The committee has recommended to the Party’s State Central Committee to recognize the election of Curtis Colgate when it meets tomorrow to decide the issue.
The Appeals Committee found that the controversial practice of “slating” (whereby a majority can shut out participation by a minority) is permissible under the Party’s rules. However, in the case of the Virginia Beach mass meeting that elected delegates to the 2nd District convention, the Committee found that the practice was not carried out properly.
“The Virginia Beach Mass Meeting – the source of many of the problems in the 2nd District – was properly called and improperly conducted.”
The Committee further concluded that the seating of the delegation certified by the credentials committee at the 2nd District convention was proper and in accordance with the Party’s rules. Finally, the Committee also found that the election of Ken Longo as chairman of the Virginia Beach GOP was invalid because of certain procedural failings and the lack of measures taken to ensure the process was open to only Republican voters.
This ad hoc Appeals Committee is comprised by three members of the Party’s Executive Committee: 10th District GOP Chairman John Whitbeck, 6th District GOP Chairman Wendell Walker, and Republican National Committeewoman Kathy Hayden. The Committee has no binding authority over the 2nd District dispute, but was instead empaneled by RPV Chairman Pat Mullins to wade through the thicket of issues and competing versions of the facts surrounding the controversy, and to report their findings and recommendations to the larger State Central Committee.
In addition to recommending that the Party recognize the election of Curtis Colgate over Sen. Frank Wagner (R-Virginia Beach) as chairman of the 2nd District GOP, the Committee recommended that a new mass meeting be conducted, under the scrutiny of RPV Staff, for the purpose of electing a chairman of the Virginia Beach Republican Committee. The Committee recommends that the Virginia Beach Committee Chairmanship be deemed vacant until the new chairman is thus elected.
The full Republican Party of Virginia State Central Committee will meet tomorrow, Saturday, August 16, to decide the 2nd District appeals, as well as those arising from the open encouragement of the participation of Democrats and other non-Republicans in the election proceedings of the Campbell and Fauquier county GOP organizations.
Contributors to The Bull Elephant will be providing live coverage of the debates and deliberations on Saturday. In the meantime, the full report of the ad hoc committee is embedded below.
