RNC official escalates feud with Reince Priebus, accuses GOP bosses of ‘institutional tyranny’

Charging the Republican National Committee’s top echelons with “institutional tyranny,” Oregon RNC member Solomon Yue has accused Chairman Reince Priebus, a longtime ally, of organizing a covert campaign to discredit him, The Washington Times has learned.

Mr. Yue, a founder of the RNC’s Conservative Caucus and Conservative Steering Committee, also accused RNC General Counsel John Ryder of Tennessee of lying to members about a Yue rules-change proposal that Mr. Priebus opposes.

The accusations are in an email Mr. Yue sent Monday to 56 of his fellow members of the RNC’s Standing Committee on Rules.

The Yue email was the second blast at Mr. Priebus by prominent members of his national committee. As first reported by The Times on Saturday, RNC Rules Committee Chairman Bruce Ash of Arizona circulated an email among his committee’s members in which he accused Mr. Priebus of a “major breach of trust” by concealing from members proposed changes to the rules at the party’s presidential nominating convention.

In Mr. Yue’s email, a copy of which was obtained by The Times, he said he had refused Mr. Priebus’ private requests to withdraw the proposed rules change. Mr. Priebus then ordered Mr. Ryder to tell members that no proposed changes had been submitted, which effectively hid the proposal Mr. Yue said he submitted March 30.

At issue is Mr. Yue’s proposal to substitute the widely used Robert’s Rules of Order for the U.S. House of Representatives Rules as the parliamentary authority at the July Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

Robert’s Rules would require Mr. Priebus to win a majority of votes from convention delegates to reopen nominations after several ballots if neither Manhattan billionaire Donald Trump nor Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas can muster the 1,237 required delegate majority to become the Republican standard-bearer.

By contrast, under the U.S. House rules that traditionally govern Republican national conventions, the chairman could, on his own authority, reopen the nominations and put Ohio Gov. John Kasich or some other establishment-favored “white knight” to be added to the convention ballot.

RNC chief strategist Sean Spicer insisted that “Chairman Priebus continues to believe the RNC should not be recommending changes to any of the rules — it would not be fair to the candidates.”

Mr. Priebus is caught in a dilemma. Some Republican lawmakers are telling him that either Mr. Trump or Mr. Cruz would drag the whole party to defeat at all levels if he is the presidential nominee and Mr. Kasich is the only candidate who would not spell disaster in the general election.

But Mr. Priebus also understands that if he appears to put his finger on the nomination scale to favor one candidate over another, it would likely lead to an angry explosion that would shatter the convention and even the party.

Further complicating Mr. Priebus’ job is that only Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz have won the required majority of delegates from eight states. Mr. Kasich has won only his home state of Ohio and is not leading in polls anywhere.

Mr. Yue has said he is trying to help Mr. Priebus maintain neutrality by offering the “transparency” of Robert’s Rules. But Mr. Priebus called Mr. Yue last week to ask him to withdraw his Robert’s Rules proposal, let it be tabled, or at least allow the RNC’s counsel’s office to sit on the proposal instead of sending it to members, according to Mr. Yue’s email.

When Mr. Yue declined, Mr. Priebus asked him to let Mr. Ryder’s office sit on the proposal until Monday before sending it to members.

Mr. Yue wrote that he “agreed to that request as a favor” to Mr. Priebus and that he was concerned only that the members know he had submitted his proposal before the spring meeting in Florida.

Mr. Yue wrote that while this was going on, “reporters called to tell me” that a team of whips had been organized to pressure Rules Committee members to vote against Mr. Yue’s proposal.

A whip — not identified in Mr. Yue’s email — told a reporter that the Robert’s Rules proposal was a gimmick to help Mr. Yue win re-election to the RNC. Mr. Yue pointed out in his email that he has already won re-election and the proposed rules change is a serious effort to keep the party from destroying itself.

“I reported all this to Reince Priebus, who assured me that there is no organized effort to question my character and integrity,” he wrote. “I told [him] my character and integrity are very important to me and this is why I lasted 16 years as Oregon national committeeman.”

The next phase of Mr. Priebus’ effort to block Mr. Yue’s proposal came in the form of a phone call from Mr. Ryder, who “asked me if I plan to do a ’light’ defense” for my Robert’s” proposal,” according to Mr. Yue. “I told him, I would fight for my proposal all the way to the convention and transparency is now an even more important issue than when I started this.”

Next, he wrote, “we all received the Counsel’s office email stating Counsel’s Office has not received any pre-submitted rule amendment proposals at this time.”

“I was shocked,” Mr. Yue wrote. “I had presubmitted my Robert’s [proposal] on March 30.”

Mr. Yue then complained to Mr. Ash, the Rules Committee chairman, telling him that “when an institutional power, including counsel’s office, unfairly and systematically is used to crush a member’s dissenting voice, we have institutional tyranny.”