URGENT: Texas GOP Prepares to BAN Recordings of their Votes at SREC Open Meetings

update: I has been said that video and pictures are not needed at SREC meetings because audio recording is allowed. The problem is there are no roll call votes so audio recording will NOT show how SREC members vote. Only Video Recording will show how each SREC member votes.

Please pass this information around to Grassroots Republicans in Texas. The vote is THIS Saturday June 8th, 2013

URGENT: Contact the Texas GOP Headquarters (click here) and Contact your Texas SREC member (click here) NOW and ask them to vote in FAVOR of transparency! Ask them to NOT BAN their voting records from being recorded. 

This Saturday, June 8th, 2013, the Texas GOP State Republican Executive Committee (SREC) will be voting on a standing rule to either allow or ban video and photographs of Texas GOP open meetings.

I am not bashing the Party. I just want to keep the party from making a HUGE mistake. I stand by the conservative values of the Texas GOP platform and many of the SREC members are great conservatives, but unfortunately, many Texas GOP Officials this Saturday plan to vote to NOT ALLOW video recording or photographs of their votes at Texas GOP SREC meetings. Not allowing video or photographs goes against Texas GOP rules requiring open meetings, it goes against the wishes of the thousands of Republican Delegates who, at the last Texas GOP State Convention voted to allow recording of Republican meetings, and it also is a slap in the face of transparency. How can we demand open government and demand to know how our elected officials vote if the Texas GOP officials who run the Party do not even want their votes to be recorded?

This vote should be a no brainer right? You would think it would be an easy YES to allow recording so constituents can see how the elected members of the SREC vote. Surprisingly, MANY Texas GOP elected officials want to BAN grassroots Republicans from being allowed to record their votes. That is right, the same Republican leaders who are now wanting to hide their votes from the cameras are also the same people who turn around and demand transparency in government and demand that constituents have the right to see how their elected officials are voting. Hypocritical don't you think?

TEXAS GOP RULES REQUIRE OPEN MEETINGS EVEN TO THE MEDIA

It is important to understand that, per current Texas GOP rules, the SREC meetings are OPEN to EVEN THE MEDIA. If there is something confidential that the SREC must discuss then they can go into executive session. Other than closed executive session, the meetings are required to be open to even the liberal media. The Republican Party has this open meetings rule because we are FOR transparency and FOR constituents being able to see how we vote.

Republican Delegates at Last State Convention Voted to ALLOW Video Recording of Meetings

At the most recent Texas Republican Party State Convention, thousands of delegates voted to ALLOW video recording of all the Republican Convention committee meetings. How can the SREC go against the wishes of the Republican delegates who elected them to serve on the SREC by denying recording of open State Republican meetings?

So why, if the meetings are open and even members of the media are already allowed to be at the meetings, would Texas GOP officials want to ban even just photographs of the meetings?

I was a member of the SREC last year and I pushed for this kind of transparency during my term. I received MANY comments from fellow current SREC members as to why they are not for more transparency like photographs of meetings. Some of the members against recording are not bad people but are misguided. Then there are some of the members though who just plain and simple do not want you to know how they vote. 

THE ACTUAL RESPONSES FROM TEXAS GOP OFFICIALS WILL SHOCK YOU (See Below)

Some Texas GOP officials told me that they do not want video or photographs at the open meeting because they say that "if their constituents want to know how they are voting then their constituents can go to Austin like them and see how they vote." This response is one of the most shocking. The members of the SREC are elected to represent their constituents. The SREC members are elected to go to Austin so their constituents do not have to. How dare anyone say that if you want to know how they vote you can come to Austin and see for yourself. By the way, the Texas GOP does not even post on their website the schedule of when and where the SREC meetings will be so how do constituents even know about the meetings? Can you imagine the uproar that these same SREC members would be in if their congressman told them that they are banning all recording and video stream of congressional votes and if Republicans wants to know how their congressman votes well then the constituent can just go to Washington D.C. and see for themselves.

As another example, I actually had SREC members tell me that they do not want to be recorded because they "might vote or act differently if they know they are on camera." What? So you don't want your constituents to see how you vote because you might vote differently if you know they can see you vote?

Some of the Texas GOP officials told me that they do not want photographs or video because they "do not want liberals to know what they are talking about in the Republican meetings." That excuse would make sense if the Texas GOP SREC meetings were CLOSED. That excuse is laughable because the meetings are required to be OPEN and liberal members of the media are ALREADY ALLOWED to be at the open meetings and can hear and see what is voted on. The SREC Bylaws even SPECIFICALLY WELCOME the media to the open meetings. Do you really think that the liberal members of the media do not already have secret recorders at the meetings? Even if they don't, they are there at the open meeting and can still hear and report about what happens in the meeting regardless of whether or not they recorded it. That is what executive session is for. Per the Texas GOP rules, all SREC meetings are open, but when something confidential needs to be talked about, away from the ears of the liberal media, the rules allow for executive session behind closed doors.

There were many other excuses given for why SREC members should not have their votes recorded, but I will give you just one more surprising excuse. One SREC member told me that their constituents do not need any recordings of the meetings because "they will tell their constituents everything the need to know about the meetings." Who are you to determine what your constituents need and do not need to know about what issues you vote for and against at the SREC meetings. Your constituents have a right to see all the votes you make at the meetings and not just the ones that you think they need to know about!

MANY TEXAS GOP SREC MEMBERS DO NOT WANT THEIR CONSTITUENTS TO SEE HOW THEY VOTE

So the question still remains, why would anyone in the Texas GOP be against allowing people to record their votes in the OPEN SREC meetings?

The answer is simple, many SREC members who are against recording at the open meetings do not want their constituents to know how they vote at the meetings. You see, when the elected SREC members vote on an important issue, the overall vote is recorded in the minutes, but there is no record of how each individual member voted. It is very rare for the SREC to allow a roll call vote. What does this mean? This means that, unless you are actually at the Texas GOP meetings to watch the voting, there is no recording of how your SREC member votes. (Did I mention that the Texas GOP does not even post on their website the schedule of when and where the SREC meetings will be?)

If Video or Photographs are allowed, these SREC members would not be able to keep their votes hidden. Their constituents who want to know how they vote would not even have to travel to Austin because they can just see the video or picture of who voted for or against important issues. This is not what some SREC members want. Some of them don't want people to know how they vote. Well, in my opinion, that is exactly why we NEED recording of how they are voting. Most of the time when someone wants to hide their vote, that means they are doing something that they know the people who elected them would not like.

Call the Texas GOP and State Republican Executive Committee NOW. If they vote against transparency it will give the Party a black eye.

The time has come for more transparency in the Texas GOP. If the SREC votes against voting transparency and open meetings, then it will leave a black eye on the Party. The party will be seen as hypocritical to demand transparency in government votes but not transparency of their own votes.

Regardless of what happens this Saturday, this Issue WILL be brought up at the next Texas GOP State Convention and I am confident the Republican Delegates in Texas will vote, once again, for transparency and to allow recording of votes in Texas Republican State Meetings.

Thank you SREC Member Bill Eastland for calling for this vote to allow recording of votes at open Texas GOP SREC meetings!

Joe Straus Tricks at TX GOP Convention – Straus REJECTED from National Delegate List

Texas Speaker of the House Joe Straus had to play some dirty tricks at the State Convention in order to keep from being humiliated from the silent walkout that was planned against him. He wrongly used fellow State Reps as Pawns and Shields. Joe Straus did not leave the Convention without humiliation though because Straus was rejected from being a National Delegate! Sadly, Texas GOP leaders are bashing the conservatives who removed Straus (see below)

Straus Dirty Trick – Used State Reps as Pawns at Texas GOP Convention

Joe Straus is not a popular guy among conservative Republicans in Texas. At the last convention he was loudly booed when he was introduced and came on the stage. This year the opposition to Straus wanted to be more respectful so they planned to just get up and walk out when Straus was introduced. The 2012 Convention Schedule that was VOTED ON had Joe Straus coming on to the stage to speak before the rest of the Texas State Representatives all came on the stage. Joe Straus and his buddies in the Texas GOP did not want Straus to be embarrassed so they decided to change the schedule and use the State Reps from Texas as pawns and shields. Instead of Straus coming out and speaking first, the schedule was changed last second to have the State Reps come out first and stand behind Joe Straus as Straus gave a speech. This was downright dirty to use my State Rep as part of his trick. My State Rep, and all the State Reps, had to walk out to the Stage while a pro Joe Straus political video was playing. If someone did want to boo the Joe Straus Video they would look like they were booing the State Reps walking out. These State Reps were treated like doormats. They did not get their introduction and were really just the backdrop for Straus. Once all of the State Reps were on the stage and the video ended, there was no introduction for Straus. Straus just stepped up and started talking with all the State Reps standing behind him to protect him from any possible backlash. Even with the change in schedule and the trick of using the Texas State Reps as Pawns, there was still a group of well over 100 who realized what was going on and went into the hallways to start chanting OUST STRAUS and NO STRAUS. watch video here

Daniel Greer also wrote about this tactless move on his AgendaWise website here

Speaker Joe Straus removed from National Delegate List

The At-Large National Delegates are nominated by the Permanent Nominations Committee at the State Convention. In order to allow room for regular republicans to be delegates to the National Convention, the only elected officials who get preferential treatment are the Statewide elected officials. People who are actually elected by the entire state of Texas (Governor, Attorney General, etc.)

This year, State Republican Executive Committeeman Eric Opiela was on the Permanent Nominations Committee. Eric tried to include Joe Straus into the list of Statewide Elected officials who get to be National Delegates.

Joe Straus is NOT a statewide elected official. Joe Straus IS NOT elected by the people of Texas and he probably WOULD NEVER BE. Joe Straus is only elected by the people of his San Antonio House District. He is not more a statewide elected official than my State Rep or any of the other 150 State Representatives. Joe Straus is given the title of Speaker and is not elected in a statewide vote to be Speaker.

One brave woman on the Nominations Committee, Kathy Haigler, made a motion to remove Joe Straus from the list of Statewide Elected officials because Joe Straus is not a Statewide Elected Official and if you opened the door for State Reps to get preferential treatment then there would not be any room on the national delegate list for regular Republicans to be delegates. It was also brought up that the delegates at the State Convention would likely reject Joe Straus when the Nominations Committee presented the report to the Convention Delegates. Other members of the Nominations Committee, including Bill Eastland, also openly supported Haigler’s motion.

It was obvious that this was another one of the Joe Straus bag of tricks. It was planned beforehand to try to get Joe Straus on the list of National Delegates as a Statewide office holder. Eric Opiela made his rounds and tried to get people to vote for Joe Straus, but the majority of the members on the Nominations Committee voted against Joe Straus and his name was removed from the National Delegate List. The people on the Nominations Committee are chosen to be on the committee by the delegates at the convention.

TX GOP Leaders are Attacking Kathy Haigler for Doing the Right Thing!

Sadly, Kathy Haigler is being attacked for doing the right thing and removing Straus from the list of statewide elected officials who get to be on the list of national delegates.

According to an article by Donna Garner on Voices Empower, on Monday, Michael Bergsma (who nominated Haigler), sent out an email accusing her of ambushing him, hurting him personally, hurting the CD27 Caucus, and hurting the State Republican Party. He said he has “egg on his face” and now suffers from reduced credibility.  He attacked Haigler for striking Straus from the national delegate list and repeatedly stated his embarrassment.  Bergsma said Haigler cannot be trusted and will never be given a position of trust again.

An hour later, SREC Committeewoman Becky Berger piggy-backed on Bergsma’s e-mail, expressing the same sentiment.

SREC Committeeman Bob Jones also jumped on the bandwagon in a reply to the distribution list.

Lee Brandon, a CD27 state delegate, told Haigler she will forever wear a scarlet letter of betrayal.

So let me get this right…. Joe Straus is elected by Democrats and even campaigns for Democrats against Republicans, and it is Haigler who is the bad guy and not Straus? Haigler did the right thing. Joe Straus is not a statewide elected official and he should not get preferential treatment over other republicans to be a delegate. Straus would not even have been voted by the delegates of the convention to be a delegate anyways and he certainly does not represent the conservative Republicans in Texas. Kathy Haigler did the right thing.

Shame on these Republican leaders for attacking Haigler.

I guess I am not surprised though. Becky Berger is a nice lady and I get along with her. She is dead wrong sometimes though and this is one of those issues. I was also shocked at some of her actions earlier this year. I send out my articles, like this article, via email. I actually got an email from Becky earlier this year asking me to not send any emails to ANY Republicans in her district. I was shocked! Not only does that go against the First Amendment, but it also goes against transparency and, even worse, she is making the decision about what emails people in her district should or should not get! It is up to the individual Republicans in her district to make the decision of what emails they want to get. She does not speak for them and cannot make their decisions for them. I never got one complaint from anyone in her district and if any of them want to not get emails from me they just have to click a button at the bottom of my email to get off of my list.

Joe Straus is NOT Conservative. 2011 Texas Legislature Passed Conservative Bills IN SPITE of Straus

Joe Straus is not stupid. He is a politician and a weak leader who will side with whatever will not stir up too much controversy among the State Reps. In 2010, the people of Texas overwhelmingly elected conservative Republicans to the State House. Part of the reason so many new conservative State Reps were elected was in an effort to Oust Straus. The 2011 session of the Texas Legislature had a super majority of Republicans. Joe Straus knew that he would not be able to stop some of the big pro life and voter id bills from getting passed. This is why some good legislation was passed out of the 2011 State Legislature. It had nothing to do with Joe Straus. For all we know, Joe Straus is not even pro-life! When Straus was a regular State Rep he certainly did not vote pro life and Straus has not come out and said he has changed to pro-life. All Joe Straus did was not stand in the way of the pro-life bills in the Texas House. He did this because he knew it would be the nail in his coffin if he tried to get in the way.

Democrat Rep. Castro had this to say to the Texas Tribune just this past weekend, “Joe, if it were up to him, I think would have a more moderate Texas,” he said. “But he’s presiding over a Republican Party that is very extreme today, and if he’s going to stay Speaker, he’s going to have to curry favor with them.”

I guess we should be thankful to Straus because Straus could have tried to stand in the way. Thanking him for not standing in the way of pro-life bills does not mean that Straus was the reason or even wanted these conservative bills to pass. Truth be told, besides the big issues that we wanted to get passed, Straus actually did hurt many of the low key conservative bills that were presented by the new, conservative State Representatives.

Joe Straus is Hurting and Facing Many Challenges. Bryan Hughes is Running for Speaker

Joe Straus is hurting. His favorability ratings are very low statewide. People just do not like him. The problem is that the people of Texas do not get to elect him. He is only elected by his district in San Antonio and he is given the Speaker of the House position by fellow State Representatives. If the people of Texas had the choice to determine who the speaker is it is very likely that he would not be speaker for very long as there would be a massive grassroots effort to elect someone else. Joe Straus even had a challenger in his own district which is something that does not happen to the Speaker of the House.

So why is he still Speaker if people do not like him? Joe Straus was a left leaning Republican. He even voted against pro-life bills and got money from Planned Parenthood. He first got in, not by a vote of Republicans but because Joe Straus teamed up with the DEMOCRATS and got all of the Democrats to vote for him. Joe Straus was elected by the Democrats to be Speaker. Once he became Speaker it becomes very difficult to get everyone to try to beat a sitting Speaker. State Reps know that if they try to oppose Joe Straus they can be greatly punished because of the power that the Speaker has. They could be hurt in Redistricting (Joe Straus hurt good conservatives in redistricting last year) and they would be given bad committees where they will not be able to do anything. Most of Joe Straus’ Committee Chairmen have failing conservative ratings so we know which direction Joe Straus leans.

Many of the attacks Joe Straus made against conservative State Reps failed thankfully. One such attack was when Joe Straus tried to get rid of super conservative James White by putting him in a district with a Straus Chairman. White voted against Straus for Speaker of the House. Thankfully, Super Conservative James White WON and defeated his Straus Chairmen opponent Mike Hamilton (who had some ethics problems revealed during the race) . In fact, many of Chairmen and Leaders for Joe Straus were defeated! Once again, the grassroots Republicans are speaking but Straus does not and will not care.

Even under the threat of getting hurt by Straus, one State Representative Bryan Hughes has stood up to face the uphill battle for the Speaker of the House against Joe Straus. Putting Pressure on Joe Straus all the time will help get the word out about Joe Straus, and also it will push Straus into a corner where he has to try to at least act conservative in order to fend off the attacks against him from conservatives. Eventually Straus will be beaten and we have to keep up the pressure.