Join us for our June Pints & Politics when we're back at Babe's!  Our speaker this month is Representative Dave Heaton from the 85th District. 

In addition to our regular program, we will hold a short, Special Caucus at the beginning for the sole purpose to vote on minor changes to our new County Constitution that was passed this spring at our Annual Caucus this last spring.  These changes are necessary to pass the County Constitution at the state level.

The Constitution we passed can be viewed here.  The requested changes are in five areas:

1. From RPW - Article III paragraph 2 grants too much discretionary authority to the County Chair in setting the required dates for RPDC dues in order to participate in Republican Party business. Those dates should be more explicit in the constitution itself and not left to the Chairman’s discretion.  Our Response - The dates are not flexible nor are they defined by the County Chair.  However, we have some additional language to clarify the communication of these dates to our membership.

2. From RPW - The membership term in Article III must be specified. Currently just states that it “shall be determined by the RPDC executive committee.  Our Response - We're proposing that the membership term be "from July 1 to June 30 of the following year."  This allows our membership term to cover the portion of the year that covers most all of our official business (County Caucus, District Caucus, State Convention). 

3. From RPW - Article IV clarifications: The “appointed officers” section needs to be removed and added in Article V: Executive Committee and renamed “at-large members”, “general members”, or some other equivalent that does not denote them as “officers”. Officers should describe specific roles on the executive committee but should not describe each the at-large members of the committee who hold no official function other than voting on the executive committee. Due to this change, the verbiage should be changed to “officers and executive committee members” where appropriate or moved to Article V: Executive Committee.  Our Response - The appointed officers do include a portfolio of responsibilities.  However, to remove any confusion, we are proposing renaming these as "Appointed Managers".

4. From RPW - The inclusion of other groups such as the Young Republicans or Federation of Republican Women on the Executive Committee in Article V, or listed as potential drivers for the removal of officers in Article IV, although admirable in terms of building bridges with like-minded groups should be reviewed for potential legal conflicts. Many of these organizations have specific categorizations that bar them from direct coordination with a political party committee.  Our Response - We are adding language to clarify that participation of these groups is "unless prohibited by federal or state law".

5. From RPW - The constitution does not currently include a section resolving ambiguity between the Dane County constitution and the Republican Party of Wisconsin constitution. This section must be included. Our Response - We will add the following - "In the event of any conflict or ambiguity of this Constitution or By-Laws adopted hereunder, the Constitution of the Republican Party of Wisconsin shall prevail."

With the above changes, the Constitution we will be voting at the the Special Caucus can be viewed here.

A summary version is here.