Mineral County Republican Executive Committee holds meeting

The Mineral County Republican Executive Committee held a meeting Thursday night at the courthouse to be briefed on the upcoming state Presidential Convention to be held on February 5^th, 2008 in Charleston. Tom O’Neil of the state Executive Committee was on hand to explain West Virginia is moving from selecting a Republican presidential candidate by primary to selecting the candidate by state convention.

Tom O’Neil went on to say by moving to a state presidential convention the West Virginia would become more relevant in selecting a Republican presidential candidate. West Virginia will be the 5^th state to select its Republican presidential candidate behind Iowa, South Carolina, New Hampshire, and Florida respectively.

Mineral County will be allowed to send 27 delegates to the state convention. The 12 county executive committee members are automatically selected. All county chairs, and Republican House of Delegate members are automatically are selected as well. Since both county chair Bob Harman and delegate Bob Schadler are also county executive committee members they are allowed to appoint two additional people. A vote was taken and Sara Geis of Short Gap and Harry Boggs of Keyser were selected to fill those two positions.

One additional convention delegate for every 1,000 registered Republican voters will be granted, which is 8 for Mineral. All counties that the majority voted for George W. Bush in the 2004 Presidential election will be given an additional 5 delegates. This gives Mineral County 13 additional convention delegates.

The 13 additional delegates are open positions. People wishing to serve must be a registered Republican in Mineral County as of July 1, 2007, and file a request to be a delegate with the state Republican Executive Committee in Charleston. If more than 13 apply, a county caucus will be held to narrow the field to 13.

The 27 delegates from Mineral County will help select the Republican presidential nominee at the state Convention. Christy Barnett of New Creek will also serve as a delegate as she is a member of the state executive committee.

In other business Candy Gordon was appointed to take over the position of Treasurer for the County Executive Committee and Sara Geis will take on the roll of Secretary.