Contact: Heather Bennett, 703-392-7676; after 6 PM Eastern & on weekends, 843-340-0383
MANASSAS, Va., Aug. 27, 2012 /
Christian Newswire/ -- "Grassroots conservatives have launched an unprecedented rules fight against an attempted coup by Mitt Romney's agents at this year's Republican National Convention," announced Richard Viguerie, Chairman of
ConservativeHQ.com.
"Principled conservative Republican Party leaders Morton Blackwell of Virginia and Jim Bopp of Indiana are spearheading the drive to gather the votes necessary to adopt a Minority Rules Report and defeat the proposed rules changes on the floor during Tuesday's procedural sessions," said Viguerie.
Delegates from Virginia, Indiana, and other states, along with some of the Republican National Committee's longest-serving members, are fighting the proposed rules changes, instigated by Washington's Republican political class, that would ensure that local GOP activists are permanently frozen out of influence at the Republican National Convention and the Party apparatus.
The Romney rules changes would:
· allow presidential campaigns to, in essence, "fire" duly elected delegates they don't like and replace them with individuals of their own choosing;
· allow changes to the Republican Party rules between conventions, without a vote of delegates elected by the grassroots of the Party; and
· undo the rules regarding the primary calendar that were designed to stop the trend toward front-loading the primary season and preserve the opportunity for Republicans across the country to have a say in who their presidential candidate would be.
Blackwell, a member of the Republican National Committee's Standing Committee on Rules and of the National Convention's Committee on Rules and Order of Business, said these are "rules changes that could fundamentally change our Republican Party--and not for the better."
Blackwell noted that DC election lawyer Ben Ginsberg brought these proposals to the Rules Committee where "he represented himself as the leader on the Committee for the Romney Campaign."
"Grassroots conservative and Tea Party activists should call or email their delegates to the Republican National Convention to tell them about this attempted power grab by DC's political elite," said Viguerie.
"To oppose this power grab by Washington's permanent political class, call your Republican National Convention delegates, blog about it, email your contacts, post it on Facebook and other social media, and call your local and national conservative talk radio programs. We don't have much time to rally the troops before Tuesday's vote," he said.
NOTE TO EDITORS: Richard A. Viguerie, Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, pioneered political direct mail and has been called "one of the creators of the modern conservative movement" (The Nation) and one of the "conservatives of the century"(Washington Times). He is the author of Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause.
