Republican county conventions will go unrecognized

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BY ZACH PLUHACEK / Lincoln Journal Star

The three voters who showed up at the courthouse in Albion on Saturday hoped they were attending the official Boone County Republican Convention.

Jon Glick, his wife and the other Republican spent most of the time chatting.

“With just the three of us there I was unanimously chosen as our delegate and our county chairman,” Glick said.

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Ron Paul

Ron Paul

But the Nebraska Republican Party had already told Glick his convention would not be recognized — and it’s unlikely Glick will appear at the Nebraska State Republican Convention July 12 as a recognized delegate.

It’s not just Boone County. In at least three other counties — Brown, Frontier and McPherson — Republican voters have apparently been blocked in their quests to host official county conventions.

And with filing deadlines for conventions passed, and little to no party structure in place in those counties, the state party likely will not recognize conventions in those counties before June 10, the last day they can be held.

Glick said he and others in the state who tried to act as temporary county chairs and hold conventions were denied for unfair — or unspecified — reasons.

But they suspect it’s because they support Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), who has remained a candidate for the Republican nomination despite Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) status as the presumptive nominee.

“I think it has everything to do with it, actually,” said Laura Ebke of Crete, a Paul supporter who advised Glick and others. “Party structures have done everything they can to shut out Ron Paul supporters.”

The party has nothing against Paul, said Matt Miltenberger, executive director of the Nebraska Republican Party.

“We’ve got other county chairs that are Ron Paul supporters, so it’s nothing to do with that.”

Party officials simply did not have time to approve some county chair applicants — including Glick, Miltenberger said.

To act as a county chair, a person must either be elected at a county convention, he said, or be approved by the state chair.

Glick and the others did not file paperwork early enough for that approval process, Miltenberger said.

Glick said he first contacted the state party Feb. 29 to ask for information about the position of county chair. He sent e-mails to the party two more times in March, then sent a letter declaring himself acting chair April 2.

Throughout that month, he e-mailed and talked with party officials about the proposed convention. He assumed they’d approved him as county chair.

Then, May 9, he found out that was not the case. The chairman of the state Republican Party sent Glick a letter stating he was not the chair, and there wouldn’t be an official Boone County convention.

“You can’t just appoint yourself county chairman,” Miltenberger said.

State law gives the chairs of the parties’ county committees the power to plan conventions, but it does not specify how vacancies are filled in counties with no party structure in place.

“There is nothing that I can find which determines how to create party organizations,” Paul supporter Ebke said. “We looked. We wanted to play by the rules. But we could find no rules to play by. So we looked at the practices in other counties in the state, and determined this was our best shot.”

The state Republican Party will not recognize county chairs elected at rogue conventions, Miltenberger said, and delegates selected at those conventions will not be seated at the state convention.

Delegates representing counties that held rogue conventions, as well as 20 other counties that do not have official Republican conventions this year, will be selected by other criteria at the state convention.

Glick, who still plans to attend the state convention, will try to be voted in as a delegate there.

Despite recurring support Republican candidates receive from Nebraska counties, the absence of conventions in rural areas is nothing new.

This year, state Republicans plan 69 certified county conventions, compared with 64 in 2006 and 66 in 2004.

Organizing an entire county can be difficult, said Bob Sittig, retired University of Nebraska-Lincoln political science professor, especially given the small number of political activists in some of the 93 counties.

That’s especially the case for Democrats, he said, who typically receive a small percentage of the vote in rural counties.

This year, however, the Nebraska Democratic Party expects 73 county conventions, compared with 69 in 2006 and 36 in 2004. Representatives from the state party will try to attend each one, a spokesman said.

“I think that’s reflective, certainly, of the resources that we’ve gotten from the national party,” said Democratic state chairman Steve Achelpohl. “We have had party organizers — three or four party organizers — on staff for some time now.”

States with smaller populations, like Nebraska — even those that lean to the right —  have garnered greater attention recently with the 50-state campaigning strategy championed by Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.

This week, presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama reinforced that strategy by supporting Dean’s continued work as DNC chairman.

That strategy has put elections in smaller states into play at the national level.

Applying similar tactics  in Nebraska, state Democratic Party organizers have found supporters in smaller counties interested in being active within the party.

While not as dramatic as the situation with the Democrats, Republicans, too, have seen increased interest.

“We’re always pushing to get as many people active,” Miltenberger said. “We've got staff all over the state that are working the counties to get involved.”

Reach Zach Pluhacek at 473-7306 or zpluhacek@journalstar.com. Journal Star reporter Don Walton contributed to this story.