Most of the attention at this weekend’s California Republican Party Fall Convention in Anaheim will be on the candidates for the party’s 2024 presidential nomination, but behind the scenes there’s a battle brewing over the party platform.
Former Orange County supervisor and state senator, John Moorlach, is on the platform drafting committee and he said there has been a lot of hashing back and forth on the party platform over the past couple of months.
At one meeting, “We were given over 100 pages of amendments,” Moorlach said.
When someone announced there would be a break at 2, Moorlach raised his hand and asked, “Is that 2 a.m. or 2 p.m. because this is going to take all night.”
Then, “all of a sudden they come in with a one-pager,” Moorlach said. “Then, all of a sudden, it’s 5 o’clock and they’re saying we have to get out of this hotel room. So the committee eventually came up with this document that is now four pages instead of 31. Maybe that’s the answer, to keep it simple.”
Now, however, some party members are saying, “We don’t like that, let’s stick with the old one.”
One of the big hang-ups is the party’s stance on abortion.
Orange County GOP Chairman Fred Whitaker said he is pushing for the party to just adopt the current platform so the focus can stay on the presidential candidates.
“We shouldn’t have platform fights in the middle of a presidential election,” Whitaker said.
Many party regulars are signing on to a letter saying, “We should readopt our platform and keep our party united,” Whitaker said. “I’m very optimistic the platform committee will in the end dump the draft and re-adopt the platform and have no floor fights on Sunday…
“If they come out of Saturday with a wonky platform then Sunday will be mad and that will be bad for the party. If we do our work right it will all be behind the scenes and there will be nothing to give (reporters) much to talk about.”
Most of the other excitement will be on Friday when former President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak at a noon lunch banquet.
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who is also seeking the Republican presidential nomination, will conduct a “fireside chat” with California Republican Party Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson at 3 p.m., according to Matt Gorman, the Scott campaign’s senior communications adviser.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will speak at a dinner banquet at 7:30 p.m.
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy is set to speak at a luncheon banquet at noon Saturday.
“I think it’s going to be a very exciting convention,” Whitaker said. “Obviously there’s the four presidential candidates attending, so attendance will be through the roof.”
Anaheim Police Department Sgt. Jon McClintock said city officials are prepared for all the extra traffic and expected activism.
“We handle large-scale events basically every week and we have a lot of history of that,” McClintock said. “We’re well prepared and ready to go. Our mission is to provide a safe place for the attendees, and anyone exercising their First Amendment rights that we provide a safe place for that as well.
“We’re working with our state and federal partners and we’ll have a significant amount of staffing dedicated to the event.”