COEUR d'ALENE - No matter which side of the Republican aisle they are on, many of the local party delegates who attended the state GOP convention last week say it was chaotic.

"It was a complete challenge down there," said Neil Oliver, Kootenai County Republican Central Committee chairman.

Oliver attended the convention in Moscow last week, and held a seat on the controversial credentials committee, where some say the trouble started.

According to media reports, the credentials committee refused to seat delegates from several counties in southern Idaho. None of Ada County's 102 delegates were seated.

Oliver said there were four counties in question: Twin Falls, Ada County, Power County and Bannock County.

"Power County was different," he said. "They stated they didn't have their reorganization done within the deadline, so they couldn't be seated."

The issue with the other county delegates who weren't seated was much more complicated, Oliver said.

"The slate ballot method, in my opinion, was just not right," Oliver explained. For instance, Oliver said, in Ada County the central committee put up a slate of delegates to be voted on as a bloc, but a majority of the credentials committee interpreted the rules to say that each delegate must be voted on separately.

"The way we did it in Kootenai County was the precinct committeemen had an opportunity to nominate whoever they wanted and each individual got a vote from the whole body," he said. "As a chairman you have to follow the state rules as closely as possible, but this was an interpretation issue."

Oliver said the state rules for electing delegates to the state convention does not clearly define the delegate voting process.

"I think that is what the problem is," he said. "The state rules are not absolutely, positively clear."

The credentials committee was put in the position of interpreting that rule to decide if the delegates in question could be seated.

"It is important to note that it was a personal decision each individual committee member had to make," he explained. "It's a lot like sitting on a jury; each member had to come to their own conclusion."

Oliver voted with the majority not to seat the delegates who were elected by the slate method. The final vote was 35 to 6.

"I believe everyone should be able to nominate someone and those nominees should be voted on individually," Oliver said. "I managed to be able to do that, and it's a challenge each county chairman has to face."

The convention, however, melted down before the full body of delegates could vote to ratify the credentials committee's decision.

Some believe the whole convention was orchestrated to keep a minority of the party in power at the state committee level.

Jim Pierce, chairman of Legislative District 4, said the whole convention process was a mess. Pierce was denied a committee assignment at the convention - even though section two of the state party rules clearly say he is in charge of appointing one delegate to the state party for a committee assignment.

"This is where I am comfortable using the word corrupt," he said, while showing an email exchange he had with Trevor Thorpe, the state party executive director, who agreed to seat him on a committee.

"When I got down there, I learned that Kathy Sims was seated to represent District Four," he said. "When people started showing up and saw this stuff going on, they said 'so much for unity.'"

He said the whole thing seemed to be orchestrated.

"Little rulings along the way kept things moving the way they wanted them to," Pierce said. "When you hear fiasco and all of those kind of words, it is not an exaggeration. Not at all."

Pierce said the ultra-conservatives who were stacked on the credentials committee were wrong to deny delegates from the four counties.

"There is no set way in the state rules for selecting delegates at the county level," he said. "This was all decided beforehand. It was the current party leadership trying to hold on to power as a minority in the party."

The issue of control over the party has yet to be determined because the convention was adjourned before new officers were elected at the state level.

Before the convention adjourned, 1st District Congressman Raul Labrador informed the seated delegates that if they voted to adjourn, the current state officers would continue to serve another two years until the party's 2016 convention.

That was immediately challenged by a number of delegates, and the party's attorney Jason Risch was asked to analyze whether that was legal.

Risch consulted attorney Jesse Binnall, a Certified Professional Parliamentarian, to review the party rules and state law to determine if extending the terms of the former officers was legal.

Both Risch and Binnall determined that the end of the convention ended the terms of the current officers.

"It is my opinion that the terms of the prior officers expired at the convention and, in the absence of elections to select replacements, those offices are now vacant," Binnall wrote to the party leadership Monday. "The party should proceed to fill those vacancies pursuant to the Idaho Republican Party Rules."

Risch concurred, telling the party leadership that the state central committee would have to be convened to elect new party officers.

However, attorney Christ Troupis, who ran unsuccessfully in the May 20 primary against Attorney General Lawrence Wadsen for the Republican nomination, issued an opposing opinion on Tuesday.

"It is my legal opinion, based on the explicit words of the rules of the Idaho Republican Party, the general purpose and consistency of those rules, doctrines of estoppel and quasi-estoppel and general rules applicable to other statues, that the chairman (and other party officers) elected by the 2012 Idaho State Republican Convention remain in their offices at this time," Troupis wrote.

Basically, the estoppel doctrines are pertinent, he said, because Labrador, who chaired the convention, led delegates to believe their vote was both to end the convention and re-elect the former officers.

Pierce said he is aware of two petitions calling on the state party to reconvene the central committee later this summer to elect new officers. He has signed one of them.

Oliver said there has been no decision to reconvene the central committee yet, but he had not checked all of his email yet.

"I am really not sure where the party is at right now," Oliver said. "I am not sure what we have at this point."

Former state Chairman Barry Peterson and Trevor Thorpe did not return cellphone messages on Tuesday.