Who Interprets the Rules?

"Those words do not mean what you think they mean!"

As we've told you about, Faulkner County Republican (FCRC) Chair Jason Bollinger and the FCRC Executive Committee have pursued anonymous Rules complaints against member Jimmie Cavin to remove him from the Party based on specific "charges" no one has seen and no one will admit to submitting. The pre-determined outcome will likely take effect at the FCRC meeting on November 25.

FCRC has long suffered from poor communication; members are not officially informed about Executive Committee meetings and issues like this that directly affect members. This non-transparency problem brought repeatedly to the FCRC Executive Committee is still being ignored. So here, as usual, no one is certain how Bollinger will address the “appeal” that night. Add to that uncertainty the also-usual lack of clarity about what the RPA Rules, local Rules, and Robert’s Rules actually mean in terms of real-time actions and you can count on another difficult, chaotic, and unsatisfying meeting.

As just one example, when most Republicans see where the Republican Party of Arkansas (RPA) Rules use the word "appeal," they probably think Cavin's November 25 "appeal" is when Jimmie presents his defense to the Committee so FCRC can make a “final determination” whether he should be removed or not.

Not so, according to the RPA's Rules Chairman Belinda Harris-Ritter (author of the RPA's bogus "ruling" against the actions of the 2024 State Convention), who provided this interpretation to Bollinger:

So it seems by RPA’s interpretation that Cavin is already removed. November 25 is deemed an “appeal of his expulsion.” When were FCRC members informed of this fact? FCRC members as a whole have had no say publicly and have been deliberately kept in the dark during this removal process, even though the membership was asked to vote last month on whether Jimmie could receive the investigative report no one had yet seen! Bollinger only released specific details and documents to the members when FCRC sent last week’s official notice for the November meeting and “appeal.”

We also learned recently that the FCRC Executive Committee gave its approval to Bollinger to act on its behalf, so where does that leave FCRC members? You should know that your County Chairman has complete authority to take whatever action he deems necessary (or that RPA instructs) without involving either the Executive Committee or you, the members.

And it certainly doesn’t matter what Republicans believe the words mean, the RPA will arbitrarily interpret them for you, like the RPA did when it nullified the 2024 State Convention.

As we've seen repeatedly over the last year with the Republican Party, it's all about who makes and interprets the Rules. The Republican Party will dictate and you will follow! Whatever happened to Regnat Populus?