The Republican National Committee is made up of about 165 or so members (a rough estimate), which includes the 50 State Republican Party Chairmen, and a Committeeman and a 
Committeewoman from each of the 50 states and the U.S. Territories. So California’s three representatives to this body are CRP Chairman Duf Sundheim, Tim Morgan, and Barbara Alby. As a practical matter, when there is a Republican in the White House, the RNC members, in practice, defer the running of the National Committee to the President, who exercises this faith by naming the Chairman of the Party (in this case, Ken Mehlman), who goes through a ratification vote by the full committee (but I don’t think the committee has ever turned down the pick of a President). The Chairman runs the day-to-day operations of the party.
The Republican National Committee meets from time-to-time as the policy-setting body of the RNC. Under party rules, they are involved with budgetary issues, matters concerning party rules, the arrangements for national conventions, and more. The committee can, and does, from time to time, consider resolutions. There is an article in the Washington Times about a resolution that will be considered next week by the National Committee, as they meet in Washington, D.C. This resolution is on the immigration issue, and the fact that it is coming up at all (there are very few resolutions that are debated by this body) is a sign that Republican leaders are frustrated by the inability of President Bush and the Republican Congress to tackle this issue-head on. Central to the debate is strong opposition by grassroots GOP activists to any more ‘amnesty’ programs that grant legal status to those currently in the country that violated our nation’s immigration laws to be here.
One of the co-authors of this resolution is California’s National Committeewoman, Barbara Alby (pictured to the right).
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. The usual ‘modus operendi’ of the hierarchy at the RNC is to try to squash any resolutions that come up – especially ones that could be embarrassing to the Administration. But, this is a very prominent issue, and attempts to stifle a strong statement by the volunteer party leaders who make up the RNC (well, many Chairman are ‘professionals’ who are paid to run their state party – though not ours) could backfire. It will be interesting to see what happens. And hopefully one thing that comes out of it is a heightened awareness by the White House that amnesty programs are not the way to go in solving our nation’s illegal immigration problems.
That’s all for now – but keep an eye throughout the day on the FR Weblog to catch the latest news!
Jon
