Texas GOP stifles dissent, party activists say in lawsuit

The Houston Chronicle ^ | June 4, 2008 | Alan Bernstein

[Stat-boy]

Republican activists across Texas sued their state party in a Harris County court today to block what they call an attempt at next week's state GOP convention in Houston to minimize grassroots dissent.

Represented by lawyer Gary Polland, a former Harris County Republican Party chairman, the group alleges that party leaders violated procedural state laws at past conventions and plan to do so again.

The suit asks a judge to order the party to follow the law, and Polland said an initial hearing by County Court at Law Judge Roberta Lloyd could come as early as this afternoon.

Texas law says a political party's state convention must choose a permanent chairman before doing most official business. Polland and Wharton County GOP Chairwoman Debra Medina said the party instead elects a permanent chairman late in the convention, shutting off dissent beforehand about the selection of convention delegates and new state party leaders, the adoption of a platform and other actions.

"If they want to exclude the grassroots and control the process, it's not right," Polland said.

[continued]

[Stat-boy]

I spoke with a few local Republican Party leaders, and we can’t figure out why the State Party will not follow a few simple rules. The rules come from the State statutes and our current State Party rules. It’s not all that hard.

It seems like certain members of the Republican Party are not really conservatives, but speak a conservative message in order to gain political power, and the Texas Republican Party has a number of this type [including our current Gov. Perry].

Many, but not all, of the complaining Republicans are from the Ron Paul camp; however, to dismiss them entirely is not fair. Have a fair process, take votes accordingly, and bring people along so we can reach our goals in November. Avoiding votes when they are proper is not the conservative way. We had a number of Ron Paul supporters at our district convention, and we treated them fairly. We need the new blood. I was happy to not be one of a small handful under 40 at a Republican event. Heck, I actually felt “old.”

[Man50D]

The GOP national convention could be very interesting, especially if similar type dissension amongst the grassroots is sign of things to come.

[Seeking the truth]

Your are an old fa_t!

My wife and I will be attending our 6th RPOT Convention displaying our wares in a 10' x 20' space....www.0cents.com

Stop by...we have some Freeper Stuff

I'd give you our booth number, but as of today, politics (sound familiar) has still not allowed booth assignments!

I may actually be driving from my home in Las Vegas to Houston without knowing my booths!

[FFranco]

“It seems like certain members of the Republican Party are not really conservatives, but speak a conservative message in order to gain political power”

This is true not only in Texas, but universally. That’s why the RINOs are in charge of the Republican Party.

[Paleo Conservative]

"If they want to exclude the grassroots and control the process, it's not right," Polland said.

Oh give me a break. The "grassroots" is really just a bunch of Ron Paul zealots who want to take over the state party convention and nominate a buch of Paulbots to make up the Texas delegation to the Republican National Convention.

[TexasCajun]

I don't like our Presidential Primary date, I was totally disenfranchised when I was told Amnesty MeCain was my Republican Nominee, like it or not.

Texas had no say-so at all.

[Stat-boy]

“Oh give me a break. The “grassroots” is really just a bunch of Ron Paul zealots who want to take over the state party convention and nominate a buch of Paulbots to make up the Texas delegation to the Republican National Convention.”

That’s a typical gut reaction, but it’s not true. I am not involved in this mess, but I have been an active conservative Republican for a relatively long time [since college—of course, there are colleagues of mine who have been active since well before I was born]. Our county party is currently very united and conservative, but that is because of a recent purge of former leadership, who was a more power hungry group.

Gary Poland is no nutcase. If you do not know who he is, just look him up on Google. He is about as grass roots as they come, including serving as Harris County Party Chair [a position that takes an amazing amount of time with zero pay]. He was instrumental in both State and National Republican gains during the late 1990s and early 2000s, and was considered one of the most effective County Chairs in the nation. If he has a concern, it is not something that the State Party should ignore.

[Tex Pete]

Completely agree.

The dems picked our nominee in the early blue state primaries with the cooperation of an eager media. Conservatives across the country had very little say-so.

[Paleo Conservative]

The Paul bots tried to take over the Nueces County convention, but weeks before that they started harassing Nueces County Republican officials. Typically they sent letters and lots of email spam to these officials calling the “m&#$%^@^(!ers”. Yeah thats really professional. Their list of alternative delegates had no one who has been active in the party.

[mnehring]

From a lot of first hand accounts I've read on this, I understand why the State Party did what it did. There was a lot of attempted hijacking and rules playing by people coming in who were not established party members. There were cases where candidates who received less than 5% of the vote, somehow were able to get dozens of people at local precinct meetings and the former were so rude and forceful, that many of the established members just left. If they weren't established members, we had no idea if they were true, new Republicans, Dem trolls, or other people with their own agenda trying to force their will over the will of a majority of Republican voters. The party did follow the rules in doing this, what we didn't allow were rules to be twisted as some tried to do. (for example, inviting in non-voting guests then trying to twist rules to get them to vote.)

[Ben Ficklin]

This term grass roots is a code word for all zealots(not just Ron Paul zealots) who try to thwart the will of the voters and impose their own agenda.

[mnehring]

Ahh.. Gary Poland(sic it is Polland) wasn’t marginalized by the party because he was Conservative, on the contrary, it was because he supported liberal Democrat Al Green. Polland was also criticized by Conservatives because of his McCain like desire to reach across the isle (Polland called it “ideological issue allies”). He is one of those who complains about abandoning Conservative ideals to fat cats then at the same time, tries to make a ‘big tent’ party comprised of all his ‘thin cat’ friends, no matter if they are Conservative.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

The faction in control using/abusing the process in order to maintain control is a long tradition in politics, bringing in the courts is a bad idea, it creates hard feelings that won't be mollified because when courts decide there is no need for compromise. Eventually the faction out of power can, if they have enough support, gain control. The ability to overcome and gain control is the qualities necessary to organize a successful political campaign. Fight it out at the convention, not in court.

[rstrahan]

We still have a bunch of RINOs in the party. Like it or not, it’s time for the true conservatives to start voting out RINOs and Dems who changed parties just to keep power.

[Stat-boy]

“Ahh.. Gary Poland(sic it is Polland) wasn’t marginalized by the party because he was Conservative, on the contrary, it was because he supported liberal Democrat Al Green. Polland was also criticized by Conservatives because of his McCain like desire to reach across the isle (Polland called it “ideological issue allies”). He is one of those who complains about abandoning Conservative ideals to fat cats then at the same time, tries to make a ‘big tent’ party comprised of all his ‘thin cat’ friends, no matter if they are Conservative.”

I must disagree based on Gary Polland’s years of service [yea—I can’t spell]. I do not live in Harris County today, but I did from 1974 until 1999. We all know from the 2004 race that Gary gave money to Al Green, of course that was in the Democratic Primary race against Chris Bell, in a district that is guaranteed to have a Democratic winner. Why? I do not know. Maybe they were friends. Who knows? I have old friends from school who, unfortunately, are Democrats, and if one were to run in a primary, I would send him my support.

But to call Gary a liberal, or even a moderate McCain-type conservative ignores a mountain of evidence and years of work for conservative causes. Put in context, when Gary was referring to “ideological issue allies”, he made that comment within a broad discussion of the lack of growth within the Republican Party and how Texas Democrats were dominating minority votes. He was not talking about compromising conservative values. His writings say just the opposite. In fact, here is where he made that comment:

“So what should be done to right the ship? First, work needs to begin yesterday to grow the GOP. It is important to find ideological issue allies and bring them into the party and give them a seat at the table. Second, our base needs to KNOW they are important and are listened to. Now, the party is treated many times as a vehicle to be put in the garage after one is elected (only to be brought out for the next election). This can be remedied by the adoption of a short and understandable conservative state and local platform that candidates must pledge to support. Once in office, the party must hold those officials accountable. And for those who don’t stand with the party on the core platform (a single page of 6-10 items), need to be separated from the party in the future.”

[lesser_satan]

I heard the same thing happened at the state convention here in MN. They “screened” delegates to determine who would go to the national convention, and screened out anybody who doesn’t have their nose up McCain’s ass.

[mnehring]

But to call Gary a liberal, or even a moderate McCain-type conservative ignores a mountain of evidence and years of work for conservative causes.

Didn't call Gary a liberal, but he is in the McCain camp. He actually works for the McCain campaign.

[mnehring]

screened out anybody who doesn't have their nose up McCain's ass.

Not exactly, they screened anyone who would not vote based on how the voters put them in place to vote. IE, if you were voted into your position as a delegate to cast a vote based on the voters you represent, and you did this under false pretenses with no plan to respect the voters of whom you represent, then yes, you should be screened out. Flip it around. Imagine if a county had 95% of the votes for Duncan Hunter and 5% for McCain, and at the local precinct convention, the party elected Joe Smith as a delegate who said he would respect the 95% voters and cast his vote as a voice for them and promised to vote for Hunter, but he lied and he planned to go in and vote for McCain from the start.

[Stat-boy]

I just searched it, thanks for the info. How annoying. What is going on with our Party? Yea, I will punch in the “R” in November, but I do not know if I can get excited about it—and I am a Precinct Chair. Dang.

From 2007:

“Gary Polland, former chairman of the Harris County Republican Party and a member of McCain’s state finance committee, said Loeffler, who raised more than half a million dollars for Bush and the Republican National Committee in 2004, is well-positioned to beef up McCain’s fundraising. “He is awesome. He is certainly the right guy for the job,” Polland said.”

[Squantos]

VOTEAKER for TEXAS GOVENOR !