Closed doors at state convention

Dear Editor,

As a delegate to the Wyoming State Republican Convention this year, I was disillusioned. It appeared to me some of the events that occurred in the process could be considered fraudulent. Transparency only occurs with windows, not in elections, so I will present the facts and allow you to make your own decisions.

Most importantly, the State Chairman is supposed to be neutral, representing the “entire” Republican party and all candidates, while avoiding the appearance of using his position to further his own agenda. The State Chairman was seen attending a closed door meeting at the Cruz headquarters with the Cruz state chairman and others. Giving what seems to be allegiance to one particular candidate is reminiscent of the term “back door politics” and should never be condoned nor allowed. But these are good ole boys, so it’s OK.

The Nominating Committee process to select delegates to the National Convention in Cleveland was the most corrupt process there. Each prospective delegate had to complete a nominating form, stating their support for a named presidential candidate or that they were undeclared. It was mandatory the form be signed. The form was submitted by a member of the Nominating Committee and a ballot for that individual was prepared and placed in a ballot box, to be drawn to determine the all important order of placement on the ballot.

Talk about unorganized, it was like playing cards where the rules were made up as the game when along. The rules should have been solid and predetermined but they were not and they kept changing. Then the names were drawn from the box. About a dozen of the delegates had their names drawn as many as six or more times. This is not a method of fair balloting. It was all important to be placed in those first slots, so cheating was no problem.

A recommended slate of delegates to be elected was passed out to the convention. Republican National Coalition for life, WyWatch Family Action and Wyoming Gun Owners all presented their list of the delegates they supported. It was no surprise that all three lists had the same candidates and two of them had them in the same order.

There was a slate of 6 names submitted for a vote to select 3 members of the Electoral College. Of course those named were the party elite. In this election and the one for National Committeeman, we never received a vote tally, only the names of the winners.

There were 188 resolutions filling 44 pages for the body to discuss and approve. It was the last item to be approved at the Convention with not much more than an hour to get the job done. They went through the list resolution by resolution asking if they wanted to have that item removed to facilitate a consent vote on the remaining. Then discussion was held for each removed item, allowing a discussion limited to 30 sec to make your case. Some passed, some died. Of course time ran out and the chair stated that those remaining would be included as adopted. I’m proud to say there was an uproar and those remaining were allowed to fail. But still the unlawful attempt was made to include them.

Wyoming needs to have an open Primary to select their presidential candidate.

It costs somewhere between $3,000 and $6,000 to attend the National Convention. The selection of our next president should not be left to the party elite and those who have the money to attend. The delegates to the State Convention failed to represent the conscience of the public, but they sure did a good job of representing the will of the party elite.

What’s your decision? It’s time to have honesty and fairness in our elections.

Clarence Vransih

Evanston