RNC Spring Meeting Report

April 2016

by Carolyn L. McLarty, DVM                                                                                           Republican National Committeewoman for Oklahoma                                                              

REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE

SPRING MEETING 2016 REPORT 

The Republican National Committee (RNC) Spring Meeting 2016 was held Wednesday, April 13th  through Saturday, April 16th, at the Diplomat Resort, Hollywood, Florida.  Florida Republican National Committeewoman and RNC Co-Chair Sharon Day and Florida Republican National Committeeman Peter Feaman were gracious hosts of this RNC Spring Meeting in their home State. 

RNC CONSERVATIVE STEERING COMMITTEE

 The RNC Conservative Steering Committee (CSC) is composed one hundred (100) social, fiscal, and defense conservative RNC members. With guests, seventy-two (72) people met for breakfast on Wednesday morning.

Ellen Barrosse (NCW DE) is Chairman and Melody Potter (NCW WV) is Vice- Chairman of the CSC.  Ellen organized this breakfast meeting, which included three (3) guest speakers.

The first speaker was Reince Priebus, Chairman of the RNC. Chairman Priebus talked about party unity, and stressed that unity makes the impossible possible.  Further, He said the media pushes for division because division is profit for them.  He said a candidate must get a majority to win the nomination and remembered that his own election for RNC Chair took seven (7) ballots before he received the eighty-five (85) votes to win the majority.

The second speaker was economist and author George Gilder. Gilder was President Reagan's most quoted living author. His new book, The Scandal of Money – Why Wall Street Recovers but the Economy Never Does was the topic of his talk.  Gilder is one of America's great original thinkers in the interplay of technology, economics, and government policy. He spoke about how we need a stable currency and interest rates. He explained how heavy regulations prevent small companies from going public and, as a result, the middle class cannot share in the business's success.

The third speaker was Rich Miniter, an investigative journalist and best- selling author who discussed foreign affairs and terrorism. His most recent books include, Leading from Behind: The Reluctant President and the Advisors Who Decide for Him; and, Eyes on Target: Inside Stories from the Brotherhood of the U.S. Navy SEALs.

Mr. Miniter gave a very inspiring look into how the American military is teaching the world about freedom and basic human values.  He also stressed the need to end political correctness, and the stupidity of equality in suspicion of terrorism.

STATE CHAIRMEN'S MEETING

Wednesday, State Executive Directors and State Chairmen met in a State Chairmen Session lead by RNC Director of State Chairmen, Matt Pinnell.  He had the opportunity to share best practices for fundraising, messaging, and planning for the National Convention. 

REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION
COMMITTEE ON ARRANGEMENTS
 

The Committee on Arrangements also met Wednesday to discuss details for the Republican National Convention on July 18-21. Steve Fair (NCM OK) is our member on that Committee.  Hotel assignments have been made. The Oklahoma Delegation will be at the Hyatt Place which is about 20 minutes out from the "Q"; the Convention venue. http://clevelandwestlake.place.hyatt.com/en/hotel/home.html

Jeff Larson is CEO of the 2016 Republican National Convention. Larson mentioned the Cleveland Convention kickoff event will be Sunday Evening the 17th of July, at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  It will be for media and State Delegations with their guests. 

He explained the security aspects involved with the Convention.  The U.S. Secret Service has been assigned to Cleveland since last October.  Busses will be swept for hazards and stored in a secured lot.  There will be one police officer and one Host Committee person on each of the 350 busses when in use. 

Larson said there are seventy-two (72) full time employees of the Committee on Arrangements working in Cleveland, and twenty (20) more yet to be hired.

The media "walk-through" was held on site a couple of weeks ago.  There were 600 media people in attendance.  There will be a convenient Marketplace to buy memorabilia and there will be food available at Plaza Center, just outside the Convention Center.

The RNC's ConventionFacts.gop is a tool  to learn about Convention Delegates, rules, and how the overall process works in a simple, easy to understand format. This website is an important resource for being transparent about the delegate process and exactly what happens at a National Convention.  Feel free to share the press release announcing the site - https://gop.com/rnc-launches-conventionfactsgop/ - or  the video on YouTube (also embedded in the website) at the following link: https://youtu.be/dCm11C3f-YI .

RESOLUTIONS COMMITTEE

The RNC Resolutions Committee met Wednesday afternoon.  I serve as the Chairman of this Committee consisting of nine (9) RNC members.  Two (2) members are elected from each of the four (4) Regions of the RNC.

The Resolutions Committee addressed ten (10) Resolutions and passed all ten (10) for recommendation to the RNC General Session.

Resolutions passed by the Resolutions Committee were:

• ·      Resolution Concerning Timing of U.S Supreme Court Justice Selection;   
• ·      Resolution Calling for Support of Sanctions Against Iran's Ballistic Missile Testing Program;
• ·      Resolution Reaffirming Strong Support for the Republic of China (Taiwan);
• ·      Resolution Calling For Inquiries into the 2012 Benghazi Attacks to be Sustained and for the Responsible Parties to be Held Accountable;
• ·      Resolution Supporting Republican Leaders' Fight Against the President's Unlawful Executive Actions on Immigration;
• ·      Resolution Condemning Hillary Clinton for the Usage of a Secret Email Server as Secretary of State and Calling for Her to be Held Accountable;
• ·      Resolution in Support of Criminal Justice Reform;
• ·      Resolution in Support of the Regulation Freedom Amendment;
• ·      Resolution Honoring Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia;
• ·      Resolution Honoring the Life of Former First Lady Nancy Reagan.  

Texts of the Resolutions passed this spring, and all RNC Resolutions passed since 2009, are posted on the RNC website at the link for Rules and Resolutions on the home page of www.gop.com.

EXECUTIVE & BUDGET COMMITTEES

 The RNC Executive and Budget Committees also met on Wednesday afternoon. Chairman Priebus announced the RNC had raised $135.4 million through the end of March, a record in a Presidential Election cycle without having a Republican President in the White House. The RNC has $16 million cash on hand and the current debt is $1.8 million.  Percentage of donations $200 and under was 99% with the average donation being $62. 

Chairman Priebus said, "Having outraised the DNC in 28 out of the last 38 months, we have built the best-resourced political party in history. Thanks to the generosity of our contributors, we will enter the general election fully

prepared to turn over to our nominee a state-of-the-art data, digital, and ground game infrastructure that will help propel them to victory in November." 

GUEST SPEAKERS

 Presidential Candidates Ohio Governor John Kasich and Senator Ted Cruz spoke on Wednesday evening.  Florida Governor Rick Scott joined us for lunch on Thursday, and invited us all to move to Florida!  He touted his administration's policies that have increased the jobs available in the State.

Thursday evening Dr. Ben Carson, representing Presidential Candidate Mr. Donald Trump, spoke at a reception.  After dinner on Thursday, heroes from the Benghazi attack and co-authors of 13 HOURS, Mark "Oz" Geist and John "Tig" Tiegen, gave an awesome presentation.  They explained moment by moment what really happened during the September 11, 2012, attack that occurred in Benghazi, Libya. 

RNC POLITICAL, DATA, AND RESEARCH UPDATE

RNC Political and Research staffers gave an update. Presenters included Katie Walsh, Chief of Staff, Chris Carr, Political Director, Raj Shah, Research Director, and Sean Cairncross, Chief Operating Officer.

Chris Carr spoke about the early investment with field staff.  Voter registration, persuasion, and turnout is the goal.  He said they have had 32,278 one-on-one meetings and 1,960 house meetings.  They are primarily working in the swing states.

The RNC Republican Leadership Initiative (RLI) is going strong.  RLI is a six (6) week training program that began in 2015 for volunteers.

Nationally, the RNC has graduated over 1700 RLI Fellows for this Spring Class and have trained 2900+ Fellows in the neighborhood team model since last fall. Go to https://gop.com/republican-leadership-initiative to learn more about the program.

The GOP DataCenter Update includes New Voter Registration Prospects.

The RNC makes regular updates to all State voter files, and just finished the quarterly National Change of Address (NCOA) processing. This process creates a fresh list of voter registration prospects, which is comprised of likely conservative recent movers into a State who have not yet registered in their new election jurisdiction. These voter registration prospects have been shared with Executive Directors in each State. Co-Chair Day has also used these lists to target women voters who need to re-register Republican through the NFRW.

 Throughout the primary and caucus season, the RNC is posting estimated Presidential Primary Delegate counts based on their tallies in coordination with State Parties. Delegate totals are estimated and subject to change as vote totals are updated and counted throughout the process. The RNC's estimated totals will be posted when votes are fully counted and certified. Here is the link to the page on the RNC website: https://gop.com/official-2016-gop-delegate-count .

The Research Department, headed by Raj Shah, has a thirty-two (32) person team who are tracking down every bit of information about Hillary Clinton. They are also tracking the Clinton Foundation activities that conflict with her work as Secretary of State, secret Swiss bank accounts, UBS Bank interests, and lots of lawsuits.  The messaging on Hillary will include these highlights: she can't be trusted, she is a partisan liberal Democrat, she would be Obama's third term, she would raise taxes, she is in the pocket of big money foreign interests, she is incriminated in arms deals of global scope, and she is a failed leader as Secretary of State.  Benghazi is a case study in Clinton leadership.

RULES COMMITTEE

The Standing Committee on Rules met on Thursday afternoon.

An Amendment that was presented at the last meeting that each candidate running for the office of Chairman must have as a running mate a candidate for the office of Co-Chairman was withdrawn.

Another Amendment from the last meeting had to do with the elimination of four "Carve-Out" states.  This Amendment was also withdrawn.

Solomon Yue, (NCM OR) submitted a Rule change to amend Rule 30 to substitute Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised for the House of Representative's Rules of Order that are historically used at Republican National Convention proceedings.

After much discussion the vote was 54 Nays, 2 Ayes. The Amendment was soundly defeated and it was reiterated that there would be no changes in the Rules of Convention proceedings.

FRIDAY GENERAL SESSION

 RNC Chairman Reince Priebus showed the video highlighting what happens during our nomination process. He emphasized that we aren't going to hand the nomination to anyone with a plurality- a candidate must have a majority of Delegate votes to be the nominee. He stressed the need for Party unity and said, "We expect our candidates to support our Party and our eventual nominee."

He said the process for writing the Rules would be "completely above board."  Potential Rules changes have brought much media attention lately.  He said, "It only makes sense that the 2016 Convention is governed by Rules written by the 2016 Delegates."

Chairman Priebus mentioned that this RNC meeting had almost record turnout of the media.  To drive a message home to them, the media's password to access the Wi-Fi for the meeting was: "Hillary can't be trusted."

We then heard reports from the Chairmen of their respective Committees including Resolutions Committee, Budget Committee, Committee on Contests, Debates Committee, Rules Committee, and Committee on Arrangements. I reported on the ten (10) Resolutions passed by the Resolutions Committee for recommendation, which were all then adopted by the General Session. 

CONCLUSION

 Chairman Priebus ended his Address to the General Session
on April 22, 2016, quoting the legendary Green Bay Packers Coach Vince Lombardi who once said, "The achievements of an organization are the results of the combined effort of each individual."

Carolyn McLarty, DVM, began her role as Republican National Committeewoman for Oklahoma on September 5, 2008, after the conclusion of the Republican National Convention.  RNC members are elected to serve four-year terms.  Their role is to represent the State Party on a national level and, in turn, to represent the National Party on a state and local level.  It is the member's responsibility to communicate information, ideas, and resources to State Party members.                   

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