I was out Friday, so I’m catching up with my e-mail. This arrived Friday.

Sen. Swecker recovering and ‘feeling great’ after open-heart surgery

OLYMPIA…State Sen. Dan Swecker, R-Rochester, is recovering and "feeling great" after undergoing open-heart surgery yesterday morning at Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia.

"I’m doing just great. I feel really good. It’s almost scary how good I feel," said Sen. Swecker late this morning. He said he felt miserable yesterday afternoon after waking up from surgery, but he felt better last evening. He added that he slept well overnight.

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After multiple roll call votes, the Washington State Republican Convention is officially adjourned.

See you all Monday.

In case you didn’t see this.

I’ve e-mailed David McDonald, a Seattle lawyer and member of the committee, to get his thoughts.

Update: Just got an e-mail from McDonald. I had asked him if the decision was what he expected. “On the main. The details differ a bit.”

Right now at the state Republican convention, they’re counting how many delegates are left on the floor. The magic number is 676. Any fewer than that and there’s not a quorum, which means adjournment is imminent.

After the platform was adopted, which was about an hour ago, people started filtering out. Then it came time to discuss resolutions, a thick packet of proposed add-ons.

A couple people asked for an early adjournment, but nobody bit. Instead, they just kept leaving.

Which brings us to now: All remaining delegates are seated on the floor while organizers

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There are five sections of the platform that weren’t passed. That means the delegates are debating them and considering amendments now.

They just narrowly passed an amendment to add “we reserve the individual right, granted by the Second Amendment, to keep and bear arms” to the first section of the platform. The standing vote had to be counted twice.

Then they passed another amendment to change “granted” to “recognized.”

At the state convention, Republicans are now adopting the platform, section by section. As with any good participatory democracy session, there’s been a bit of confusion.

After each platform section is read, someone makes a motion to “set aside” the section. That means it will be debated later, not thrown out. Here’s where it gets a little confusing: They vote against setting most (8 of the 13) sections aside. That means the section is automatically adopted.

Make sense?

Several audience members have alleged that a group of men — wearing red hats, carrying No

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They just finished debating whether people at the convention should be able to hold up “YES” and “NO” signs. There are more of these signs around the room today than I noticed yesterday.

The signs are used by organizers in advance of and during a vote. On one hand: Things are moving fast and sometimes parliamentary procedure gets confusing. “We’re voting on whether to not set aside the … ” On the other: Some feel the signs are a way to quash dissent. Or at least tell people what they should be thinking.

They ultimately voted

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Right now, Kirby Wilbur is reading the preamble to the state platform, written by a committee of one representative from each county plus the chair.

After this, they’ll move on to adopting individual sections – which is where it might get interesting.

But the preamble has already been adopted. As Wilbur reads it, members of the crowd are clapping, letting out cheers or shouts of approval.

Here’s a bit of it:

We believe that active participation by citizens is absolutely necessary to protect and preserve conservative values which include: preserving free society, free markets, free trade, the sanctity of human life, limited government, low taxes, a minimal bureaucracy, a strong national defense, private property rights, and the concept that government should do for individuals only those things they cannot do for themselves.

Washington State REpublicans believe that good government is based on respect for, and trust in, the ability of individuals to chart the course of their own lives. We believe that respect for each person’s ability, dignity, and liberty is the foundation for a free and prosperous civic body politic. Good citizenship begins with protected rights and ends with accompanying responsibilities.

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