Good morning, everyone!
What a great event last night. It was amazing attendance, great content learning about local issues, and we heard from some great speakers. As promised, an email will be going out to everyone with the presentations that we made but couldn’t display.
The one area we didn’t cover was the upcoming convention. If you are a precinct delegate, or if you’re not but curious as to what happens, we wanted to provide a convention preview. We also wanted to arrange carpools, because the convention isn’t exactly close.
First, the basics: some elected offices do not select candidates through a primary. While primary voters select candidates for Governor, US Senate, and State House and Senate, the candidates for Attorney General, Secretary of State, Supreme Court, and education boards (college and Board of Education) are selected by delegates to our Michigan Republican Party State Convention. Those delegates, in turn, are selected in 85 County Conventions, and that’s what’s going on next week.
So who is eligible to participate in convention? They fall into two categories. First, elected and elevated precinct delegates are eligible to attend. To be a delegate, you had to run for that position in August of 2024. Second, if you are a “hard working Republican,” the convention body can choose to allow your attendance in any spot not filled by a delegate.
Our convention fills our delegate spots on a “apportionment” system. The idea was that we wanted balance across our entire area. What’s our area? Our “county,” for purposes of the convention, covers the portion of Wayne County that also is in the 6th Congressional District. That area includes Northville (City and Township, but only south of 8 Mile), Plymouth (City and Township) and Canton Township. Our district also includes the downriver communities from Belleville and Sumpter Township directly east all the way to Grosse Ile. Unfortunately, Grosse Ile was the chosen location for our convention. The convention starts at 7pm on Thursday, February 26th, one week from today.
Our county party is broken into four apportionment areas for purposes of allocating delegates: Northville, Plymouth, Canton, and Downriver. The area as a whole gets 64 delegates and 64 alternates. The apportionment breaks down like this:
Northville – 12 delegates and alternates
Plymouth – 18 delegates and alternates
Canton – 8 delegates and alternates
Downriver – 26 delegates and alternates
In addition, some people are at-large delegates, like yours truly, who is given at-large status as a State Committee member.
Convention, when run properly, is convened for the purpose of electing those delegates and alternates. Whether the current chair will be conducting other business is unknown to me at this time.
A few important facts to know as you decide whether to run for state convention:
- This convention SHOULD be much shorter and much more efficient. The Policy Committee (on which I am vice-chair) concluded that the boring speeches were not really informative or changing people’s minds, nor were the displays of people marching to the front with signs. They have been replaced with online nominating, seconding and accepting videos, so the voting should start much more quickly.
- There won’t be any “motions from the floor” or any of that kind of problems. In previous conventions, there were attempts by various parties to air or resolve grievances, or ask the body to adopt policy positions on the fly. They were overwhelmingly a waste of everyone’s time. Like the RNC Convention in 2024, they have been highly limited.
- The cost of the convention to delegates, alternates and guests is $50 per person. We wanted to defray its costs as the chair has struggled with fundraising.
- Luckily, the convention is close. It’s being held March 28th at what used to be the Suburban Showplace (now Vibe Credit Union Showplace) in Novi.
So, with all that information in hand, we have three questions:
Are you going to attend County Convention? If so, please let us know, and if not, we’ll see you at our next event!
Would you like to run to attend State Convention? Again, please let us know, because we can see if we know which people will be running for those spots.
Do you need a carpool? If so, I’ve created a Google Sheet to sign up for either driving or being driven. I’ll be a driver, and Patty Pozios has volunteered as well. Please enter your name and phone number where appropriate.
If the Google Sheet doesn’t work for you, just email me at mwilk@northville-mi.gop, and I can set you up.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1B-BqiyRhaUksIVqfY9iq-fUDXdqrsOIbMv3afs0FF48/edit?usp=sharing
Thanks again for all that you do, and don’t hesitate to email me with questions!