So—
I should probably make a statement about Oakvale’s candidacy, since it pretty fundamentally alters the direction of the Federalist Party in this election cycle.
Unfortunately, people who are up in arms might not be too happy with what I have to say. Basically, every party member has the right to run, and there’s nothing I can do about it. If Oakvale’s candidacy complies with the party’s by-laws, I will be impartial from this point on and I will be sure to administer a fair primary. I will give my full support to whoever wins. I’ll also say that I am not oblivious to the challenges that this party faces in presidential elections. I can’t force people to run or not run, and I’ll work with what we’ve got in the current political climate. Matt and Maxwell have thus far run a strong campaign, and I thank them for stepping up. Hopefully Oakvale will be able to bring something to the table as well.
I’ll point out, though, that the operative phrase in the above paragraph was this one:
“If Oakvale’s candidacy complies with the party’s by-laws…” I hate to do this because I don’t want to pick sides, but Oakvale’s candidacy does not actually comply with the party rules. Section III, subsection 6 states the following:
If my understanding is correct, the next presidential election starts on June 21st, 2013, which is just
under four weeks away. The purpose of this by-law was to ensure that our nominee would have ample time to compete in the general election. Regardless of what you think about the rules, Oakvale cannot run as a Federalist under the current language.
The kink in this whole situation, though… is that I was actually going to propose changing that by-law before there was any indication that Matt would receive a challenger. I was going to amend the rules so that Federalists would have to declare for the presidency
three weeks before the general election. Four weeks seemed awfully excessive.
So we have a bit of a dilemma on our hands, as my proposed amendments will now have extremely important consequences. Here’s what I’m going to do. Later tonight, I will publish my proposals in the thread for our Arkansas convention. I will give two days to discuss the changes, and then I will put each change to a vote. I hope people will judge the changes not on the basis of “Oakvale versus Matt,” but on the basis of what is fair and what would actually be a good idea to enshrine in our party rules (it couldn't be clearer than it is now that the rules actually matter). I’m sorry to put your Federalist candidacy in the balance like this, Oakvale, but there’s not much else I can do.
Hopefully what I’ve proposed is the fairest way to deal with the unfolding situation. This chairman gig is one hell of a job.
Cheers folks,
Hagrid
