Open up and say AAAAARRGGH: RNC to give us SOME MORE Reince

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gopelephant

 

 

 

 

It appears that the DC establishment has worked the rules and played some hardball to guarantee RNC chairman Reince Preibus will run for reelection unopposed.  Brian Doherty from Reason magazine has the details:

As I reported here the other week, a 2012 Maine Ron Paul delegate Mark Willis had launched an insurgent campaign to replace Reince Priebus as head of the Republican National Committee. That campaign seems to have been neutered today, as per this Politico article:

By quietly wooing a handful of Ron Paul supporters and capitalizing on a rift in the libertarian ranks, the Republican National Committee’s chairman squashed a long-shot challenge for his job.

Reince Priebus’s reelection to another two-year term was guaranteed when a 5 p.m. deadline passed Thursday. His sole challenger, Maine committeeman Mark Willis, did not have the support required from three state delegations to get on the ballot for a formal vote on Friday.

As I reported a few weeks ago, the Iowa party, run by Paulite A.J. Spiker, decided to stay with Priebus. Politico reports that Willis never directly asked Spiker for support.

But Nevada, another largely Paulite state, was still in play. So:

Priebus flew to Las Vegas Monday for an evening sit-down with Nevada’s Republican state chairman and national committeeman. After these Paul supporters won control at a state convention last year, the RNC and Mitt Romney’s campaign largely bypassed them by funneling funds through a shadow party. Both sides express a desire to mend fences after the GOP got creamed in the Silver State in November.

“There were certainly some promises exchanged,” Nevada committeeman James Smack said of the meeting. “We’re not talking about money. We’re talking about promises, though, that he’s going to work on getting some doors open for us that have been closed by whatever means – whether that be through some of the casino owners or what have you.”

[…]

Here’s some video from Willis’s press conference in Charlotte announcing his challenge to Priebus.  He’s saying a lot of things that folks across the grassroots spectrum can agree with.  It’s certainly a shame that a party that professes to be FOR individual freedom and AGAINST bureaucratic control worked so hard to deny RNC delegates an option to consider.