Supporting the Freedom of County Executive Committees (Oppose HB4636)

WHEREAS, Texas Election Code (TEC) Chapter 161 begins with the basic principle that a “political party
retains all of its inherent powers except as limited”; and

WHEREAS, the government should allow County Executive Committees maximum flexibility and
minimum limitation to conduct their internal affairs without state interference; and

WHEREAS, the county chair is currently elected by the countywide primary electorate, precinct chairs are
currently elected by each precinct's primary electorate, vacancies to each office are currently filled by
the entire County Executive Committee (CEC), and the county chair and precinct chairs work together as
elected party officers to conduct the business of the CEC; and

WHEREAS, the status quo in TEC Chapter 171 allows a State Party and each CEC to determine the
method, through its rules and bylaws, for filling precinct chair vacancies and for conducting other
internal party business with broad discretion; and

WHEREAS, a healthy deliberative CEC delegates to the chair and the voting members, through its rules
and bylaws, a balance of authority and powers that reflects the representative will of the countywide
partisan electorate that chooses the chair and the will of individual precinct partisan electorates that
choose the precinct chairs; and

WHEREAS, a cookie-cutter, government-mandated approach to filling precinct chair vacancies, calling
meetings, and setting CEC fiscal policies ignores the local political needs in each CEC and long-standing
parliamentary principles about the balance of power between a county chair and the body that chair
leads; and

WHEREAS, Texas House Bill 4636, as introduced, would give the County Chair the sole authority to
“appoint a replacement” for each precinct chair vacancy, thus eliminating a current authority of precinct
chairs as voting members of the CEC; and

WHEREAS, House Bill 4636, as introduced, would give the County Chair the sole authority to “set the
schedule for meetings and the agenda for each meeting,” thus eliminating any flexibility for CECs to have
other methods of calling meetings or setting meeting agendas; and

WHEREAS, House Bill 4636, as introduced, would give the County Chair the sole authority as
“administrator of all party accounts and contracts,” thus eliminating any flexibility for precinct chairs to
provide for checks and balances in the CEC on whose executive board they were elected; and

WHEREAS, statutes to eliminate every opportunity for precinct chairs in every CEC, regardless of the local
circumstances, to have a say in filling vacancies, calling meetings, or exercising even limited authority
over contracts would reduce precinct chairs to mere accessories to the powerful county chair; and

WHEREAS, the ability for outside forces to influence the election of a single chair is much easier than the
ability to influence the many individual elections of grassroots precinct chairs in the neighborhoods of an
entire county; and

WHEREAS, a model of CECs in which power rests solely with the county chair would necessarily weaken
the current model in which precinct chairs and the county chair share authority and determine that
sharing through the CEC's properly adopted rules and bylaws; and

WHEREAS, House Bill 4636, as introduced, represents such a radical shift in tradition and parliamentary
principles about the balance of power in CECs that, if passed, would render large portions of our NCRP
Bylaws in conflict with TEC; now

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Nueces County Republican Party STRENUOUSLY OBJECTS to Texas
House Bill 4636, as introduced, and to any bill that would similarly alter the necessary balance of power
that currently exists between a county chair and a CEC's precinct chairs; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution be sent to each member of the Texas Legislature.