{"id":1647,"date":"2007-04-27T16:52:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-27T22:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/04\/proposal-shifts-gop-power-to-east-and-rural-areas\/"},"modified":"2007-04-27T16:52:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-27T22:52:00","slug":"proposal-shifts-gop-power-to-east-and-rural-areas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2007\/04\/proposal-shifts-gop-power-to-east-and-rural-areas\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposal shifts GOP power to east and rural areas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A challenge to Allen Weh\u2019s<\/a> leadership of the Republican Party of New Mexico<\/a> isn\u2019t the only thing happening at Saturday\u2019s GOP convention. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Delegates plan to vote on two proposals that would shift more power in the Republican Party to rural counties and the eastern side of the state. The changes would increase the number of delegates and central committee members to the state party, but award Republican strongholds with an increased share of overall membership.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The proposals, made by State Sen. Rod Adair<\/a>, R-Roswell, would increase the number of delegates from moderate counties such as Bernalillo and Do\u00f1a Ana only slightly, but Republican strongholds would gain a significant number of members. Democratic strongholds such as Santa Fe<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> wouldn\u2019t gain any delegates.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Under the current system, a county gets a delegate for every four hundred votes cast in the last election for the GOP\u2019s gubernatorial candidate in that county. Adair\u2019s proposal would keep that in place, but also add \u201cbonus delegates\u201d as incentives to counties:<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 Counties would get an additional delegate for each county elected official who is Republican.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u2022 They would get an additional two delegates for each other statewide elected official who won the county in the last election.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The change would significantly shift power in the state party to the east and to rural counties. For example, Bernalillo<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> would get 161 delegates instead of its current 157. Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> would get 31 delegates instead of its current 28.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But the smaller Otero<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placetype> would have more delegates than Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place>. Its number would increase from 15 to 33. Harding<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>\u2019s delegates would increase from one to seven. Hidalgo<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>\u2019s would increase from one to 10. Lea<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place>\u2019s would increase from 13 to 31.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Santa Fe<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> would keep its current 25 delegates, but wouldn\u2019t gain any.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The proposal would apply a similar incentive program for membership on the state central committee.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Pointing out that both national party organizations have incentive programs in place, Adair said his proposal isn\u2019t revolutionary.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a positive reinforcement approach,\u201d Adair said. \u201cYou want to encourage success. That\u2019s all this is about.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Adair pointed out that, under his proposals, no county is penalized by losing delegates or members of the central committee, but the counties that do a better job of electing Republicans gain members.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s to encourage local innovations to win elections, that\u2019s all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Critics say a shift in power to the rural counties, where conservative thinking is stronger, would move the Republican Party to the right, and say that won\u2019t help the minority party in a purple state.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Republican officials in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> made a concerted effort last year to run a more moderate slate of candidates. But their strategy didn\u2019t work. Republicans actually lost two House seats in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> last year and didn\u2019t gain any county seats or an open spot on the Public Regulation Commission. It was a shock to many Republicans who believed they would gain one or two House seats, win the PRC seat and might take one county commission seat from an incumbent Democrat.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Do\u00f1a Ana County Republican Party<\/a> Chair Sid Goddard doesn\u2019t know how he\u2019ll vote on the amendments, but said his concern is that delegates will only be allowed to vote for or against the proposals. There is no opportunity to propose changes before the vote.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not particularly pleased that we are just going to have an up-or-down vote,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have some questions about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

I spoke with a number of other Republicans about Adair\u2019s proposed change, but none were willing to go on the record because of the sensitive nature of inner-party deliberations. Some expressed concern about the party shifting to the right in a purple state. Others said if county parties like that in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> can\u2019t figure out how to elect Republicans, they shouldn\u2019t have as much representation as those who can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A challenge to Allen Weh\u2019s leadership of the Republican Party of New Mexico isn\u2019t the only thing happening at Saturday\u2019s GOP convention. Delegates plan to vote on two proposals that would shift more power in the Republican Party to rural counties and the eastern side of the state. The changes would increase the number of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}