First meeting for the newly elected Committee members and they had two jobs to do:
- Elect new NH GOP Officers – Chair, Vice-Chair, Treasurer, Secretary and the 5 Area Vice Chairs
- Vote on the mostly Establishment sponsored Amendments – 6 of them
I posted about Amendment #1 (and left the others alone, below, at the time) and the absolute vagueness of what “good cause” would mean, given that it is open for interpretation, it was open for “political abuse” as well:
County and City Committees may prescribe in their bylaws the conditions under which a member of such committee may be removed for failure to attend meetings or other good cause…
After all, this IS politics we’re talking about there! But there were five more:
- Bylaw amendment 2 – (Bryan Gould, MRC Chair, General Counsel NH GOP) effective elimination of duly elected delegates from affecting the NH Platform (as they do currently)
- Bylaw amendment 3 – (Andrew Cernota, Nashua City Chair) – the “Do not criticize Republican nominees” Shut’Em up command – or it could be put this way “No First Amendment Rights for you!”. I’m betting there was a bit of GraniteGrok mixed in there as well.
- Bylaw amendment 4 – (Andrew Cernota, Nashua City Chair) – NH GOP Chair becomes Prosecutor, Judge, and Jury – no Due Process for the suspended!
- Bylaw amendment 5 – (Mark Vincent, Amherst Town Chair) – A salary for the NH GOP by other name, skimming off the top of Gross donations, not net (I guess there’s no expense cost on events)
- Bylaw amendment 6 – (Tammy Simmons, Manchester City Chair) – formalizing members vs non-members.
I dryly note now that each and everyone was put forward by those in the hierarchy – none by the grassroots. Of all of them, only Amendment #4 passed. . Reports from the Grokster NH GOP State Committee members present said that Amendment #2 was so “pooped”, it was withdrawn; the rest got tabled, rather than have them go down to an ignoble defeat. As I read them in the aggregate, it showed a willingness TO aggregate more power into the power structure of the NH GOP and away from the grassroots, the people that actually make up the NH GOP even if not formally.
Just like when the NH GOP EBoard / staff, as an example, refused to update the duly updated NH GOP Platform (by the duly elected delegates as voted on by their townfolk) on the NH GOP website. For political reasons – it would have embarrassed the top of the ticket. Didn’t much matter, that little bit of subterfuge, now did it? But it seems like the message sent wasn’t received, was it?
As to the election, it seems like Horn was a little more than ham-fisted (from a recounting to me) when it came to the Area Vice Chairs as well – sort of a ramming through the process. A “lock up” as it were.
Others might have called it “working for a pre-determined outcome”. Time will tell how this stunt will work out. Really, strengthening the NH GOP?
