Our founding fathers designed the U. S. Constitution to be the very foundation of our republic. Having recently thrown off the heavy boot of the British Empire they, by design, instituted a very limited federal government. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, which lists the duties, responsibilities and therefore, I believe, the limitations of the federal government takes up only two very small pages. You do not find such words as education, environment, energy, housing, urban development, labor, job, occupation, endangered species, etc. in this list. I submit to you that that was by design. The states created the federal government, not the other way around, and they did not want people and entities who were inaccessible to “We, the People” controlling their lives.

Fast forward to today. The federal government is growing exponentially: multiplying unconstitutional agencies and departments are issuing edicts on a daily basis that are taking more and more rights and liberties away from “We, the People”. Late last year, our government (including many Republicans) passed the NDAA which allows the president to seize and detain an American citizen, indefinitely, if they are deemed “a threat”. On March 16, an executive order was put in place allowing the President of the United States to take charge of ALL resources/manufacturing in the U. S. even in peacetime. This is just an example of the unprecedented changes that are taking place on a regular basis in our halls of government. As you and I, the common people, go about our daily business our liberties are being usurped. Ladies and Gentlemen. I submit to you that we have a crack in our foundation. and we had better take steps, right away, to not just preserve and defend our Constitution. but to restore it.

For the past sixteen months, I have been traveling around this great state. During the drought this past summer, one of the effects that I observed was the integrity of structures being compromised by fissures in the soil causing cracks in their foundations. Wise owners took immediate steps to repair the threat to their property. We can do no less for our country.

In my bid for U. S. Senate, I am advocating a great “restoration movement” of the U. S. Constitution. It is imperative that we “get back to the book” as I call the Constitution. I believe that we need to restore the Constitution by eliminating unconstitutional federal agencies and departments (i. e. the EPA) and returning powers to the states. My better known opponents want to “reform” said agencies. I believe we need to restore U. S. sovereignty which has been watered down by the “entangling alliances” that our founding fathers warned us about, many of which are rooted in the United Nations. My solution is simple: “The U. N. needs to get out of the U. S., and the U. S. needs to get out of the U. N.” Again, my opponents want to “reform” this beast. I also want to restore the idea of a “citizen legislator”. I have pledged, in the spirit of the founding fathers, to serve one six-year term and come back to my day job. I will not sign up for the lavish pension or healthcare that the Senate has provided for themselves. I go to serve “We, the People”, not to feed at the taxpayer trough. I urge you to visit http://glennaddison.com and join me in this fight to preserve the structural integrity of our nation by restoring its foundation: the U.S. Constitution.

Glenn Addison is a Constitutional Conservative Republican candidate for U. S. Senate. He and his wife own and operate funeral homes in Magnolia and Spring, near Houston.

glenn@glennaddison.com
P. O. Box 1212, Magnolia, TX 77353
281-704-9032

***

The opinions expressed by guest bloggers are their own, and do not necessarily reflect those of Texas Conservative. Conservative candidates are welcome to submit guest blogs, but our publishing them does not constitute an endorsement of their candidacy. Though we reserve the right to reject or accept guest blogs, Texas Conservative welcomes all Conservative Guest Bloggers. Just contact us to submit your blog.

Dave Gebhart: Citizen Candidate for Bedford City Council

We discussed the Citizen Candidate and now I’d like to give an up close and somewhat personal look at the Citizen Candidate family. A friend of mine, Dave Gebhart, is running for City Council in the small town of Bedford, Texas. Right now the Mid-cities are being run by the school districts. So last time Dave ran they pegged him as a one issue candidate who was anti-curfew. Well, Dave was anti-curfew, but he was also for fiscal conservatism which school districts are notoriously not.

Dave is running again this year, and yes, I do hope you will tell your friends in Bedford to vote for him on May 12^th. However, because of the crazy primary season this year, we were having our committee meetings the last two weeks working up to the district conventions. Dave was on that committee and took upon himself the duty of the computer guy, the guy who kept track of all the changes to the resolutions, and getting them into electronic format.

Now Dave has 6 kids at home, works a full time job, and was walking his town, knocking on doors and talking to neighbors, as part of his campaign. So he was at the Tuesday night resolutions committee meeting, went home to work on his website, went to work the next morning, walked his town that evening, then went to his church on Wednesday night. They had a “plumbing issue” at his house at midnight, which means, with 8 people in the family, that it needs to be fixed immediately. He went to bed at 5AM. He then went to work, walked a few blocks with his kids after work and then showed up at 7PM on Thursday night at the resolutions committee meeting. Most folks would have missed the committee meeting, but Dave keeps his word in all things.  He also took care of the resolutions at the convention, putting in another 16 hours with set up and take down.

His wife, at the same time, was in charge of the pages for the Convention. She was calling everyone with teens who might be available to work on Friday for set up or Saturday all day. She helped with set up on Friday, and worked 16 hours at the convention. She also had 2 of her teens at the convention working hard as pages, while her third teen was at home with the “little ones”. The politeness and graciousness of their teens working as pages spoke volumes to the upbringing this family has instituted.

It also spoke volumes to the love of country that this family has to put their lives on hold for the convention and for the campaign as they have been walking for weeks, even on Dave’s birthday, in order to talk to each and every person in their town about the issues of fiscal restraint, building up of the private sector and dealing with a massive freeway build out in the middle of their town. I won’t even mention the money they have poured into this campaign. Yes, your Citizen Candidate is always in need of money.

Dave is a bit of a conservative. He wants to: Stop raising property taxes; Stop wasteful spending; and Bring business back to the town in the heart of the mid-cities. As he notes on his “why I’m running” page:

Businesses seem to be slowly fading away, leaving Bedford and moving into neighboring cities. The widening of 183 seems to have caught our city leaders unprepared, further straining our business base.

When the city government won’t listen to its citizens then it is time for a change. When our leaders don’t act like leaders to work with different groups to come up with solutions that benefit everyone, then it is time for new leadership.

If Dave and his family work this hard to run for office, you can believe they will work hard for Bedford.

The Citizen Candidate Family

Many have knocked on between 15,000 and 18,000 doors.  Many have given of their own money into the tens of thousands to run.  It takes about $100,000 to run a county wide campaign in one of the major counties in Texas.  To do a Texas Senate seat, you are talking upwards of $250,000.  And if you are talking US Senator, Lt. Governor or Governor, you are talking in the tens of millions.  If you have never respected candidates, these numbers should help you to respect the Citizen Candidates.

When asked what they would have done differently, all of them said they would have gathered more money.  Believe it or not, money buys ads on TV, radio and the newspapers.  Yes, people still read the local newspapers.  Money buys those signs in your yard, the handouts, the door knockers, the SWAG they give you, whether it’s pens or lip balm.  All that comes out of their budget!  If you ever wanted to help a Citizen Candidate, send them money!  You can always skip lunch for a day or two, or go to MikeyD’s instead of a restaurant, allowing you to have extra money to give.  Do what it takes to support them.

Most Citizen Candidates work out of their homes or business office, with their cell phones on 20 hours a day.  They are constantly going to meetings with Republicans, Tea Party folks, 912 folks, and whoever will allow them to introduce themselves.  So for each 5 minute moment of introduction, they will attend 2-3 hour meetings.  But these meetings give them some exposure for free.

Another theme in the interviews was the need for Grassroots volunteers.  Volunteers are the engine behind all candidates.  We have seen over and over, candidates with lots of money who pay for ads but have no ground game.  They ultimately loose.

The Grassroots does not understand their power.  It’s estimated that one volunteer is worth $4,000 to $8,000 to a campaign.   Volunteers can make or break candidates.  This is even more evident when they are flakey and the candidates are shorthanded.  If you, as a Grassroots volunteer, say you will help for 2 hours a week, do your best to work 2 hours a week.

Once you have someone step up as a Citizen Candidate, stay with them.  Don’t tell someone who might run for office that you will back them then change partners after they have invested their time, money and reputation  into the campaign.  Having flakey backers is worse than having flakey volunteers.  California is the state of fruits, nuts, and flakes, Texans should keep their word.

Finally, the major factor that Citizen Candidates face, at least in Tarrant County, is the fear factor: Grassroots people who are afraid of the “establishment”; “establishment” folks who are afraid of the “king makers” in their legislative body or their county.  Even if the Tea Party folks believe they are not afraid, they too have fears about who they will offend and what people will think of them if they support a Citizen Candidate.

People with this fear factor withhold endorsements, money and help until they believe the Citizen Candidate is a winner, and then they jump on the bandwagon, once it is filled with folks.  If you believe in your Citizen Candidate, show it with your endorsement, your time and your money.  Let the best Candidate win the race!

What is Smart Girls Vote?

Smart Girls Vote is a three phase voter outreach initiative geared toward getting more women to not only vote in 2012, but to take an active part in engaging, educating, and empowering their friends and family to do so.  The fact is that no candidate can win an election without the women’s vote.  Women have out voted men in every election for the last 20 years.  Unfortunately, conservative women have allowed their liberal counterparts to hijack the conversation and deflect discussions about real issues.  This year, we will not let that happen.

Smart Girls Vote is a comprehensive plan to turnout educated voters.  The liberals have been successful in getting their narrative out due to their strength in organization, so we are focusing on organizing within states by Congressional Districts. We need volunteers in Texas to step up as local and district leaders.  We have increased our organizational structure to include new field director positions.  These positions will directly work with and support State Coordinators, District Coordinators, and volunteers throughout these states.

As we continue through each phase of our plan, we will be training volunteers on voter registration, voter integrity (no more dead people on the rolls), phone banking, GOTV, and canvassing.  We will be hosting house parties and small events around the states to educate women on the issues important to our members.  This year we are not sitting back and waiting for others to motivate women, we are doing it ourselves.

How can you get involved?

We are looking for district leaders, volunteers, state bloggers, activists, researchers, and more.  If you have the time, as little as an hour a week,  please email Jennifer Leslie, Smart Girl Politics National Field Director based in New Braunfels, at J.Leslie@smartgirlpolitics.org and state what congressional district and city/town you are in and how you would like to get involved.  You can also look at our volunteer opportunities at our website at http://sgpaction.nationbuilder.com/volunteer.

We will be having a casual Meet & Greet in Houston on Friday, April 27^th from 4 – 6 p.m. at the Sheraton Houston Brookhollow, in the hotel meeting area Tuxedo’s. Please come by if you are in the area and would like to meet other like minded conservatives!

We are also looking for volunteers in San Antonio to help organize a Health Care Forum with local physicians regarding Obamacare and the long term consequences on our health care.

Thank you so much for your continued support.  We are looking forward to working with Texas Smart Girls this year!!!

Keep up with all of the Texas Smart Girl Politics information on Facebook! Look for Texas SGP Action. Smart Girl Politics is also on Twitter @officialsgp. Our national website with links to Texas SGP page is http://sgpaction.com

_____________________

Jennifer Leslie National Field Director of Smart Girl Politics

Jennifer studied at both the University of Texas and the University of Houston and graduated with a Bachelors in Political Science.  In April of 2009, Jennifer became the involved with Smart Girl Politics where she started as the Southern Arizona District Coordinator and became the Arizona State Coordinator. During her time in Arizona, SGP organized at Border Clean-Up in Honor of Robert Krentz in Naco, Arizona. She was also the Executive Director for the SGP Sponsored ’100 Mile Hump’ fundraiser for the Wounded Warrior Project. After the tragic shootings in Tucson on January 8, 2011, SGP leaders in Southern Arizona worked with several other community groups to organize a Show of Strength to protect the victims’ families from potential funeral picketers from Westboro Baptist. SGP Tucson has sponsored Voter Registration tables at various community events and has networked with other groups in Southern Arizona to create a strong network of conservatism in the community. In addition to Smart Girl Politics, Jennifer has worked on campaigns in Arizona for both a congressional and a senate candidate. Since becoming a military wife, she has lived in North Carolina, Key West, Arizona, and is back home in New Braunfels, Texas. She is the mother of two elementary aged children.

Yes, Newt is still “officially” in the race, though that has more to do with his hope of influencing the convention’s platform than it does of winning the nomination.  However, with the exit of Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney is the de facto candidate – and in fact the only “viable” candidate.

However, many true Conservatives are deeply disillusioned by this entire primary fiasco – in their heart of hearts, they dealing with their grief – a grief that comes from knowing that once again, the Country Club Republicans have managed to hijack the nomination.  Too many lightweight Conservatives diluted the vote, while all the serious Conservative candidates decided to sit this one out.  It’s oddly reminiscent of 1992, when the “serious” Democrats sat it out, thinking that Bush ’41 was a shoo-in, especially after Desert Storm. We can only hope that history repeats itself – just as a second-tier lightweight moderate DLC Democrat won the nomination, and the election, in ’92, we can hope that a second-tier lightweight moderate Country Club Republican will win in ’12.

But that leaves Conservative Republicans dealing with their grief.  I remember the same type of disbelief and grief back in ’08 when Governor Mike Huckabee left the field, ceding the nomination to our inconstant RINO candidate, Senator John McCain. Many of my friends – Conservative Republicans from throughout Texas, and indeed from across America – were wondering “what’s the use?” and “why should I even continue trying to change the Republican Party?”  Clearly, “The Establishment” was not listening then, and just as clearly, it’s not listening now.  Leaving us with Mitt Romney to face off against President Barack Obama.

However, back in ’08, even after Governor Huckabee stepped out of the race, there were many states’ primaries still to be held. Despite Huck’s taking a pass on the nomination – and in a foretaste of the grassroots revolution of 2010 – committed Conservative voters came out to the polls in droves. They voted for Huckabee – or their regularly scheduled candidate – just to show “The Establishment” that they did not care who “The One” may be, they wanted a real Conservative on the ticket.

And though she wasn’t on the top of the ticket – and though she alone couldn’t outweigh the deadweight anchor that was John McCain, we got a great Conservative in Sarah Palin. However, because of petty jealousy within the party – and even within the McCain campaign team – as well as the Craptastic handling given to her by a spiteful media who can’t abide by a Conservative woman, Sarah Palin’s brand was permanently tarnished – sadly, at least when it comes to national electoral politics, she will be forever sidelined.  We still have her voice – and her energy – but we won’t have her as a candidate.

Which brings us from 2008 to 2012, and to Mitt Romney as the all-but-certain candidate, with no viable alternative still “alive” in the campaign.

So while you and your fellow Conservatives deal with your grief and disbelief over the departure of Rick Santorum, I’d like you to realize that – at least in Texas – we still get to vote for the whole field.  Unlike the rest of America, Texans can still vote for a Conservative.

So go forth, fellow Conservatives, and vote for your favorite candidate. Let “The Establishment” know, one more time, that the millions of Conservatives in Texas will be heard, and their voices will echo the will, the desire and the passion of Conservatives across the length and breadth of America.

Yes, we may have to vote for Romney in November, but we can still vote for our candidate of choice in May!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Valoree Swanson SREC District 7

Wanted to give credit to Valoree Swanson,
SREC District 7 Committeewoman,
who talked about this on KSEV 740AM on Wednesday, April 8, 2012. She explained this in a great level headed way to help all the folks peeved with the turn of events.

Starting this Saturday, April 14th, Texas Republicans will begin assembling in various counties across the state to conduct County & District Republican Conventions. The process will also continue next Saturday, April 21st, for counties which have chosen to hold their conventions on that date.
The Republican Party of Texas has created a website with a full list of county-by-county information, where you can go to learn the date, time and location of your local Republican convention, as well as finding the answers to Frequently Asked Questions and other information about the GOP Convention Process in 2012.
convention.texasgop.org
Due to the redistricting lawsuit and rescheduled Texas Primary Election, the RPT has built this website as a way for Republicans to quickly gain information on how to activate and participate within the party’s convention process and the ways in which the process has changed to handle this year’s unique challenges and calendar. The website contains helpful links such as:
•Find Your Convention – a database to find county specific information on your local convention.

•New for 2012 – a thorough explanation on the changes to this year’s convention process.

•FAQ – for those who are new to our conventions.

•Downloads – a helpful page with links to RPT rules, platform, forms and infographics.
One of the important changes in 2012 is that Republican precinct conventions have been made optional and left to the discretion of county Republican executive committees. This option has been decided on a county-by-county basis, and the State Party has constructed a full database of county information on the website for Republicans to quickly find information on their local process. If your County is holding precinct conventions, you must be nominated as a delegate out of your precinct conventions in order to move on to the next step of County & District Conventions. In most cases, counties following this option are holding the precinct conventions immediately prior to the County & District Convention.
For those who are new to the process, the purposes of these conventions are to choose delegates and alternates to the Republican Party of Texas State Convention, and to consider resolutions or statements on policy issues to send to the State Convention for eventual inclusion in the state and national Party platform.

This weekend I was working on a PowerPoint presentation for my Grandfather. He’s near the end of his life and I want to send him a video to let him know how proud I am of him. He’s a tremendous man who’s lived, truly lived, his life. I hope to be as accomplished when I am his age, though I’ll never match one thing he’s done, which is to build the left wing on the Memphis Belle. That famous WW2 bomber. But that’s a story for another day.

While searching for images for my video, I did a brief search for Texas. What came up next should inspire ALL of you. As you can see from the attached image Felicia Cravens, a writer here, populated 2 of the first three spots in the search. First was the official Texas. gov site, followed by two, two!, references to articles that Felicia wrote. She even came before the Wikipedia page for Texas.

The next time you tell me that one person can’t affect much change, I’m going to show you this image. Felicia is a personal friend and as such I know her tenacity. She never quits. THIS is what happens when we keep pressing on, when we keep moving forward, when we keep pushing for what we believe in. I trust this will inspire you during the long, dark nights when you don’t feel important or that your work is being noticed. Keep moving, we can win!

This past Monday, the Harris County Republican Party (HCRP) met for their last meeting before the Texas Primary. This meeting marked a definitive change in the Party structure and leadership. Rather than recap the meeting, you can read the excellent recaps Felicia Cravens has done here and Michelle Lancaster did on Breitbart, I’d like to address both the tone of the meeting and the signals sent.

I attended the meeting due to a post I had seen from Felicia on the Houston Tea Party website. In it, she references an article written by Ed Hubbard (said article is linked in Felicia’s post) describing the current pay-to-play model for Harris County Republicans. I highly recommend reading it to understand the situation.

So often our eyes and focus are on the national stage. Understandable but wrong. Our focus should be on the local level, the very local level. Do you know who leads the local Republican leadership in your area? If not, why not? To be fair, I still don’t know who chairs the HCRP but I do know they have been wildly ineffective. I am not the only one that shares this sentiment. Much of the membership of the HCRP shared my opinion and showed up to voice theirs.

To say the tension was high in the meeting was to understate the situation. Several times during the evening I was certain a hockey game might break out. I know Texans can be restrained, cordial even, but Monday evening I honestly did not know if there might be a riot. People were angry on both sides and there was even name calling. I live tweeted the event and you can recap the emotions as they played out with the play by play I posted on my account @txbrass.

During the meeting, it became vividly clear to me that the present leadership isn’t effective in communicating with its members, nor are they effective in rallying the base, Monday evening being a notable exception. But the biggest problem with the HCRP leadership isn’t that set of issues; their biggest problem is reaching out to local voters and exciting them to vote for their candidates.

Texas is a deeply conservative state, yet even with a strong Democratic presence in the larger cities, Republicans should be extremely dominate. They are not. The mayor of Houston is extremely liberal, even for a Democrat, and her policy choices and decisions are having an adverse effect on not only the city of Houston, but Harris County as a whole. Those decisions have long term consequences and will impact many lives for years to come. Yet, the HCRP cannot back a strong mayoral candidate and put them into office, even with just 12 percent voter turnout.

With talk of corrupt party leadership in D.C., and it most certainly is, we often forget to check our own back yards. Honestly, we are forgetting what our forefathers asked us to do, keep our government accountable. That means Local, State, and Federal, and we have forgotten the Local.  It’s trite, tired and over used, but it works: Think globally, act locally.

We can have strong local leadership and that leadership will trickle up to the State and Federal levels. A strong local leadership in the 4^th largest town in the country should be a given, yet it is not. We understand the nature of Chicago politics, even in Texas, we know the power that a mayor of New York City can wield, and the vast area and population that Los Angeles covers. Yet, where is Houston, Texas in that leadership role?

The first word spoken on the moon was, Houston, yet such a legacy is largely forgotten or taken for granted. It is high time we changed this. The era of poor conservative leadership in Houston, Texas is over; today we begin anew. To achieve great things, a lot of hard work is involved. Think of a tremendous skyscraper, the work involved in creating such a structure, would you be willing to work on it? Would you work the long, tiresome hours? If you could build an incredibly powerful political voice, one that has tremendous influence throughout the nation, even the world, would you get dirty doing it? Would you be willing to labor in obscurity to build such a powerful voice that affected positive change even if you received no recognition yourself?

We have a choice. Either put up with the same poor management or usher in new change. Not changity-change, but real, effective leadership that positively impacts millions of lives.

The proposition to overturn the pay-for-play resolution passed. It marked a change that need not die at that meeting. The energy and desire to promote healthy, strong leadership must continue and we must seize that victory and push forward. It is time to fill in the Conservative Leadership hole in Houston with a solid foundation and build a Texas-sized Conservative legacy that is worthy of names such as Houston, Austin, and Davy Crockett.

I’ve got my work clothes and gloves on, do you?

It is time to fill in the Conservative Leadership hole in Houston

Here is an interesting little screed by a declared Santorum supporter who is claiming it really isn’t about supporting Santorum, but of giving Texas a bigger voice in candidate selection. Yeah, right.

Also, in today’s email inbox arrived this from the Chairman of Harris County Republican Party:

Texas’ Role in Choosing the President
We in Texas know that we are a significant force in national conservative politics. After all, we have the largest Republican congressional delegation of any state, and ours is a conservative delegation!
We also have 155 delegates at stake in the presidential primary – that’s more than the famous first five primary states combined (Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida, and Nevada). Those five states are considered to have set the tone for the entire presidential race, but Texas has not spoken yet – and we can speak with a louder voice and with more impact than all of those states!
Under our winner-take-all system, our 155 delegates have a significant impact on any presidential race. But this year, the Republican National Committee was poised to penalize Texas for holding our primary in March (as we always do) by imposing on us a proportional delegate count, so the Republican Party of Texas moved away from our normal presidential procedure. But then the federal courts got involved and delayed the Texas primary until May. So Texas now has an opportunity to regain its unified voice by going back to a winner-take-all primary.
Contrary to what you may have heard from the national media, the race for the Republican presidential nominee is far from over. After all, only 37% of delegates have been assigned so far; and the media has been completely wrong on the number of delegates that separate Romney from the others (particularly the oft-repeated Associated Press count) – the actual count shows the gap to be much narrower than claimed.
Texas can therefore have a clear and powerful voice in selecting a conservative Republican nominee for president by moving back to a winner-take-all system. All it takes is for the State Republican Executive Committee (SREC) to call a meeting and make the rule change before the Texas primary vote. Please contact your SREC member and ask them to convene and make that change; and also contact the Republican Party of Texas and let them know that you want to see Texas regain its national voice.
Please act on this as quickly as possible – Texas, as the biggest conservative state in the country, should be allowed to speak with the loudest voice!! Thanks for all you do to keep Texas a conservative state!
God bless!
David Barton (former Vice Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, 1997-2006; National Delegate 2008, 2004, 2000, 1996)
Paul Bettencourt (Former Treasurer, Republican Party of Texas, Former Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector)
Kelly Shackelford (National Attorney; National Platform Committee member 2008, 2004, 2000)
Michael Quinn Sullivan (President, Empower Texans*)
*For identification purposes only
Sincerely, Jared Woodfill Chairman, Harris County Republican Party

The Santorum campaign believes the delegate race is far closer than what is being portrayed by the media and campaign of GOP front runner Mitt Romney, according to a memo obtained by CNN. But top Republicans say Santorum’s characterization of the race represents more wishful thinking than actual progress in the hunt for delegates.
In the memo, Santorum’s delegate strategist John Yob says that a number of considerations nor currently factored in media projections show Santorum trailing Romney 571 delegates to 342 delegates. But CNN’s current projection shows Romney with 657 and Santorum with 273.

The Republican National Committee would have to approve the last-ditch move to change the delegate selection process because of the late date of the request, officials say. And an RNC official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that would be highly unlikely. The change might also require approval from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Texas has a total of 155 delegates. Of that, 152 are awarded to the candidates based on the primary vote. Another three are “superdelegates” — party honchos who can vote for the candidate of their choice. It takes 1,144 delegates to win the party’s presidential nomination.

Several members of the State Republican Executive Committee are pushing the party to hold an emergency meeting to consider the rules change to go to a winner-take-all GOP primary in Texas. If 15 of the 62 members ask for a meeting, party chairman Steve Munisteri will honor the request and hold one, GOP spokesman Chris Elam said.

(Crossposted at Houston Tea Party Society)

It’s convention season again, and time for resolutions.  Resolutions are items submitted for the party platforms, and help define a political party’s principles.  They are offered during the convention process every two years, and can signal to party leadership the issues of highest importance to the party membership.

Here’s what you need to know about submitting a resolution.

STRUCTURE

A resolution has two basic parts – an explanation and a desired action.  The first part of the resolution gives the reasons for the resolution:

     Whereas almost everyone likes ice cream…

The second part gives the thing that the body will resolve to do:

     Resolved: that the party endorses Free Ice Cream Fridays at all party headquarters.

Of course this example is silly and very simple, but it shows you how a resolution is structured, no matter how many flowery words are in it.

WORDING

Simpler is better, and the fewer words it takes to make your point, the more likely it is to be read and adopted.  You will see resolutions with entire histories built into the “whereas” section.  Don’t do that, or your resolution will probably be ignored.  If you feel passionately about a resolution, spend the extra time and edit it down to the basics, then ask someone to proofread it to make sure it’s clear and sound.  Show your passion not with flowery language and an assault with hundreds of words – show it with clarity.

Additionally, resolutions build a platform; they do not amount to legislation or anything like it.  Think in broad strokes and grand principles, not the technicalities, when crafting a resolution.  The platform tells the party leaders what you want done, but should not tell them, except in the most general of terms, how to do it.  YOU ARE NOT WRITING LEGISLATION.  Remember that.

Clarity must be stressed as of utmost importance.  An unclear resolution is a failure, as it will be very difficult to capture the attention of enough supporters to back it.

GETTING THE RESOLUTION PASSED

A good plan is to offer your resolution in your own convention.  A better plan is to send it to friends who will put it forward in their conventions.  The best plan is to share your resolution far and wide across the state.  Here’s why: the resolutions committees take into account how many times they see a resolution submitted.  It indicates broad support for a stance the party should take.  Get others involved and multiply the chances of success for your resolution.

You can offer resolutions even at the state convention level.  If you’re REALLY serious about your resolution, go up to convention early and talk to the committee, or send the Resolutions Committee members an e-mail about it.  Don’t complain that your item didn’t get into the committee report if you didn’t go and try to sell it.  The committee meetings are open, and they deliberate the items before them seriously.

If you have resolutions to offer and share, post them HERE as well, and get them spread around.

EDITED TO ADD:

Dave Smith reminded me of the miserable state of the TX GOP’s 2010 platform.  I’ll say this once, people:

PROOFREAD, PROOFREAD, PROOFREAD!  IF YOU STINK AT GRAMMAR, ASK FOR HELP.  Nobody wants to read misspelled, poorly constructed, grammatically incorrect resolutions.  And a party looks bad, and wastes time, having to correct grammatical mistakes.