(Will be updated as warranted)
A key state GOP leader said Tuesday he didn’t think the rules committee should reconsider a proposed rules change removing top elected officials and groups representing women, Hispanics, African Americans and young adults from key policy committees.
In an interview on Tuesday, Bryant Anderson, chair of the party’s rules committee, said the process for adopting the proposed rules changes at the state committee meeting should be allowed to play out.
His comments came as a four-page letter defending the rules change was being circulated and was obtained separately by the Sunflower State Journal.
The letter suggested – albeit not explicitly – that the Rules Committee would not reconsider the rules change, something that Chair Mike Brown has called for, although his critics believe he was behind the proposals in an effort to grab power.
The letter from Anderson and rules committee Vice Chair Mark Mowrey accused a small faction within the party of using “sinister” tactics to spread “false narratives” in an effort to “hijack” the rules process before the proposals were ever approved
“The rules are clear,” Bryant said. “We’ve already debated this issue twice in the Rules Committee and it passed out of the rules committee on a vote of 8-3.
“Based upon the facts, no, we should not be reconsidering this because the process is clear,” Anderson said.
“The rules are the rules,” he said.
“Imagine if you were playing a high-stakes game, and in the middle of it somebody on the other side of the table told you, ‘I would like to change the rules at this point.’
“That’s not how it works,” he said.
In the letter that went out Tuesday, Bryant and Mowrey called on the party to review the proposals and debate them “openly and honestly.”
“Follow the rules and platform regardless of your opinions or feelings, and support the KS GOP with your time, talents and money,” the letter said.
The letter accused a group of Republican Party insiders, including the RNC committeewoman and committeman, of coordinating a media campaign to stop the party from voting on the rule changes.
“Using the media to get your way is not only foolish, but it is also dangerous,” Bryant and Mowrey wrote in their letter.
“No good can ever come from inviting the media into the middle of a family disagreement.
“This intentional use of the media to create false narratives in order to keep state committee members from exercising their right to vote shows a total lack of regard for the rules and the well-being of the KS GOP.”
“These sinister tactics have resulted in irreparable damage to the reputation of the party, the KS GOP chair, and rules committee members, not to mention handicapping the ability of the Kansas Republican Party to operate.”
Michael Austin, chair of the Kansas Black Republican Council, said he was disappointed in the letter from the two leaders of the party’s rules committee.
“We take solace in the united voice of Kansas Republicans who reject this agenda,” Austin said in a text message.
“Our faith in the Kansas GOP remains unwavering. We trust the integrity of our party’s State Delegates to vote against division and affirm our commitment to unity.”
Asked about following the rules process, Austin said, “Our position is that such rule changes betray core Republican values.
“And as such, it deserves every ounce of condemnation it attracts. Let us safeguard the essence of being a Republican. ”
Earlier this month, the party’s rules committee agreed on an amendment to the state party’s constitution that would remove the state’s two U.S. senators, three Republican members of Congress and all of the Republican statewide office holders from the GOP state committee.
The proposal also would remove a Republican governor from serving on the state committee as well as the Senate president and the House speaker.
A separate proposal would amend the party’s bylaws to eliminate the same people, including designees of the governor, the U.S. senators and members of Congress, from serving on the party’s executive committee.
The proposal also would cut out groups such as the Black Republican Council, the Kansas Federation of Republican Women, Kansas Young Republicans and the Kansas Hispanic Republican Council.
The proposed changes would be historic since the general structure of the party and the rules have been in place since 1908, with some changes over the years.
The proposals, while not final, are generating blowback from other Republicans who believe they will alienate key Republican Party players, depress fundraising and further splinter party membership going into the 2024 elections.
Brown has been blamed for engineering the rules change because he appoints members of the rules committee.
He has urged the rules committee to reconsider the proposals.
Brown has said he was not involved in the development of the proposal, which still needs to be approved by the Republican state committee.
Brown said he could not immediately comment because he had not seen the letter. He expected a statement would be issued later today.
Since the proposed rules change first went public, it has been broadly criticized.
National conservative talk-show host Todd Starnes has accused Brown of “ethnically cleansing” the party.
Meanwhile, the chairs of the party’s four congressional districts urged the party’s rules committee to back off the proposal.
Republican National Committeeman Mark Kahrs and National Committeewoman Kim Borchers said they reached out to the chair of the rules committee to back off the proposal.
They said that marginalizing the voices of Republican women, young conservatives and ethnic groups such as the Kansas Black Republican Council and Kansas Republican Hispanic Assembly sends the wrong message and is a losing strategy.
They were joined by the Black Conservative Federation, which condemned the “disgraceful actions” of Brown and his appointees to the party’s rules committee.
The federation called the committee’s recommendation a “brazen” attempt to boot the Black Republican Council out of the party’s structure.
Anderson has said the proposals were driven by the fact that elected officials and the affiliated parties have a seat on the state and executive committees without being elected compared to other members who are elected to those committees.
Anderson said the officials who sit on the state committee without being elected to the panel effectively dilute the influence of the 37 members elected to the state committee from each of the state’s four congressional districts.
“We have this group of affiliates, and this group of legislators, state elected officials that are on there but they were never elected to be on the state committee,” Anderson said in a previous interview.
“None of these groups or legislators or state elected officials were actually elected to be on the state committee,” he said. “That’s the central issue.”
