RNC members call unprecedented special meeting

For the first
time in party history, members of the Republican National Committee have called
their own unscheduled meeting without the aid of the Washington-based party
apparatus.

Organized by
North Dakota Republican Party chairman Gary Emineth, the meeting will convene
for the specific purpose of hosting a forum for candidates running to chair the
national committee. Members will meet at an as-of-yet-undecided location in
Washington on January 7.

{mosads}The unscheduled
and unexpected meeting, plans for which were first reported by The Hill, was
called by Emineth and 21 other RNC members from 18 states, according to a memo
from the RNC counsel’s office. Party rules stipulate a meeting must be called
by at least 16 members from 16 different states.

According to
those familiar with party rules, individual members have never called a meeting
under the arcane rule.

Emineth said he
wanted to call the meeting because the contest is likely to be complicated, and
so that members of the committee could hear from candidates well before they
had to vote.

“Most Republicans
do not know who the RNC chairman is or anything about this process. The more
exposure of the candidates, their values and how they intend to turn the party
around is good for public input and debate,” Emineth told The Hill. “I think
Republicans are ready for a new era without Karl Rove calling the shots.”

“The crowded
field of candidates will definitely [mean] a multiple ballot election,” Emineth
said. “The winning candidate is going to have to have a strategy to consolidate
support.”

Several RNC
watchers who did not sign on to the meeting but who support it nonetheless say
the meeting is a victory for those running to unseat incumbent chairman Mike
Duncan. The meeting will give the other five prominent candidates an
opportunity to campaign amongst the 168 voting national committee members in
advance of the election, which takes place during the last weekend in January.

A candidate forum
is the sole agenda item aside from procedural matters to call the meeting to
order.

When voting
begins, Duncan is expected to start the first round of voting with the highest
total, though the incumbent is not expected to reach the 85 votes necessary to
win outright.

Those who signed
the letter requesting the special meeting are either undecided voters or are
backing other candidates. Several are public supporters of former Ohio
Secretary of State Ken Blackwell or of South Carolina GOP chairman Katon
Dawson. Dawson himself is among the signees.

Others are
privately supporting their own candidates. Most notably, several private
supporters of former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele were enthusiastic backers
of the special meeting, and many signed on to make it happen.

The meeting in
Washington will come two days after Americans for Tax Reform holds the only
scheduled public debate between the candidates, set for January 5 at the
National Press Club and to be broadcast on C-SPAN. The following day, the
Conservative Steering Committee, a group of prominent conservative members of
the RNC, will host candidates at a private forum in order to test whether they
meet strict ideological standards.

The steering
committee meeting is seen as a dangerous forum for Steele, widely viewed as the
most centrist candidate running for RNC chair. Some view the steering committee
as an opportunity for Duncan to prove that he is acceptable to a large group of
RNC members.

By setting the
RNC meeting on January 7 instead of January 6, though, some said Duncan is
smartly promoting the steering committee the day before to gain an advantage
over Steele.

Still, some may
wonder about Duncan’s control over the committee, given the unprecedented
nature of the new meeting. The lack of a call from RNC headquarters in
Washington give some members cause to wonder just how much control Duncan
asserts over the committee he ostensibly leads.

Then again,
Emineth said, echoing a number of other national committee members’ concerns,
the call from members is the latest step in ongoing efforts to increase state
leaders’ influence over the national party.

“I consistently
heard that we need to be a ‘bottoms up’ committee rather than an ‘inside the
beltway’ party,” he said. “The grassroots believe the core principles of the
Republican Party and are frustrated with issues from the bail out to Washington’s
inability to get things done.”

Steele, Dawson
and Blackwell support the special meeting, while Michigan Republican Party
chairman Saul Anuzis, another leading contender for the RNC post, has not taken
a position. A spokesman for Duncan would only say that the chairman supports
members’ rights to hold such a meeting. A spokesman for Saltsman could not be
reached late Sunday night.