Chairman's Update : January
2012
When I retired from practicing law three years ago, I thought
my days in the courtroom were behind me. Unfortunately, the majority of my
focus in January has been on the redistricting lawsuits and other legal
matters. In fact, we are still involved in multiple lawsuits over
redistricting (including one in which the City of Austin and Travis
County are plaintiffs at taxpayer expense.) As we've reported through
a series
of redistricting updates, there is still uncertainty as to when our
Texas primaries will be held and this makes it impossible for us to make
final arrangements for delegate selection to our State Convention and to
prepare for ballot drawings, candidates to re-file, etc.
What I believe is clear at this time is that we will not have an April
3rd primary, nor an April 10th primary. There is still some chance we will
have an April 17th primary if maps can be put in place by February 20th.
As reported on Monday this week, the Attorney General has put forth
proposed maps. These maps were agreed to by a significant number of
plaintiffs groups, but were opposed by the Texas Democratic Party and
other Democratic groups. The San Antonio three-judge panel did not accept
these maps and indicated rather that the two sides should continue to
negotiate. My best guess is that there will not be an agreement between
all the parties, and therefore we will move forward with a trial this week
on the State Senate seat currently held by Democratic Senator Wendy Davis,
as well as moving forward with a hearing on (presumably) all the issues,
next Wednesday - February 15th.
We continue to advocate the Republican Party of Texas' position that it
is still within the Court's power to accomplish a single unified April
primary. This will require the Court to make a decision shortly after the
hearing next week as to which districts (if any) need to be redrawn, then
accomplishing the redrawing of the maps by the following week. In the
event that this does not happen, I have been evaluating several fallback
plans that I will discuss with Party leadership and our attorneys over the
next few weeks. However the Court rules, certainty is an ally of
accomplishing an orderly convention and primary process.
Fortunately, the Presidential race appears to still have a long
ways to go and this increases the likelihood that even a later Texas
Presidential primary will still have an impact on the selection of our
nominee. There has been a lot of misinformation put out by the media
indicating that the race is farther along in the process than it really
is. For example, several news media outlets list Governor Mitt Romney as
having over 100 delegates. This number is inaccurate - these media outlets
apparently include, for example, an allocation of the 28 Iowa delegates
despite the fact that no Iowa delegates have been selected yet. The
Presidential vote at the Iowa caucus was just a straw poll - the actual
delegate selection is a three-step process starting with precinct
caucuses, then district caucuses, then finally, Congressional district
caucuses at which the final delegates are selected. Delegates don't even
have to state their preference as to who they are pledged to until the
final convention.
The Republican National Committee puts out an
official delegate tally every week or so (click on the photo at right to
see the latest chart.) Just last night, there were contests in three
states that have received much media attention - but all three of those
states were non-binding caucus or primary states! The official
current delegate count which I received today from the RNC is: Romney at
73, Gingrich at 29, Paul at 8, and Santorum at 3. Thus we have a
very long way to go in deciding our nominee - as it requires 1144
delegates to get the nomination and it is mathematically impossible for
any candidate to obtain a majority of the delegates before the end of May.
Therefore, if we have a Presidential primary in April - there is still a
good chance that Texas can have an impact on the Presidential nominee
choice. I would also note, that even through Super Tuesday - only 642
total delegates will have been selected. Texas is a huge
prize. There are only two states which have more than 76
delegates - one is California with 174 and Texas has 155. Our impact is
magnified by the fact that numerous of the early primary states had their
delegate allocations cut in half for violating the RNC's primary schedule.
For example, Florida (which normally would have 100 delegates) only has 50
this year - meaning that Texas is worth more than three Florida's. In my
opinion, the race is far from over and any one of the four current
candidates still has a chance to accumulate significant delegate blocs.
There is also an outside chance that we could have a brokered convention
which would make Texas a huge player in picking our Republican
nominee.
![](chairmanupdate/PO-committeewoman.jpg) Speaking of the Republican National Committee, National
Committeeman and RNC General Counsel Bill Crocker,
National Committeewoman Borah Van Dormolen and myself,
all attended the RNC's bi-annual meetings which were held in New Orleans
the week of January 9th. There, we received the good news from RNC
Chairman Reince Priebus that during the past year of his
chairmanship, he was able to significantly reduce the outstanding debt of
the RNC by several million dollars while at the same time increasing the
party's cash balances into eight figures. This is a strong improvement of
the party's financial position as compared to when he took office in
January 2011. There were various committee meetings and seminars presented
at the national meetings and I was asked to make a presentation on our
Grassroots Club to the State Chairmen at the State Chairman's Association
meeting. I also made a presentation to the Southern Regional Chairmen and
Committeepersons as to the importance of outreach among the Hispanic and
African-American communities. Borah Van Dormolen is on the committee of
Convention Arrangements and worked on that issue. Bill Crocker, who also
serves as RNC General Counsel, attended all official committee meetings in
addition to the regular sessions and he also dealt with all the legal
issues affecting the national party. Bill Crocker is serving his last term
as National Committeeman for Texas. He has served very ably and will be
missed. Fortunately, he will continue on as General Counsel for the RNC -
we are very glad to have a Texan represented on the Officials Committee of
the national party!
The third week of January, after I returned from the RNC
meeting, I was back on the road, as I traveled to Harris County where I
spoke to the San Jacinto Republican Club. SREC members Rex
Teter and Glenda Bowles were there, and there
was a terrific turnout. The following day we had a tele-townhall
conference with statewide Republican leadership where Senator John
Cornyn provided an update on events in Washington, D.C. and
answered questions from the callers. Later in the week, I had an
opportunity to have a meeting with Bill Crocker and Borah Van Dormolen to
discuss RNC issues, as well as to meet with a group of Republican judges
concerning the judicial elections.
The following week I had an opportunity to be a guest on
Lubbock radio, met with several of our legislators in Austin, and traveled
to San Marcos to speak at Texas State University College Republicans'
meeting. That week was also taken up with our lawyers filing an advisory
with the San Antonio three-judge panel, requesting that they move up their
scheduled February 1st hearing to an earlier date. The Court accommodated
this request and scheduled a hearing for Friday, January 27th. Thus the
end of the week was taken up preparing for and attending that hearing,
which went into the evening on Friday the 27th. The following day I
traveled to Waller County and was their keynote speaker at the Waller
County Lincoln-Reagan Day Dinner. I closed out the month by visiting with
Comptroller Susan Combs, who has maintained a very active
interest in the health of the RPT and she visits with us from time to get
an update and status on our progress. She not only provides excellent
political and financial advice, but is also a strong financial supporter
of the RPT and recently renewed her Chairman's Circle membership by
donating an additional $25,000 to the Party. If you see her, please thank
her for her generosity!
In previous Chairman's Updates, I noted concern that
fundraising has been difficult in the current environment with so much
uncertainty over the election dates and so many candidates raising money
at the same time we are. I set a goal of attempting to maintain at least a
half-million dollar cushion for the RPT, while continuing to pay all our
bills to zero every month. Part of my concern on the finances is the
constant drain of legal fees for all of the various suits in which we are
involved. Fortunately, we receive a lot of free legal help as well as work
on a reduced-fee basis. For example, Chris Ward at the
law firm of Yetter Coleman LLP, saved us a considerable
amount of money in January by filing a brief for us before the U.S.
Supreme Court, pro bono. Moreover, because of the primary season we've had
to add additional full-time temporary help in order to have adequate staff
to handle filing and to be available to answer questions from candidates
which are voluminous because of the uncertainty of the primaries. Fortunately, I'm happy to report that we have been able to
continue to pay our bills to zero every couple of weeks and currently have
on-hand approximately $600,000 of non-dedicated funds, including the
$100,000 in our Rainy Day Fund. We have also been able to sign up people
for the Grassroots Club and now have had more than 1,300 sign up since the
inception of the program 16 months ago. I have also been encouraged by the
continued support of some of our elected officials and specifically by
elected officials either signing up, or renewing their Chairman's Circle
membership. In addition to Comptroller Susan Combs renewing her membership
last month, State Senator Glenn Hegar was also added to
the Chairman's Circle and he has been providing very generous financial
support to the RPT as well. Membership renewals have recently gone out in
the mail, and we encourage you to renew your financial membership in the
Party if you have not already done so - early returns have been very
positive.
We continue to plan for the 2012 Election working closely with our
Victory Chairman, Ed Emmett, on timelines and budgets. We
will have a specific report on this shortly.
I am presuming that a significant portion of my time over the next few
weeks will again be spent on the redistricting issues in front of the San
Antonio three-judge panel. Once the Court finally issues new maps, I
suspect we will be in a sprint to get ready for our primaries and State
Convention. I appreciate everybody's patience in the meantime.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank our hard-working County
Chairs and Precinct Chairs who are under increased stress as a result of
not being able to plan for ballot drawings, precinct conventions, district
conventions, etc. I know it is creating extra stress for you - as the
situation is also creating extra stress for myself and the RPT staff. I
hope you will stick with us and continue your work for the Party despite
these trying circumstances. I feel confident that if we can avoid getting
discouraged, that we will be able to come up with solutions and in the
end, all the aggravation will be worth it if we prevail in November.
For any of you who may be a little down over the situation, I suggest
you visualize Inauguration Day next year... as we watch President Obama
leave the Oval Office and our Republican nominee being sworn in. That
should put a big smile on your face - it certainly does mine.
![](chairmanupdate/Munisteri-signature.jpg)
Steve Munisteri, Chairman, Republican Party of Texas
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