This popped up in my Facebook feed yesterday, as Minnehaha County had an election for Minnehaha County Vice Chair, and selected their slate of National Convention Delegates:
Interestingly this morning, I had a nice note from one of the Central Committee members who had some concerns that the meeting notice.. might not have had the distribution list that some may have thought:
Happy Sunday, Pat.
I saw that the Minnehaha County GOP held an election yesterday. As a precinct committeeman I found this to be surprising as I had not received notice of the election unofficial or official. Not sure if you’re hearing similar stories from people, but it maybe that the election was invalid.
Ok.. that could be problematic. Is there trouble brewing in the big city?
In their defense, I do see that the Minnehaha County GOP did post a notice about it on facebook:
But there could still be concerns, as was noted to me in follow-up from my correspondent.
The central committee is over 100 members and I’ve heard that some people were elected with less than 30 votes. Also the meeting wasn’t held in the county seat (which i think is a requirement).
Working to see if others have also not been notified.
In looking at the State Party bylaws… well….there could be some ambiguity here:
6. Vacancies:
A. Events Causing Vacancy: The following events shall cause an officer of the County Central Committee or a precinct committeeman and committeewoman to forfeit his or her office and the office declared vacant: death, resignation, failure of an officer to reside in the county, failure of a precinct committeeman and committeewoman to reside in the precinct, failure to be a registered Republican voter, filing any document with the Secretary of State or a county auditor to be an independent candidate in a general or special election in a race for a partisan public office in which a Republican has been nominated or has filed a petition for the Republican nomination, or conviction of a felony.
B. County Chairman: The county vice chairman shall automatically become county chairman whenever a vacancy shall occur in that office and shall serve the remainder of the term.
C. Other Officers and Precinct Committeemen and Committeewomen: Any vacancy occurring in the offices of county vice chairman, county secretary, county treasurer, state committeeman, state committeewoman, precinct committeeman or precinct committeewoman shall be filled by an election held at the next regular or special meeting of the County Central Committee. A majority vote of the County Central Committee members present and voting shall constitute an election, which shall be certified in the same manner as an election at the biennial organizational meeting.and..
7. Meetings:
A. Regular and Special Meetings: The County Central Committee shall meet at least twice each year on call of the county chairman. The county chairman may call a special meeting at any time. One-fifth of the members of the County Central Committee or two officers may call a meeting in writing.
B. Notice: Five-days notice must be given for any meeting, excluding weekends and holidays. Notices may be sent by mail or email.
C. Quorum: A quorum shall consist of one-fifth of the members of the County Central Committee (not including vacancies), including at least two officers. For the purposes of determining the number of members needed to have a quorum, Republican state legislators and county elected officials shall not be considered as members of the County Central Committee; however, when present they shall be counted when determining whether a quorum is present. This provision shall not affect the rights of said members to participate and vote at meetings.
Well… it sounds like they had a quorum (1/5). And I’m not sure about the county seat requirement for regular or special meetings (elsewhere in the bylaws). But the notice requirement could be an issue if enough people grouse about it, pointing out they didn’t get one.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see if anything comes of it… and whether they hold a do-over.
There were almost 50 people there! Considering the weather I found it as a great turnout! Also some people were elected with that amount because most all races had over 4 people!
As I noted, it seems that a quorum was met. Just sharing what one Central Committee member noted to me
Way to go, Minnehaha!!! Great choice for Vice Chair!!!
Congratulations to Dr. Allen Unruh. He will be a great asset to the County Party.
Interesting development and good reporting here. IF official notices weren’t sent out on this meeting that’s troubling. Just because 50 people were in attendance doesn’t make it an official meeting – candidates calling their supporters would get you to that number quickly. This is especially true when there are multiple candidates.
The bylaws require that the “Organizational Meeting: The County Central Committee shall meet at the county seat between November 15 following the general election and the following January 31 and proceed to form their party organization by electing officers.” The section on other “Meetings” is silent as to location.
The meeting was held at the farm of the County Chair because of the desire for social distancing with most of Sioux Falls being unavailable for a meeting that could accommodate the large number of people anticipated while being careful to protect their health.
Both the SD and Minnehaha County parties have made a major effort to insure accurate contact information is available for all central committee members. Email was used for all members who had provided an address,
USPS was then used for the rest. In addition the information was posted to our website and posted to our facebook account. If a person or persons were missed, it was not for lack of effort.
If someone was missed, please provide us with the correct contact information so we can correct our error. If they email me at [email protected], I will make sure their contact information is updated.
Sen. Jim Stalzer, Minnehaha County State Committeeman
.
Great, informative post by Sen. Stalzer, an expereienced state legislator who knows these rules backward and forward.
Pat’s anonymous corespondent seems to imply that if a lone committee member isn’t notified, the subsequent meeting is bogus. Can he possibly be correct? Is that Chairman Lederman’s view? Can an election be invalidated if (for example) one unhappy committee member claims he didn’t receive adaquate notice? Ok. What about 2 members? That’s an exceptionally high standard — one likely to result in many invalidations. Obviously, it’s tough to *prove* every committee member recived timely notice. Should the SDGOP send out notice via certified mail, RRR?
My impression, writing from Pennington, is that Minnehaha made a reasonable, bonafide effort to notify all committee members. The majority seem to have received actual notice, and the county’s effort was backstopped by the 4/28 facebook announcement. I hate defending east river metro liberals, but, as Pat noted, the MCGOP achieved a quorum… despite the COVID epidemic and your mayor’s over-broad social distancacing rules. I suppose it’s a legitimate question to ask but, to my ear, it sounds like a valid election. I just hope we avoid a sleezy, backroom effort to elevate someone who lost the national delegate vote. We’ve endured too many insider shenanigans over the last few years.
Also writing from Pennington, grudznick notes that when Mr. Haugaard is governor, all the legislatures and each county chair will fall in line.
If Haugaard would be Governor, that would be a disorganized, boring mess. He is a puppet of Rapid City extremists, however, so would have 8 votes and Mr.Grudznick, you would then be 9 if so inclined.
If Haugaard would be Governor, that would be a disorganized, boring mess. He is a puppet of Rapid City extremists, however, so would have 8 votes and Mr.Grudznick, you would then be 9 if so inclined.
This is neither a praise or a criticism of what occurred. I don’t know if there was emails caught in spam, snail mail not read or anything else. 50 people could be a low turnout, a normal turnout, or a good turnout considering the environment. But, 50 people in a county of this size doesn’t indicate enthusiasm.
Party’s are relevant if they have mass engagement of its members. I’ll give the organizers a pass this time but during a time in which some people (age or health condition) are required to avoid meetings.
If there wasn’t some type of accommodation via video or virtual participation, insufficient foresight was given to accommodate and encourage broadest possible participation. Going to a farm doesn’t assure distancing unless it is outside. And, considering the weather, outside certainly wasn’t inviting.
Chalk it down to experience. This did not do it. Do better next time.
The MCGOP Chair (Kris) did an admirable job under difficult circumstances. That said, I agree with Troy: we want greater public participation. It’s not limited to Minnehaha County; the whole SDGOP needs more good people involved. Let’s step up efforts to engage citizens. To thrive, the party needs ideas, enthusiasm, & energy. Unless things improve, we risk losing numerous house and senate seats.
As a county, it would appear that something could have been done better than a field with rain and people parked in cars straining to hear what was happening. Re; the announcements. Emails were sent (some to the dead) to attend from Lederman himself!!! and then some of the emails were not sent out at all to some of the precinct chairwomen and men. This was an important meeting as 3 people ran for Vice Chair and yes, new blood was definitely needed in Minnehaha if the party is ever going to take its place in the 21st century and represent the more diverse conservative movement within the party that does not want to rubber stamp a Governor OR their party leaders. (especially in a year that the legislature ended in a questionable scandal at Pierre and involved the Ltn Governor????) Lots more discussion needed to be held by Republicans at this meeting, even if it had to be held in the Arena for spacing and mega horns!!! There were alot of questions going into the central committee meeting and there are even more coming out. Just our 3 cents worth. (nothing ever changes when everything should be changed)
All across the state the SDGOP has precinct-committee men and women who make little to no effort to fulfill the duties of their position. They don’t show up for fundraisers, campaign events, parades, door-to-door lit drops, get-out-the-vote efforts, don’t contribute financially to anything, don’t follow their county group Facebook pages, and don’t update their contact information.
They are supposed to serve under the direction of their county Chair; in this case she didn’t even know how to get in touch with him. This is his fault, not hers.
Kris is a great chair.. she does beach to tune of the “leaders” above her. Conversely, if precinct people are not helping or neglecting why not change the leadership to focus on that GOAL rather than keep the few, the wealthy, and the best friends informed if everything and leave rest of the state out? (Should one SD Republican/wife) be able to attend every single national convention in his lifetime and have lots of control over decisions bottom to top in the party? ( Is it because his mailing list for his non- Profit) is so large and majority party needs it? How many times have Republicans attempted to become active in party only to be :spit out” by another who wants only YES people. (Sheep not warriors) Our majority party I’d supposed to be conservative: check last 15 years….Sioux Falls Is practically a “sanctuary city”… Majority party never even stood up in their communities to open church on Easter!!(my four cents)
“I think we’re all indebted to Anonymous 6:07 for clearly stating what needed to be said. I’m particularly glad that these lovely children were here today to hear that speech. Not only was it authentic frontier gibberish, it expressed a courage little seen in this day and age.”
Quite agree w/ P’s comment about the passionate, opaque jeremiad posted at 6:07. But it’s not all wrong. Even a stopped clock is right twice per day. 😊 Kris does a solid job under tough circumstances, as others here noted.
Harrumph!
Actually not funny and quite co descending but never ever expect a Republican (real or RHINO) to admit mistakes…just “take out” any criticism by name calling. Wair-Isn’t that a Dem strategy?
And therein lies the problem with the Republicans. So very smug and smart, they miss what the masses within the party want, think, or can contribute because their mind is already made up ahead of time. (maybe years ahead of time) There is no courage in running in a “protected pack” of friends within the party, outwitting, outsmarting, and outplaying anyone registered as a Republican. It is what professional politicians do. In South Dakota, the few learn very fast and do very well usually……..and if not, it is swept under the rug and they start same ole same ole all over again! (my 5 cents)