Accountability in Ada County

Whence does power in the Republican Party derive?

Edit: The bylaw amendment in question, which would restore voting rights on the ACRCC executive board to LD and region chairs, failed at Thursday’s meeting. It received 96 ayes and 64 nays, falling just short of the 2/3 threshold for amending the bylaws.

The Ada County Republican Central Committee (ACRCC) is considering several amendments to its bylaws tonight that are aimed at bringing more accountability and transparency to the way in which committee leadership operates.

The ACRCC is a complex body with myriad missions. Most county committees are simply focused on county offices such as commissioner, sheriff, etc. Ada, on the other hand, is not only by far the largest county in the state, but we also have the Capitol on our home turf. This means that the county has a large base of donors who want to make an impact at every political level.

To wit, the ACRCC has the bandwidth to get involved with municipal, county, legislative, and statewide races. This means that the precinct committeemen (PCs) and leadership of the ACRCC have a lot of political influence.

The question before that body tonight is, who decides in which direction that ship sails? Is the ACRCC simply too large and varied to be run by the committee itself?

You see, Republican politics is supposed to be an upside-down pyramid. The ultimate authority within the party is the voters, those who have chosen to affiliate with the GOP. They elect precinct committeemen who represent them on the central committee. The PCs, in turn, elect a slate of officers who carry out the will of the central committee.

The role of the officers and chairman has always been one of servant leadership. They are not generals, CEOs, or conductors. Rather, they are the tip of the spear for carrying out the will of the committee. The officers and chairman of the ACRCC sit on an executive board that is meant to bring recommendations to the Central Committee, which then deliberates and votes on them.

Until 2020, that executive board consisted of the officers and chairman of the ACRCC as well as the chairs of the legislative districts and Idaho GOP regions within Ada County. This is how several of the bigger counties in Idaho comport themselves, as it brings in more diverse voices and accountability to the process.

Some believe that more voices and accountability make it harder to get things done. I get it — trying to get a committee as large as the ACRCC to come together and authorize events, expenditures, and policy positions is like herding cats. But that’s the way Republican politics works. Nevertheless, in 2021, ACRCC Chairman Victor Miller spearheaded a change to the bylaws that removed the voting rights of legislative district (LD) chairs on the executive board. He brought in then-Attorney General Lawrence Wasden who argued that LD chairs were not elected by the ACRCC and, therefore, should not have the same voice as the elected officers.

ACRCC Chairman Victor Miller

The problem with this line of reasoning is that outsiders are regularly appointed to executive boards. Corporate boards, for example, usually include industry leaders from outside the company in question who are appointed to ensure the company fulfills its fiduciary duty to its shareholders. Raúl Labrador was appointed to the Central District Board of Health despite not being a doctor because he brought much-needed perspective.

The executive board of the Idaho Republican Party State Central Committee is made up of the officers elected by the convention, one seat that is appointed by the chair, and three that are the heads of separate organizations, in addition to the seven region chairs. Not a single one of those positions is elected by the State Central Committee itself.

The bylaw was adopted in early 2022, and the LD and region chairs were relegated to non-voting status on the ACRCC executive board.

In May 2022, a week after the primary election, the ACRCC met to reorganize itself. I had just been elected a PC in my own right, and along with more than a hundred others, I arrived at the Ada County Fairgrounds to vote for our officers. I was handed a slick card with the names of the candidates I was supposed to vote for. Obviously, the fix was in — the chairman and his friends expected to run essentially unopposed, and the purpose of the committee was merely to rubber stamp their election and then every decision they made forthwith.

Tonight, Thursday, May 4th, the ACRCC will consider fixing the mistake that was made two years ago and restoring voting power on the executive board to LD chairs. Dawn Retzlaff’s proposal will bring much-needed oversight to the executive board of the ACRCC and help return power to the PCs.

They will also consider a bylaw proposed by Steve Bender that restricts the authority of the executive board to spend large amounts of money without the approval of the Central Committee, thus bringing the budget back under the control of the PCs, as well.

The question is not merely one of organization but of philosophy. How does power flow in the Ada County Republican Party? Does it start at the top, with the chairman, and flow downward through an executive board? Or does it start at the bottom, with the voters, and flow upward through their elected precinct committeemen?

None of this has anything to do with effectiveness. A good central committee can still be effective without comporting itself in a dictatorial manner. As Republicans, we believe that supreme power has been vested in the people, not in chairmen or boards. We must govern ourselves in the manner we wish to govern our state and our country.

If you are an elected PC of the ACRCC, I strongly urge you to vote yes on the bylaw amendments submitted by Dawn Retzlaff and Steve Bender.