http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/277156-rnc-punts-on-rule-changesApril 21, 2016, 03:02 pm
RNC punts on rule changes
By Ben Kamisar
HOLLYWOOD, FLA. — The Republican National Committee's rules committee chose to punt on changing rules for how a presidential nominee is chosen in a contested convention.
In avoiding a high-profile battle to simplify the rules, the committee rallied behind chairman Reince Priebus's repeated insistence that no changes should be made before the July convention.
The committee adjourned just one hour after it began without making any changes, including one that could have made it more difficult for party leaders to nominate a "white knight" candidate -- someone not currently in the race who could take on Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.
Committee members repeatedly warned against provoking the ire of the voters by suggesting rules changes just months before Republicans meet for the convention in Cleveland.
"We are basically in the seventh inning of the ball game and its not right to change the rules of the ball game in the middle," Georgia committeeman and rules committee member Randy Evans said.
"This is a very hotly contested election and any change that we make will be viewed with a large degree of cynicism.”
The RNC's standing committee doesn't have the final say on the convention rules -- that's left to the delegates elected to the convention rules committee. But the standing committee can make temporary changes to the rules that would need to be agreed on by the convention delegates.
The lion's share of the debate centered on a bid by a longtime Oregon committeeman Solomon Yue. He wanted to change the rulebook to provide what he believes would be more transparency while also clamping down on the ability of party leaders to insert an establishment alternative into the race.
But after about 45 minutes of debate, the vast majority of the hall voted against the bid and quashed it.
Earlier in the meeting, the committee withdrew two other potential rule changes.
One of those measures would have eliminated the "carve-out" allowing four states — Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada — to hold a primary or caucus before March 1 without penalty.
The other measure would have been a minor procedural change to how the RNC chairman and co-chairman are elected.
Enid Mickelsen, the Utah committeewoman who proposed the rules change at a previous meeting, told the committee she wanted to withdraw her resolution for another day.
"This is a discussion that we need to have again someday, but I would submit that this is not that day," she said in the opening minutes of the meeting.
"I will submit, Mr. Chairman, that in the supercharged political environment in which we find ourselves, this is not the time to be debating rules changes."
