Chairman's Update: February
2012
Other than the San Antonio three-judge federal panel conducting a trial
involving the RPT on the State Senate map, attending Court hearings on the
other maps, the Court issuing new redistricting lines, having to
completely rewrite the State Party rules because of court orders, and
holding an emergency SREC meeting to deal with the crisis - nothing much
happened in February!
All tongue-in-cheek comments aside, as has been reported in our previous emails,
most of the RPT's and my attention in February was consumed by the court
cases pertaining to redistricting and in then dealing with the fallout.
Despite all the distraction, I was actually able to undertake some normal
State Party Chairman duties and also traveled to several events this past
month. During the first week of February, I had the opportunity to sit
down with new TFRW President Carolyn Hodges to discuss
how the TFRW and RPT can work better together. I also filled her in on the
preliminary Victory 2012 plans drafted by Victory Chairman Ed
Emmett.
Later on in the week, I had an opportunity to speak to the TFRW
Leadership Day. This event was exceptionally well attended with several
hundred enthusiastic TFRW representatives from around the state. Carolyn
Hodges was actually a teacher of mine, as well as two of my siblings,
while we were students at Memorial Junior High in Houston - so I am
absolutely delighted that she is the new TFRW President. In between TFRW
events, I had the opportunity to travel to Denton County to speak to the
Denton Republican Club. Denton County GOP Chair Dianne
Edmondson was there, along with SREC member
Tom Washington. A couple of days later, I
traveled to Collin County to attend the Collin County Lincoln Day Dinner.
The guest speaker was Star Parker, who put on a dynamic
performance. Collin County GOP Chairman Fred
Moses did his usual outstanding job as the event was
exceptionally well attended with hundreds of Collin County Republican
supporters.
The following Monday, I drove from Houston to Tyler to attend a
fundraising event for the Republican Party of Texas hosted by State
Senators Kevin Eltife, Bob Deuell and Robert Nichols.
SREC Committeewoman Dianne Caron also attended and helped
represent the RPT. The event was very successful and we will be providing
a full report on it shortly. I then drove from Tyler to Williamson County,
where that evening, County Chairman Bill Fairbrother
pulled off a coup by having Governor Rick Perry as a
featured speaker. There was tremendous press coverage for the event since
Governor Perry was giving his first major speech since returning to Texas.
The Governor's speech was particularly fiery and well received. During the
time I have been Chairman, Governor Perry has made himself available many
times to both local parties and the State Party to assist with fundraising
and other events. I know I speak for all Republicans in Texas when I say
how appreciative I am of his help and efforts. The following night, we had
our statewide leadership call and had a special guest - Senator
Kay Bailey Hutchison. Senator Hutchison provided an
update to statewide leadership as to the events going on in Washington,
D.C. and even had time to answer a few questions.
The following day, RPT lawyers appeared at the redistricting
trial involving the State Senate maps and Wendy Davis' district and I was
actively in consultation with them throughout the day. The week drew to a
close with two events - for the first event, I drove up to Milam County
where I was one of the keynote speakers at the county party's annual
dinner in Cameron. It was amazing to see such a strong and healthy county
party in a county which is traditionally Democratic. County Chairman
Bill Whitmire should be applauded for his work - they had
a full slate of candidates speak to the group. The second event I had the
pleasure of attending was the Fort Bend County Lincoln-Reagan Dinner in
Sugar Land, with several hundred other enthusiastic Republicans. County
Chairwoman Sharon Roberts emceed the event at which Star
Parker spoke, as did Justice Don Willett and U.S.
Congressman Pete Sessions. Congressman Sessions is the
chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee and gave an
update on their efforts.
The next week was
almost totally consumed by the redistricting lawsuit. During the trial, I
traveled to San Antonio along with the RPT attorneys to attend court
hearings pertaining to redistricting issues. I was supposed to spend my
week traveling to Taiwan as part of a delegation from the RNC, but my trip
was a casualty of the Democrats' antics. Hopefully I will someday get
another opportunity, but if I don't - the results obtained by General
Abbott and his team were well worth missing the trip.
After the hearings, I was able to travel to Rockwall
County to speak at the Rockwall County Lincoln Day Dinner. Despite
Rockwall County not being as large as many of our urban counties, they
turned out a high number of attendees comparable to the number who attend
some of our larger county functions - congratulations to Chairman
Tony Fisk and his team. The event was packed and was
particularly meaningful because my longtime friend from my days in college
and the Ronald Reagan campaigns, State Representative Jodie
Laubenberg, was recognized for her service. Because of
redistricting, she will no longer represent many of those in attendance so
it was a bittersweet moment. Everyone in attendance was appreciative of
her solid, conservative record representing the area and her steadfast
commitment to principle. I have known Jodie for 36 years and can
personally attest to the fact that she always stands up for what she
thinks is right, not expedient. I also had a chance to sit next to
Congressman Ralph Hall and it is always a delight to visit with him.
The following week,
I had the honor of serving as a keynote speaker for the Hopkins County
Republican Party "Denim and Diamonds" Dinner at the invitation of County
Chairman Donnie Wisenbaker. I purchased a coconut cake at
their auction, and I am happy to report that the RPT staff gobbled it up
swiftly! On Friday morning, I was invited to attend an event in Austin for
Rick Santorum at the Headliner's Club. Although I have
not yet decided who I will cast my vote for in the Presidential primary, I
have been hoping to meet all of the candidates and was pleased to go to
the event. Senator Santorum gave a passionate speech in defense of conservatism,
and afterwards, I had a chance to speak with him for a few minutes. I
thanked him for paying attention to the State of Texas during his
campaign, and was impressed by his genuine friendliness and knowledge of
the issues. Later that morning, I traveled back to Houston to
attend the funeral for Paul Bettencourt's mother,
Dorothy. In addition to the touching eulogy delivered by former Harris
County Tax Collector-Assessor, former treasurer of the RPT, and current
RPT redistricting committee member Paul Bettencourt, I was struck by the
fact that the mourners composed a Who's Who of Harris County Republican
politics. It was clear that Paul's commitment and dedication to the
Republican Party was instilled in him by his activist mother. Former
Harris County Executive Director Jeff Yates presided over
the service and his words were both comforting and inspirational to those
in attendance.
The next day I traveled to Richardson to speak to the
Richardson Republican Women's Annual Tea. The event was well attended by
the SREC members from the area, who included Paige McAleer, Candy
Noble, Tom Washington, Neal Katz, Dan Pickens, and former
SREC member Chris Davis. During a month where I was a
little beat up from the redistricting mess and being in court, the
presence of so many good friends (and particularly the kind words of Paige
in her introduction), provided some much needed support and was
appreciated. Immediately following the Richardson event, I drove over to
Denton County to lead the pledge of allegiance at the annual Denton County
Lincoln-Reagan Day Dinner. County Chairwoman Dianne
Edmondson and the event chair Nancy Dillard, did
an outstanding job as usual. They had approximately 800 people in
attendance, which probably makes that dinner the largest Lincoln-Reagan
Day Dinner this year. Also during this week, we scheduled several
statewide telephone conferences with the SREC and County Chairmen over the
new rules (see
previous report). The last day of the month was taken up with our
emergency SREC meeting - please see our previous
report for a recap on that event.
On the financial front, the Party paid all of its bills to zero
at the end of February. That marked the sixteenth monthly report in a row
where we have reported zero debt and obligations. Our usable,
non-dedicated cash at the end of February was approximately $690,000. On
one hand, this number is very encouraging as we have been able to maintain
a healthy cash balance despite coming off of a difficult fall fundraising
season where we were in competition with so many Presidential and other
campaigns. On the other hand, there is cause for concern that money could
get very tight in the next few months for several reasons. First, part of
our cash balance is due to our membership renewals and typically the Party
has more cash at the beginning of the year than at the end of the year.
Second, we have legal fees resulting from the redistricting lawsuits and
other legal conflicts which are draining some of our cash. In February
alone, we incurred approximately $40,000 worth of legal fees. Third, and
of particular concern, is having to advance money for the State Convention
without registrations coming in. Normally we would have our Senatorial
District Conventions at the end of March, so that the Party could normally
expect to receive registration monies and sponsorships during April and
May to help offset the cash drain from the convention. Because of the
uncertainty over redistricting, sponsorships have been delayed and the
delay in the Senatorial District Conventions by approximately a month will
mean that our cash flow from the convention will be about a month behind.
However, we will still be required to advance several hundred thousand
dollars toward the convention. Thus it is expected over the next few
months that our cash reserves will be depleted significantly and probably
to their lowest levels since November 2010. Hopefully, once we get through
the convention we will be able to recoup all of these costs and perhaps
even make some profit which should put us in decent shape coming out of
the convention - but in the meantime, things could get very tight.
Therefore, if there was ever a time that any of you were thinking about
giving
to the Republican Party of Texas - now would be an excellent
time!
Now that we are apparently having our primary on May 29th and we have
new rules for our State Convention, we can turn our attention over the
next three months to doing our best to accomplish both having a successful
Convention and Primary season. Because we are picking delegates through a
new and untried process forced upon us by the Courts, I am asking
everybody to be extra patient, tolerant and cooperative as we work our way
through our convention and delegate selection process. There are bound to
be some problems and snafus and I hope everybody will be understanding and
kind to each other during this difficult situation and especially towards
the volunteers who will be struggling to help all of us pull off this
massive undertaking. Hopefully I and the RPT will be out of the courts for
a little while, and now we can all focus on the business at hand - which
is to nominate our best candidates for office and start preparing for the
November elections.
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Steve Munisteri, Chairman, Republican Party of Texas
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