Curly Haugland Takes on the Occupiers of the RNC

ed. note: Curly Haugland, former RNC Committeman from North Dakota, is challenging the legitimacy of the Republican National Committee as currently constituted.  He argues that because of the RNC's failure to hold a proper convention in 2020, "a lapse of the authority of the RNC to exist has occurred."  In an Apr. 25, 2022 post on his "Gaslighting Republicans" substack, reprinted below, Haugland writes, "This has left the Republican Party without a legitimate Republican National Committee drifting, rudderless, without Republican National Convention rules to authorize and guide it’s activities."  The RNC Counsel's Office describes this as "one-hundred percent false."  Nonetheless, Haugland is taking the bold step of organizing a Republican Party 2022 Convention Committee to rectify matters.  Given the resources of the RNC, the success of this effort faces very long odds.  Haugland's post also notes that in April 2022 the RNC, after more than 150 years operating as an "unincorporated association," incorporated as a "member-governed corporation."  The RNC later described the move as "a basic legal formality...which provides for greater legal protection while maintaining the RNC's character and structure." Haugland responded in detail in a July 16, 2022 post, reprinted below.

https://curly.substack.com/p/the-republican-party-has-died
Curly Haugland
April 25, 2022   

The Republican Party Has Died!

Suicide is suspected! …Will it be born again?
   
The unauthorized occupiers of the Republican National Committee recently acted to kill the party by creating, instead, a Washington D.C. based not-for-profit corporation with the assumed name “Republican National Committee”.

 Since the birth of the Republican Party in 1856, it has existed as an unincorporated association of individuals as described here by RNC General Counsel Roger Allen Moore:

The Republican National Committee (RNC) is an unincorporated association of individuals created and governed by The Rules of the Republican Party. The quadrennial Republican National Convention is the highest authority in the Republican Party and the existence of each successive RNC is dependent completely upon, its authority derived solely from, and its functions are constrained entirely by, the Rules adopted by the preceding Republican National Convention that created it.  Unlike the national Democratic Party, the National Republican Party has no permanent charter or bylaws.  The RNC is not established by or under any federal or state statutes.  

(Roger Allen Moore, RNC General Counsel, 1981-1989)

 Due to the failure of the staff of the Republican National Committee to fulfill their obligation to arrange for and convene the required quadrennial Republican National Convention in 2020, a lapse of the authority of the RNC to exist has occurred.

This has left the Republican Party without a legitimate Republican National Committee drifting, rudderless, without Republican National Convention rules to authorize and guide it’s activities.

It takes a majority vote of the delegates to the quadrennial Republican National Convention to create the Rules of the Republican Party which recreate the Republican National Committee.

This did not happen in 2020. There was no legitimate Republican National Convention in 2020.

Nonetheless, at a gathering on April 13, some members of the former Republican National Committee, while meeting in Memphis for what is called “a training session only”, (RULE NO. 8(a) were reported by anonymous sources to have approved the creation of a nonprofit corporation.

A check of filings in the District of Columbia reveal that Ronna McDaniel incorporated an organization, “Republican National Committee “, as a non-profit corporation File Number N00007337407 on April 8, 2022.

Numerous attempts to contact McDaniel, the General Counsel of the RNC, the press and communication office of the RNC, and Rules Committee officials of the RNC for comment have been unsuccessful.

On it’s face, however, it appears the the Republican Party has been converted from a private association to a nonprofit corporation; thus effectively killing the Republican Party of the past.

HOW CAN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY BE BORN AGAIN?

A national convention of grassroots Republican delegates is the only legitimate process to bring the party back to life, since a Republican National Convention is the only legitimate source of authority in the Republican Party.

A grassroots committee, the Republican Party 2022 Convention Committee, has been organized for the purpose of reorganizing the Republican Party.

This committee will recruit Republicans from all states and territories to join the committee and participate in the planning and preparation for a mid-term Republican National Convention at a date, time, and place yet to be determined.

Any person eligible to vote in the United States is welcome and encouraged to join the Republican Party 2022 Convention Committee.

The membership fee of $50 will entitle each member to participate in all activities of the committee.

Prior to the 2022 convention, members of the convention committee in each state will elect 10 members to represent their state in the National Convention.

Upon their election, these 10 delegates will elect, from their group, 2 members for each of the convention committees.

There will be a Committee on Arrangements, Committee on Credentials, Committee on Rules of Order, Program Committee and Resolutions Committee.

The Republican Party 2022 Convention Committee newsletter will be published on Substack to provide information to all members and prospective delegates about the 2022 Convention as plans progress.

Every person who joins the Republican Party 2022 Convention Committee will get a free subscription to the Substack newsletter.

The Republican Party 2022 Convention will be organized in strict conformity with Robert’s Rules of Order provisions for Conventions Not of a Permanent Society; the same rules generally followed in the conduct of previous quadrennial Republican National Conventions.

Membership recruitment is pending and will be available soon on the committee’s website.

Republican volunteers wishing to assist in the recruitment of members in each state and in helping to organize the convention are invited to reply to this post for further information.

RNC Rebuttal/Explanation

Excerpts from a June 23, 2022 letter from the RNC Counsel's Office to Chairman of the North Dakota Republican Party:

As millions of Americans watched on television, the 2020 Republican National Convention ("Convention") convened on August 24, 2020 in Charlotte, North Carolina and was conducted pursuant to the RNC Rules then in effect. Hundreds of delegates gathered in person, while thousands more participated through the proxy process. The Convention delegates voted to amend and unanimously adopt the RNC Rules, to ratify 110 new national committeemen and national committeewomen, and to re-nominate President Donald J. Trump for the office of President of the United States.

The former Committeeman nevertheless claims that the Convention was somehow "cancelled," because it took place under procedures which the RNC adopted under Rule 37(e)1 in light of uncertainty at the time over limits and restrictions on in-person gatherings due to COVID. Again, his claims are entirely false.

As you no doubt will recall, the months leading up to the Convention saw the height of concern over COVID, with lockdowns and other significant limits on travel and in-person gatherings. This presented a unique challenge to hosting the Convention, with Charlotte's mayor and North Carolina's governor even suggesting that they would not allow the Convention to take place. Faced with that prospect, the RNC authorized procedures under Rule 37(e) to ensure that the Convention would proceed, regardless of what Democrat officials said or did. This was entirely appropriate and in accordance with RNC Rules, and it would have been a dereliction of duty to do otherwise.

It also is important to note that these procedures did not substantially alter the Convention. Although Rule 37(e) provides the RNC with wide latitude to do so, the Rule 37(e) Convention Procedures adopted in 2020 retained the convention process, utilizing many of the RNC's convention rules in their entirety and leaving others only partially modified.2 The Rule 37(e) Convention Procedures also made sure to account for the important business typically conducted at a convention beyond the nomination, including the adoption of the RNC Rules and the ratification of national committeemen and national committeewomen.

The result was that the Convention took place, and the delegates carried out their important business despite COVID. This included nominating President Donald J. Trump for a second term as President. If the Convention was not legitimate, as the former Committeeman claims, then neither was President Trump's nomination. That would be news to President Trump, to the election officials of all 50 states who certified his nomination as a result of the Convention, and the over 75 million Americans who voted for him.3

Even if the Convention had not occurred, and it very clearly did, the RNC would not disappear in a puff of smoke as the former Committeeman seems to think. The RNC Rules absolutely contemplate that they shall serve as the rules of the Republican National Committee from one convention to the "next." However, nowhere do the Rules state that they somehow become void or inoperative if the Convention is not held. The best reading of the Rules is that they simply would remain in effect until the convening of the next national convention. Therefore, even if there had been no national convention in 2020, the Rules as they existed immediately prior to their re-adoption in Charlotte in 2020 would remain in place today.


1 RNC Rule 37(e) allows the RNC to authorize procedures for the roll call for nomination for President and Vice President of the United States where the RNC determines that the national convention cannot convene or is unable to conduct its business either within the convention site or convention city.

2 For instance, the adopted procedures clarified that guest admission to the Convention under Rule 28 would be "subject to applicable laws."

3 This is not the first time the former Committeeman has been at odds with President Trump. He also tried to disrupt President Trump's nomination in 2016 by arguing that despite then-candidate Trump having secured enough delegates to clinch the nomination, and despite the plain language of the RNC Rules, those delegates were free to vote for another candidate at the national convention.
__________________


Political organizations and other nonprofit entities routinely incorporate for liability purposes in order to limit the personal legal exposure of their officers and members. Incorporation is a basic legal formality which does not in any way change the RNC's mission, character, or structure as a member driven organization.

Previously, the RNC operated as an "unincorporated association" under the District of Columbia's Uniform Unincorporated Nonprofit Association Act. Now, the RNC is incorporated as a "member-governed corporation," another type of legal entity under D.C. law which provides for greater legal protection while maintaining the RNC's character and structure.

Importantly, incorporation does not change the RNC in any substantive way. The RNC's articles of incorporation and bylaws documents mirror or defer to the RNC Rules for the membership, organization, and decision-making processes and make clear that, in case of conflict, the Rules control. In fact, the only substantial change apart from greater liability protection is that it is now easier for individual RNC Members to call a special meeting, meaning the RNC is now even more responsive to its Members than it was prior to incorporation.

Incorporation was long-overdue, particularly in today's heightened environment of partisan ­motivated investigations and other litigation. As a "member-governed corporation," the RNC and its members and staff now enjoy far greater protection from personal liability than before, without any meaningful change to its character or structure. Incorporation was a basic, common-sense formality, and it is worth noting that each of the other national major party committees, including the NRSC and the NRCC, incorporated years ago.

The former Committeeman also has claimed that the vote to incorporate was improper because, he alleges, it took place at a non-voting "training only session" on April 13. This is flatly wrong, and the former Committeeman has no basis at all for making such claims.

The vote to incorporate did not take place at a "training only session" on April 13. It took place at the RNC's February 2022 Winter Meeting in Salt Lake City, where the full RNC Membership voted unanimously to authorize the Executive Committee to take the steps necessary to incorporate. The Executive Committee then met on April 6, when it approved the draft governing documents for incorporation. The full RNC Membership then met again at the RNC Spring Meeting on April 14, where it approved an amendment to Rule 8(b) to add the additional mechanism for RNC members to call a special meeting as required by the incorporation process. A training session occurred in connection with the Spring Meeting, as is routine and in accordance with RNC Rules,4 but votes simply do not take place during such training sessions.

https://curly.substack.com/p/the-republican-party-was-murdered
Curly Haugland
July 16, 2022

The Republican Party Was Murdered!

Killers provide written confession!

In our previous post announcing the death of the Republican Party, we wrote that “suicide” was suspected.

In a surprising twist, the perpetrators admitted to killing the party in a letter to the Chairman of the Republican Party of North Dakota.

In an apparent reference to me, the RNC lying lawyer that penned the confession accused me of making “a series of patently false claims challenging the RNC’s legal existence”.

His defamatory writing referred to me as a “former National Committeeman and assigned a motive to me of “set(ing) up a rival “republican” organization with himself in charge”.

Lying lawyer attempted to refute my previous statement, “The unauthorized occupiers of the Republican National Committee recently acted to kill the party by creating…a not-for-profit corporation”.

He wrote: “Previously, the RNC operated as an “unincorporated association…” and then further wrote, “Now, the RNC is incorporated as a “member-governed corporation…”.

Seems pretty much that what we previously suspected as “suicide” is, in fact,“murder”, to continue the analogy. The occupiers of the RNC are led by Ronna McDaniel who is listed in official records as the “incorporator” of the not-for-profit Republican National Committee.

IS MONEY THE MOTIVE? WHO FILES THE FEC REPORTS?

Were it suicide, the RNC would obviously not exist today. The “murder” confession, however, confirms that the RNC does not legally exist today, and also exposes the obvious motive of the murder, which is the transfer of the rights, privileges and assets owned by the the members of the previous national association of Republicans everywhere, AKA The Republican Party of the United States, to a “member governed corporation” (RNC, Inc.) as stated in the lying lawyer’s letter.

REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE, INC.?

Lying lawyer wrote “As a member-governed corporation,” the RNC and its members and staff now enjoy far greater protection from personal liability than before, without any meaningful change to its character or structure”.

Here, he confessed that the new management of the RNC, Inc. that enjoy this “protection” consists only of the 168 members of the Republican National Committee and the staff employed by the committee.

WAS THERE A REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION IN 2020?

With respect to our previous claim that there was no Republican National Convention in 2020, there are 2,214 individual Republicans that were elected delegates to a convention, that they did not attend, that are living proof that the quadrennial convention, properly called in accordance with the Rules of the Republican Party, did not convene.

Even in the fabricated Rule 37(e) procedures (sometimes called rules), the lying lawyer and others who created this fiction failed to include a Convention Rules Committee, the most essential element of a convention of delegates, as required by the official parliamentary authority of the Republican Party, Robert’s Rules of Order.

NO RULES? NO CONVENTION!

Most importantly, in Robert’s, “The (convention) Committee on Standing Rules drafts and submits for consideration a group of rules known as “The Standing Rules of the Convention,” which, as adopted, will apply to that one convention only.”

In the 2016 Rules of the Republican Party, Rules 26 through 42, “PROCEEDINGS OF NATIONAL CONVENTION were the convention rules for that convention only.

Even IF the 2020 gang had followed the rules, and had a Rules Committee that recommended adoption of all of the 2016 rules, Rule 37(e) does not give “the RNC…wide latitude” to do anything other than what it says.

Rule 37(e) originated in St. Paul, Minnesota in 2008 during my first stint as a member of the Convention Rules Committee. The transcript of that meeting shows Bill Crocker from Texas stating “This is a proposal…that would allow in the event of some catastrophe…the members of the Republican National Committee to determine an alternate means of taking a vote to determine who our presidential nominee would be”.

Upon adoption, the final rule says, in part, when catastrophe strikes, “then and only then, the roll call for nomination…shall be allowed to be conducted according to procedures authorized by the RNC”. This, under the headline for RULE NO. 37, Roll Call. Rule 37(e) authorized nothing more than a roll call vote for the nomination!

DOES THE RNC EXIST WITHOUT A CONVENTION TO AUTHORIZE IT?

Here is where the lying lawyer “extinguishes” himself.

He writes, “Even if the convention has not occurred, and it very clearly did, the RNC would not disappear in a puff of smoke as the former Committeeman seems to think”. Lying lawyer continues, “The RNC Rules absolutely contemplate that they shall serve as the rules of the Republican National Committee from one convention to the “next”. However, nowhere do the Rules state that they somehow become void or inoperative if the Convention is not held.”

Lying lawyer obviously was reading from the Preamble to the Rules of the Republican Party to learn the duration of the rules to be “from one convention to the ‘next’ “.

In making that claim, however, he fails in his comprehension of the entire Preamble, which is this case, was the Preamble to the 2016 Rules of the Republican Party.

For the sake of clarity, here is the complete paragraph of the Preamble that states the duration of the three distinct sections of the Rules of the Republican Party.

“BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the following be and hereby are adopted as The Rules of the Republican Party, composed of the rules for the election and government of the Republican National Committee until the next national convention, the rules under which delegates and alternate delegates shall be allotted to the respective states in the next national convention, and the rules under which such delegates and alternate delegates shall be elected and under which contests shall be considered, and the rules of business of this national convention.”

The first section of the rules create the Republican National Committee, the next section of the rules describe the process to convene the next convention, and the third section of the rules govern the convention that creates all of the rules.

No one disputes the fact that there was no Convention Rules Committee in 2020; therefore, there was no “Rule 37(e)” no matter how broadly construed since only the convention of 2020 could create rules for the 2020 convention, including Rule 37(e).

NO CONVENTION IN 2020. NO RULES FOR 2024.

And, without a “this convention” in 2020, there are also no “rules for the election and government of the Republican National Committee until the next national convention (in 2024) nor any “rules under which…delegates and alternate delegates shall be elected…(in 2024).

MAJOR LYING LAWYER DEFAMATORY STATEMENTS

The most serious lie, among all the lies lying lawyer included in his letter, were the two contained in footnote number 3 on page 2.

“This is not the first time the former Committeeman has been at odds with President Trump” writes lying lawyer in lie number one of the two.

This lie is obviously a reference to a book I co-authored in 2016 entitled “UNBOUND”. The title of the book is also the subject of the book which was written in an attempt to preserve the First Amendment right of the delegates to the 2016 Republican National Convention to choose the Republican Presidential Nominee.

Based upon my service as a member of the Republican National Committee over a period of 16 years, and including being a member of the Republican National Convention Rules Committee in 2008, 2012 and 2016 as well a 8 years as a member of the RNC Rules Committee, I knew that previous lying lawyers on the staff and in leadership of the RNC intended to allow Critical Primary Theory to control the nomination process.

That book succeeded in its mission and provides conclusive evidence of the second lie in the footnote: “He also tried to disrupt President Trump’s nomination in 2016 by arguing that…despite the plain language of the RNC Rules,…delegates were free to vote for another candidate at the national convention.”

“UNBOUND” PROVED THAT EVERY DELEGATE TO EVERY REPUBLICAN CONVENTION IS FREE TO VOTE AS THEIR CONSCIENCE GUIDES THEM

In “UNBOUND”, we wrote that until and unless the 2016 Republican National Convention adopted the following amendment to Rule 37(b), all delegates to the convention were free to vote for the candidate of their choice:

[P]rovided, however, that in any event, the vote of each State for the nomination for President shall be announced and recorded (or in the absence of an announcement shall be recorded) in accordance with the results of any binding Presidential Primary or direct election of delegates bound or pledged pursuant to state law.

As a result, here is Rule 37 (b) that was subsequently adopted as a convention rule in 2016:

(b) In the balloting, the vote of each state shall be announced by the chairman of such state’s delegation, or his or her designee; and in case the vote of any state shall be divided, the chairman shall announce the number of votes for each candidate, or for or against any proposition; but if exception is taken by any delegate from that state to the correctness of such announcement by the chairman of that delegation, the chairman of the convention shall direct the roll of members of such delegation to be called, and then shall report back the result to the convention at the conclusion of balloting by the other states; however, that in any event, the vote of each state for the nomination for President shall be announced and recorded (or in the absence of an announcement shall be recorded) in accordance with the results of any binding Presidential preference vote or direct election of delegates bound or pledged pursuant to these rules, state party rules, or state law.

“UNBOUND” was written well in advance of “Trump having secured enough delegates to clinch the nomination”, and, in fact, provided Trump campaign lawyers Bill McGinley and Don McGahn the language they were able to get inserted into Rule 37(b) to assure there could be no convention challenge to his nomination.

“UNBOUND” was not written to “disrupt President Trump”s nomination in 2016…”.

Complete details of the 2016 Republican National Convention Rules Committee action to adopt this amendment are in this previous post here:

Gaslighting Republicans

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Only a Republican National Convention of delegates from every state can resurrect the Republican Party from it’s grave. The Republican National Committee, Inc. members have abandoned the Republican Party of the United States, and left it for dead.


For more, see: Gaslighting Republicans