Friday, April 11, 2014

SILVER STATE CONFIDENTIAL 04/11/2014

EXCLUSIVE: NEVADA GOP OUTLINES ENDORSEMENTS PROCESS

On the eve of the Nevada Republican Party’s state convention, the Nominations Committee has completed a document that will be inserted in delegates’ bags tomorrow which fully explains why the party is abandoning its traditional policy of neutrality in GOP primaries, as well as outlines the criteria for voting in each contested race.

At the party’s Central Committee meeting in Fallon in February, the Committee decided to delay the voting on endorsements until tomorrow’s convention for two reasons…


1.)  To wait until after official filing for office was over
2.)  To allow all elected convention delegates, not just the Central Committee, to participate.

How the candidates will be handled on the ballot has been slightly modified, as well.  If I understand the document correctly, here’s a general idea of how the process will work.  (Bear in mind, it’s still possible that the convention delegates could still alter this process at the convention tomorrow.)

Candidates who opted to participate in the Nominations Committee’s review process will be either “recommended” or won’t.  Only the names of those candidates who have been recommended will be on the ballot. 

In order to get the party’s official endorsement, recommended candidates will need to get 50 percent+one of the vote.  However, there will also be an option to vote against endorsing candidates.  So even a candidate who is the only named candidate on the ballot could still end up not being endorsed by convention delegates.

In addition, in some races it’s possible that both candidates will have gone through the review process and both will receive an up-or-down endorsement vote tomorrow.  For instance, let’s say both Niger Innis and Cresent Hardy completed the review process and both received a recommendation by the Nominations Committee.

In that case, there will be a vote to endorse Niger Innis or not endorse Niger Innis.  Then there will be a second and separate vote to endorse Cresent Hardy or not endorse Cresent Hardy.  If both candidates receive more than 50 percent+one of the vote, then both will be able to say they’ve received the party’s official endorsement in the 4th Congressional District race.

There is an exception to the above, however. 

Apparently, in races where none of the candidates have been recommended by the Nominations Committee or chose to participate in the process, the names of all of those candidates will be on the ballot.  And if any of them receives 50 percent+one of the vote, they’ll get the endorsement.

For example, Gov. Sandoval opted not to go through the review process.  But just because his four primary opponents might have gone through the evaluation process, doesn’t mean either will receive the Nominations Committee’s recommendation.  In that case, all five will be on the ballot. 

So it’s still possible for the governor to receive the party’s endorsement even though he boycotted the endorsement process and is boycotting the convention itself.  (Shameful)

It’s still a little confusing, but nowhere near as confusing as it was when there were two different tiers of votes needed to get the endorsement. 

This much I do know.  The party is absolutely doing the right thing in showing leadership and responsibility with this endorsement policy.  And after tomorrow’s convention, the new Central Committee will take a look at how it went and tweak it further for future elections.

The days of playing Switzerland are over.  Party members are now fully engaged in the nominations process.

As they should be.

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