Virginia Republicans adopt measure to allow military representation at Conventions

The measure addresses concerns pushed by a number of members of the General Assembly earlier this year about the inability for deployed active duty military members to participate in nomination contests conducted by party-run Conventions. [read_more]

The RPV State Central Committee, meeting at the party’s annual December gathering known as the “Advance,” on Friday passed the measure by acclamation. The measure is in the form of an amendment to the RPV rules that establishes a military delegation at each Convention called for the purpose of nominating candidates for public office. The military delegation would be instructed to carry the preferences of military members whose official duties render them unable to attend the Convention in person.

The chairmen of the Privileges and Elections Committees in both houses of the General Assembly, Del. Mark Cole (R-Spotsylvania) and Sen. Jill Holtzman-Vogel (R-Fauquier), had both indicated support for this measure, and the State Central Committee also heard from Sen. Tom Garrett (R-Louisa) via telephone, who urged passage of the amendment.

The measure was prompted by legislation advanced during this year’s regular session of the General Assembly that would have stripped political parties of the ability to determine their own method of nomination. The Bull Elephant detailed this unconstitutional effort here. We hope this puts the issue to rest from a practical perspective, but nonetheless still expect that die-hard foes of nominating conventions will make another push in the 2015 session (even without the pretext of military participation).

The State Central Committee passed another amendment to the party’s rules that allows greater representation on district committees in those rare instances where a member of a district’s State Central Committee delegation (who are automatically members of the district committee) also serve as a chairman of a constituent county-level unit, who are also members of the district committee. Under the old rules, vesting two membership slots in one person meant that person’s county essentially lost its representation on the committee, as such people were only allowed one vote. Under the new rules, the chairman is now allowed to designate a representative to the district committee to serve in his/her place while the chairman continues to serve on the district committee in his/her other capacty, thus ensuring such units are not deprived of full representation at the district level.