Moderates, Romney Wreak Havoc at National Convention - Will They Destroy the Republican Party?

Update: Morton Blackwell sent out an urgent message late last night stating that the compromise we have been hearing about regarding these issues is fake and is an attempt to get conservatives to back down! The compromise only deals with the issue of the presidential candidate selecting state delegates and the compromise does not even cover the proposed rule change that will allow the RNC to change the rules between conventions without delegate approval. We MUST not back down!

WARNING! Romney and Moderate Republicans want Control over who the national delegates are and what is in the Republican Party Platform and Rules! They want to take this power away from the states. This is an attempt to mold the Republican platform to his moderate values and also to force state delegates to be completely loyal to him and his moderate beliefs instead of standing for their own beliefs and the beliefs of the people who voted for them from each state and congressional district.

Call All National Delegates you know and tell them This MUST be defeated!

Let me first say that I am of course voting for Romney because Obama MUST go. Romney was not my first choice but he has won and he will be better that Obama.

That being said.....

Mitt Romney Better Check Himself Before He Wrecks Himself (and the GOP)

Romney's Team (his top campaign lawyer Ben Ginsburg and other operatives) and many other moderates in the RNC have introduced rule changes at the Republican National Convention that, if passed by the convention this week, would destroy the GOP and disenfranchise Republicans all over the nation. These attacks are not just aimed at one group (like Ron Paul Delegates). These attacks are aimed at all conservatives who will not compromise or go with the flow.


Romney can court the moderates, but he will not win if the loses the base of the party (the conservatives). He needs the Tea Party. He needs Social Conservative. He Also Needs Ron Paul Supporters.

Fellow Conservative Texan Jeremy Blosser is at the National Convention and he sent me a report about these issues. I was also sent articles about these subjects from other fellow Conservatives like Cathie Adams and Debbie Georgatos.

First, one proposed change from Romney would allow  Presidential Nominee (right now that would be him) to pick the state delegates to the National Convention. SAY WHAT? Individual states get delegates for a reason. It is so each STATE gets represented. the people of each state select THEIR delegates to the National Convention, NOT HIS. These delegates do everything from voting on the Republican values in the GOP platform to voting for the Republican Presidential Nominee. Each state assigns their national delegates a presidential candidate to vote for based on things like caucus votes and statewide primary election results. Romney has won the nomination. He has the votes. Apparently that is not good enough for him. Now he wants to be able to pick the delegates to the national convention. He wants to take that right away form the states.

THIS WOULD ALLOW ROMNEY AND HIS MODERATES TO CRAFT THE GOP PARTY PLATFORM AND VALUES! That is why this is such a bad idea. This change would not just allow Romney to pick delegates to vote for him for the nomination. These delegates ALSO VOTE ON THE PLATFORM. So in effect, allowing Romney to pick his delegates instead of the states picking them will mean that Romney can pick people to represent HIS values in the platform instead of the States and Congressional Districts picking delegates to represent THEIR values in the platform.

The RNC had already betrayed the states last year, especially Texas, by forcing us to change our rules and how we select our National Convention delegates. Last year I declared that the RPT MUST STAND UP TO THE RNC. Unfortunately we did not. Well, now we see what happens when we try to play nice and go along. When we do not stand up for what we believe, we lose and then we lose more in the future because now the other side has a foot in the door to be able to force more changes on us.

Texas is Leading the Way to Defeat this Change! I am thankful to say that most of the Texas Delegation are strongly opposed to this, including our State Republican Party Chairman Steve Munisteri and our two RNC Rules Committee Members Butch Davis and Melinda Fredericks. They are leading the charge for the Texas Delegation against this proposed change and are standing for Texas and Grassroots Republicans everywhere!

Second, another rule change would allow the RNC to make rule changes between conventions, without approval from the delegates and with no checks or balances. The delegates to the national convention are from all corners of America and at the convention they are responsible for voting on the National Platform (out values) and our party rules. This change would allow the handful of RNC members to take that power away from the delegates. This change would allow the Republican National Committee members to have the ability to change this important documents between conventions and without approval of the delegates. The original threshold proposed was 2/3 of the entire RNC in order to be able to change the rules between conventions.  Melinda Fredericks, the Vice Chairman of Texas GOP and a Rules Committee Member, got this changed to 3/4. Mrs. Fredericks meant well, but it was a compromise that really does not safeguard us much. We need to stop compromising and just start standing for what is right. I urge Mrs. Fredericks and the Texas Delegation to also oppose this change just as strongly as they oppose Romney wanting to pick Delegates instead of the states.

The RNC should not be able to change our rules between conventions, even with a 3/4 threshold, because as Morton Blackwell (long-time Conservative RNC member) noted, in his many years on the RNC he has never seen a situation where the chairman did not get what he wanted on a vote, regardless of threshold.

Call All National Delegates you know and tell them This MUST be defeated!

Romney and Moderate Republicans MUST realize that they NEED conservatives in order to beat Obama and the Democrats. Groups like the Tea Party and Ron Paul supporters bring energy and passion to election. There is a belief that a candidate must go moderate to win but that is no longer true. The nation is becoming so polarized that conservatives are getting fed up and joining together. They are NOT just going along with the Republican Party anymore. They can change elections. Look what the Tea Party and conservative groups did right here in Texas when they helped Ted Cruz win the Texas US Senate Nomination against the sitting LT Governor who had limitless campaign funds. The Republican Party needs to embrace these conservative groups instead of tossing them to the side. They need us for our passion and energy to get people to the polls, but they also need our votes! They cannot just assume that conservatives will keep supporting the GOP because many conservatives are bailing the GOP because the moderates are so drastically trying to take over the party and move it more to the left. I am voting for Romney because I want Obama out and Romney is the better of the two, but I have friends who have told me that they are just so fed up with the moderates in the Party, like Romney, that they just might not even vote in the Presidential election because they can not in good concise vote for either candidate based on their values.

Ron Paul Supporters at Texas GOP Convention Acted Respectfully, Were Intelligent and Not Crazy

Sometimes a few crazy people can make an entire group look bad. Maybe that is what has happened with Ron Paul supporters. We see some crazy Ron Paul people on the news and we paint the entire group as being crazy. It is like these bad cops who think they are above the law and they break the law and do things like and beat people up on video. That is why some people hate cops when, in fact, most cops are doing a great job and risking their lives for us. The problem is that the few bad cops you see on TV unfairly make all cops look bad.

At the 2012 Texas State Republican Convention this past weekend in Fort Worth, TX, I got a chance to meet a group of Ron Paul supporters 

I am friends with many Ron Paul supports but I am not part of any Ron Paul groups so I did not know what to expect. I had seen internet articles telling people to watch out for Ron Paul people trying to take over conventions so I was interested to see what would happen.

The group that I got to meet did not have signs to stage a protest and they did not walk around asking people to legalize marijuana. In fact, you probably would have never known that they were even Ron Paul supporters. They came off as just very passionate conservatives. You might have known them for years and you might have thought they were probably just members of the tea party. There are many young people in the Ron Paul groups but there are also a surprising number of older people and minorities too. They are a very diverse group. 

I had great conversations with a Ron Paul group about the Federal Reserve and how printing more money with nothing to back it is destroying our economy by devaluating the dollar and not allowing the market to fix itself. Being in the military myself, I don’t entirely agree with some of Ron Paul’s war policy, but I had a great conversation about war policies and there are actually many things that I do agree with Ron Paul on. The President must not be allowed to start a war without getting congress to approve it. There are checks and balances that must be followed. We are sending money to help terrorist countries. It is especially frustrating now that President Obama is using the military as pawns and taking out bad governments, like Egypt, just to hand the government over to the Muslim Brotherhood.

One gentleman that I talked to has run Christian charities and one of the reasons he stands with Ron Paul is because the government is slowly taking away our religious liberty. As the head of a Christian charity, he saw firsthand how the rights of Christians to freely practice and express their religious beliefs were being taken away. As a Christian, I know that he is right and this must be stopped. 

These people were not crazy. In fact, I agreed with most of what these Ron Paul supporters believe, as most conservatives probably do. No, I don’t agree with everything and I have no problem expressing where I do not agree. No one agrees with each other 100% of the time, but the many issues that I do agree with Ron Paul on, Ron Paul is 100% dead on right.

I even got a chance to explain to these Ron Paul supporters why I was not in favor of Texas being proportional. Earlier this year, the RNC forced Texas to be proportional. Texas had always been winner take all by congressional district. This is what the Republican in Texas voted to have because it gives Texas more of a say in the Presidential race and makes us more relevant (we have been completely irrelevant in recent Republican Presidential races unfortunately because the race is over before we even vote!) Well, the RNC comes along and tells us we have to be proportional. I stood up the RNC and told them that they should not bully us and advocated that we stay winner take all by congressional district, which is what we already were before the Republican National Committee forced us to change. I was standing for Texas and what the grassroots in Texas wanted. I was standing for Texas to have a bigger voice instead of being pushed around. Well, I had some Ron Paul supporters upset with me because they thought that the reason I did not want to be proportional was so that I could keep Ron Paul from getting delegates under a proportional system. That is NOT the reason I did not want to be proportional. Hurting or helping Ron Paul was not even a factor in why I was saying NO to the RNC’s proportional system. In fact, I was able to explain that if Texas had gone back to winner take all by congressional district back when there were still four candidates in the race, it was very likely that Romney would not have won Texas and would not have received many of our delegates. This would possibly have forced a brokered convention which would have actually benefited the Ron Paul supporters. So we had a good conversation about that little misunderstanding and cleared some things up.

Ron Paul Supporters were elected to be National Delegates at Texas GOP Convention

Did these Ron Paul supporters try to get fellow Ron Paul supporters elected as national delegates? Sure they did. But who didn’t? The establishment passed out papers telling their people to vote for their establishment candidates. Just about every county Republican group nominated a candidate from their county who they know and are friends with. You had entire counties voting for the candidate from their county vs. candidates from other counties. Every group at the convention tried to put up a candidate to try to be elected to something, so why can’t the Ron Paul supporters do that to? They have every right to put up someone from their group to run. 

The Ron Paul supporters I got a chance to meet this past weekend were respectful of the process and did not try to take over anything. They nominated fellow Ron Paul supporters and these nominees then got to stand in front of the entire group of Republicans and explain what they believe and explain why people should vote for them. Some of the Ron Paul supporters got elected by the group and some didn’t.

These Ron Paul supporters are not stupid either. From what I got to hear from them, they understand that Romney probably already has the nomination. They understand that the chance of a brokered convention is slim to none unless there is a change of the current rules of how presidential delegates can vote. They understand all that and they are not unrealistic. They were more focused on getting people involved in the process who will go to the national convention and stand for less government and stand for the constitution. They know that, even though they might not prevail, you cannot give up and you still have to speak up and let your beliefs be heard. There is no chance of America ever going back to follow the Constitution if everyone just accepts that the Constitution is gone and stops speaking up about it. They are simply not giving up.

To Defeat Obama, the Republican Party MUST Embrace Ron Paul Supporters

Also, If Romney is Smart, he will Appoint Ron Paul to his Cabinet, Maybe as Head of the Treasury

Whether you agree with Ron Paul supporters or not, the Republican Party is going to need all hands on deck if we are going to defeat Obama. We will especially need Ron Paul supporters. Obama has the upper hand when it comes to young votes. Ron Paul groups are filled with young voters. Ron Paul groups are also filled with a ton of passion and dedication. By casting out these groups, not only are we losing those young voters, but we are also losing out on the passion and dedication they bring to the table. 

The Republican Party must embrace Ron Paul Supporters. It was said to me this weekend that, maybe the reason some of the Ron Paul supporters act a little bit crazy is due to the fact that acting crazy is the only way they can be heard. They don’t act crazy because they are crazy. They act crazy as a way to be heard because they have been rejected from the Republican Party and are having to fend for themselves and have to create their own unconventional platforms to speak from to get their message out.

Maybe if Ron Paul supporters were embraced by the Republican Party, we could all sit down together and have a conversation about how we can work together to promote the things that we agree on, like more states rights, less federal government, following the constitution, etc. We can work together to defeat Obama. The establishment in Republican Party might not agree on everything that Ron Paul supporters believe, but there is probably agreement on at least 80% of the issues. The Republican Party could greatly benefit from Ron Paul supports in order to accomplish the many things that both sides agree on. WE especially need Ron Paul supports is we are going to defeat Obama.

After this weekend, I have a new respect for and understanding of Ron Paul supporters and I fully believe that the Republican Party should embrace them and work with them instead of trying to ignore them. We need them. We might not all agree 100% on everything, but overall, Ron Paul  is GOOD for the conservative cause and his supporters can help the Republican Party and help defeat Obama.

I am sure my little brother in high school will love me for writing this article. He is a big Ron Paul fan. I am not sure how he became one or how he even got to know anything about Ron Paul, but it happened. It is happening with youth all across America. It is something that we cannot ignore and we could greatly benefit from if we embrace the youth, passion and of these Ron Paul supporters.

Sincerely,
David Bellow

Re-Elect David Bellow to SREC - Moderates are Trying to Remove Conservati​ves from Republican Party!

Please forward this message on to any Republicans in the 19 counties of Texas Senate District 3 (Anderson, Angelina, Cherokee, Hardin, Henderson, Houston, Jasper, Liberty, Montgomery, Nacogdoches, Newton, Orange, Polk, Sabine, San Augustine, San Jacinto, Shelby, Trinity, Tyler)

There is a push to kick out the most outspoken conservative Republicans on the SREC so that the party will attract more moderates to join the party who do not believe in our Republican values. I want more people to join the Party too, but not at the expense of our values. Compromising is what got America in this mess in the first place! We need to stand for what we believe!

I fought against the Moderates in the Republican Party on the SREC. I boldly stood for Republican values if our State Platform when others on the SREC wanted to water them down.

When I first got on to the SREC two years ago, I was a fresh face and was not part of any groups and did not play any political games. I just went in with a fresh mind and stood for what was right. I immediately saw needed changes and made them and stood where I saw moderates trying to take over.

If you want someone who is just going to show up to your meetings and pay you lip service and go along with the crowd never rocking the boat then don’t vote for me. If you want someone who is really trying to make a difference and is FIGHTING to protect our conservative values, and who will strive to always inform everyone of important issues going on in the Republican Party of Texas, then VOTE FOR ME

In my first year I proposed and passed a resolution calling for the proposed platform to be posted up online the night before the vote on the platform (I was tired of people not having time to read the proposed platform changes because they get the proposed platform on the day of the platform vote).

I amended the Bylaws to create an official Chaplain for the RPT when some did not want to have a Chaplain anymore There was also a question of whether or not to have a chaplain for the Republican party of Texas, I thought it would be crazy not to have one. It was revealed that the party did not officially have a chaplain position in the bylaws. Well I thought the answer to that was easy. Change the bylaws!

I fought to follow the 2010 Platform Legislative Priorities Report that required the RPT to publish a list of voting records of our leaders compared to our Party Values so we know how people really vote.  The 2010 State Republican Convention Delegates passed in the platform a section that asks the SREC to put out a legislative priorities report so that republicans can see how their leaders voted compared to the Party Platform values. I fought hard for the republicans of Texas who voted to put out this report, but the report did not pass due to the moderates voting it down because they do not want people to see that some Republicans do not really have Republican values.

I Kept Texas Republicans informed about IMPORTANT Texas Republican News and Issues via my Blog and Emails, more than any SREC member in the past has ever done. From redistricting/election date news to important issues that the Republican Party of Texas (SREC) was debating, I ALWAYS kept everyone informed. I posted hundreds of articles on my blog and sent out probably over 100 emails in the last 2 years with important updates. I strive to make sure everyone knows what is going on behind the scenes of the RPT. It is YOUR party and you should know what is going on!

I was ALWAYS Available to Help ANY County Chairman or Republican in or out of my District. When Jasper County’s chairman died and Cherokee County was having problems and their Chairman resigned, I was called by them about the problem and I immediately stepped in to help them through the process of getting back up and going with a new chairman. These are just two examples of how I have always been readily available and eager to help my district. I am not your chairman and I do not run your county party, but I am always here if you need any help or have any questions about the State Party. Just pick up the phone and call!

I Fought for our East Texas Conservatives that Moderate Joe Straus tried to kick out in Redistricting. Joe Straus was elected to speaker by the Democrats. Last year he did not stand in the way of the Republican Majority in the House of Representatives so we were able to get some Conservative Legislation passed, but he is not conservative himself and he has waged a war against the strong conservatives in East Texas who voted against Straus for Speaker of the House. He gutted Wayne Christian’s District so that Wayne lost and he tried to do the same with David Simpson and James White. I fought for James White against Straus and helped Super Conservative James White stay in office. I know that some fellow Republicans to not like me because I am not a fan of Joe Straus, but I stand first for our Republican Platform Values before I stand for people. Without our values we are just a big social group with nothing to stand on.

I Am Asking to be Re-Elected for Only one more 2 year term and then I Will Ask Someone Else to Run I am asking for 2 more years on the SREC so I can energetically fight Obama in this upcoming election and stand for conservative values on many important issues coming up this year (like redistricting in which many of our east Texas Conservative Republicans were hurt in redistricting by the more moderate Republicans in Texas) During this next two years, I would like to invite ANYONE who is interested in running for SREC to come to the meetings with me so you can start to understand the SREC and will know what you are getting into when you run in 2 years. I will not run again in 2 years because my wife and I have our first baby coming at the end of this year and in two years I will want to take a break from politics to focus more on my family and being home to raise a young child with good values. Family and God come first!

In less than 2 years that I have been on the SREC, I visited all 16 Counties in SD3 at least once and sometimes twice or three times (except one county that unfortunately did not have regular meetings to go to so I just visited with republicans in that county on my own). This was a hard task because the district is hundreds of miles across and many counties have meetings on the same day of the month.  I ran for SREC at the last convention and vowed to visit every County in Senate District 3. Some of the rural east Texas Counties had not been visited by a Committeeman in years and many of them did not even know what the SREC was. I knew I might make some of the bigger Republican Counties mad by not focusing on going to their meetings every month (I know some in Polk and Montgomery have asked why I have not gone to more of their meetings in the last couple of years). The way I saw it is that there were 16 counties (now 19) in SD 3 and I wanted to visit all of them, not just a select few that have the most votes to get re-elected.

Many on the SREC thought I did too much. I even had some SREC member come to me in my first SREC year and they told me I was doing too much and that I needed to just sit back and watch everyone my first two years to see how they run things. I told these SREC members that I was only elected for two years and my voters elected me to come to Austin to stand for conservative East Texas values and not just sit and watch.

I didn’t just sit and watch. Unfortunately I knew that the establishment and/or moderates would not like that I stood so strongly for Conservative values and did not play the political game.  I knew I would have people run against me for SREC. Some probably want me gone because they don’t like that I do not just follow along with everyone else, and some of the more moderate Republicans want me gone because I was too conservative. As a result, I believe I will have at least two challengers running against me to take my place on the SREC. So Please Vote to Keep Me on the SREC as a Strong Conservative Fighting for You!

I first got elected to the SREC only 2 years ago when Jim Wiggins was term limited out. The RPT has 8 year term limits because the Republicans in Texas understand the importance of not allowing someone to be in power too long so that fresh faces can come in and see potential problems that have been overlooked and give new life and energy to the Party. Even nice people in power for too long will get set in their ways and become part of a system. Jim completed his 8 year term and could not run again because he was term limited out. That is when I ran and got elected to the SREC.

I hear that Jim Wiggins is one of the gentlemen asked to run against me. He is a nice guy, but he did his term limit and we don’t need someone who will just fit in and go with the crowd. We need someone with energy who will stand strong for conservative values and fight off the push to make out Party more moderate. Jim didn’t even have anything to do with the district after he got off of the SREC. He even just sent an email to former Jasper Chairman Gene Acree because he did not even know that Gene passed away last year and Jasper has a new chairman now. I fear his interest is only to defeat me because I am too conservative and do not go along with the crowd. Please vote for me so I can continue to fight hard for conservative values for one more two year term.

TX Woman gets over 3000 signatures for Texas Presidential Debate (w/ Mitt Romney & Ron Paul?)

Update: Petition now has over 5000 signatures!

This past weekend at my County Convention in Hardin County, TX, I was pleasantly surprised when a young woman from my county,
Chelsea Willis, approached me and said she had a petition with over 3000 signatures on it. The petition was to try to persuade Mitt Romney to come to a Texas Republican Presidential Debate. The petition is titled "Potential Nominees, attend the GOP Debate (Houston, TX on May 24th, 2012)"

In recent years, Texas has had little say in the Republican Presidential Race. The Texas GOP tried to put Texas on the map by getting together a debate on May 24th in Houston, TX. Mitt Romney was the only candidate to snub this Texas debate.

Even with Santorum suspending his campaign (dropping out of the race), Chelsea knew that the race was not over and many states still have not voted, so on April 14th Chelsea sprang into action by starting an online petition in support of this Texas debate with Gingrich, Paul and Romney. The petition specifically urges Mitt Romney to attend.

Since the start of the petition, Gingrich has also announced he suspending his campaign (dropping out)

Although it now seems unlikely that any other Presidential candidate other than Mitt Romney will get the Republican Nomination, it is encouraging to see that even regular voters in little Texas counties are standing up and trying to make a difference. Getting over 3000 signatures is pretty impressive for this rather low-key controversy.

Even with just Ron Paul and Mitt Romney left in the race, the point is to show Romney that Texas does not like being ignored, so I encourage everyone to go to this link and sign the petition http://www.change.org/petitions/mitt-romney-debate-ron-paul-houston-tx-on-may-24th-2012

Who knows, if she gets enough signatures maybe Romney will actually take notice. I hear that a major news outlet would be interested in a debate with just Ron Paul and Mitt Romney. That would be interesting!

Below is a personal letter from Chelsea Willis regarding her petition:

I created a petition titled "Potential Nominees, attend the GOP Debate (Houston, TX on May 24th, 2012)" because I care deeply about who becomes the GOP nominee.

I understand that the SREC has received a commitment from a major television network to televise the debate, and that the remaining GOP nominees, except Romney, have pledged to be at the debate. In addition, it is my understanding that the SREC passed a resolution that intensely urged the uncommitted nominee to attend the Texas GOP Presidential Debate. In response, I have created an online petition to encourage Romney to debate Gingrich and Paul. The ultimate purpose of the petition is to gather constituent support for the debate, and I could really use your assistance in getting out the word. A substantial number of signatures will convince the uncommitted nominee that attending the debate is in the best interest of his campaign.

To read more about what I'm trying to do and to sign my petition, click here.

It will just take a minute!

Once you are done, please ask your friends to sign the petition as well. Grassroots movements succeed because people like you are willing to spread the word!

Sincerely,
Chelsea Willis

State of Texas Sues DOJ & Challenges Voting Rights Act Section 5 Constitutionality

I have stated in past articles that Texas needs to sue the DOJ because Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional.

My Dreams are finally coming true!

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, on behalf of the State of Texas, has Sued Eric Holder and the Department of Justice! Greg Abbott, in his legal motion, directly challenges the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act in response to the DOJ rejecting the Texas Voter ID Law.

With the Supreme Court already set to hear a challenge to the Voting Rights Act this year in a case out of Alabama, this challenge from Texas is more ammo needed to get the Supreme Court to declare parts of the Voting Rights act as unconstitutional.

Below are my thoughts on why Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional, and also there is a statement from Greg Abbott about his lawsuit against the DOJ:


Greg Abbott on Voting Rights Act Legal Challenge:

Austin, TX - Attorney General Abbott's Comments on the State of Texas' Amended Complaint in the Voter ID Case

"The U.S. Supreme Court has already upheld the constitutionality of laws requiring voters to show a photo ID when voting at the polls. The U.S. Department of Justice argued in favor of those laws just a few years ago. For the Department of Justice to now contend that Texas cannot implement its voter ID law denies Texas the ability to do what other states can rightfully exercise under the Constitution."

"The U.S. Supreme Court expressed serious misgivings about Section 5 in the Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District case. As recently as two months ago, Justice Kennedy stated from the bench that Section 5 places Texas at a disadvantage compared to other states. The Department of Justice is using Section 5 to deny Texas the right to enforce a law that is allowed under the U.S. Constitution. Section 5 cannot trump the Constitution."


My Thoughts on Why Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is Unconstitutional

11)      Section 5 requires some states to have their plans approved by the DOJ while other states do not have to have anything approved. It is inequitable to have one standard for some states and a different standard from some states. That is like having one school for blacks and one school for whites. The different standards also creates a situation where you have some states, like Illinois, getting to

Official RPT Redistricting Update XI: It Is All Up To The Courts: June 26th Primary Election POSSIBLE

The following message is an official Texas Redistricting/Primary Election update from the Republican Party of Texas:

Redistricting Update XI: It Is All Up To The Courts

The fate of the redistricting maps now rests solely with the three-judge panel in San Antonio. As of the time of this update, a global agreement between all parties has not been reached relative to the Texas House and Texas Congressional districts. Therefore, the final decisions as to where the lines will be are in the hands of the three-judge panel. The panel set deadlines for parties to submit final briefs on various issues and that deadline has now passed. This now means that all the arguments are over and all we are waiting for now is for the Court to rule.

If the Court issues maps on or before March 3rd, then the May 29th primary date can be accomplished - assuming a re-opened filing period can be accomplished within a few days. If the Court issues new maps after March 3rd, then the next and final available primary date would be June 26th. To accomplish a June 26th primary, maps would still need to be issued by March 30th to meet the June 26th date.

TEXAS GOP DRAFT PLAN 2012: TEMPORARY AND EMERGENCY CHANGES TO RULES FOR CONVENTION/DELEGATE SELECTION

The Draft Plan Has Finally Been Released!

EVERY REPUBLICAN WANTING TO GET INVOLVED in the Republican Party of Texas Convention/Delegate Selection Process MUST READ THIS!

It is very good and very intricate. It hopefully will answer most of the questions that everyone has. If not then please feel free to email us with questions or comments.

The SREC will vote on a final plan on Feb 29th, 2012 at 12pm at the RPT Headquarters in Austin.

CLICK HERE to read the ENTIRE DRAFT PLAN.

When you click on the link to go to the draft plan you will first read the summary of the draft plan, and then the full plan is below the Summary.

Two Important Items of Interest in this plan are:

1) As previously reported, Precinct Conventions will be OPTION. Each County/Senatorial District will vote on whether or not to have them. They DO NOT have to just be on the morning of the County/Senatorial Convention (they could have it like a week before with proper notice), and they can be in any location(s) that the County/Senatorial District decides

2) For those out there worried about Democrats trying to get involved in the Convention, we will have everyone sign a Republican Party Pledge or show that they have voted Republican in past elections. We will also inform everyone that it is a CRIMINAL OFFENSE to attend the Republican Conventions and vote in any other Party's primary or go to any other Party's convention for that year.

CLICK HERE to read the ENTIRE DRAFT PLAN

Should Republican Party of Texas Sue DOJ over Voting Rights Act Preclearance Constitutionality?

Disclaimer: the following article is the opinion of David Bellow, an individual who is on the SREC, and does not express the "official opinion" of the Republican Party of Texas

The State of Texas is under assault by the Department of Justice and the Voting Rights Act.  All this Texas redistricting mess (and the pushing back of the Primary Election date) is due to section 5 of the Voting Rights Act which requires a few states to have any voting changes approved by the Department of Justice first (because somehow it is better to have one unelected, biased person, the Attorney General Eric Holder, decide how a state runs elections instead of the elected officials of the state determining it for themselves)

The Republican Party of Texas, not just the State of Texas, is also facing the same, unconstitutional oppression. The Texas GOP is faced with possibly having no precinct conventions, or limited precinct conventions, that are only optional with approval of counties/senatorial districts. Why is this happening? It is happening because the RPT has to come up with a way to have our convention/delegate selection process BEFORE the Primary Election this year due to the Primary Election getting pushed back possible past the date of the State Convention. Somewhere along the line, the DOJ extended its hand into the Republican Party of Texas, a private organization, not a public or government organization. This new RPT convention/delegate selection process must first be cleared by the DOJ. We do not know when or if the new process will be cleared, and it could take weeks.  Because of this uncertainty in the timeline, the Republican Party of Texas is strongly leaning towards makingprecinct conventions optional (to be decided by the county or senatorial district executive committees). Also, because we just do not know when the plan will be cleared by the DOJ, if precinct conventions do happen, they would be on the morning of the county/senatorial convention date (April 21^st or April 14^th in some cases).

Does DOJ Voting Rights Act Oversight Apply to Private Political Parties/entities like the Texas GOP?

It is clear that the (unconstitutional) section 5 of the Voting Rights Act applies to election changes made in the State of Texas, but does it apply to the convention process changes of a private political party in Texas?

I say NO. The Republican Party of Texas is a PRIVATE political entity. Our process, by nature, is restricted to, and is guided is by, the values/rules of only the members of our private Republican Party organization. Our process is not subject to the regulations for public elections/voting. Our party conventions DO NOT elect public officials or determine public policy/laws for the general public in Texas. Our convention process is used to develop our party rules/values and also to elect leaders of our PRIVATE POLITICAL ORGANIZATION. Any changes that the Republican Party of Texas makes to our convention process have NO EFFECT on the election process of public elections and voting. Public elections (electing public officials and voting on state and local regulations) are run by the governmental bodies in Texas, not the political parties in Texas. Changes to RPT rules do not effect general, public elections (or access to them) and certainly do not prevent anyone from voting for whomever or whatever they choose to in ANY public elections.

It is wrong that the RPT even has to get DOJ approval for our RPT Convention/Delegate Selection Process

Is Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act even Constitutional?

Should Texas Join Other States like Alabama and South Carolina in Openly Challenging the Voting Rights Act in the Courts?

11)      Section 5 requires some states to have their plans approved by the DOJ while other states do not have to have anything approved. It is inequitable to have one standard for some states and a different standard from some states. That is like having one school for blacks and one school for whites. The different standards also creates a situation where you have some states, like Illinois, getting to pass voter ID laws but Texas cannot pass them because the DOJ will not let us. How is it constitutional that one state can have a regulation but then Texas cannot have the same regulation because the DOJ does not like it?

22)      Another reason why section 5 of the voting rights act is unconstitutional is that there is no difference today between southern states and northern states in the sense that there is no institutionalized racism anymore and there is certainly NO states trying to keep minorities from voting. When the voting rights act was initially passed it was a good thing. DEMOCRAT controlled southern states had laws discriminating against minorities and preventing them from voting. Those days are long gone. Anyone can vote no matter what color you are. Anyone of any color can be elected to public office in any state. Heck, the President is half black! My friend and conservative Texas State Rep, James White who is black, was elected here in East Texas based on his values, not the color of his skin. That right there shows you that the issue of minorities being restricted from voting, or even restricted from running for office, is long gone.

33)      Some parts of the Voting Rights Act are being used to CREATE INSTITUTIONAZED RACISM. That’s right, it was passed to stop discrimination but now it is creating discrimination. It is nothing short of racist and discriminatory to say that voting districts have to be drawn based on race and that some races must have their own voting districts while other races cannot have their own voting districts. It is just silly. I don’t think ANY voting district should have the district drawn based on race, whether white black or Hispanic. We, as Americans, have to stop using race as a factor in everything we do. We need to look at each other as all fellow Americans and stop looking at race. It is keeping us apart instead of allowing us to come together. It is keeping people together in groups based on the color of their skin instead of allowing people to group together based on their values and regardless of the color of their skin. Will we never have a nation where people are judged based on the content of their character instead of the color of their skin as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed?

44)       The Voting Rights Act is being used to preserve DEMOCRAT districts and not minority districts. It is crazy but true. There are some districts in Texas that Democrats are trying to preserve using the courts. These districts are not majority minority districts. In other words, a majority of the voters in the district are not minority voters. The majority of the district is white. This makes them not protected by the Voting Rights Act as a majority minority district. The only reason the Democrats are trying to protect these Districts is because they are DEMOCRAT Districts. The Democrats argue that the minorities in the district team up to vote with part of the white people in the district and therefore it should be protected as a majority minority district. This is what the Voting Rights Act has become? A way for Democrats to keep districts without regard to protecting minorities?

Texas Should Have Acted Sooner by having a Split Primary and Challenging the Voting Rights Act

I knew that the Democrats and liberal judges would drag this out and push back the election, which is why, from the beginning, I advocated for a split election so that we could go ahead and have the some parts of the Texas Primary Elections now (Presidential, County-wide, State-wide) and we could also have the Party Conventions/Delegate Selection. This would have allowed us to get the conventions and presidential primary election out of the way while the State and the Courts battled over redistricting/primary election date for US Congress, State Senate and State Representative.

I also advocated that Texas challenge Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act from the beginning of this whole mess. That would certainly have fast tracked the issue to the Supreme Court where they will hopefully strike down parts of the Voting Rights Act as unconstitutional. I am sure Texas will eventually join other states in challenging the Voting Rights Act in the near future, but because we did not challenge it from the beginning, we are stuck with it until this mess is all sorted out in the Courts.

Neither of the above ideas happened of course and that is why we are in the big mess we are in with the Primary Elections getting pushed back to May 29^th, 2012 at the earliest.

This also means that we have to do our conventions and delegate process before we even have the primary elections. This causes MANY problems like who gets to go to the conventions since we cannot verity if they are Democrat or Republican? Who will run the conventions if we have not elected new county party leaders? Who will pay for the precinct conventions and locations since the conventions will no longer just be at the already established primary election polling places? Is there even time for counties to be able to organize their Precinct Conventions?

The fact of the matter is that this is a BIG MESS and there will be NO perfect plan. There will be many problems and many people will be upset. We just have to do what we can with a bad situation.

What should the RPT do about the DOJ and our Convention Process?

Here are three plans that I think are options:

Plan 1) The Republican Party of Texas can just say no to the DOJ and go ahead with our precinct conventions now instead of waiting for approval of our plan (we would still have the problems associated with having the conventions before the Primary Election). This decision to ignore the DOJ would probably be challenged and an injunction placed against the RPT and our entire convention process could be put on hold and would be in jeopardy until we battle up to the Supreme Court and get a ruling from them as to whether or not we were justified in ignoring the DOJ.

Plan 2) The RPT can go ahead and come up with plans to submit to the DOJ. The DOJ would likely approve the plans but we would have to wait a couple of weeks for them to do it. This would allow Texas to have our conventions/delegate selection process without any legal problems from the DOJ or Judges. This would also mean that we would probably not have Precinct Conventions, or they would be optional, due to the limited time we will have to organize everything since we have to wait for DOJ approval. (This is currently the plan that the RPT is leaning towards)

Plan 3) The RPT sues the DOJ over the Voting Rights Act. We could sue the DOJ now before we have our conventions, which might cause a convention holdup, or we can go ahead and follow the DOJ approval process for now so that way we can have the conventions and get those out of the way before we take on the task of suing the DOJ. No matter what we do, I think we should still end up suing the DOJ. This of course would cost money. The RPT does not have any extra month for an expensive lawsuit so the Republicans in Texas would have to stand up and donate money to help the RPT sue over the Voting Rights Act.

A 2009 US Supreme Court Ruling sets up the Supreme Court to Strike Down Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act

There are multiple lawsuits challenging the Constitutionality of parts o the Voting Rights Act. At least one of them, out of Shelby County in Alabama, is on a fast track to be heard in the US Supreme Court this year.

Following renewal of the Voting Rights act in 2006, a Texas utility district challenged the constitutionality of the preclearance provision, claiming that it went beyond Congress’s power because Congress could no longer show that the law was necessary to prevent racially discriminatory voting.

In that 2009 case, the court came very close to striking down the law. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. questioned whether there was evidence that these states, and only these states, would go back to racial discrimination in voting if the Voting Rights Act disappeared. He compared the government’s argument that preclearance was still necessary to an “elephant whistle”: “Well there are no elephants, so it must work.”

Chief Justice Roberts wrote a disingenuous opinion for eight members of the court resolving the question on statutory grounds — holding that the utility district could apply to “bail out” from coverage under the act — and temporarily avoiding the constitutional issue and political fallout. The opinion gave a clear warning that Congress needed to fix the problems in the act. Congress has done nothing about it and now there will be another showdown in the Supreme Court.

David Bellow is a Texas SREC Member who Writes a Blog with Conservative Republican Information and Opinions

For clarification purposes:

All the articles I ever write are based either my opinion or my take on the facts involved. I am a member on the State Republican Executive Committee (SREC) in Texas, and I am involved in the inner workings of the Republican Party of Texas and yet I am also an outsider because I am young and was just elected to the SREC with no ties to anyone in the State Party. I desire to keep people up to date with what is going on in the Republican Party of Texas. Heck, some people do not even know what the SREC is or what we do. Most people certainly do not know about the important issues that we vote on during our meetings. I actively stand up for Republican values and I want more people to be more informed and involved. I even filed a personal lawsiot against the Unconstitutional healthcare law! I want people to be involved and be heard and and I want people to be informed. For this reason, I send out email updates about what is going on. I routinely send out information and polls that request input from you, the Republican voters in Texas. I do not speak for the other members of the SREC and I am not the official Party Spokesman. I have NEVER declared that I was. I always thought it was pretty clear that I am just a member of the SREC who writes a blog to get information out so people can know what is going on. If anyone every wants to stop getting emails from me they just have to click a link at the bottom of one of the emails they get from me. The other members of the SREC might not always completely agree on everything I say or they might have a different take on thing. That is just fine with me. The entire SREC rarely ever completely agrees on things and there are many votes split right down the middle. I work with everyone regardless of whether not we agree on every issue. I am not going to stop sending out information though simply because someone else on the SREC does not like what I am sending out. If someone does not agree with me then they can write their own article about what is going on and post it online for people to read. The more information the better! At least I am trying to keep people informed. The way I see it is I will gladly be guilty of putting out too many articles about what is going on instead of being guilty for not informing people enough about what is going on or for not standing for Republican values enough.


Sincerely,

Michael “David” Bellow Jr.
State Republican Executive Committee SD3


http://hardincountyconservatives.blogspot.com/
http://texasgopvote.com/users/david-bellow/track

Texas Precinct Conventions will be OPTIONAL under New 2012 Republican Delegate Selection Process

Update: The New Draft Plan has come out and all counties and senatorial districts will be able to have precinct conventions (if they want) and they can be whenever and wherever the county or senatorial district wants. There is no big conspiracy to keep people from getting involved. Read more here

clarification: to all the Ron Paul Supporters emailing me. I can promise you that whatever plan the RPT comes up with, it WILL NOT be an attempt to keep Ron Paul supporters from being involved. In fact, if the RPT decided on only optional precinct conventions, there will be more of a chance for grassroots individuals to be involved because they will be able to go directly to being involved at the county convention instead of having to be chosen as a delegate at the precinct convention before they can go to the county convention.

The Texas GOP is entering into unknown and uncharted territory. We are now faced with having to do our Republican Conventions/Delegate Selection Process BEFORE we even have a primary election! This process has always been tied to the Primary election but this year it will not because of the belated Primary Election (see below for the normal process from previous years). The 62 members of the State Republican Executive Committee will be developing an entire new Convention/Delegate Selection Plan. We have already had a conference call in which we discussed the many different ideas and we agreed on the basic plan. This plan is VERY intricate and has many different moving parts, not to mention our hands are tied in many ways. Over the next 2 weeks, the RPT will pound out all the details of the plan. We will then have an emergency SREC meeting in Austin on Wednesday, February 29^th, 2012 and at this meeting we will vote to approve the plan. We cannot have the meeting any sooner because we have to have a 12 day notice before the meeting. The plan then has to be presented to the three Judge Federal Panel in San Antonio and then sent to the Department of Justice for approval (We can thank the unconstitutional Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act for having to do this). DOJ approval will then take at least a couple of weeks (usually takes 2 months but they will try to do it faster).

We are still developing the full plan and it is very complex. Therefore, right now I do not have the complete details of the plan to send out to everyone, but I will send out more information as soon as the RPT releases the details of this plan.

I know that everyone will have MANY questions about the new plan after reading this article. I ask that everyone please wait until we have all the details worked out and emailed out to everyone. We should have a draft with more details to email out in the next few days. After we release the complete plan, feel free to ask questions or share concerns.

I WANT YOUR OPINIONS BEFORE WE VOTE! I would just like you to wait until we send out a DRAFT plan so that way you can ask questions AFTER you have read the plan. There will be time before we vote for you to send us your concerns!

Precinct Conventions will be Optional and will be the Morning of the County/Senatorial District Conventions.

The most important thing right now that I want to let everyone know, and this detail will not change, is that Republican Party of Texas Precinct Conventions will be optional. Each County Executive Committee will vote on whether or not to have them, and if they decide to have them, they will be on the morning of the County/Senatorial District Conventions which are currently approved by the Federal Panel to be on April 21^st (or April 14^th for some counties). This date for the County/Senatorial Cenventions could change if needed but that is what we are planning for and we would not want to push it back much more so that we will have time to get ready for the State Convention June 7^th – 9^th, 2012 in Fort Worth, TX. We cannot change the date and location of the Texas Republican State Convention 2012.

This is a Glimpse How the Convention/Delegate Selection Process Will Work THIS YEAR:

Rumors had gone around that the Republican Party of Texas would not have precinct Conventions at all and instead we would jump straight into the County/Senatorial District Conventions and then the State Convention June 7^th – 9^th, 2012 in Fort Worth, TX.

In response, there have been many emails going around stating that the Republican Party of Texas has to have Precinct Conventions because we have to keep the grassroots involved and so we must not do away with the Precinct Conventions. I was one of those people insisting that the RPT does not eliminate the Precinct Conventions. There were many great ideas and plans submitted to the SREC showing us how we can still have Precinct Conventions. I was 100% in favor of using some of these ideas or coming up with a way to have precinct conventions.

The SREC had a conference call to discuss a new Convention/Delegate Process and we got a little eye opening session.

We looked at the timeline and realized that we have NO IDEA when our new delegate selection plan will even be approved by the DOJ. This makes it impossible to create a timeline that includes a separate precinct convention date before a County/Senatorial Convention because we do not even know when we will get approval or even if that approval will be in time to be able to have a Precinct Convention. On top of that, there is an ENORMOUS amount of work that would have to be done by the County Parties in a very limited amount of time. There are over 5500 precincts in Texas what would need precinct conventions/locations/organization and Precinct Convention Chairmen. Even if we get approval in time for a precinct convention, and each county had the precinct conventions all combined in one location and used old precinct chairmen, the counties would simply not have enough time to organize 5500 precinct conventions and then have to turn around and quickly plan the county convention and process all the paperwork from the precinct conventions.

It is just not possible. There are MANY reasons why it is not possible and the reasons above are just a couple of the many reasons. Ya’ll know me and ya’ll know I fight for things. I was ready to fight for Precinct Conventions but we just simply do not have a choice.

We listen to the grassroots Republicans and we have come up with a solution so that we can still have Precinct Conventions.

You CAN still have Precinct Conventions if your County Wants to…

It would not have been fair for the State Party to FORCE all counties into scrambling to organize Precinct Conventions with limited time and resources. At the same time, we are listening to the grassroots and we WANT any County to be able to have precinct conventions if the Republicans of that county would like to and are able to. For this reason, we are allowing the Executive Committee of every county in Texas the option of voting to have Precinct Conventions in their county. We do not have a timeline set because of the DOJ approval holdup, so if a County approves having Precinct Conventions, the Precinct Conventions would be on the morning of the County/Senatorial District Conventions and at the same location. It does not seem possible to plan for Precinct Conventions in 5500 different locations and on a different date before the County/Senatorial conventions so the next best thing would be to have Precinct Conventions on the same day and same location as the County/Senatorial Conventions.

Having No Precinct Conventions and Only a County/Senatorial District Convention Actually Allows for MORE Grassroots Republicans to be Involved

One of the reasons why I and others were insisting on having Precinct Conventions was so that all of the grassroots Republicans would still be able to be involved in the process. What I found out was that MORE people will have to opportunity to be involved if there are no Precinct Conventions. You see, when there is a Precinct Convention, each precinct selects delegates to go to the County/Senatorial District Convention. That means not everyone at the Precinct Convention gets a chance to be involved in the County/Senatorial Conventions. On the other hand, if there are no Precinct Conventions, EVERYONE gets to go to the County/Senatorial District Conventions. Everyone gets to be involved in that next step. Not having a Precinct Convention actually allows MORE Republicans to be involved in the process. It will also cut down on confusion and workload by having one date and location to be able to announce to all Republicans in the County.  Not having a Precinct Convention will of course mean the County/Senatorial Conventions will be much bigger than normal and it might take a little longer to decide on rules/platform changes.

The 155 National Delegates elected at the Texas Republican State Convention will NOT be assigned a Presidential Candidate to Vote for, initially.

Due to the Election being right before the June Convention (maybe even after), the National Delegates chosen at the State Convention will NOT KNOW who they will be casting their ballot for in the Presidential Nomination at the National Convention. Once Texas certifies the Presidential Primary Election Results, the national delegates who were elected at the State Convention will then be told who they will be voting for at the National Convention. It will still be proportional as already planned. Proportional means that if someone, let’s say Santorum, gets 60 percent of the votes in the Texas Republican Primary Election then Santorum will get 60% of the 155 national delegate votes that Texas has. The delegates just will not know who they will be pledged to initially because they will have to wait until the Primary Election Results are in and certified.

Texas Might Actually Have an Impact in the Republican Presidential Race – Brokered Convention Possible.

I would have never believed this, but it looks like Texas might actually still have a voice in the Presidential Race. It looks like we might have all 4 current Presidential Candidates stick in the race until the end. So far, no one has jumped ahead very much in the Delegate Count because the vote keeps getting split and different candidates are winning different states. This means that there STILL might not be a clear Republican Nominee by the time Texas Votes on May 29th or in June. Texas will have 155 delegates and could swing the election for a candidate. Or, if one candidate is already in the lead, let’s say Mitt Romney, and Texas gives most of our Delegates to Santorum or Gingrich, then that might be enough to deny Mitt Romney a chance to get a majority of delegates and we will end up having a brokered convention. At a Brokered Convention, Texas will have a full 155 Delegates and therefore would have a huge say in the negotiations at a brokered convention.

For Those of You Who Are New to This Convention/Delegate Selection Process, Below is a little History Lesson on How the Convention/ Delegate Selection Process Has NORMALLY Worked IN THE PAST in Texas:

Each Precinct in Texas has a voting location on Election Day. In the past, voters would go to their polling place on the night of the Texas Republican Primary Election Day and there would be a Precinct Convention. Republicans at the Precinct Convention would submit changes/additions to Republican Party rules and Platform values. They would also pick delegates to go represent their precinct at the County/Senatorial Convention. Next would be the County/Senatorial District Conventions. The delegates at the County/Senatorial conventions would vote on the changes/additions to the rules/platform that were passed up to them from the Precinct Conventions. The delegates at the County/Senatorial District Conventions would also select delegates to represent the County/Senatorial District at the State Convention. Then there is the Texas Republican Party State Convention. All the delegates to the State Convention will vote to create the new Party Rules and the New Biennial Texas Republican Party Platform. The delegates of the State Convention will also vote on things like to elect a State Republican Party Chairman, new SREC Members, Delegates to the National Republican Convention to vote in the Republican Presidential Nomination, and two National Committee members to serve on the Republican National Committee (RNC). There is then a National Republican Convention and the National Delegates from every State will vote to pick the Republican Presidential Nominee. That is how the process would normally look if we were not in this big mess.


Sincerely,
David Bellow
State Republican Executive Committee

TX SREC Emergency Meeting over New Delegate Selection Process Due to May 29th (or June) Texas Republican Primary Election

The San Antonio Federal Court over the redistricting lawsuit has declared that Texas will not have a Primary Election before May 29th, 2012. We have been told to plan for an election on May 29th but that we could also have it as late as June 26th, 2012.

The problem with this late election is that we have to have the Republican Party of Texas State Convention at the beginning of June. Typically, we have a Precinct Convention, then a County Convention, and then the State Convention. The Precinct Convention, by law, is on the night of the Primary Election. With a May 29th, Primary there will be no time for all of that.

The only option that we have is to not tie the convention process tied to the Primary Election night.

We will have to go ahead and have the Precinct and County Conventions (maybe even the State Convention) BEFORE we have the Primary Election.

the State Republican Executive Committee will be having an emergency meeting (via telephone) with the RPT Chairman, Steve Munisteri, sometime in the next couple of days. We will then have an emergency meeting in Austin to vote to approve a new process. We will be coming up with a new convention/delegate selection process and timeline. We then have to present what we come up with to the 3 Judge San Antonio Federal Panel.

As soon as we come up with something, this information will be pushed out to everyone.

If anyone has any comments or suggestions for the SREC regarding a new process, please email me with you idea and I will pass it along.

Thanks!

Sincerely,

David Bellow
State Republican Executive Committeeman
Senate District 3
mdbellow@gmail.com



Below is the latest update from the Republican Party of Texas:

Urgent Redistricting Update X: Primary Moved Again

This afternoon, the San Antonio three-judge panel indicated that the April unified primary election will be postponed and that it was probable (but not a certainty) that the new primary date will be May 29th. As previously reported, on Tuesday, county clerks and elections administrators testified that they need 88 days of lead time to prepare for a primary election from the date that new district maps are issued. Today at the hearing, the Texas Secretary of State's office indicated that this timeline could be shrunk to 77 days and reduced even further if military ballots were accepted for a short period of time after the primary.

Consequently, new maps need to be in place sometime between early and mid-March in order to maintain the May 29th primary date.

Chairman Munisteri discussed with the Court the problems a May 29th primary creates for the party's delegate selection process for the RPT State Convention. He reiterated that it is impossible to comply with the current Texas Election Code as it pertains to delegate selection, with the primary on May 29th and the State Convention in the first week of June. He strongly urged the Court to issue an order that would allow the State Republican Executive Committee to adopt a new delegate selection process which varies from the Election Code. He told the court that if there is sufficient time for planning, that in consultation with party leadership, he had several different options in mind which: would allow district conventions to still occur on schedule, allow for a May 29th primary, and still allow for a convention the next week. In general terms, he suggested different options which would completely de-couple the selection of delegates to the State Convention from the primary election.

The Court indicated it was very likely that they would grant such a request from the State Party, provided it received U.S. Department of Justice pre-clearance. Chairman Munisteri made the case that DOJ pre-clearance is not required in a case where the changes are made as a result of court order. However, the Court indicated that they thought it was a safer route to obtain pre-clearance. A Department of Justice attorney testified that his office would expedite such a request and anticipated that the approval time could be reduced from a couple of months to a couple of weeks, thereby allowing the change to occur.

The Court instructed both political parties to consult on a new schedule for a May 29th primary. It also invited the state parties to put forth separate proposals as to how they would select delegates and conduct their conventions. Chairman Munisteri is hoping to hold a telephone conference with members of the Republican Party of Texas Officials Committee tomorrow to go over various options. He plans within the next few days, to have a separate telephone conference with the entire SREC to go over recommendations from the Officials Committee. It is his hope that a consensus plan can be agreed upon by the SREC. If this is accomplished, he will distribute this plan to all County Chairmen to obtain their input, and then once a final plan is agreed upon - to propose the plan to the three-judge panel in San Antonio.

It is the Chairman's goal to develop a process around existing Senatorial and County conventions so as to minimize inconvenience and logistical problems. It remains his objective to keep the State Republican Convention scheduled as planned during the first week of June. We will provide further information over the next few days as to developments in this regard.

Also on Wednesday - Chairman Munisteri, RPT lawyers and staff spent another day in the courtroom listening to final arguments in the redistricting case. It appears as though there is an agreement between the Attorney General and the Democrats on a new Texas State Senate map. As soon as we have full details, we will provide them to you - but it is expected that the final lines will make it possible for a Republican to win the district in controversy, SD 10, although not a certainty.

At the time the hearing concluded, General Abbott's team had not reached agreement with all the plaintiffs on all districts pertaining to the Texas House map. With one set of plaintiffs, there is still a battle over Republican districts HD 144 (currently held by Ken Legler), HD 117 (currently held by John Garza) and HD 81 (currently held by Tryon Lewis). Another set of plaintiffs wanted to change the lines of another 30 districts on the State House map in an even larger grab for seats.

With regards to the Congressional districts (discussion of which took up most of the day) the prime battleground appears to be over CD 33, 25, 23, 35 and 27. Of particular concern to the Republican Party of Texas is CD23, which is represented by Congressman Quico Canseco. General Abbott's map is roughly equivalent to how that district was configured before redistricting, while the Democrats are pushing for an increase of Democrat voters there.

There was also a big argument with the Democrats over CD 25, currently represented by Lloyd Doggett. Travis County and other Democratic plaintiffs are arguing that the district should not be converted to a Republican district, since in their opinion the district is protected under the Voting Rights Act - General Abbott's team disputes this. There are also several different proposals regarding Congressional District 33 in Arlington. Additionally, Congressman Joe Barton's legal team (led by former State Representative Joe Nixon) argues that the configuration of that district in the Attorney General's compromise proposal is not allowable under current legal standard. At the end of the hearing today, there was also no agreement on the Texas Congressional map.

Chairman Munisteri issued the following statement regarding today's proceedings. "I am disappointed that the San Antonio three-judge panel again delayed the Texas Primary Election. The Secretary of State's witness today indicated that if the panel would issue maps within the next few days - that an April 24th primary could still be accomplished. However, now that it is apparent that April is out, the RPT will continue to fight to oppose any further slippage in the primary schedule. We will work hard with our Party leadership to come up with a plan to preserve our State convention."

At this juncture, it appears that there will not be an agreement between all parties regarding all districts. Therefore, at this time, it appears that the three-judge panel will have to decide where the final lines are for the Texas House and Congressional districts.

Special Advisory to all Republican county chairmen, precinct chairmen, and party activists from Chairman Munisteri - I am hopeful that the SREC will come up with a plan for the three-judge panel that will still allow district conventions on the date scheduled. Therefore it is our advice that you not cancel your plans to go forward with district conventions until otherwise instructed. I am hopeful that within the next week or so, that we will have a telephone conference with all county chairs to provide them more information on any proposed plans. The RPT is committed to working with each of you to come up with a workable solution to this unprecedented challenge. Thank you again for your patience and hard work.