CLEVELAND, Ohio — A Republican National Committeeman from Oregon warned reporters Tuesday that 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney is attempting to foil Donald Trump’s nomination at the GOP convention next week.
Solomon Yue, a member of the RNC’s Standing Rules Committee, made these remarks after the committee adjourned Tuesday afternoon. Different from the Convention Rules Committee, which holds jurisdiction over the 2016 convention rules, the standing committee found itself responding to inquiries relating to whether or not certain delegates can vote in opposition to the results of their state primary on the first ballot of the nomination process.
The Convention Rules Committee is expected to meet on Thursday and Friday. When it gathers, according to North Dakota National Committeeman Curly Haugland, it will start over with the rules of 2012 and their recommended changes. “That’s where we’ll begin the discussion about what we’ll recommend as a convention rules committee to the full convention,” Haugland told The Daily Caller
TheDC learned that at least 28 or one quarter of the convention rules committee might be committed to unbinding all delegates that are bound to their state primary results. If this is the case, minority report can be produced from the rules committee and sent to the floor of the full convention for a floor vote.
Yue attempted at the Tuesday meeting to shut down any possibility of such a rule change, but the committee postponed his amendment indefinitely.
“My concern is uncertainty, and I want to shut down that uncertainty and I want to see a clear stand for our nominee. Think about it. In our party history, it never happened before,” he later told reporters. “Our nominee of 2012 is leading a national movement against the presumptive nominee of 2016. Can you find me another example of it? Meanwhile, you have conscience movement people who are trying to unbound our delegates.”
Yue went further to say, “The Convention Rules Committee actually has the authority to pass anything they want to pass and make effective immediately. I tried to prevent that. That’s why my amendment is going to talk about all rules changes take effect after the convention and will be able to prevent the [minority report full convention vote] scenario.”
RNC Standing Rules Committee Counsel John Ryder responded to concerns about a recent court case ruling in Virginia that found the state laws that bind party delegates to vote the way the party primary results dictate them to do so at the party convention to be unconstitutional.
On the other hand, the court also recognized that it does not have jurisdiction over whether a private organization, like the RNC, can bind its delegates to the results of a statewide contest either. Both Virginia delegates looking to become unbound and the Trump campaign each claimed victory from the decision.
“The judge was very clear about not speaking to what the Republican Party had to do. He was striking down a Virginia law, which is confusing with respect to the presidential nomination, because the law says, essentially, plurality winner take all. And under those circumstances, if you are bound by state law, then all the delegate votes of Virginia would have to go to the plurality winner, which was Trump,” Virginia Republican National Committeeman Morton Blackwell told TheDC. “But, no, the party adopted an allocation formula. And anybody that received 1.9 percent of the primary vote received one delegate.”
Ryder told committee members, “Whether as a general matter state party rules and state party laws that bind delegates to vote for a candidate for president who carry the state’s primary or caucus are valid under the U.S. Constitution and under the current RNC rules as approved by the 2012 convention and as amended by the RNC pursuant to rule 12, and therefore binds certain delegates of the 2016 Republican National Convention.”
He explained, “As General Counsel of the Republican National Committee, it is within my authority to provide interpretation of the rules of the Republican Party. It’s not, however, generally the role of the general counsel to issue opinions on whether state laws violate the First Amendment, associational rights, and state parties. So there is some limitation to this response.”
Ryder went further to say, “However, the rules of the republican Party both prevent and require the binding of delegates. Generally, the rules as adopted by the 2012 convention and subsequently amended by the RNC bind the delegates. Rule 16A1 specifically requires that any results of a statewide presidential preference poll be used to bund the state’s delegation. This rule was adopted by the 2012 convention and remains in effect.”
Fellow Rules Committee member Curly Haugland took issue with Ryder’s interpretation as to whether the 2016 convention rules had already been adopted. Ryder appears to believe that until the Convention Rules Committee’s rules are adopted by the convention, 2012 convention rules are still in effect. Haugland told The Daily Caller later on he believes that it is not true and “they’re making up rules.”
Haugland told the committee, “There are, in fact, no rules for the 2016 convention until the convention adopts the rules, but I want to point out in 2012 I was a member of the convention rules committee and this question was discussed quite a bit—whether or not rule 16 conflicted with rule 37—whether or not the binding in rule 16 actually constituted voting or not.”
He noted, “I raised the point of order 3 separate times. It’s in the transcript of those proceedings and the final time that I raised the point of order Chairman Sununu ruled accordingly. I raised the question of order saying that 16 conflicted with 37. He said, ‘Are you suggesting 16 and 37 conflict? Is that your point of order?’ I said, ‘yes.’ He said, ‘There’s no conflict. Rule 16 deals with delegate selection and rule 37 deals with voting. We can only vote in one place. We can either vote in the primaries or we can vote in the convention. I submit we vote in the convention.’”