THE COLLEGE REPUBLICAN National Committee launched its annual convention at the Sheraton Hotel in Arlington, Virginia, on July 13. Hundreds of College Republicans make the pilgrimage every two years to elect a new board and to check up on their comrades in the right-wing conspiracy. According to veterans, the elections can be a serious–and occasionally dirty–business, contaminating the revelries of the weekend with backroom dealings, liquefying alliances, and general enmity.

None of that pettiness this year, however, as Charlie Smith, a Colorado boy with a reformist vocabulary, led an uncontested slate of candidates under the banner of “New CRNC.” The “old,” as it turns out, had “issues of financial transparency” and had stashed some “shady stuff” under its belt. But incoming executive director Ethan Eilon assured, “I can’t imagine anybody being overwhelmingly displeased with Charlie.” And so with no overwhelming–or at least noisy–displeasure, the festivities unfolded in the lobby, where dozens of conservative groups displayed their literature and tendered assistance and doughnuts to the conservative grassroots.