Posted on 06/03/2006 9:48:18 PM PDT by anymouse
SAN ANTONIO - The Republican Party of Texas elected a new vice chairman Saturday, choosing Dr. Robin Armstrong, the first black to hold the position since Reconstruction.
Armstrong, an internal medicine doctor from Dickinson, said he grew up in a household of Democrats but became a Republican in 1989 at age 19. His decision was associated with his religious faith, he said, because he became a "born-again believer."
"My philosophy is more conservative," Armstrong said, explaining that his opposition to abortion was a key issue in his party choice.
He said he has been an active Republican at the local level in Galveston County for the past eight years. Armstrong said he hopes to help the Republican Party continue its outreach to minority Texans.
"I believe that minorities are conservative," he said.
Bobby Eberle of Pearland also sought the vice chairmanship. Armstrong succeeds David Barton, who has been vice chairman for nine years.
Party chairman Tina Benkiser faced no major opposition and was easily re-elected chairman.
PLATFORM APPROVED
The party approved a platform Saturday that urges no amnesty for illegal immigrants, stiffer penalties for employers who hire illegal workers and suspension of automatic U.S. citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants.
The platform, a document drafted and voted on at the state GOP convention every two years, addresses a variety of subjects.
It states that the Texas Republican Party supports "traditional" marriage, which it defines as "a God-ordained, legal and moral commitment only between a natural man and a natural woman."
The platform also opposes abortion, the sale and use of "the morning after pill" known as emergency contraception and the legalization of sodomy.
Although the platform is a broad statement of what the party supports, not all Republican candidates agree with everything in it.
HAVING A LITTLE FUN
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison began her speech to the state GOP convention Saturday with a joke. She noted that if gunshots are heard in Washington, D.C., it can set off panic.
"In Texas, they would be asking which hunting season had started, or if Vice President Cheney was visiting," she said, referring to Cheney's accidental shooting of a hunting partner in South Texas in February.
The shooting victim, Austin attorney Harry Whittington, was hospitalized but recovered from his birdshot wounds.
So Tina got her yes man elected this weekend, I guess that stands to reason since she and the entire staff of RPT worked hard for Robin. I hope to be proven wrong about Armstrong, but right now I'm not optimistic about a guy who has only voted in 3 GOP primaries and came from nowhere to attain this position. We'll see what happens in 2008 when the convention is in Houston.
"No Major Opposition"? I guess not since she was unopposed. We'll change that in 2008.
You and Tina will soon find out Robin is no yes man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As I said BellStar, I hope you are right. Based on the fact that Tina wanted someone to go along with what she considers to be the "right direction" of the party, and that she and the entire RPT staff worked for Robin, I am not optimistic. If he stands up to her and guides her in the right direction even once, I will retract all my statements opposing Robin. We'll see if the RPT has a field program this fall or if they continue to promote the big races with no focus on the down ballot races where the Rats are hoping for a field day this November 7th.
I was mostly satisfied with the outcome of party elections. although they did not go my way in all cases.
The only one where I think the delegates were in serious error is the continuance of term limits to our national party delegates. They are not actually in a race with Texas Republicans, as much as with National Republican delegates, who are not term limited.
We are disadvantaged by not being able to match NorthEast RINO"s by having similar or better longevity credentials. We are thereby hindered from taking our rightful positions (by way of largest Congressional delegation, largest convention) of leadership in the national party.
The platform has held an outstanding conservative position for more than a dozen years now but is used as landfill by those elected under the guise of the party both state and federal.
I sincerely believe if the pols actually followed the platform the republican party would do far better at the polls at least in most states.
I hope this one is better than the 2004 one, or some of the ones previous.
Most of the 2004 one was excellent, but I had real problems in the middle when the party advocated cumpulsory counseling for all troubled marriages, called for prohibiting certain sexual interactions between husbands and wives in the privacy of their own bedrooms, and trying to regulate whether or not consenting adults can view adult pornography.
None of that crap is the government's *bleeping* business!!
OK, thanks for the info! :) I knew i was out of the loop on something! :D
The language approved by the platform committee was:
Business Tax - We urge a timely review of HB3 of the 79th 3rd called session for its effect on business and support amendment to the passed bill to ensure fairness and effectiveness.
Since the committee vote was 2? votes short of allowing a minority report, an amendment was proposed from the floor by Steve Hotze, saying something to the effect that for the past 12 years, our platform has opposed the Franchise Tax and further calling for a repeal of HB3 in the next session.
After going through 5 rounds of passionate debate, the standing vote was still too close to call, so each Senatorial District had to individually count the number for(or should I say in favor of) and against the amendment.
There were a few districts that were heavily in favor of calling for the repeal of HB3, but it came up just short, losing by about 45%(3,680)-55%(4,475).
At least for me, I thought this was the best possible outcome since it made a very strong statement that we don't like the business tax, but it didn't make it an official stand that could be used as a club by Strayhorn and others against the re-election of Perry and the Republican House and Senate members. We need to re-elect those who are closest to our viewpoint, but let them know that they need to fix the situation.
I favored removing term limits for the National Committeeman/woman, but not on the Chair and Vice-Chair.
The Chair and Vice-Chair should concentrate on running the State Party and not pursue higher office in the RNC while doing so.
I was surprised that there wasn't a floor vote for this race, but would guess that there might have been a gentleman's agreement not to do that.
My representative said that the outcome of the caucus meetings was 18 to 13 (31 total districts). That's probably why it wasn't contested.
What a wonderful "problem" we had in choosing between two wonderful candidates. Eberle was emotional in his concession speech. He really put his heart and soul into his campaign.
I'd like to see him run for Chairman in 2008. Wouldn't that be grand?
We are apparently in agreement.
Sorry I missed you at the Spaghetti Warehouse. I got there about 7:15, and sat in the bar waiting for someone I recognized.
It wasn't a total loss though. I had an adult beverage and watched the Miami Heat game. I even caught a couple of glimpses of my daughter doing her miami heat NBA dancer thing.
Seriesly, Do get out and vote in November. Local politics is very important from a "Grassroots" standpoint. It is where our future Representatives are coming into play. It is where the weeding out process begins.
Unfortunately, sometimes it is an overabundance of good candidates that is heartbrending.
The Vice Chairmanship of our Texas Party was such a choice yesterday, where Bobby Eberle lost a close vote to Robin Armstrong. They both deserved to win, and even though I supported Eberle, Our GOP certainly did win by having such outstanding candidates.
I can't confirm that, but if that's the case, Eberle had a very good chance overall unless there were significant losses elsewhere and he didn't have that much of a margin of victory in the other districts.
You get it!
This is a very odd revelation for a man who accused BUSHdude2000 of being too close to Bobby! VERY ODD indeed ...
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