Changing the Trajectory of the RPA

"We have the numbers"

Delegates to Saturday’s Republican State Convention have several concerns on their minds, as Jennifer Lancaster from Saline County told Jimmie Cavin and Dave on the Dave Elswick Show today.

In its most recent move, the Republican Party of Arkansas (RPA), responsible for Convention arrangements and Committee prep work, has refused to release the Convention credentials list for delegates (ignoring the entire Credentials Committee in the process). The RPA is trying to substitute Roberts Rules for special meetings, blatantly ignoring the fact that our State Convention, as mandated by state law, is also clearly defined in the RPA Rules.

Jennifer reminds delegates that RPA Rules say our State Convention — representing the grassroots — is the “final authority in all party matters.” So the State Convention loans authority to the RPA/State Committee to do its work. The RPA does not hold authority over the Convention, it’s the other way around:

When the State Committee held its May 18 meeting, guests (including other Republicans) were not invited to that gathering of GOP and public elected officials.

However, at this State Convention — for the first time — the RPA has decided that guests not only are invited but we hear they could be seated together with voting delegates, making it difficult to determine where legitimate votes are being made:

Jennifer again points out the use of proper parliamentary procedures: Every delegate has a duty to use a “point of order” or “point of information” from Robert’s Rules to ask a question when there’s confusion: if you are wondering what’s going on, chances are many others in the room are wondering too.

District 2 is hosting a hospitality room for all delegates with breakfast, snacks, and a chance to network together once you’re registered and before the Convention begins. In setting that up at the hotel, Jennifer learned the RPA instructed the hotel to put the hospitality room “far away" in "case we might cause problems for them..." — so it’s in a separate building, a “4 or 5-minute walk” away from the Convention itself.

It seems the RPA is doing all it can to keep the duly elected delegates of the Arkansas Republican Party from doing their job to have a Biennial Convention and express our will on various timely submitted platform and Rules proposals and Resolutions, per the RPA Rules.

With everything that’s at stake in our country this November, this is the time — at this Biennial State Convention — for delegates to step up and use the power we have to “change the trajectory” of the Arkansas Republican Party: