until the final hour or so did the number fall off,  but even then I do not believe it got below two-thirds of the authorized compliment, or close to that.

• The agenda of the day could have been continued as ballots were counted, or at least at a better pace.

• The bad acoustics of a gym with 600 plus people in attendance were aggravated by a intermittently poor audio system. A word to the wise regarding the site selection for the 2014 convention.

• My G*d why were there no coffee and donuts available!  Having such basics available at a reasonable price could have produced a thousand to two thousand dollars in profit.

• The platform had a couple dozen amendments from the floor (after going through the rule process).  Most were cogent, well the ones I agreed with anyway.

• The vote results for the various candidates appeared to be the result overlapping slate votes. If you appeared on more than one, you were of course more likely to get elected. I also believe that the candidate’s time spent glad handing along with a dynamic speech blessed by the gods of the gym’s acoustics helped individual ones win.

• I missed congressional candidate Dolan’s speech.  I regret that.  I heard he did well.  Candidate Archer’s speech was cerebral, serious, policy oriented. Unfortunately the type of speech not helped by the acoustics. I look forward to their upcoming forum.  The set question, which you will hear at the event, regarding disagreements with the platform  I proffered as a member of the “debate” committee.  I hope both candidates are solid on the core aspects of the platform.

• A state-wide analysis of the state central committee election results is available at The Iowa Republican (TIR).  The editor of that publication renders a theme that Ron Paul outperforming on State Central Committee positions somehow will lead to the denigration of Iowa’s first in the nation status.  It is an uncharacteristically unbalanced analysis.  

• Politics is about showing up.   If you show up you should get a reflective share of the influence. And if others do not show up, well somebody gets to fill the void as well.  Ron Paul supporters want to keep the influence of the caucuses as much as everyone else.  The damage that was done in January through this process was done by establishment types circling the wagons and operating exclusively and or ineptly.  The TIR article goes on to suggest that the general election Victory program could be better handled from Scott County.  That is silly.   Of course the fact is,  if you are only churning phone calls and mailings it can be handled from Miami.
  

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