RPT Leadership Proposes New Delegate Selection Process

RPT Leadership Proposes New Delegate Selection Process

(L-R) Bill Crocker, Borah Van Dormolen, Patrick O’Daniel, Eric Opiela, Butch Davis, Clint Moore

As previously reported, last August the Republican National Committee adopted a new rule which requires states that hold primaries before April 1st to allocate their delegates on a proportional basis or risk losing half their delegation. In response, Republican Party of Texas Chairman Steve Munisteri, in close consultation with RNC Committeeman Bill Crocker, RNC Committeewoman Borah Van Dormolen, General Counsel Patrick O’Daniel, Assistant General Counsel Eric Opiela, Rules Committeeman Clint Moore, as well as the entire State Republican Executive Committee, have drafted a proposed rule change that will be presented for a vote at the next quarterly SREC meeting on Saturday, October 1st in Austin, TX.

The rules of the Republican Party of Texas only allow for a change in the rules on a temporary basis in between conventions, if there is a change in state law or in RNC rules which are in conflict with existing party rules. RNC Committeeman Bill Crocker, as well as the RPT’s General Counsel Patrick O’Daniel and Assistant General Counsel Eric Opiela, have determined that the RPT rules are arguably in conflict, thereby allowing the invoking of the rule change provision of the RPT rules. In addition, Parliamentarian Butch Davis concurs with that view. Therefore, under RPT rules, the State Republican Executive Committee can amend the rules adopted at the last convention if there is two-thirds vote of the SREC.

Chairman Munisteri, in order to ensure there was two-thirds support among the SREC as well as support among our grassroots activists, circulated drafts of the proposed resolution to SREC members and other interested party leadership. He also scheduled two statewide teleconferences with the SREC to go over the proposed rule changes. After seven drafts, a final version of a proposed rule change has been created by Clint Moore which has the support so far of 54 of the 62 SREC members (the other 8 simply have not responded as of the date of this writing.) However, the 54 members constitute more than the two-thirds required to pass.

Click here to read the proposed rule change

The rule change still allows for Congressional districts to select three delegates per Congressional district for the national convention. 108 of the state’s 152 delegates will be selected in that fashion. Three other delegates are reserved for state party leadership positions per the RNC’s rules, and the remainder will be selected at-large by a statewide nominations committee. To increase the likelihood that delegates selected will be assigned to vote for candidates that they actually support, the resolution has a process by which delegates are assigned taking into account the results of the Presidential contest in their Congressional district.

Chairman Munisteri stated, “It is important to me that we have total transparency with regard to significant activity by the RPT leadership. Consequently, I am distributing a copy of the proposed rules change to the tens of thousands of activists on our RPT email list. I would like to thank Bill Crocker, Borah Van Dormolen, Butch Davis, Eric Opiela, and Patrick O’Daniel for their initial work on this problem. A special thanks needs to go out to Clint Moore, who has spent numerous days working on a solution acceptable to the vast majority of state Republican leadership and taking the time to field calls and answer inquiries about his proposed rule change. The RPT owes him a debt of gratitude for his tireless work.”

Rules Committeeman Clint Moore, commenting on the rules stated, “I want to thank Steve, Bill (Crocker), Borah, and my fellow SREC members for this opportunity to continue my many years of work writing and improving RPT Rule 38 to its present form, where it has become the most grass-roots empowering national convention delegate selection process in the nation. This latest revision fully complies with key rule changes made by the RNC, in its efforts to reduce the occurrence of winner-take-all primary delegate allocations, and cause more proportional delegate allocations to presidential candidates. Next June at the State Convention, the actual delegate elections in the congressional district caucuses, and the at-large delegate selections by the State Convention’s National Nominations Committee, will occur similarly to 2008. The difference will be in the assignment of presidential candidates to the delegate seats, providing for a truly proportional allocation reflective of the statewide presidential primary vote, rather than our long historic process of essentially a winner-take-all allocation, which occurred no matter how low the winner’s actual percentage in a multi-candidate race. I’m humbled and honored by the opportunity to serve my fellow Texas Republicans and thank God for my ability to answer the call.”