11th District Convention: Clown Show

I'll have more later but this had been one of the most poorly run embarrassing displays I've ever been to. The ELECTIONS are the worst run I've ever seen.

FULL POST:

First off, remember that this was majority ballot, NOT plurality.  So to win you need 50% and the losers did NOT drop off.  Everything started at 9am and the Convention adjourned at 5:00pm.  The first ballot totals were not finalized until the 4 o'clock hour.  It was a disgrace and every candidate who worked hard for every office deserve an apology from the 11th district committee and the Party in general.  Everything seemed to be going smoothly until the first ballot results were read.  Then the problems emerged.  The elections committee could not count correctly and were using the wrong math.  As was told to me (and this could be wrong) that got the percentages against the amount of people in the room and not the votes cast for that ballot.  The reason that is important is because we had paid delegates and unpaid delegates.  Paid delegates voted for everything but unpaid delegates could only vote for National Convention delegates and Presidential Elector.  Or, someone could just be interested in voting for certain people and leave the others blank, who knows?  So each office should have been counted against the votes cast for that office, all of them should not have been compared to the number of people in the room (so to speak).  So with all of this, things wen bonkers.

Terry Wear was originally announced as NOT having a majority when he clearly did.  After the re-count (and the rumors she would back Mike Giere) Wear was announced the victor outright.

For State Central, originally David Ray was the only announced winner with over 50%.  After the re-count both Keith Damon and Patsy Drain were announced as winners alongside David.  

National delegate to the RNC is where things really went haywire.  Originally it was announced that Brian Schoeneman, Ann Gentry, and James Lightweiss (a Ron Paul supported who graduated from Mason yesterday) were announced as the winners at over 50%.  After the re-vote, Ann and James were confirmed winners but Brian dropped down to second to last and Brandon Jaisonowski, another young Ron Paul activist, shot up.  In the end Schoeneman, Vogl, Hubbard, and Martin all took the floor and endorsed Geraldine Davies (sp?) and she won on the second ballot of Jaisonowski.  But it wasn't overwhelming.

It took almost 5 hours to count the first ballot.  The elections committee did not understand its own rules on how to count, and angry delegates were forced to stand outside at Oakton High School doing nothing.  The entire event started with this bizarre women singing the National Anthem to a harp is what can only be described as a Shatner'd version of the anthem that was half sung and half spoken.  This was incompetence at its highest level with people put in charge of things they should not have been.  The only adult around was Matt Ames.  I heard delegate after delegate saying , "I'm never doing this again."  This was a demoralizing enterprise for everyone involved and I'm sure hurt our chances of getting volunteers because of this.  All I could think of was, "imagine if we nominated our congressional candidate like this?"  And the candidates who did run got screwed.  Poor Brian was told he won the most votes and it turns out he was second to last!  He deserves an apology and everyone who sat through this mess is owed one.  Right now I'm apologizing to my wife for this.  

This was bad for the party.  This was not a fight of right vs. moderate, tea party/Ron Paul vs. Establishment, this was about complete and utter incompetence.  Terry Wear has a big task ahead of him.  The good news is that the people responsible for this were voted OUT today and overwhelmingly so.  It's Terry job to fix this now.  That is what gives me hope, is that those responsible are not gone.  Good luck to everyone who won and ONWARD to victory in November!

Comments

[Pprados]

We are making the democrats look more organized than us.

It's frustrating as all heck. 345pm and we haven't even confirmed all votes from the first ballot.

[Publius]

What a joke.

I am guessing Becky is too busy trying to make sure she stays Chairwoman, despite her complete lack of success over the years. Becky is a self promoter and not much more.

[Pprados]

Publius, not trying to be mean here. We do have partial results, and chairman's race is over. Terry Wear won by a substantial margin. I think Stoeckel came in third of three.

They are tied up with counting state central and rnc delegates.

I was originally happy to be redistricted out of the 8th. Now I curse the General Assembly.

[James Young]

You would have thought that after her years in office, Becky could have done a well-run convention, even if it was apparent it was going to be one she wouldlose.

[I would just like to forget today ever happened.]

I was there. I gave up before 4 pm. This isn't rocket science and I cannot believe how many people it takes to tally a vote.

I know it wasn't the rules but in the future, why not simply say one person = one vote and top one or three (in the pick threes) win?

Also I agree with your observations, but I think your post is a tad misleading in that I am sure Lillian Vogl was running for State Central. At least, that is the office I voted for her to fill!

[An observer]

Actually, it wasn't anyone's fault. Because Becky hose to use a ballot machine, it forced the elections committee to vote by hand. If anyone needs to blame its Becky for using a machine that didn't work correctly.

And, as someone who was there after she lost she totally checked out and didn't help with anything.

Fortunately, there was a group of folks who went and hand counted votes and solved the problem. I wouldn't blame volunteers...

[Chris]

Sorry your right, Vogl ran for state central not nat. delegte

[Anne]

I thought the convention was disorganized, but nevertheless I want to thank the volunteers. I had to pack it in and leave at about 3:45. I would also like to see things changed to one vote per person with no "weighting" (which would reduce the senseless "waiting!"). I agree with your Shatner comment, too. The version of the anthem at sporting events usually inspires me, esp. when I'm one of the participants. I don't know why the singer chose to "dis" how others do the anthem. I guess I didn't agree with her on that. But it takes guts to stand up and sing in front of a crowd, so thanks to the musicians, too, even if their version was not my favorite.

[Freddie]

The weighting was not the problem. Weighting is to prevent "home field advantage".

This was a horrible convention.

[Bruce]

The rules problems were in part due to state rules.

All the people who were responsible for the convention were NOT voted out - David Ray, Patsy Drain and Keith Damon are all on the 11th District Committee and had a say in how this ran. They had the votes to change any rules. The objection to the count that resulted in the extended recount was from David Ray.

In Becky's defense - it would have been a conflict of interest as a candidate for her to have been involved in counting the ballots or resolving the issues caused by the rules. Saying she checked out is unfair as she was required to be unbiased in the process and defferred to David Ray and others.

That all being said, the top vote getters eventually won out. There was no debate as to the final results from any of the candidates. And the convention came to a successful conclusion.

I am a bit nervous about new Chairman Wear, who talked about minorities in his acceptance speech - and how all the Korean dry cleaners should be Republicans (many are, he just doesn't realize it) and how "they" should join "our" party and align with "us." All this "they" talking is not the way to make it an "OUR" party.

I was also disappointed that Terry made no mention of either Mike or Becky in his remarks. No gracious thanks for their efforts. No thanks at all for Becky for YEARS of service and contributions to the party. I may not be Becky's biggest fan (she's pissed me off a time or two, as well) but she deserved some recognition.

I hope for a better future from our party. But - as you noted, Chris - conventions are messy. And we just elected an 11th District Committee with a majority in favor of convention nominations for Congress. I hope this more partisanly focused committee will still take into account the need to include people in the process through primary elections and grassroots efforts. Otherwise it's all going to be a nice face on a useless party bureaucracy.