Is Alaska Republican Party Platform Being Hijacked?

photo credit: donkeyhoteyAnchorage, AK – Restoring Liberty received word last week of an effort underway to convene a series of closed-door invitation-only meetings intended to rewrite the Alaska Republican Party Platform in order to make it “reasonable-sounding to the average voter.”

Multiple conservative leaders in Anchorage have voiced concern over the secret meetings they believe are designed to purge the platform of social conservative values.

New information lends the appearance of a coordinated effort with acting State Chair Peter Goldberg and RNC representative Mike Shirley who were carbon copied on an email outlining the agenda for the “platform workshops.”

Such a move is sure to raise tensions ahead of the Juneau Convention scheduled for early May.

Many are already upset that the left-leaning State Central Committee voted to hold the State Convention off the road system for the second time in the last four years, presumably to block participation from more conservative areas of the state. The trip to Juneau is cost prohibitive for many.

The 2008 and 2012 Conventions on the road system ended poorly for party boss Randy Ruedrich and his “moderate” friends. After narrowly escaping majority opposition led by Joe Miller and former Governor Sarah Palin who sought to remove him as party chair in 2008, Ruedrich shut down the 2012 Convention prematurely in order to avert a rules change that would have done exactly that.

A subsequent reconvene granted at the parliamentarian’s insistence that the party comply with Robert’s Rules was also shut down when the former party chair took to the public airwaves and the press to discourage participation in order to block a quorum.

Coming on the heels of media reports linking US Senate candidate Dan Sullivan to a left-leaning cabal of outside billionaires seeking to remake the Republican Party by offering amnesty to millions of illegal aliens and pushing the door open for acceptance of gay marriage, more traditional Republicans are understandably nervous.

In the email forwarded to Restoring Liberty, failed 2012 party chair candidate Bruce Schulte opined that “our platform should not be an Albatross hung around the neck of every Republican regardless of the office they seek or the makeup of their constituency.”

It also outlined a list of objectives for the re-write: including, to “make the platform more inclusive of different perspectives [and] demographics . . . more positive . . . Alaska-centric . . . [and] to avoid alienating too many people.”

Attachments were provided to guide the process, inclusive of Republican platforms from Alaska, Utah and New Mexico, as well as those of the Alaska Democrat and Libertarian platforms.

Restoring Liberty was not invited, nor are we privy to who was blind copied on the email.