Missouri Republicans must replace the 54 delegates and alternates elected at the national convention. State Championships in Disarray The Republican National Convention's elections committee decided Friday to halt the election due to “stunning irregularities” in the election process.
The list of rejected delegates includes the two leading Republican candidates for governor, Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft and State Senator Bill Eigel.
“The committee has determined that the state convention was not properly qualified and that the roll of delegates and alternate delegates adopted by the state convention must be set aside,” the report, signed by Mississippi state committee chair Jean Lackey, said.
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The committee took action after investigating complaints from state convention delegates Daniel O'Sullivan of St. Louis County and Derrick Good of Jefferson County.
They alleged that state convention delegates were not properly certified at the time the convention convened, that the rules for selecting state at-large delegates were improperly changed during the convention, and that some delegates were listed on multiple lists in violation of the rules.
After determining that the certification complaints had merit, the committee wrote that it did not need to consider the other complaints and did not rule on them.
“The candidates have amply demonstrated that there were extraordinary irregularities in the state convention certification process, including failure to include names on delegate rolls, distribution of delegate credential certificates to alternate delegates without verifying their replacements, and failure to ensure that alternate delegates were selected from the same county as the delegates they were replacing,” the report said.
The committee's ruling gives the state party executive committee until Friday at 5 p.m. to select new statewide delegates and alternates.
In a statement to The Independent, the Missouri Republican Party said its executive committee intends to meet the deadline.
The statement said the state political parties had no role in the decision taken by the National Contest Committee.
“We understand the urgency and importance of this matter and are working diligently to ensure that all due processes are followed within the limited time frame,” the statement said. “As this process unfolds, we remain focused on selecting a delegation that will represent Missouri well at the Republican National Convention.”
O'Sullivan, who ran for Congress in 1996 and served on the St. Louis County Republican Central Committee for more than two decades, said the ruling only highlights a range of problems that have arisen from the convention.
“They can't provide a list of attendees,” O'Sullivan said, “and because they can't prove who the delegates were at the convention, the committee can't say the convention's outcomes were valid and therefore can't even answer the questions we had about what happened at the convention.”
O'Sullivan hopes to be on the list of delegates to be selected to replace those elected at the convention.
So did Good, Jefferson County's attorney and longtime county commissioner.
“The state executive committee will be putting together a new list of delegates by the end of the week and we are confident that the list will include people who are willing and able to participate,” Good said.
The main conflict at the convention was between those relatively new to the convention process and party staunchers with the experience of many conventions. After the congressional district conventions, it became clear that the faction opposed to the party establishment held the majority at the convention.
The convention's scheduled timetable was for all delegates to be seated by the officially scheduled start time of 9 a.m., and for all business to be completed by 2 p.m. However, the qualification process took five hours, and by 2 p.m., when the convention broke for lunch, the only business completed was the election of Sophia Shore of Camden County as convention chair, replacing Eddie Justice.
Shore is managing Eigel's gubernatorial campaign.
“Whether out of malice or simply incompetence, the Missouri Republican Party has completely botched their only job: certifying candidates,” Shore said in a statement to The Independent. “It is foolish for the Election Commission to reward their incompetence by accepting a challenge orchestrated by the Missouri Republican Party based on their own mistake.”
Missouri has 54 voting delegates. Republican National Convention in Milwaukeeis scheduled to begin on July 15. Twenty-four of the members were elected at eight district conventions in April, and 27 were elected as statewide delegates at the state convention on May 4. Three additional delegate slots are reserved for party chairs.
Twenty-seven alternates were also selected for the state tournament.
All delegates were selected based on slates of candidates to fill vacancies, but during the afternoon session the rules were changed so that only slates from “grassroots movements that really support Trump” were submitted to the vote.
Shore said in a statement that the executive committee should reinstate the delegation unchanged.
“The Missouri Republican Party should admit their mistake, resubmit a truly grassroots, pro-Trump slate of candidates selected by their convention delegates, and be done with it,” she said.
Goode said many of the convention's selected delegates did not have hotel reservations in Milwaukee and were unlikely to attend, but he said they would not have been excluded as delegates if they had followed rules established before the convention.
“If they'd played by the rules, there wouldn't have been any complaints,” Good said. “They had the votes. They did a good job of building a coalition.”
He said the delegate slate that was prepared but ultimately withdrawn had the same goal as the currently unelected delegate slate: to re-elect Trump.
“There is a place for these fights,” he said. “There are rules to the fight, and hopefully, ultimately, we can find a way to come together again for a common goal.”
In the afternoon session, debate raged over whether people who had left for lunch could re-enter the convention, whether the rules could be changed, and how to present delegate lists and proposed platform amendments in an orderly manner.
“When qualification got screwed up, it destroyed confidence in the people running the tournament,” O'Sullivan said.
After the vote, delegates dispersed and the convention ended without adopting a platform as there was not a quorum required to conduct business.
“The incident itself was embarrassing,” O'Sullivan said.
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