Posted on 12/01/2007 7:38:43 AM PST by GulfBreeze
The Texas Republican Party is reminding its auxiliary clubs about a cardinal rule: Keep those Democrats and other non-Republicans away from your microphones and stages; you're not in the business of boosting the opposition.
But the warning has created a near-revolt in at least one corner.
One of the events that prompted the reminder took place in early summer, when state Rep. Craig Eiland addressed the Galveston Island Pachyderm Club.
Pachyderm Clubs — there are 30 in Texas with about 2,000 members — are named after the Grand Old Party's mascot, the elephant.
Eiland is a Democrat — in the mascot world, a donkey.
His speech, following the end of the 2007 legislative session, focused on changes in state law that affect the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, according to audience members, and it included praise for Republican lawmakers from the Galveston area, such as state Sens. Kyle Janek and Mike Jackson.
Nevertheless, Eiland's turn as guest speaker caused a stir that reached GOP headquarters in Austin.
It's debatable whether Eiland's speech was a shot in the partisan political wars, said state GOP coalitions and auxiliary committee chairman Mandy Tschoepe of Plano, "but we received complaints from grass-roots people in that area."
Those elephants' beef, according to Tschoepe, was that "when a Republican club gives a Democratic official a venue to speak, it is detriment to recruiting someone" to run for the office as a Republican.
Otherwise, she explained in an interview, the organizations will risk being dropped as official auxiliaries of the Texas party and lose a seat on the state GOP executive committee.
The warning didn't sit well with one Pachyderm club.
"We didn't take kindly to being told who we should and should not invite," said Dickinson lawyer Kerry Neves, president of the Galveston Island club as well as chairman of the Galveston County Republican Party.
He said he will confer soon with the club board about dropping its official affiliation with the Texas GOP. "We probably should tell them we don't think we can operate under this approach and go our separate way," Neves said.
As he explained, the National Federation of the Grand Order of Pachyderm Clubs Inc. is a Republican organization that promotes Republican candidates and conservative stances.
But the organization's charter also calls on the clubs to "promote practical political education and the dissemination of information on our political system."
If Eiland had already drawn a Republican opponent for 2008, Neves said, he might not have been invited to report on legislative changes, but, "I don't think it's unwise to have him talk about what happened in this last session."
But, he added, "It seems to me to be a tempest in a teapot. If a Democrat was elected district attorney and we felt the need to have some information provided to the clubs about what was going on in the district attorney's office, I am not sure we wouldn't invite the sitting DA."
Tschoepe, a College Republicans national officer when she attended the University of Texas, said she has seen ample evidence that the Pachyderms and other auxiliary organizations help expand and promote the Republican Party.
As for the Pachyderm clubs, "We seem to have come to an understanding that their national mission is to educate voters," she said. "But if they want to maintain their status with the Texas party, we have a higher standard."
The state party will next review its club affiliations in December 2008.
The warning didn't sit well with one Pachyderm club.
"We didn't take kindly to being told who we should and should not invite," said Dickinson lawyer Kerry Neves, president of the Galveston Island club as well as chairman of the Galveston County Republican Party.
He said he will confer soon with the club board about dropping its official affiliation with the Texas GOP. "We probably should tell them we don't think we can operate under this approach and go our separate way," Neves said.
ping
= RINO moron lawyer!
What about guys like Orson Scott Card, or Zell Miller?
Which corner? The Demoratic corner in the Republican Party?
"We didn't take kindly to being told who we should and should not invite," said Dickinson lawyer Kerry Neves, president of the Galveston Island club as well as chairman of the Galveston County Republican Party.
And I don't take kindly to allowing demorats to infiltrate the GOP.
"We probably should tell them we don't think we can operate under this approach and go our separate way,"
dont let the door hit you in the keyster. See Ya!
I think after 1994 the GOP was sloppy about who they allowed in the Party. I think a lot of these RINO types jumped into the Party during the 1990s just because it looked like the only way they could win any political office.
Miller was the 79th Governor of Georgia.
Having unchallenged Democrat officials speak is one thing, but providing a Republican forum for unelected Democrat candidates running against Republican candidates is not appropriate from a logical perspective even without official guidance from the Party.
The Pachyderms are idiots and should lose their affiliation.
It’s also sadly unsurprising that Kyle Janek and his good buddy Craig Eiland are part of this story. With friends like Kyle Janek, who needs enemies?
Kinda sad, and yet pathetic in a way...
Personally I think our strength is in these smaller “clubs” and organizations that don’t get caught up in too much of the glitz and glam of candidates and elected officials...
Sure its good to speak to a friendly, agreeable crowd...But I find it to be a good thing to build up a candidate or elected offical to be “critical” and very opinionated to them as well...
The grassroots is like that, and what better mechanism to try and keep the party functional than through this level of politics...
Just my take on this...
You DID note this issue relates to Texas, right?
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