Organizing the Convention

The Importance of Electing the Convention Chairman During the First General Session in Accordance with the Texas Election Code

"Failure to elect the permanent chair before conducting convention business results in a failure to properly organize the convention. The state chairman, by statute the Temporary Chair of the convention, has not been elected by current state convention. The SREC, author of the agenda for the convention, has not been elected by the current convention. Neither the agenda published before the convention, nor the temporary agenda proposed by the SREC, has provided for the order of business specified in TEC Sec. 174.094. Yet, these agendas impinge on the assembly's ownership of the time for conducting business and do so by delaying organizing the convention for the conduct of that business.

Under the current party leadership and in recent years, debate over delegate challenges and the proper seating of delegates is delayed until the second general session. The credentials committee report on all challenges should be the first item of business taken up by the convention in the first general session after the election of permanent officers of the convention in order to insure that all challenges are resolved and a true majority may be had on all subsequent votes.

In the case of a challenged delegation, the entire delegation is not seated and thereby denied participation until the second general session after all of the convention business has been conducted in the senatorial district caucuses. The convention business in caucus includes electing members of permanent committees of the convention, electing state Republican executive committee man and woman, and nominating state party chairman and state party vice chairman. When the credentials questions are deferred until the second general session, as has been the unvarying practice over the last sixteen years, these challenged delegates are excluded from voting on the foregoing significant business of the convention. If the challenge is resolved in favor of the delegation and it is seated, the will of a true majority of the convention on all business occurring before resolution of the challenge has been obliterated by the non-participation of the subsequently validated delegation, who ought to have been participating in that business. The essence of our first amendment right of freedom of assembly has been destroyed by this delay in resolving the credentials challenge.

Furthermore, in the instance of individual delegate challenges, such challenged delegates are seated and participating in convention business prior to the resolution of their challenges by the whole convention, thus depriving the whole convention of the opportunity to find a true majority of properly seated delegates. When such challenged delegates are ultimately denied credentials in the second general session and yet they have participated in significant votes on convention business, the will of the true majority has been obliterated and the essence of our first amendment right of freedom of assembly destroyed. We can no longer determine a true majority, it having been corrupted by the participation of nonqualified delegates.

In either case, challenge to an individual delegate or challenge to an entire delegation must be resolved in the first general session in order to insure that all proper delegates are seated and all improperly seated delegates are excluded. Only when this has been accomplished can a true majority of the convention emerge on every subsequent vote, whether occurring in a general session or occurring in a senatorial district or congressional district caucus.

Thus, the failure to fix this violation of the Texas Election Code concerning the organizing of the convention at the first general session, as set out in TEC Sec. 174.094, for this convention will continue in subsequent conventions, fostering a situation of repeated violations resisting a remedy."