Critical Primary Theory Shackles the NDGOP
State Convention can “break their chains and throw off their shackles.”
The July, 2021, post introducing Critical Primary Theory gives the history of the Progressive Party’s creation of primaries for the candidate nomination process “in lieu of caucuses and conventions”.
This Progressive innovation has somehow survived in North Dakota state law and continues to deny the members of the North Dakota Republican Party the right to NOMINATE their candidates for public office.
Republicans in North Dakota have continued, without reason, to assent to a process whereby the delegates to the NDGOP Convention can only ENDORSE candidates for public office while the power to NOMINATE is delegated, by state law, to the voters of any, all or no party affiliation in the state’s primary election.
How can this be?
Inertia, maybe?
In any case, the solution is at hand with the upcoming NDGOP State Convention.
First, a review of the structure of the Republican Party.
The Republican Party is not a permanent organization. There is only one Republican Party of the United States. The ultimate authority of the Republican Party is the quadrennial national convention of delegates.
Each state and territory is a subordinate “state committee” and within North Dakota there are subordinate district committees. All such committees are subordinate to the parent association.
The Republican Party has no constitution or bylaws.
The governing documents of the Republican Party are the current edition of Robert’s Rules of Order and the Rules of the Republican Party adopted at the quadrennial national convention.
In a similar fashion, subordinate state and district conventions adopt governing rules in their respective conventions.
The Republican Party is a deliberative association of individuals who choose to associate with like minded people to advocate for their shared political philosophy, and whose rights to do so are protected by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.
The authority to manage the affairs of the Republican Party is assigned to the Republican National Committee when the REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION DELEGATES vote to adopt the Rules of the Republican Party; rules that are only effective until the next convention.
In like fashion, the authority to manage the affairs of the NDGOP between conventions should be assigned to the State Committee by authority given by the delegates to the State Convention.
However, the current rules on the NDGOP website begin with this preface:
The powers, rights, privileges, and duties of the State Committee and of the Chairman thereof are provided by law, and the State Committee is authorized by law to adopt Rules for its proper governing. The State Committee is the sole Republican organization with statewide representation which is given official standing by law. The State Committee, therefore, is by virtue of law the sole official body endowed with official authority to guide the destiny of the Republican Party in the State of North Dakota and to correlate and coordinate all Republican activities and influence throughout North Dakota with that of the Republican Party nationally.
The following rules are hereby adopted and declared to be the Rules for the governing and organization of the Republican Party of North Dakota.
The current party leadership, in following these rules, argue that the authority to govern the party has been given to them by the STATE!
The STATE is also the source of the “authority” to steal the right to nominate candidates from the members of the Republican Party, giving that right to primary voters.
HOWEVER;
State party rules, as adopted by the NDGOP convention, are superior to state laws.
The upcoming NDGOP convention has the power, if they choose to use it, to adopt rules giving the delegates the right to NOMINATE candidates as the official Republican nominees in the 2022 general election.
Also, the special rules of order adopted by the state convention, along with its parliamentary authority, Robert’s Rules of Order, constitute the complete and only authority of the NDGOP.
The NDGOP rules are adopted when the previously established Convention Rules Committee moves for the adoption of the report of the Rules Committee.
This committee should propose the rules of business for the convention, the rules for the election and government of the Republican Party of North Dakota until the next state convention, the rules under which delegates and alternate delegates shall be allotted to the legislative district committees in the next state convention, and the rules under which such delegates and alternate delegates shall be elected and under which contests shall be considered.
The motion to adopt the report of the rules committee is an amendable motion.
If the rules committee report re-adopts Critical Primary Theory it will be up to the delegates to amend the rules to rule out Critical Primary Theory and allow the NOMINATION of candidates in lieu of endorsement only.
Remember, the First and Fourteenth Amendments exist to protect individual rights of association (political parties) from government interference (primaries).
Stay tuned!