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ATTENTION FREEPER DELEGATES AND ALTERNATES:

There are several IMPORTANT efforts being made to amend the Texas GOP rules and platform at this convention. I plan to support some of these efforts and strongly encourage you to do so as well.

1. CLOSED PRIMARY RESOLUTION - please support efforts to change the Texas primaries to closed primaries that require voters to officially declare their party registration when they register to vote. The Dems have infiltrated our party with crossover votes and big money for way too long and it had a devastating effect on the last primary! More about this effort and my reasons for supporting it are online at http://www.houstonreview.com/apr2002/primaryreform.html

2. STOP THE SLATES RESOLUTION - please support this platform resolution urging all GOP candidates to abstain from participation in the corrupt endorsement slates that have polluted our GOP primary with the effect of helping liberal candidates (EVERY SINGLE CONSERVATIVE STATE SENATE CHALLENGER OR OPEN SENATE SEAT CANDIDATE LOST IN THE 2002 PRIMARY TO THE MORE LIBERAL CANDIDATE, WHO ALMOST ALWAYS HAD A SLATE ENDORSEMENT BOUGHT BY BIG MONEY). There are GOP groups and supposedly conservative publications out there that literally SELL endorsements on their slates to candidates with the most money. For example, the group called "Conservative Republicans of Harris County" is a sham PAC that endorses the political clients of a houston political consultant who also does work for Democrat labor unions. A group called GOP PAC did a slate that was mailed and paid for on the money of the Democrat tobacco lawyers. A sham magazine called the Link Letter was mailed statewide, and almost always endorsed the candidate who bought the most expensive ads to the outrageous tune of $20,000 and upwards. People will be passing out yellow "endorsement integrity" stickers in support of this resolution at the convention. Please wear one and support it.

3. FOUR DELEGATES IN 2004 - this change in the GOP rules will decrease the number of at large republican national convention delegates and replace them by allocating an additional 4th to be elected each congressional district. The reason is to get around a problem in the past where the at large delegates are often chosen from a predetermined list of political cronies of elected office holders and the GOP leadership elites. Instead this will allow us to elect an additional one from our own congressional caucus giving more power to the grass roots.