Camden GOP requires good attendance at happy hours to vote at convention

Camden County GOP Chair Kimberley Stuart appears to have retroactively and arbitrarily disenfranchised a majority of county committee members from voting in tonight’s Republican convention after deciding that eligibility was based on the number of happy hours they attended.

The result was a 51-24 second ballot victory for Bill Spadea over Jack Ciattarelli, but Spadea played no role in the rules changes and did not attend the event at a Haddonfield tavern.

Spadea led Ciattarelli on the first ballot, 36-23, with 17 votes cast for Ed Durr.  Ciattarelli and Durr also skipped the session.

Stuart refused to admit about 60% of the elected county committee members, instead deciding last week that the “meeting may be attended only by invited county committee members who have attended three of the last seven regular committee meetings.”

Initially, Stuart required attendance at four of seven meetings, but last week relented and dropped the number to three.   It’s not immediately clear if formal attendance records were kept at the seven meetings, which were described as open-bar happy hour gatherings.

“County committee members are duly elected or appointed according to established procedures, with accountability to their municipal committees—not based on personal social connections or who had drinks with whom,” said Cherry Hill Republican Municipal Chairman Jeff Land.  “This isn’t a social club; it’s the foundation of our party’s governance.

Camden Republicans punted an endorsement of Assembly candidates in the 4th legislative district until after the Gloucester County GOP convention.

Stuart didn’t immediately respond to a late evening email.