Angry shouts, a student removed from the room, and questionable voting procedures marred the Michigan Federation of College Republicans’ annual convention on April 13.
Two slates, or parties within the party, ran for six positions on the board of the MFCR. The Leadership slate ran against Hillsdale College’s Unite slate. The Unite slate lost the election, but delegates from multiple schools claim the convention was improperly held.
Hillsdale College Republicans claim MFCR Chairman and University of Michigan student Jeff Pfeifer’s actions cost them the election.
“From my perspective, we can’t even be a part of this organization, because it violates the Hillsdale College honor code in such a horrendous way,” said freshman Jordan Finney, who lost the election for chairman. “The chairman was essentially a tyrant. He had a predetermined view of the candidates he wanted put in, and that’s what he did.”
Discord arose from the start. Pfeifer, who was running the convention, called for a vote to run the convention under the 2011 rules. According to video footage of the conference, Pfeifer called for a voice vote that was contested. Pfeifer said the “ayes” won the vote and began to move on with the proceedings.
That’s when Max Rohtbart shouted from the side of the room:
“Division!”
According to Robert’s Rules of Order, which the MFCR constitution adheres to, when a delegate says “division,” it means that instead of judging by the voices, the chairman must count the votes to verify who won.
Pfeifer repeatedly denied Rohtbart’s call. A chorus of “division!” cries arose from the crowd.
“If that gentleman says one more thing escort him out,” Pfeifer said.
“Division!” Rohtbart continued.
“Take him out,” Pfeifer ordered.
“I am a delegate, and I have a right to ask for a formal count!” Rohtbart insisted.
Pfeifer threatened to call campus police. The sergeants in arms, a couple of burly men, walked over to Rohtbart and informed him he had to leave the room. Rohtbart delayed, but eventually complied because of the threat of campus police.
“After the convention started an hour late, Jeff had time to survey the room and see that he did not have a majority on his side,” Finney said. “So he cleverly decided to ram through the 2011 rules without a vote so that he could use unit rule.”
“Unit rule” voting allows delegates to vote with the entire weight of their college Republicans membership even if they are not present at the convention.
Hillsdale College Republicans President Ryan Bolyard said that had the vote been counted, the 2011 rules would have clearly lost.
“The reason he was avoiding the vote was because he knew as well as we did that we had at least 60 percent of the support in the room,” Bolyard said.
Pfeifer had endorsed the Leadership slate’s chairwoman candidate Elena Brennan prior to the convention. Rohtbart said he suspected what Pfeifer was going to do, so he was ready when the vote occurred.
“I had heard of other state parties using the rules committee to change the rules last minute, and I understood the power that a rules committee has,” Rohtbart said.
President of Northern Michigan University College Republicans and newly elected
2nd Vice Chair Justin Bis said that Hillsdale and its allies tried to disrupt the convention.
“I would say that I really didn’t think [the convention] was that unfair from my perspective,” Bis said. “There was a clear set of rules and the rules were followed.”
After the division conflict, Hillsdale College Republicans claims their motions were largely ignored. The video footage shows the parliamentarian Charles Bogren and Pfeifer calling the motions “dilatory” and “frivolous” and moving on.
Bolyard was on the committee tasked with counting the votes for the election and was in the room counting the votes. He says he is 100 percent certain that had unit rule vote not been used, Hillsdale’s United slate would have won the election.
“We would have clearly won the election,” Bolyard said. “I have a written statement by the chairman that the constitution was amended to remove unit rule in September and that it would not be used in this convention. Then he blatantly violated that by allowing unit rule to proceed.”
According to the chairman of Schoolcraft College Republicans, John Dalton, problems began long before the convention. Eastern Michigan University student Anthony Wozniak decided to run for chairman before he knew of Hillsdale’s plans and stepped down. That is when, according to Dalton, the former chairman of the Western Michigan College Republicans Troy Hudson sent a text message to Dalton three weeks before the convention.
Hudson is connected with Pfeifer and was appointed to the rules committee for Saturday’s convention.
According to Dalton, the text read:
“Your boy Wozniak is making a fool out of himself. He sent his stuff in too late and everything else has been settled. If he keeps it up, EMU will get de-chartered and a new group will be started.”
Hudson denies ever sending the text message.
The Collegian corresponded with Pfeifer, but he refused to comment on the allegations or the proceedings at the convention.
The Collegian attempted to contact the new MFCR Chairwoman Elena Brennan, but she was unavailable at the time of publication.
