The platform committee at the Idaho GOP state convention was allotted two days worth of time to settle on changes to the party platform, but it got done this afternoon an hour early and won’t need to meet tomorrow. There were six proposed changes; two were defeated, and four passed.

The two that were defeated both were to remove items from the platform – the call for repealing the 17^th Amendment and doing away with direct election of U.S. senators; and the call to return to the gold standard. Both were debated, but both were defeated, so both of those planks will stay in the Idaho GOP platform, if the full convention accepts the platform committee’s recommendation.

The four that were approved included two calling for more state control of federal public lands; one on education, opposing unnecessary data collection and state funding for early-childhood education; and one to add the word “divinely” before “inspired” in the platform’s preamble, referring to the U.S. Constitution. “That passed with no opposition,” said state Rep. John VanderWoude, R-Nampa, who’s chairing the platform committee this year.

VanderWoude said, “This is only my third convention, and I swore off after two years ago – I said I’d never come back.” That was after the 2014 state GOP convention degenerated into chaos and ended with no agreement on any business, from party leadership to a platform or resolutions. Asked why he relented, VanderWoude said, “Well, it’s local, and I said I probably should go. You can’t hold a grudge forever.” Plus, he added with a chuckle, “I made the mistake of answering my phone.” It was GOP Chairman Steve Yates, asking VanderWoude to chair the platform committee.

VanderWoude said he wasn’t a delegate two years ago; that was part of his beef. “I’m a precinct committeeman, I’m a legislator, and I’m in leadership in the Legislature, and I can’t qualify in Ada County to be a delegate to the convention?” He said he’s heard of a couple more challenges to county delegations pending this year – similar to those that helped derail the 2014 convention; those won’t be taken up until tomorrow, he said. “I think in Ada County, we worked it out,” he said.

The platform committee’s work “went relatively smooth – nobody was mad at anybody when we left, so we’re good,” VanderWoude said. “It’s a good start at least.”

He said he’s hoping that unlike two years ago, the convention will be a success. “I’m hoping for a lot more harmony when we get done – that we do the business we need to get done and we move on,” he said. “I told some people, ‘If somebody makes a motion to adjourn, pretend you didn’t hear it.’” He noted that that’s a non-debatable motion; it’s what shut the 2014 convention down before anything had been decided.