RNC members blast Priebus over convention rules

by Rebecca Savransky - 04/17/16 3:38 PM ET

The chairman of the Republican Party’s rules committee blasted top GOP officials Saturday, accusing them of trying to improperly stop a proposed rule change at the Republican National Convention that would make it harder for party leaders to reopen the presidential nomination, The Associated Press reported.

Bruce Ash, a Republican National committeeman from Arizona, said top party officials, including Chairman Reince Priebus, tried to change the rules ahead of the convention in July.

“I consider this to be a major breach of trust,” Ash said, according to The Washington Times.

{mosads}Ash said Priebus’s legal counsel’s office did not tell committee members that an Oregon RNC member, Solomon Yue, proposed an alteration to the process. Yue’s rule would change the parliamentary rules for the national convention from the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives to Robert’s Rules of Order.

This would make it more difficult for the nomination to be reopened by the convention chairman. Robert’s Rules would require a majority vote of the delegates to reopen nominations. After the names of the candidates are placed on the convention ballot, nominations are closed unless a majority of delegates vote to reopen them, according to Robert’s Rules.

According to House rules, the convention chairman would be able to reopen the nomination.

“Establishment forces want to hijack the nomination with a ‘fresh face,’ as Karl Rove has said. Nominations should not be reopened without the consent of a majority of the delegates,” Yue said.

Ash said Priebus asked him and Yue to withdraw Yue’s formally submitted rules-change proposal and urged Ash to cancel the rules committee session at next week’s RNC spring meeting. But Ash and Yue refused.

Ash also said that RNC General Counsel John Ryder of Tennessee had a conference call where he urged people to lobby members of the RNC to oppose Yue’s proposal.

Priebus “strongly believes all rules changes should be up to the delegates elected by the grassroots Republican voters,” RNC chief strategist Sean Spicer said in an email to the Times.

Tags Reince Priebus Republican National Committee