Group sues over convention rules     8 views

06/04/2008

By KELLEY SHANNON / Associated Press

A cadre of GOP activists filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Texas Republican Party over how its leaders will conduct business at next week's state party convention in Houston.

The group's coordinator, Ron Paul supporter Debra Medina of Wharton County, said the activists want to ensure enforcement of the state election code and have a chairman elected before any official business is conducted at the convention.

That way, challenges to more than 200 convention delegates can be fully debated and fairly resolved, Medina said. Typically, the state party waits until the second day of the convention to select a chairman, she said.

"We as Republicans hold ourselves to be the party that respects the rule of law," Medina said. "We've come to recognize that we have some serious problems within our own party."

Republican spokesman Hans Klingler said the party always follows the rules set out in state law. He said the complaint is nothing new.

"This has been argued for many, many, many years," Klingler said. "This has to do with convention process."

The lawsuit was filed in county court-at-law in Houston, where the Texas GOP convention will be held June 12-14. Some 14,000 people are expected to attend the convention, including 6,500 delegates and 6,500 alternates.

The GOP delegate challenges are coming mostly from Parker, Nueces and Galveston counties, where the entire delegations are being challenged, Medina said. The group contends there were multiple election violations at county and senate district Republican conventions in March.

Some of the activists are supporters of Paul's Republican presidential campaign. Medina is a congressional campaign coordinator for Paul in addition to being chair of the Wharton County Republican Party.

There has been "inexplicable resistance" from Texas Republican Party Chair Tina Benkiser to resolving the dispute amicably, Medina said.

"The Republican Party of Texas receives inquiries from time to time about the convention process, and those inquiries are forwarded to legal counsel for review," Klingler said. "Our conventions will always be about empowering the grass roots leaders of this state from the bottom up."

Attorney Gary Polland, former Harris County Republican chairman, is representing the group that filed the lawsuit.