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IPFS News Link • Politics: Republican Campaigns

RNC leaders reject bid to rewrite convention rules

• Politico

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — The Republican National Committee on Thursday voted down a controversial proposal that would have recommended dramatic rule changes for this summer's convention.

The proposal, which was sponsored by Solomon Yue, an RNC committeeman from Oregon, was intended to further empower the convention's delegates — injecting the convention, Yue argued, with a degree of transparency at a time of unprecedented scrutiny of the party's internal procedures.

The vote bitterly divided the party, pitting a small group eager to advance the proposal against RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and his allies, who warned that implementing the change would further inflame Donald Trump, who has accused the committee of overseeing a "rigged" process that's stacked against him.

But after Priebus last week came out against it, Bruce Ash, an Arizona RNC member and the chairman of the Rules Committee tasked with overseeing the hearing on Yue's measure, wrote a letter to fellow committee members in which he accused Priebus of a "breach of trust." Ash accused Priebus of working to scuttle the bill and said Priebus was working behind the scenes to ensure it didn't appear before the Rules Committee at this week's annual spring meeting here. Yue, meanwhile, wrote a letter of his own in which he accused the RNC of "institutional tyranny."

Yue's proposal, the only major agenda item at the Rules Committee meeting, would replace the system used at Republican national conventions for decades, which mirror those used by the U.S. House of Representatives, with Robert's Rules of Order, a design that's often used to oversee civic and organizational meetings. The change would diminish the control typically exhibited by the convention's presiding officer — a role that's expected to be filled by House Speaker Paul Ryan — and hand more influence to the 2,472 delegates. Under Robert's Rules, any delegate with an objection would have to be recognized by the presiding officer.


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