Sixteen of 23 New Hampshire delegates to the Republican National Convention participated in person or by telephone in a meeting Friday morning to vote to fill convention committee slots – and all 16 voted for a slate dominated by Donald Trump delegates.

Advertisement Updated: Lewandowski officially elected chair of NH delegation to GOP national convention 16 of 23 delegates participate in Friday vote, all back Trump convention committees slate Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Sixteen of 23 New Hampshire delegates to the Republican National Convention participated in person or by telephone in a meeting Friday morning to vote to fill convention committee slots – and all 16 voted for a slate dominated by Donald Trump delegates.As a result of the vote, Trump national campaign manager Corey Lewandowski of Windham is now officially the chairman of the New Hampshire delegation to the convention, slated for Cleveland in July.Click to watch News 9's coverage.Trump supporters occupy six of eight slots on the Rules, Platform, Credentials and Permanent Organization committees.The only-non Trump delegates who will represent New Hampshire on convention committees are Republican National Committeeman Steve Duprey, who was named to the Rules Committee because of his knowledge of the rules, and Republican National Committeewoman Juliana Bergeron, who was named to the Platform Committee.Serving on the Rules Committee with Duprey will be Ellen Suprunowicz-Stepanek, a Trump delegate. Named to the Platform Committee was state Rep. Stephen Stepanek, a Trump New Hampshire campaign co-chair and delegate.State Rep. Al Baldasaro and his wife, Judy Baldasaro, who are also Trump delegates, were named to the Credentials Committee. And named to the Permanent Organization Committee were state Trump campaign co-chair and delegate state Rep. Fred Doucette, and Paula Johnson.Attending the meeting were Bergeron and Trump delegates Stepanek, Al Baldasaro, Doucette, Lou Gargiulo, and state Reps. Dan Tamburello and Joshua Whitehouse. Nine delegates participated by telephone – NHGOP chairwoman Jennifer Horn, former U.S. Sens. Bob Smith and Gordon Humphrey, Duprey, Lewandowski, Suprunowicz, Johnson, Robert Burns and Judy Baldasaro.Not participating in the meeting were non-Trump delegates former New Hampshire House Speaker Bill O’Brien, who has said that he will not support Trump, as well as Melissa Stevens, Jim Merrill, Tom Rath, Jim Adams, Gordon MacDonald and former U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu.Stepanek said he did not want to try to interpret why seven non-Trump delegates did not participate. He noted the meeting was called on short notice for the Friday before Mother’s Day weekend.O’Brien said he did not attend the meeting because he had been traveling, and, he said, “Quite frankly, I understood where the result was going. I knew the Trump people were going to vote themselves in. It’s ironic how it’s fair when it goes their way.”O’Brien said he plans to attend the convention and cast his ballot for the candidate he supported, Ted Cruz. He said he cannot support Trump, whose temperament, he said, “has more than disqualified him from being president.”Adams, a Jeb Bush delegate who is now unbound, said he had a medical appointment that conflicted with the meeting.Reached Friday afternoon, Adams said he intends to attend the convention, but he said his vote on the first ballot will be for Bush, even though he knows that it will a symbolic vote only.Adams said that as a grandfather of young girls, he was concerned that Trump recently said that transgender people should be allowed to “use whatever bathroom that they feel is appropriate.” He also said is concerned because Trump “was pro-choice before he was pro-life.”Other delegates who did not attend the meeting did not return calls seeking comment.Dispute endsThe vote ended a controversy that began last weekend when party chair Horn, who was a frequent harsh critic of Trump during the New Hampshire primary campaign, proposed her own slate of convention committee members. Horn proposed herself as delegation chairwoman, and her slate contained no Trump delegates.She set up an email vote that was to be completed by mid-day last Monday.The Trump delegates were outraged given that Trump won the New Hampshire primary by a more than two-to-one margin. Negotiations ensued involving Horn and party officials, as well as top Trump national campaign officials Paul Manafort and Rick Wiley. Horn canceled the vote amid the uproar on Monday even though her slate prevailed in the email balloting.All 12 non-Trump delegates had supported her slate and all 11 Trump delegates opposed it. Still, she rescheduled the vote until the Friday meeting.The landscape changed dramatically on Tuesday, as Trump won the Indiana primary and was declared the presumptive nominee by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. At that point, there was no longer a realistic possibility of a contested convention, and Horn acquiesced to the Trump delegation, which put forward its own slate.Thursday, Horn issued a statement congratulating Trump on all but securing the nomination and promoting party unity. And Friday, she was among those who backed the Trump delegates’ slate.“I’m not happy with the process getting here, but I’m happy with where we are right now,” Doucette said.“It was sad to take the action we did to get the party chairman to recognize that we have 11 delegates out of 23 and that we deserve representation on the committee,” Gargiulo said. “With that said, I’m happy with the outcome. I think we’re going to be a united front in Cleveland.”Hard feeling remainYet, there were clear signs among the Trump delegates who attended the meeting on Friday that hard feelings remain.Doucette called Horn’s letter “a day late and a dollar short. What was clearly stated here is that the people’s voice need to be heard. We’re sick of the establishment, we’re sick of the back room deals.”He said Horn “absolutely” should resign.“I listened to her berate Mr. Trump during the primary process. That’s not her place. She’s supposed to remain neutral. She failed to do that. She failed us as a party in the state, and she should do the honorable thing and step down.”“I’m a strong advocate that she should step down,” Gargiulo said. “I think her actions have been abominable. She has not demonstrated a balance that a party chairman needs in a state like New Hampshire where we’re first in the nation.”“We’re willing to work with Jennifer Horn,” Baldasaro said. “But I stand by what I said before, that she should have stayed neutral. She had no business whatsoever going after Donald Trump during the primary. If you want your First Amendment, then step out of the chair’s position.”But Stepanek, who was among the first to call for Horn’s resignation, is now advocating unity.“At this point in time, I am completely focused on bringing together Republicans in New Hampshire to support Donald Trump and the entire Republican ticket,” Stepanek said. “And I’m going to avoid doing anything that is going to be divisive. So, I’m not calling for anybody’s resignation at this point in time. I’m calling for everybody to unify.”Bergeron said, “There are some hard feelings, but this is the beginning of unifying and we’re going to be working towards that. I think people will come around.”She replied, “No comment,” when asked if she believes Horn should resign.Disappointed in Speaker RyanTrump delegates were also disappointed by U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan’s Thursday comments that he was not ready to support Trump and by word that former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush do not plan to endorse him.“Paul Ryan is one of the leaders in the party and he should have supported Donald Trump,” Baldasaro said. “I’m disgusted over it.”“He’s a hypocrite. He needs to wake up and smell the coffee, get his head out of the sand and support the party,” he said. “Ryan is the one with the problem, not Donald Trump.”“What I don’t get is that everybody talks about party unity. Now is the time for party unity. We have one person we should be attacking, and that’s Hillary Clinton,” Doucette said.“Everybody is licking their wounds,” Gargiulo said. “It has been a bruising primary process with 17 candidates. And I think now people need to get behind the nominee, and I think you’re going to see that happen.”“I was definitely somewhat surprised at that comment by Paul Ryan,” Steve Stepanek said. “We need to start uniting the entire party, and all that does is continue the divisiveness.”But Bergeron was optimistic.“Trump is a deal-maker,” she said. “He proclaims himself that, and he’s going to have to learn to make a deal with Paul Ryan, and I think Paul Ryan will come around. I don’t think it should be too easy for Donald Trump, and he’ll prove his mettle when he makes that deal.”Stepanek: Trump will be back in NHStepanek also predicted that Trump will return to New Hampshire during the general election campaign because it is a swing state. He also said he considers Massachusetts to be in play.Stepanek said polls now showing Hillary Clinton leading Trump nationally and in New Hampshire are “way too early. We haven’t pivoted and started working on Hillary Clinton.”