A Fight of Their Own

On the eve of the 1972 Republican Convention in Miami Beach, where peace, harmony and utter boredom had been expected to prevail next week, a fight over party reform is now shaping up. With the memory of the Democratic open combat still fresh in the public mind, Republican reformers are aware that their convention procedures may seem to many voters antediluvian, so they are determined to take their case to the convention floor, not only to advance their cause but to enhance the image of Republicanism as well.

The case is a good one. The Republican Party has the aura of a closed corporation. Delegates are sometimes assessed as much as $1,000 simply for the privilege of a seat on the convention floor. For that reason alone, few young, black or poor delegates have ever attended Republican Conventions. In addition, some states hold their caucuses in virtual secrecy, while in others delegates choose their own alternates, so that husband-wife and father-son delegate pairings are not uncommon.

Theater. The men responsible for the Republicans' belated reform movement are Illinois Congressman Tom Railsback and Illinois Senator Charles Percy. Railsback has formed an ad hoc committee that has drafted a set of recommendations for 1976. Among them: open meetings for delegate selection, alternate delegates to be chosen in the same manner as delegates; no automatic seats for party officers or elected officials; an "endeavor" on the part of each state for equal representation of men and women; no abridgment of the right to participate for reasons of "race, sex, religion, age, color or national origin"; and provision of state committee funds to defray a delegate's expenses. Percy, pursuing a different tack, is trying to change the current delegate "bonus" system, arguing that it enables small states to swing more weight relative to their size than large states.*

As mild as the Republican reform measures are compared with those put through by the Democrats, they may face a stiff fight. Conservatives and party regulars view the proposed reforms as a thinly disguised stop-Agnew-in-'76 movement, figuring that most of the new delegates brought in under any reform schemes are not likely to be Agnewites. So far the White House indicates that it will not take sides but let the convention thresh out a response. If nothing else, the battles should be good theater in a script otherwise in search of surprise.

*All states that went Republican in the previous election or elected a Republican Governor or Senator get six bonus delegates. Thus the bonus doubles Alaska's normal delegate strength (6), but only marginally increases Ohio's (50). A district court has ruled the procedure unconstitutional, as a violation of the equal protection clause ot the 14th Amendment.

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