Today at the State Central Committee meeting former RPV chair John Whitbeck, representing Congressman Denver Riggleman, filed an appeal for the 5th district to change their unassembled convention rules to allow voting in multiple locations. The 5th district committee did not chose multiple locations because of the logistical problems such as the need for more volunteers, more security, and the increased chance for voter fraud. Also, according to the Party Plan, a convention cannot be changed after the call has been issued. So technically they couldn’t change their one location to multiple locations.
Taking these issues into consideration the State Central Committee voted against the appeal and chose to respect the decisions made at the 5th district level. The vote was 41 to 32. The location of the convention will remain the same, the Tree of Life church in Campbell County.
John Whitbeck also represented Rob Jones, a candidate for Congress in the 10th district, in an appeal to the 10th district committee for several things, including a request for multiple locations for their unassembled convention. After the vote against the appeal in the 5th district, Whitbeck withdrew his appeal in the 10th, when the 10th district chair Matt Leeds agreed to give the Jones campaign, and all the other candidates in the 10th, a copy of the contract the committee has with Shenandoah University for the convention.
