The RNC voted at its annual Winter Meeting to revisit the newly-changed rules after Virginia delegate Morton Blackwell urged reconsideration. The amendment Blackwell proposed would return the Party’s rules to those passed unanimously by the Republican National Committee at the 2012 Republican convention -- "undoing changes made by the Convention Rules Committee in Tampa to centralize power in the RNC," Blackwell said in a press release. "Those changes included an increase in the number of states a presidential candidate must win to have his or her name formally placed in nomination before the convention."
And that last minute RNC rules change reduced the chances of any controversy or last minute convention nominee upheaval at the 2012 national convention. For Blackwell and other conservative Republican leaders, the change was unacceptable, and needed immediate reconsideration.
Illinois' RNC representative Demetra DeMonte told Illinois Review, "The Rules passed last year in Tampa have caused much distress with our grassroots conservatives. Last week at our winter meeting in Charlotte, the RNC passed a resolution to address these serious concerns and correct obvious errors at our upcoming meeting in April. I voted for the resolution."
DeMonte, who will represent Illinois on the Standing Rules Committee, said the concerns were not addressed in Charlotte because the committee has not been constituted and therefore could not consider any proposed amendments at the Winter Meeting.
The resolution passed at the Winter Meeting said:
WHEREAS, many people are concerned about the rules process at the Convention Rules Committee;
WHEREAS, Rule 12 allows Rule 1-11 and 13-25 to be amended by a majority vote of the RNC Standing Committee on Rules (“Rules Committee”) and a seventy-five percent (75%) affirmative vote by the members of the RNC; and
WHEREAS, the Standing Committee on Rules of the Republican National Committee has not been constituted and therefore cannot consider proposed amendments under Rule 12 of The Rules of the Republican Party (the “Rules”); therefore, be it
RESOLVED, the Chairman of the Republican National Committee 1) will ask all states to submit their Rules Committee member by March 1, and 2) will call a meeting of the RNC in April of 2013 and conduct a Rules Committee meeting during this meeting for the purpose of considering amendments to Rules 1-11 and 13-25.
