Posted on 06/09/2008 5:18:07 PM PDT by hocndoc
Harris County Court-at-Law Judge Roberta Lloyd today dissolved a court order restricting how the Texas Republican Party should run its convention under state law this week in Houston.
Lloyd said the order, issued last week by retired substitute judge Tom Sullivan, was improper because her court lacks jurisdiction over such a case. She suggested the group of Republican delegates and activists who asked for the order take the case to the Court of Appeals in Houston and that's where the group headed late this afternoon.
The group, headed by Wharton County GOP Chairman Debra Medina and represented in court by former Harris County GOP Chairman Gary Polland, alleges the party fails to follow the required procedural rules, allowing it to stifle dissent from delegates about party business. The party denies the charge.
Lloyd's hearing today pitted Polland against his successor, current county party chairman Jared Woodfill, who acted as the state party's lawyer. The Texas GOP also was represented in court today by state Rep. Robert Talton and former judge John Devine.
Party officials are filtering into Houston today to start preliminary business for the convention, which is Thursday through Saturday at the downtown George R. Brown Convention Center.
ping!
Let the Party party begin . . .
Guess we’ll see tomorrow if Polland and Company can find their way to the correct court.
Looks like the Ron Paulista kooks got bitch slapped.
As a delegate to the 2008 Texas GOP convention, I got an invitation from Ron Paul inviting me to his ice cream social. I wonder if some of us Freepers should attend just to find out what they're up to.
So, what is the story on the Nueces County Convention and Tim Lambert endorsing Benkiser’s opponent for her mishandling the matter?
thnx for the ping
I didn’t get an invitation - or at least haven’t seen it. I think we definitely ought to go.
(I did hear from one of our Catholic colleagues that the problem with all the evangelicals and Baptists becoming involved in the Party is that the cocktail parties have been replaced by ice cream socials.)
Go ahead and eat up his melted ice cream - and then leave before he speaks, or just turn your back to him.
I'm sure there will be quite a few angry delegates outside the RP event giving him and his Paulbots a ear-ful of hisses and boos.
Lambert, a “has-been,” apparently has drunk the RP kool-aid.
The Paulbots tried to disrupt the Nueces County Convention and got out-voted, when the rest of the delegation figured out their game.
The Paulbots are going to find themselves very unwelcome at the State convention, wholly due to their own actions.
I look forward to booing RP every time he dares show his face and helping vote down every Paulbot motion that manages to make it to a caucus or floor vote. I only wish I had a Ron Paul t-shirt leftover to draw a big red circle with a slash through it and wear during the convention. :)
Lambert has opposed Tina for years and years over this or that procedural matter. Wasn’t it over some point of parliamentary procedure when she was chair of the Rules Committee? They seem to agree on the Party principles, but can’t agree on division of power -— and that’s what it is, a power play.
Apologies to all you lawyers, in advance, but:
I just realized this morning that the reason I don’t respect all of this fussin’ and the people who do it because it reminds me of proof-texting that I was exposed to growing up in the little Baptist churches and later in my husband’s Church of Christ (no instruments, silent women, Stone-Campbell tradition).
“Proof-texting” too often means that someone decides on a point of doctrine that others oppose, then they find a verse in the Bible that sort of applies and pound away on the meaning of one or two words in the verse, in order to make it fit. That one passage is all that matters, and any context, history, or contradictory statements are irrelevant, ignored, or outright warped to fit the debater’s viewpoint.
Making an entire doctrine out of a couple of verses or splitting a Party over the definition of “organized” are both power plays. The ones pushing the fine lines or the esoteric hair-splitting definitions are the ones causing the trouble and alienating the “grassroots.” (In my opinion, of course.)
That defeats the whole purpose which is to spy on them and report what I observe.
Tina is loaded for bear. She's been going around the state prepping the delegations to the state convention.
... Thursday, June 12 - Ron Paul Freedom Rally at the Texas GOP Convention Hilton Americas Grand Ballroom - 9:00 - 11:00 PM
[If you were elected as Delegate or Alternate, please be sure to attend! alternates”move up” in order if a Delegate has to leave the Convention.]
You’re invited, hocndoc.
Thank you, but the Permanent Committee meetings begin at 8 PM that night. I’m not sure I can keep an eye on the Committees and make the RP thing. (and I still blush and have a huge guilt complex at much too mature an age for either)
I hate the abuse of rules no matter whose side it benefits. Did the Nueces County Convention add delegates to their convention that were not approved in the precinct conventions?
Harris County Court at Law Judge Lloyd Vacates Gary Polland and Debra Medina’s Restraining Order and Dismisses their Case Against RPT Lloyd rules Polland’s case was “Void ab initio” or illegal from the beginning Austin - Today, Harris County Court at Law Judge Roberta Lloyd held a hearing on last week’s misguided and misfiled lawsuit against the Republican Party of Texas by former Harris County Republican Party Chairman Gary Polland and current Texas State Campaign Coordinator for The Committee to Re-elect Ron Paul. Judge Lloyd ruled that Mr. Polland had filed his lawsuit and request for a Temporary Restraining Order with a court with no jurisdiction in the matter. Mr. Polland and Ms. Medina were seeking to evade rules passed by Republican grassroots and used for decades to conduct the Texas G.O.P. Convention and thereby disenfranchise the legal delegates and alternates from the convention process.
“Today grassroots leaders of our State were saved from the litigious cajoling of a disgruntled few who resorted to judicial activism rather than use the appropriate venue of the Texas Legislature to change an existing statute they didn’t like or didn’t understand; and they were thwarted by a judge who knew it was wrong,” said Hans Klingler Texas G.O.P. Spokesman.
Gary Polland is the former G.O.P. Chairman of Harris County and Debra Medina currently serves as the Texas State Campaign Coordinator for The Committee to Re-elect Ron Paul and the Wharton County G.O.P. Chairman. Neither individual has ever expressed interest in changing the Party rules or this statute according to public records, nor have they attempted to get a bill filed doing so.
“For all of Gary Polland’s and Debra Medina’s histrionics, both have shown an incredible lack of understanding of the Party process or the Texas Election Code. The Republican State Convention has always and will continue to be conducted in full compliance with the law and the rules passed by the grassroots. If someone wishes to change the law, they have an opportunity next year when the Texas Legislature convenes. You would think two political operatives like them would know that?” Klingler questioned.
So you really dislike abuse of the rules? How about the chairman of the credentials committee who could not attend his precinct caucus, because of his duties immediately after the polling place closed. He submitted his name to precinct caucus, but the only person to attend that precinct caucus was a Ron Paul supporter who only submitted her name as a delegate from that precinct. That's rather heavy handed.
...and so the Paulistinian’s runthlessness justifies violating the rules and adding close to 100 other delegates to the County Convention that were not elected in the precinct conventions?
So you really dislike abuse of the rules? How about the chairman of the credentials committee who could not attend his precinct caucus, because of his duties immediately after the polling place closed. He submitted his name to precinct caucus, but the only person to attend that precinct caucus was a Ron Paul supporter who only submitted her name as a delegate from that precinct. That’s rather heavy handed.
I do not know much about this county other than what we can read on the internet, but I am having trouble understanding the abuse of rules here. Each precinct has a caucus, starting after the polls close. Ideally, the precinct chair should start the caucus, but if the precinct chair is not present or if there is no precinct chair, any Republican voter present can start the caucus. The first order of business is to elect the chair for the meeting. Other business is to pass resolutions and to elect delegates and alternates to the district convention.
You state the only person to attend that precinct caucus was a Ron Paul supporter who only submitted her name as a delegate from that precinct. If that precinct was allocated more than one delegate [surely it was, because even the smallest precincts will have at least a few delegates], and if the one attendee knew that the credentials committee chair was interested in being a delegate, and intentionally did not include that persons name, that would be heavy handed.
Also, KEY POINT HERE, if this one RP supporter had not attended the caucus, then there would have been NO caucus, and that precinct would have had ZERO delegates to the district convention!
However, the problem is that only one person attended the precinct caucus! Where is the precinct chair, for crying out loud? Where are the Republican voters! I cant believe only one person attended the caucus. I am a precinct chair, and even in 2006 I was able to muster at least a few neighbors, me, and my wife to attend.
Its hard to argue abuse of the rules because the rules were followed. Sure the RP supporter would have blame, if she intentionally kept someone off an otherwise empty position; but the precinct chair should bear some blame, and the other Republican voters have some blame for overall apathy. If there is no Republican precinct chair, well, back to apathy.
Sounds like a lot of proof texting going on from all sides.
Y’all behave!
There, now, that’s fixed.
I’m at the temporary Platform committee meeting. They’re taking public testimony and recommendations for new amendments to the Platform, now.
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