Recently I attended my first-ever Republican State Senatorial District Convention. This was somewhat by happenstance.
I received an e-mail from the Harris County Republican Part on the morning of March 6, which just happened to be primary election day in Texas, and learned that Republican Precinct Conventions would be held at each precinct voting site immediately after the polls closed.
Since I only lived a block away from our precinct voting site and had nothing better to do, I decided to go and see what a Precinct Convention was all about.
Long story short, I went and was nominated as a delegate to the Republican Convention for Texas Senate District 17. While that sounds like a grand achievement, the truth is that only seven people showed up, including me, and all of us were nominated as delegates. In fact, our precinct is quite large and could have sent several more delegates if more people had shown up.
On March 24 I showed up at the convention site (one of the local high schools) at 8:00am, signed in and received my delegate’s badge, and was directed to my precinct’s assigned seats in the auditorium, which just happened to be front and center. The convention formally got kicked off at 9:00am with a Call to Order, Invocation, Pledge of Allegiance to the US Flag, Pledge of Allegiance to the Texas Flag, and singing of the National Anthem.
Next there was a series of opening remarks, appointment of temporary officers of the convention, recognition of various committees and committee members, and a report by the Committee of Registration. My take on this was it was a lot of Pomp and Circumstance, patting each other on the back, and rah-rah for the home team.
A Roll Call of the Precincts was then taken to determine how many delegates were in attendance from each precinct. Two things surprised me here. First, there were a surprising number of precincts which had no delegates in attendance at all. Secondly, there were even more precincts that had only one delegate in attendance. Our precinct was in the top five with six delegates in attendance.
Another thing that surprised me was how many repeat delegates there were. I estimate that at least two-thirds, and maybe as many as three-fourths of the delegates were repeat delegates, many of whom appeared to have been delegates for a long, long time. Our precinct was split evenly with three repeat delegates and three first-time delegates.
We were then subjected to about two hours of guest speakers, most of whom were candidates running for office, touting their virtues and telling us how important it was that the Republicans maintained power in both Austin and Washington and that we should always vote Republican up and down the ticket.
Not once did I hear any reason why they were the best candidates other than they were Republicans. I realize that this was a Republican Convention, but surely they can do better than that. And I was a bit concerned by how many times I heard the word “power” used.
Then it was time to hold our Precinct Caucuses to elect delegates to the Republican State Convention in San Antonio. Each precinct is allowed a certain number of delegates and alternate delegates based upon the number of people that voted in their precinct during the Primary election.
My precinct is quite large and had a good turnout, and we were allowed three delegates and three alternates. Since there were six of us in attendance and three wanted to delegates and three wanted to be alternates, our nomination and election process was pretty simple, and I am now officially a delegate to the Republican State Convention in San Antonio in June.
The official delegate nominating ballot forms for each precinct were filled out, signed by the precinct chair-person and submitted to the Nominating Committee. A call was then made for any new resolutions or amendments to prior resolutions to be added to the list of resolutions approved at the 2016 Republican Party State Convention, and a handful were submitted to the Permanent Resolutions Committee.
The convention then adjourned for lunch while the Nominating Committee reviewed the nominating ballots and the Resolution Committee reviewed the proposed resolutions and amendments.
After a one-hour lunch break, we reconvened and were subjected to another two hours or so of more guest speakers, campaign videos, and a reading of the rules for debate of the submitted resolutions while the Nominating Committee and Resolution Committee finished their reviews.
Around 3:00pm, the Resolution Committee submitted five new resolutions and five amended resolutions for consideration and debate by the convention delegates. After approximately 45 minutes of debate, seven of the resolutions/amendments were approved for submission to the Resolutions Committee at the State Convention and three resolutions/amendments were rejected.
The Nominating Committee then gave a report on their review and stated that all Precinct Delegates were approved and all Alternate Delegates were changed to and approved as At-Large Delegates.
The convention was then adjourned at approximately 4:00pm. Here is what I took away from my first Republican State Senatorial District Convention:
- Much like voter turnout at an election, delegate turnout at the convention was low. I attribute this to apathy.
- There seemed to be an over-abundance of repeat delegates and too few new delegates. While the repeat delegates bring experience to the convention, they also bring old and stale platform positions and attitudes with them and exhibit far too much familiarity and camaraderie.
- There is obviously a “good ol’ boy” network and a “you take care of me, I’ll take care of you” way of doing things within the establishment. The Republican Party is badly in need of new ideas and new and younger blood.
- All of the Republican candidates seemed to share a common theme: Republicans good – Democrats bad. I had a hard time discerning any other policy or position that they were running on other than Republicans had to win – no matter what.
- There was far too much focus on the Republican Party maintaining their “power.” This, more than anything else, is what frightens me about the state of our political system on both the Democrat and Republican sides of the aisle. It's why I decided to take a more active role.
- The concept of supporting Republican candidates “up and down the ticket” seemed to be pushed beyond the point of reason. I have known “bad” Republicans and know of several that are currently in office that I will not support again. What ever happened to electing the best, most-qualified candidates?
- Too much fluff and not enough substance.
I was hoping for and expecting more and was disappointed that I got less. But then, perhaps I set my hopes and expectations too high. After all, this was my first convention and I really didn’t know what to expect.
But I’m a newbie no more. I intend to be much more active and assertive at the state convention in June. I hope to see some of you there and I will write a follow-up blog describing my experiences there.
