Op-Ed | Why Censure Former SCGOP Chairman Chad Connelly?

GREENVILLE, S.C. | BY NATE LEUPP |June 26, 2013 |

On Monday night, the Greenville County Republican Party voted 73-9 with 2 abstaining to censure the South Carolina Republican Party and its former chairman. After the censure was introduced, two questions were discussed among Greenville County GOP members. “Why should we censure?” and “What will this accomplish?” From the moment I first heard about a possible censure, I could quickly answer the “why” but had to think about what this would accomplish. I quickly supported the right to censure, but I had to think through whether it was a wise action. Although the overwhelming majority in the GCGOP was for it, those outside had other opinions. “Censure is worth about as much as the paper it was written on. They’re meaningless,” one friend said. “This is counter productive and an utter waste of time,” another one said. Now that the censure passed, is there any good that can come from this?

Let me share why I believe the Greenville County Republican Party had the right to censure. As a delegate from Greenville to the South Carolina State Convention, I immediately saw some shady politics. “G” is not the last letter in the alphabet. Greenville, the Party’s largest county and delegation, has been seated in the last rows for the last two conventions. This year, we were not even seated together. They placed us in three sections with another county being seated in the middle section, splitting the Greenville delegation. I doubt this was simple logistics.

The convention hall was arranged in such a way that made the stage as far away as possible from the Greenville delegation. Instead of setting it up like the previous convention, where the stage was placed on what would be the half-court line of the coliseum and the delegations could be seated closer to the stage, it was placed on one end of a would be goal post and Greenville placed far away at the other. This setup, along with turning the microphones off, made it impossible for valid parliamentary calls to be heard. Most people believe this was done because of Greenville’s support for the idea of a Nomination by Convention, something that is both in our state law and party platform.

The most serious violation that took place at the convention was the breaking of the Party’s own rules of order. Greenville delegates were well versed in the rules of order and many times saw the Chairman and others violating those rules.

After the convention, instead of apologizing for breaking the party rules, the Chairman started calling Greenville County names.

These are just a few of the things that happened that I believe gave Greenville the right to be upset and the right to make their grievances known in whatever manner they desired. The censure explains these unethical actions along with others in much more detail.

What will the censure accomplish? As noted above, many think that any resolution or censure is pointless and meaningless. I generally tend to agree, but I do have one hope for the censure that Greenville passed. My hope is that there are reasonable people in other counties that will listen to Greenville’s concerns with an open mind so that future conventions will be run differently. While I was on the convention floor, a delegate and friend from a neighboring county came and told me that Greenville was being “obnoxious.” He asked that I quiet my delegation down. To the best of my ability, I quickly explained that rules were being broken. I gave him examples that had happened just minutes earlier, and that what he first thought was our being obnoxious was actually proper parliamentary procedure. After he listened to a defense of Greenville’s actions, his opinion changed. Greenville was not out of order.

I believe there are other fair and reasonable Republicans in our great State. I understand that Greenville was painted negatively in the months preceding and after the convention. Chairman Connelly called Greenville “borderline anarchist” and “hard-line libertarians.” He established a straw man and a smear campaign against Reagan Conservatives in Greenville County simply because many liked a different method of candidate selection.

A year ago, the 1^st Vice-Chairman Lin Bennett said, “Let’s start campaigning for selection of our candidates by convention in two years.” She even went as far as making a promise, saying, “Next round, in 2014, we are picking our candidates via convention. Plain and simple. I will work like heck to make that happen. Promise.” Bennett, however, referred to those in Greenville County as “nuts” after the convention.

The establishment has a great bully pulpit and used it masterfully, leading the average convention attendee to believe that Greenville County Republicans are libertarian nuts who want to destroy the Republican Party. This is far from the truth.

Many of the delegates to the State convention from the other 45 counties knew little or nothing about the events that led up to the convention. I believe they are unaware of the dirty politics that happened on the day of the convention and the breaking of the rules of order. Greenville was painted as “nuts,” “libertarians,” and “anarchists.” In reality, we are solidly comprised of Reagan Conservatives who wholly agree and adhere to the Republican Party Platform.

Had the rules been followed, there would not have been any outbursts from the far back three sections of the convention floor. Had points of order and calls for division been properly recognized and followed, and the convention floor setup in such a manner for delegates to be heard, there would not have been any issues. A standing vote would have clearly showed winning sides, and there would be almost no room for complaints. Rules, however, were not followed, promises were not kept, a delegation was not fairly treated, and the Chairman chose to call Greenville names instead of apologizing afterward.

My hope is that some may recognize that what happened at this year’s convention was not a group of libertarians acting as anarchists, but conservatives simply asking for party rules to be followed. Greenville has not been “taken over,” as a few ignorant people have claimed. Our Chairman and our 1^st and 2^nd Vice-Chairmen were all elected without any opposition. We are conservative Republicans who love our party and fully agree with its platform. We have the support of other Greenville County conservatives who have been active in the party for many decades. We will continue to fight for conservative Republican principles and against anything that attempts to change those principles and platform.

When wrongs are committed, I’d hope for an apology, but that didn’t happen. Sometimes grievances need to be made public, and I fully support my Executive Committee in doing so.      

READ MOTION HERE.

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