Clark County GOP convention ‘huge success’

Anyone hoping for the drama of the national Republican presidential race would have been disappointed.

Saturday’s Clark County Republican Party Convention was calm, methodical and filled with long, foot-tapping periods of waiting for ballots to be counted.

But 10 hours after the convention began, the party had accomplished what it came to do: elect 102 delegates for May’s state Republican convention in Pasco and approve this year’s party platform.

“It was a huge success,” Clark County party Chairman Kenny Smith said Saturday evening.

Including delegates and observers, roughly 500 people attended the convention at the Clark County Event Center at the Fairgrounds. At the state convention, the delegates chosen Saturday, along with others from around the state, will select 41 of Washington’s 44 delegates to nominate a Republican presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention on July 18-21 in Cleveland. There, they must cast their first vote for the winners of Washington’s presidential primary May 24.

Because Washington is not a winner-take-all state, the delegates’ votes will be proportional to the candidate percentages in the state primary. If no candidate has a majority on the first round at the national convention (which hasn’t happened since 1948), Washington’s 44 delegates may vote for their preferred candidate on the next rounds of balloting, according to a Clark County Republican Party press release.

Clark County’s 102 delegates make it the fifth-largest delegation in the state, behind King, Pierce, Snohomish and Spokane counties. Washington has 1,500 delegates total.

‘Necessary, tedious’

Saturday, first-time convention delegate Tony Gerbracht, 62, of La Center, called the process an “eye opener.”

“It’s a necessary, tedious process for everyone to get their chance to be involved,” he said. “I wish there was an easier way to do it, but I don’t have any better ideas.”

Smith said the fact that Clark County’s convention delegates, who had been elected Feb. 20 at the Republican precinct caucuses, actually got to vote on the party platform Saturday was “impressive,” Smith said.

At the heated and combative Clark County Republican convention four years ago, delegates ran out of time and never got to discuss the platform. Later, the platform was adopted by the county Republican Party board, Smith said.

The difference between the 2012 county convention and this year’s is that in 2012, there was no state primary, which meant the delegates who made their way to the state convention could support their chosen candidates at the national convention.

This year, however, the national delegates must vote for the winners of the primary.

Seeking debate, unity

Despite the schism between moderate and conservative Republicans, delegates at Saturday’s convention said Clark County’s Republican Party is in good health.

“I think debate and disagreement is good because it keeps the people and the party fresh and engaged,” said Battle Ground resident Richard Rylander, 64, who supports presidential candidate Ted Cruz.

He’s been impressed with Smith as chairman because Smith tries to engage people at the grass-roots level and make decisions from the bottom up, said Rylander, wearing a GRC tag on his shirt indicating he’s part of the informal, anti-establishment Grass Roots Coalition.

County delegate Daniel Schaefer, 54, of Washougal noted there are frustrating divisions within the county Republican Party but that he hopes everyone can come together.

“I think our county party needs to make winning elections our No. 1 objective, above ideology,” said Schaefer, a supporter of presidential candidate Marco Rubio.

Delegate Christian Berrigan, 50, of Brush Prairie observed that convention participants’ attitudes were “great.” By contrast, the convention four years ago was a “disaster,” he said.

“At some point in time, you’ve got to fold back in and say we’re going to cooperate together over the 80 percent we have in common, and we’re not going to kill each other over the other 20 percent,” said Berrigan, a Cruz supporter.

Smith, who received a standing ovation when introduced to the crowd earlier in the day, said people from opposing groups within the county party needed to spend time with each other “to realize their differences aren’t that stark.”

“That’s why the conventions are so awesome,” he said. “They need to force themselves to get together and fight it out.”