Posted on 03/30/2008 12:31:03 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
CORPUS CHRISTI — Nueces County Republican Chairman Mike Bertuzzi survived a potential convention takeover.
At the group's county convention Saturday, a man began causing a scene while committees were making reports. Republican county conventions nominate delegates for the state convention based upon the ratio decided in the March 4 primaries.
"We were able to stop that and take care of business," Bertuzzi said. "I don't know what their purpose was. They claim they were Ron Paul supporters. I can't imagine Ron Paul would put people up to this."
Paul, a U.S. representative from Texas and presidential candidate, is far behind presumptive nominee Sen. John McCain. The scene at the Nueces County convention appeared to be part of a larger effort by Paul supporters to gain delegates to the Republican National Convention. The Kansas City Star reported his supporters took over a county convention there March 17 and elected 170 of 187 delegates.
Bertuzzi, who chaired the meeting, said he did not recognize the group to speak and some members were escorted out by the sergeant at arms. Then about 40 members of the faction convened in another room in what's known as a "rump convention."
Rump conventions are a separate meeting conducted by a group that feels it has been disenfranchised. Participants can form their own committees and elect their own delegates, then send a report to the state party, which then decides which convention to recognize from that county.
Bertuzzi said he knew about the potential takeover attempt and how to handle it. A successful takeover of a Nueces County convention in 1988 split the party for years, he said.
"There was no way when I'm chairman that I'm going to let that happen," he said.
About 200 people stayed in the original convention, and 184 were elected to state. Bertuzzi said he expects the other faction to challenge his delegate status at the state convention.
Drusilla Knight-Villarreal, who organized this convention, was county chairwoman during the 1988 takeover. She described the scene Saturday as chaotic.
"I've never seen anything like it," she said. "And I've been involved my entire life."
These two statements, as presented, contradict each other. Under Robert, the chair cannot unilaterally evict someone who has the right to be there.
The Paul wackos caused problems in Missouri also. While I could support some of Ron Paul’s ideas, I loathe his supporters. They are the smartest people in any room, just ask them.
Same thing happened in Galveston County GOP convention too. Quick perceptive Republican activism thwarted the Paulbots too.
I suspect that this is happening all over the country. The State conventions are next. Keep a watchful eye for similar activities and note it to Party leadership.
Nuts belong in cans, not running state and local Republican parties.
Conservatism? Maybe?
Excuse me, but I was there. The Chairman of the Credentials Committe had the floor and was reciting the report of that committee. The disruptor was trying to prevent that report from being heard. Standing up and/or yelling "point of order" does not give one the floor.
“ONLY candidate who wanted to get back to the Constitution. That is why everyone fears him.”
No it isn’t. And bulldogging your way into caucuses and state level conventions IS NOT kosher and is defying the will of the MAJORITY of voters. I’m sure Ron Paul wouldn’t approve.
Paleo Conservatice,
You must not be well versed in Robert’s Rules. A “Point of Order” notifies the speaker that an infraction of the rules has taken place and can interrupt anyone speaking, does not need a second and does not need a vote. The Chairman is then required to address the infraction / the person who called for “Point of Order”.
Well they sure showed their reverence for the constitution by not abiding by the existing party rules this weekend. They claim to revere the constitution but show no respect for anyone or anything else. Why should a bunch of people who have never previously participated in party organization be given preferential treatement compared with those who have been active for years doing all sorts of tasks for the party. I regularly go to Nuces County Republican Club meetings, and I have never seen any of Ron Paul people at any of these monthly meetings.
Many of them have never been to a county convention before, and they weren't familiar with all the rules. They tried to imply that the county Chair stacked the delegations with people who never showed up to the caucuses, but it was never required to go to the caucuses. All that was required was voting in the Republican primary and informing the election judges or party officials about one's desire to be a delegate. I don't think any precinct was restricted by the 15:1 quotas. There were enough available delegate positions in my precinct to allow every single person attending the county caucus plus everyone else who expressed an interest to be a delegate if he or she wanted. Of the 15 caucus attendees and maybe three other persons expressing an interest, only 8 showed up at the county convention. There were many precints with just one delegate. I think the precincts with the most delegates showing up had 14 or 15.
While you are correct that attendance at a precinct convention is not required to become a delegate to the county convention, the Rules of the Republican Party and the Texas Election Code clearly state that delegates elected to the county convention must be approved by a majority vote AT the precinct convention.
The point of order was being called for because delegates were added to the precinct delegate lists that were NOT approved by a MAJORITY at the precinct convention.
So, who is REALLY the one not abiding by the existing party rules?
“All that was required was voting in the Republican primary and informing the election judges or party officials about one’s desire to be a delegate.”
Wrong again, Paleo. Get your facts straight. To become a delegate at the precinct convention one needed to have voted in the primary election and either attended the precinct convention or have submitted their name to be ELECTED as a delegate at the precinct convention. Once the precinct convention adjourns NO one may be added as delegates.
Texas Election Code 174.021
“The delegates to a political party’s county conventions held under this chapter shall be selected in accordance with party rules AT precinct conventions held as provided by this subchapter.”
Any lawyer could tell you that “AT” is the key word here. Once this precinct conventions were over (adjourned) NO ONE has the authority to add delegates.
What I meant to say (it was pretty late when I wrote the post to which you were responding) was that the names were submitted to the caucus for approval. In the precinct caucus I attended, there were enough available delegate posistions to allow everyone attending the caucus to be a delegate, and every one of us signed up. There were also a few people who voted in the primary who couldn’t attend the caucus but were interested in being delegates. They gave their names to either election judges or party official who then forwarded them to the precinct caucuses where they were acted upon. My precinct had more than enough available spots for delegates, so everyone who wanted to be a delegate was approved. Apparently there were some precints where the people running the caucuses were not aware that attendance at the caucuses was not required to be a delegate and didn’t act on any of the names forwared by the election judges to the caucuses.
In my precinct, over 10 people showed up who did not attend our precinct convention. We never added them to the list of delegates for the county convention and we never voted on them to become delegates to the county convention. I am glad to hear that everything was done according to the rules in your precinct. It, however, was not the case in my precinct.
I was there too and there were over 10 people in my precinct who were not at our precinct convention, were not added to the list of delegates to the county convention and were not voted on to attend the county convention. This IS a violation of election code.
This happened in Travis County too.
They tried and failed to take over SD-14 and tried and succeeded in SD-25.
http://travismonitor.blogspot.com/2008/03/another-report-sd-14-convention.htm
There’s just a blank page on the blog you linked. Was it some Paulista bragging about taking over a convention?
Hope these links work.
Travis Monitor:
http://travismonitor.blogspot.com/
Liveblog on SD-14:
http://travismonitor.blogspot.com/2008/03/sd-14-convention-live-blog.html
Another report on the SD-14 attempted takeover:
http://travismonitor.blogspot.com/2008/03/another-report-sd-14-convention.html
Other
takeover reports:
http://travismonitor.blogspot.com/2008/03/not-just-in-travis-ron-paul-convention.html
I’m in Hays County and I think that is part of SD 25. They did not win in Hays.
The 1st vote was to take over the county chair, that went to voice, standing and then a ballot vote. I would have sworn they would have won. They lost that by 40 votes. Thank God for the good ones who showed up. And Stayed.
Surprisingly they didn’t get too tough on the Delegates but there were several ballot votes on the resolutions. They lost most biggies but we killed 2 resolutions, one very important to them (declare war before going to war) and the other minor to both sides in the grand scheme of things. .. (limit the increase of the budget to increase of population + inflation).
but then we DID have 2 that were unanimous, oppose the Obama Global proverty act and
no matter what happens in CD vs Heller Texas should protect our 2nd amendment rights.
It was certainly not boring.
Normally our convention lasts 4 hours. This year it went 6 1/2 hours. I hear Travis county went 12 hours. anyone have details about Travis?
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