The Vermont Republican Party executive committee tried to keep the lowest possible profile in deciding to waive its rule against nominating convicted felons*. Understandable; even the most diehard Trumpers possess some capacity for embarrassment. Their meeting last Wednesday was a closed-door affair. If it was recorded, which I doubt, the audio or video have not been made public. The party did not disclose the vote total; its press release said only that the Trump exemption passed by “a narrow margin.” And don’t expect any details from the written record of the proceedings, which party chair Paul Dame characterized as “some kind of minutes” that “don’t capture the nature of the discussion necessarily.”

*As I predicted it would. Went way out on a limb there.

Yeah, well, sure.

But as it happens, I have received a breakdown of the vote from a highly reliable source (who is not a member of the committee, and that’s all I’ll say about them). And wouldn’t you know it, Dame could have blocked the exemption — but he chose not to cast a vote at all.

Brave man.

The vote was five in favor of exempting Trump and four against. Now, there are 14 members of the executive committee, so either attendance was low or abstention was a popular option. The specifics:

Voting to nominate the felon were five unabashed Trumpers: former party chair Deb Billado; Republican National Committee members Jay Shepard and Suzanne Butterfield; former state representative Tom Koch; and August Murray, last seen taking part in a coup at the Windsor County Republican Committee. Murray and friends also filed a lawsuit against the state party and former county chair John MacGovern over a possible (and if so, trivial) procedural misstep, which was laughed out of court but, as far as I know, has not been formally abandoned. The losing lawyer (and former Republican candidate for attorney general, how absurd is this party, really?) Deb Bucknam was last seen threatening to continue the fight if the victorious defendants didn’t capitulate to her terms.

So yeah, a guy who took the state party to court for ridiculous reasons is also on the state party executive committee — and he cast the deciding vote in favor of Trump.

The four who voted against nominating the Orange Criminal were state Rep. Casey Toof; auto dealer and unsuccessful House candidate Joe Luneau of St. Albans; Josh Bechhoefer, Republican candidate for state treasurer; and Dan Feliciano, 2014 Libertarian candidate for governor who has since foresworn his Libertarian affiliation and joined the VTGOP. Ten years of party loyalty and counting!

Honestly, I’m surprised there were that many committee members willing to step in front of the Trump Train. Most Republicans who do so find themselves suffering the fate of Wile E. Coyote. But there’s a common thread that ties the four: They have all been candidates for public office, and presumably have a notion of Trump’s toxicity amongst Vermont voters. Or maybe they just have an ethical hangup about backing a convicted felon, who knows.

Dame was deliberately vague about his decision not to decide. When asked by VTDigger if he normally abstained from such votes, he cagily replied, “Well, I’ll say there have been other votes where I have voted.”

In truth, the guy’s in a pickle. He chairs an organization dominated by Trumpers in a state where Trump is despised by a clear majority of the electorate — and where the party’s only winning candidate, Gov. Phil Scott, can’t stand Trump. If Dame had voted to uphold the felon ban, he probably would have been kicked out of office. If he had voted with the Trumpers, he would have lost whatever shred of credibility he still has with Team Scott.

Still, you might expect someone in a position of responsibility to, you know, exercise responsibility on a matter of principle. After all, the party chose to enact the rule barring the nomination of criminals. It must have had good reason to do so. Like, the Republican Party generally likes to position itself as tough on crime. But they’re just fine with supporting a criminal for the most important position on Earth.