Bedlam at the Linn County Republican Central Committee. 

We were told a few meetings back that, unlike other years, we would not be having our annual Christmas Party on the night of the regular monthly meeting, because:

With the Caucuses coming up, we would have to much business to take care of.

Some strange things happened between that time and the time of the December meeting of the Linn County Republican Central Committee.

Our annual Christmas party got cancelled and sequed into a party given by the Five Seasons Republican Women's Club to which the LCRCC was invited.

I find this confusing, since the Linn County Republican Central Committee voted for and budgeted for a Christmas Party.

And my reading of our Constitution is that events such as that cannot be canceled, except maybe for extreme events.

Such as the location burning down and there not being enough time to reschedule,

But I might be wrong.

I just wish I could recall when, how and if we were ever informed of this.

Oh, and the "important business" to be taken care of at the December meeting?

It seemed to have been canceled as well.

We were instead informed that the meeting itself was to last only 30 minutes.  The rest of the night was be taken up by watching the JV and main stage GOP debates.

As if none of us could look it up on the Internet, so it had to take the place of our monthly meeting.

There were some who DID want to discuss business, and they tried to amend the agenda.

That was voted down.

After a call for division was made, the chair immediately claimed that the vote was 15 to 10.  But I must admit that the Chair, Cindy Golding, is able to make lightning quick counts. I certainly was unable to keep up with her.

 In any event by the time the forces of "We must adjourn at the time the agenda says" had been victorious.

There was ONE MINUTE left of the time they alotted for the meeting

Bedlam and a comical one at that,.

One hopes this is not a portent of how the Feb 1st Caucuses will be run. 

I know that MY Precinct will be at the Double Tree with a total of 30 Precincts,

I am wondering how long it is going to take to check in 3 to 4000 people.

Best get there early

HERE are the locations. Check out where yours will be. 

If you are not certain which Precinct you are in?

You can check that HERE 

Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 11:13 PM CST
Updated: Wednesday, 16 December 2015 11:13 AM CST
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Recently, there was an opportunity for a "teaching moment."

Something called a Mock Caucus was held at Washington High School here in Cedar Rapids.

If the aim of this event was to engage and educate our youth about what happens in an Iowa Caucus,

Well, let us just say that some of the organizers could not hit the broad side of a barn. 

In the world of organized events, there is something called the 6 Ps.

Proper Planning Prevents P!$$ Poor Performance.

I am not sure that those who ran the event are aware of those concepts.

Let us first look at what usually occurs at a Caucus, and then we can compare it to the Mocked Event that has held.

A Person who holds the title "Temporary Chair" is sent by the political party to the location of a Caucus to open it.

They explain to the the Caucus what is expected to occur.

Then they will open the floor for nominations for a Chair to run the remainder of the evening.

Then the elected Chair will entertain nominations for a Secretary to keep a record.

After that, reprsentatives of the various Presidential candidates will make presentations explaining why THEIR candidate is the best one to get the nomination, therefore why you should vote for them.

For the Republicans, the vote is cast by secret ballot.

After this point there, will be nominations and elections of the Committeepersons who will represent the precinct on the county Central Committees until the next Caucus.

There will be names entered into nomination and voted on, and elections, if needed, for delegates to the County, District and State Conventions.

Lastly, those who desire will present platform planks. 

That is roughly how a Iowa Caucus goes.

What happened at the Mocked Caucus?

There was a representative of the Republican Party--our County Chair, Cindy Golding--in attendance, but no nominations for an Elected Chair.

Nor were there any nominations or election of a Secretary, but of course, our County Secretary, Gary Ellis, was present.

There was a brief mention of video presentations made by the Republican candidates themselves.

These videos did play while the students were signing in, eating their pizza, and talking amongst themselves, but when it came time for actual candidate introductions at the Mocked Caucus,

The LCRCC Chair Cindy Golding said that the Republican Caucuses were run by Robert's Rules, and informed the students that a motion was needed to show the candidate videos.

Having no motion made from a group of students who likely had little to no understanding of what Robert's Rules even is,

NO Presentation of ANY KIND was given to the Mocked Caucus by ANY Presidential campaign.

Now, unlike almost all meetings that use Roberts Rules of Order, a Caucus never votes on an agenda.

The agenda is given as was outlined above.

It ALWAYS includes presentations by the campaigns.

If the Chair had wished, she COULD have handled this situation by saying:

"The Chair requests unanimous consent of the body to run a video of campaign presentations,"

Or, 

"Are there any objections?"

Or,  

"If there are no objections, then the proposal is accepted."

But the truth is that candidate presentations of some nature SHOULD have been included at this point.

Why?

Because that IS what happens at a Caucus.

Now, at LEAST there was a vote on the Presidential nominee.

But while the Chair, Cindy Golding, did inform the Caucus who won, she never told them the totals for the different candidates.

Now, this is rather important because no Caucus happens in isolation.

All totals are sent to the State Party so that the STATEWIDE winner can be determined, and other candidates will be allocated some of Iowa's delegates to the Republican conventions, depending on the distribution of the voting.

Remember the INTENT of this whole event was to show our youth how our Caucus system works.

No nominations or votes for committeepersons were held.

There was a request for volunteers for Convention delegates,

But no mention of the requirements of a precinct committeeperson, and consequences to the county for not meeting, for instance.

I understand that after the call for delegates,

Some mention of platform planks was made, and that after some nudging from the Chair, Cindy Golding, and Co-Chair, Brett Mason, two platform planks were hastily offered by the attendees of the Mocked Caucus.  

Overall, I would give those who ran this Event a grade of D-.  

It is most unfortunate to one who considers how FAR the Mocked Caucus strayed from a real caucus, and how many items of importance were left out.

To me, the most unsettling part of this whole thing is:

That the people who ran the Mocked Caucus?

Are the same ones who are in charge of the REAL Linn County Republican Precinct Caucuses.

We can only hope that maybe they learned a few things as a result of this experience.

The Gazette has an article on the event.  

I have placed a link to it below: 

Students got jazzed about politics during youth mock caucus at Cedar Rapids high school 

Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 11:01 PM CST
Updated: Monday, 23 November 2015 1:29 PM CST
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Tuesday, 17 November 2015 - 2:03 AM CST

Name: "Gary Ellis" 

All of the negative attacks are veiled opinions and oblique comments. The author claims an Executive violated the LCRCC Constitution, but he criticized the Executives because they deemed it important to follow the Constitution and verify that new members are currently registered Republicans before voting them in as members. So when you see it to your advantage its OK to violate the Consitution. 

I call that selective reasoning. 

The continual spewing of negativism is demenaing to all of the volunteers who show up every month. It ignores the contribution of those volunteers working in the LCRCC Teams.  

Maybe I should not be so veiled and oblique?

Okay!  

The Linn County Republican Party's Constitution says:

  The Executive Committee is subject to the orders of the Linn County Central Committee, and none of its acts shall conflict with actions of the Linn County Central Committee.

Some time back the Committee voted to reward volunteers for hard work in the 2014 Victory Office.

The Chair, Cindy Golding, REFUSED to honor that commitment.

The Treasurer at the time, Jim Conklin, had to get the Co-Chair at the time to sign the checks Mrs. Golding refused to sign.  

After Mr Conklin was bullied to step aside while issues with a state agency were addressed, the Chair, Mrs. Golding, and the Interim Treasurer did not honor the debts the Central Committee had committed us to, AND they did not handle the records, as was their duty.

So the last person who had EARNED a monetary award from the Committee for all of his hard work never received his reward from the Chair, Cindy Golding, and the Interim Treasurer.

Instead, another member and I chipped in and made the young man's reward whole.  

I hope that is not too "veiled and oblique" for Mr Ellis.

Now, as for:

"...but he criticized the Executives because they deemed it important to follow the Constitution and verify that new members are currently registered Republicans before voting them in as members..."  

In the past, the call for new members has been at the end of the meeting.

But, our committee leadership and their supporters seem to be more intrested in keeping to their adjournment time at 8:30 PM instead of taking care of the business of the Committee. 

They can wax SO poetic about why we cannot go past 8:30, and ALWAYS ask the body to vote against it.

UNLESS, that is, there is something that THEY want to see addressed.

In that case, they are eager to extend the meeting.

And we, on the other side?

NOT being hypocrites, we vote to do so.

That situation is the reason why one person, for instance, had to wait six months to join.

So last meeting, there was NOTHING to vote on after the new members were presented.

But Mr Ellis had a hissy fit about going ahead and voting them in.

EVEN a person who had her VOTER ID CARD on her.

Since she drove to the meeting, it is most probable that she also had a drivers license.

I certainly hope Mr. Ellis never has the deciding say in any regular elections.

Can you just picture it?

So, you have a government-issued color photo ID, AND a voter registration card?

Still not good enough for "They Shall Not Pass" Ellis!

Not until he checks himself.

Robert Heinlein once said:

 

“Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.”

Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 1:24 AM CST
Updated: Wednesday, 18 November 2015 1:50 AM CST
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The final stage of the Revolution will be to search out and purge divisive counter revolutionary elements.

In the comments to one of my posts, the charge of being divisive and thereby affecting the functioning of the LCRCC has been levied. 

 The author may disagree with individual people but publishing a constant flow of negatives does not reflect well on our organization. Perhaps that has had an impact in reducing the meeting attendance from past glory? 

Maybe that accusation is true.

But, then again...

Maybe if one of the Executives had not violated the LCRCC Constitution;

Or,

Maybe if the committee bylaws had been left unbreached;

Or,

Maybe if the Executives had not rushed the body to a hasty descision to eliminate years worth of peoples' work by telling the whole committee lies,

Wiping out the subcommittees and replacing them with "teams" whose only voting members seemed to be chosen by them, and disenfranchizing a large portion of the body;

Or,

Maybe if the Executives had bothered to show some consideration and respect to hard working volunteers,

There might not have been anything to write.

The question is, "Where does the fault lie?"

In the telling of these tales to the Committee as a whole?

In the creation of the elements of the story,

We know the answer that one side would give.

Shoot the Messenger. 

Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 5:11 AM CST
Updated: Monday, 16 November 2015 11:18 AM CST
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I was trying to decide what paradigm best fit the impending Linn County Republican Central Committee Caucuses.

The charge of the Light Brigade?

Lemmings diving off a cliff?

Then I realized that a meme that illustrates what our Chair and Executive Committee desire was the most fitting:

A massive Media Event down at the Doubletree.

At its finest, the Iowa Caucuses are neighbors meeting with neighbors in their neighborhood to decide the structure of their local political party for the following two years.

They choose their Central Committee representation, and cast their ballots for the Presidential Poll.

It has been to duty of the party to facilitate this process and act to aid the wishes of the local members of the Republican Party,

Or, that is how it has been in the past...

But in Linn County, this time things will be different.

The Caucuses, rather than being in the maximum number of precincts to optimize attendance and make things easier for the party members,

Will instead be in a few sites and will need to consist of massive numbers.

This will require a very large number of volunteers...

...who do not seem to exist.

Whispers on the Wind have relayed to us that the Caucus Team Leader was berated by the County Chair because they felt the Team Leader was responsible for a lack of enthusiasm to volunteer.

I do not feel this is the case.  In fact, in my opinion, this does the Caucus Team Leader an injustice.

I do not feel that the present Chair and Executive Committee need any help in discouraging volunteers.  They seem to have done very well with their own efforts.

There are reasons for this.

They have, as I have pointed out, purged the membership of a large number they did not desire.

There has been some dispute between the figures relayed to me by a Committee person long involved in membership attendance and our present Secretary.

So for the sake of discourse, I will not use discrete numbers.

I will say that I have known five different County Chairs, and during the term of three of them, the Committee filled two rooms at the Longbranch often to over capacity.

Now, were it not for guests and candidate reps, our meeting would rattle in one single room.

The number of potential volunteers has declined by a large amount.

Part of this has been the result of how people have been treated.

In the past, when volunteers could not attend their own Precinct Caucus due to working elsewhere, it was the practice to present those doing so in their precincts as nominees for the position of Committeeperson.

It has been relayed to me that this was not done last time in the usual manner.

They were presented, but only as Assistant Commiteepersons, and at the very end of the seniority lists.

That is what has been told to me.  Forms from the 2014 Caucus will verify these claims.

Now, whether that was due to negligence, or due an attempt to ensure that people not approved of by the Executives would not be likely to vote?

That, I cannot say.

I can say the person who relayed this information to me will not be anywhere or do anything during the upcoming Caucus away from their precinct, and for that very reason.  

Then, there was the treatment of volunteers after the last election.

For the Inauguration in Des Moines, each County Chair is given tickets.

Not a SINGLE one of the top volunteers was given the opportunity to go to Governor Branstad's most recent inauguration in January.

At the Officers Election this spring, I heard more than once from a volunteer hearing the speech of some of our present Executives.

"They are taking credit for what I did," said the volunteer.

I don't have to take the volunteer's word about what they said.  

I heard it myself.

So, we have people who have been our hardest working volunteers in the past treated so shabbily,

And NOW?

They are being approached by the people who ignored them and exhorted that we must "all work together."

So, NO, I don't think that volunteer avoidance is the fault of the Caucus Team Leader.  

He had no part in what I have relayed above.

Therefore, I give the claim by our Chair that he is in some way responsible:

THREE PINNOCHIOS.

Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 6:28 PM CST
Updated: Sunday, 15 November 2015 2:24 PM CST
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Their rationale was, "OMG, we cannot add anyone as a member until WE check to see if they are really Republicans!"

It didn't matter that one of them had been waiting 6 months to join;

Or that another one actually had their Voter ID card on them and pulled it out.

Nope, the Secretary, the Chair and the bulk of the Executive Committee would not be shaken from their sacred duty to ensure that we did not add anyone to the Central Committee who was not register as a Republican.

So they will have to wait until our Secretary gets around to verifying that.

I decided not to confuse the Executives and the Secretary by pointing out that there was no assurance that any of the present members had not changed their registration since the last meeting.

I mean, if they started thinking about that, no one would be allowed to vote!

You might have noticed I mentioned that one person had waited 6 months to join.

That is because the Chair and her supporters have, for most of the meetings, insisted on adjourning before the "Add New Members" item on the agenda came up.l

They have been very adamant  about ending the meetings at 8:30.

It does not matter to them if there is work for the Committee left undone.

Well, it doesn't matter to them if there is work left undone that OTHER people care about.

They will insist on adjourning.

If an attempt is made to alter the agenda to remove the 8:30 deadline, it often fails with one of those 22 to 21 Votes.

However, if there is something left undone that THEY want to do?

That is another story.

In that case, they will entertain a motion to extend the meeting, and the rest of us, not being hypocrites, will vote to do so.

And THEY keep accusing US of not being willing to work together?

 So this person showed up for 6 months waiting for our leadership and their supporters to allow a meeting to last long enough for new members to be presented;

Only to be told to "come back next month."

I mean, they really know how to recruit volunteers, don't they?

Yes, we have now a New Paradigm. Forget Moving Forward.

Of course, the reason might be just a matter of political manuevering. 

Recall, if you will, that sometimes what the Committee decides to do is decided by votes on the order of 22 to 21.

Six new members might alter the Balance of Power.

So maybe they are trying to stonewall until the new bylaw changes go into effect.

And unless the new member is filling a vacancy in a precinct,

They will have NO VOTE.

Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 7:28 PM CST
Updated: Sunday, 15 November 2015 1:53 PM CST
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At the September LCRCC Meeting we Laid To Rest what has for Decades been one of the Stalwart Supports of the Linn County Republican Central Committee.

That does sound much better than saying that  the majority stepped up behind a faithful servant of the Body  and Slit it's Throat, 

No matter how you view it what has in the past IMO been THE Member Engine of the LCRCC is Gone.

We must hope that what has replaced it will do as good a job.

I would not hold my breath waiting though. 

We had what was called Assistant Committee Persons. They did not have votes but could be heard from the floor ie make motions and engage in debate.

AND if one of the Two Permanent Committee Persons happened to be absent during  a meeting they could vote in their place.

 We now have Associate Committee persons, Originally they were NOT to be allowed to make motions, but could engage in Debate

The Body did amend the proposed Change to the By Laws to allow the new Positions to make Motions.

They have no Voting privileges Period.

Notice the transition since our present Chair and Executives came to Power.

The previous sub Committees were Purged and replaced with Teams with a few changes

Only 5 members of a Team have voting rights and the Executives filled the Teams with members they approved of to give them voting control.

People who previously were very active in the Sub Committees were shut out if the Executives did not approve of them.

I had one person who said that they had been active on 3 Sub Committees but were not asked to be on any Team and saw no reason to bother because they would not have any say in anything.

Since our present Chair took over a Central Committee of about 200 members attending meetings

Somewhere around 90% of that membership has been Purged ie alienated or disenfranchised.

So that now with a very important political year pending the results of our Present Leadership has been to diminish the  LCRCC to a shell of what it once was.

And to wipe out any ability of half of what is left to trust them,

Which WILL impact volunteer levels for the 2016 Caucuses,

But that will be another Story 

Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 12:01 AM CST
Updated: Wednesday, 11 November 2015 2:24 AM CST
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Whispers on the Wind have relayed to your chronicler...

That the residents of the Cottage Grove Place senior living area discovered during the recent city election that their 2016 Republican County Caucus will NOT be in the usual venue in their neighborhood.

And...

They are NOT pleased. 

Traditionally, Iowa Caucuses were assemblies of neighbors gathered together in their neighborhoods, where they decided who their representatives would be in the local party structure.

It seems now to have been altered into a media event for the glorification of a few members of the local party.

The precinct that Cottage Grove Place is in has quite a few elderly Republicans.

They prefer these events to be in their own precinct, as they do not like doing a lot of driving at night.

They also do not feel safe downtown at night.

Now, some may dispute this attitude and claim downtown is "in no way unsafe."

However, the possible truth of that claim cannot alter the fact that many of these people do not feel safe there.  Nor does it alter the fact that their feelings were apparently neither sought nor taken into account.

In the past, we have had no problem organizing individual Caucuses in almost all of Linn County's 86 precincts.  (There is a case for consolidating a few that don't seem to have as many registered Republican residents.)

But the current Linn County Republican Central Committe Chair and Executive Committee saw fit to purge the people who previously were heavily involved in the Caucus process, and replace them with their own allies. 

For those who might be interested in how this will affect them, I have obtained the proposed Precinct Caucus locations, which have not, as of yet, I'm told, been reviewed by the Chair, so they are "preliminary."

You can see them HERE.  I am sorry that the first page is almost illegible, but this was the best sample available.

Maps of the County and Precincts can be found HERE.

(And, if you need to know your local precinct name, you may find that information HERE.)

At least we did not end up with their original plan, which we understood to be all precincts in one location.

Having heard that the original plan would have surely cost a lot more than we have in the treasury, my understanding is that they have adopted a modified plan that will, by comparison, only take almost everything we have in the treasury.

Then, in addition, there was the rumored desire to link all the sites together with closed circuit TV for a media event.

Last word was that a closed circuit TV system would cost an additional amount almost equal to everything we have in the treasury...so that might not pan out.

Another function of our caucuses is for those who wish to be delegates at our county, district, and state Republican conventions to sign up and pay their delegate fees to the county.  

Our county is allocated 167 seats at the District and State Conventions at $50 a seat.

We have to pay for ALL the seats, or NONE of the delegates from Linn County will even be seated at the District and State Conventions, let alone have the opportunity to speak or vote.

So, REGARDLESS of how many people sign up at their Caucus to be delegates at the Conventions, and regardless of how many pay their convention fees, the Linn County Republican Central Committee will be required to remit $8,350 to the Republican Party of Iowa for convention fees.   

 If Linn County does not have the funds to pay, the largest county in the district, and the 2nd largest county in the state, will NOT have representation at District and State Conventions. 

Previously, that would not have been a problem.  When the present Chair, Cindy Golding, took over from the previous chair, we had an attendance at meetings of about 200.

She and the present Executive Committee have, since that time, managed to alienate and/or disenfranchise about 90% of the previous membership.

This has resulted in about 40 attendees at our meetings, split almost 50/50 in opinion.

They, of course, label anyone pointing out these facts and their attending consequences as "divisive;"

When the truth is that THEIR "divisive" practices and tactics have virtually destroyed what was a very effective and active County Central Commitee.

At least, it was very effective and active until they got their hands on it.

In any event, we are facing interesting times.

Most people show up for Caucuses at the last moment.

I cringe to think how getting them checked in is going to work out with the few remaining volunteers who have not been driven away.

I mean, we are, after all, talking about a chairperson who once had a screaming fit at a volunteer who was putting more than 5 mints on each table before an event.

Such practices do not encourage volunteer involvement .

Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 6:25 PM CST
Updated: Sunday, 15 November 2015 1:41 PM CST
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