Republican Leaders Defend Proposed Bylaws Changes

Leadership in the Farmington Republican party responded to a Patch article on the proposed changes to the Republican Town Committee bylaws Thursday, saying the article “miscategorized” the changes.

Committee Chairman Mike Clark said that the voting rights of town Republicans – who will no longer be able to vote on selecting the party’s candidates – will not be in any way decreased, since party members will still have the opportunity to primary.

“The opportunity to primary remains, which means that Republicans in no way have a limit or lose any voting rights,” Clark said in an email Thursday. 

Town Council Chairman Jeff Hogan, who became actively involved in the Republican Town Committee about two years ago, said the committee works hard to find candidates and that committee member are the “doers” in the party and the community.

“The town committees of each party basically exist to locate candidates in town and to help get those candidates elected. I can’t really think of any other reason for their existence. … If this process becomes chaotic or unpredictable, the chance and opportunity for getting people elected is minimized significantly,” Hogan said 

For any party, the process committee members go through to find candidates is usually long, time-consuming and thoughtfully considered. Committee members work to find the most electable candidates as well as those they believe will be best for the town. 

“It is a thorough and often exhaustive process. ... It is a smart and consistent process,” Hogan said. “The proposed bylaw changes support the credibility of the process.”

Phil Dunn, chairman of the committee’s screening committee, which selects candidates, said the proposed new process is widely used by neighboring Democratic and Republican Town Committees.

“The operative state statute that governs the selection of local candidates by political parties is Connecticut General Statutes Sec. 9-390.  It provides three methods for a party to select its slate of candidates and its party members at a caucus. The first is the method we currently have in our rules which is a caucus open to all Republican electors in town. The second is a caucus to select delegates to attend a convention to select candidates. The third, which is what is being proposed, is for the Town Committee to select the candidates.

“The notion that this method is somehow improper is nonsense and many other towns use this method. No one who desires to run as a Republican can be disenfranchised by this rule change as the right to engage in a primary cannot be limited by this rule change,” Dunn said.

While Patch spoke to a few Republicans who objected to the changes, they declined to speak on the record.

William Baker, a Republican who petitioned his way onto the ballot for the last Town Council election and is now a member of the RTC, said he sees pros and cons to the proposed changes but thinks they’ll ultimately be passed.

“My only issue is with perception - the appearance from the outside is we’re eliminating the opportunity for people to challenge and get on the ballot,” Baker said, noting that would-be candidates are free to put in the effort to petition and run in a primary.

The impression is that historically those who challenged an endorsement at the caucus have done so unprofessionally, Baker said.

“The screening committee does a lot of work… If I were on the screening committee, I would be frustrated if someone tried to challenge on the caucus level,” Baker said.

Ultimately, the changes won’t harm the party, Baker said.

“If I thought it was significantly wrong I would say so,” he said.

The proposed changes include:

Registered Republicans would no longer be able to vote on selection of the party’s slate of candidates for town elected offices. Instead, only committee members would be able to.

Also, members of the Republican Town Committee would be elected only by current committee members and no longer by the “eligible electors,” that is, any registered Republicans.

Additionally, any subsequent changes to the bylaws could be made by town committee members alone and not by Farmington Republicans.

In addition, the number needed for a quorum would be changed to a third of the committee members. 

Read the original article here.