Federal Court Orders April 3rd, 2012 Texas Primary Election – RPT Must Stand Up to RNC
Redistricting Update: San Antonio Federal Court signs order pushing all Texas Primary Elections back to just one date, April 3rd, 2012. No split Primary dates.
When the US Supreme Court took up the Texas Redistricting Case, I wrote an article explaining that the likely thing to happen would be a split primary (March and May) with some of the elections, including the Presidential Primary Election, happening in March and the rest of the elections being pushed back until May so that the US Supreme Court can make a ruling. That is what the Republican Party of Texas was initially going for because it will devastate the ability of Texas to have a say in the Presidential Primary Election if we pushed the Texas Presidential Primary back to a later date like in May.
Many elected officials on both sides of the aisles did not like the idea of a split Primary because it might be confusing.
Well, after a lot of debating, both sides of the redistricting battle have come up with an agreement on when to have the Texas Primary Election and whether or not there will be two primary dates or just one.
There will be just ONE primary election in Texas, and it will be on April 3rd, 2012.
The federal court accepted the agreement to have the Texas Primary Election on one date and pushed it back to April 3rd, 2012.
I will push for the Republican Party of Texas to be able to change Texas back to a winner take all state so that Texas will have more of a say in the Presidential Primary Election.
Pushing the Presidential Primary in Texas back a whole month will certainly hurt the ability of Texas to be able to have a say in the Presidential Primary election. The election might be practically over by the time Texas votes, and it will be MONTHS after the first Presidential Primary results in January.
Because of ridiculous RNC rules, the Republican Party of Texas was FORCED to change the way our Presidential Primary Delegates are selected. In the past, whichever Republican Presidential candidate won Texas got ALL of the Texas Delegates in the National Presidential race. We were forced to do away with this winner take all system and switch to a proportional system so that the Texas delegates are split proportionally based on the election results.
This weakens the voice of the State of Texas in the National Presidential Primary Race. Whichever candidate wins Texas should get all of the delegates from Texas so that Texas can actually impact the Presidential race. With Texas being proportional and with the new Primary election being pushed back to April, Texas will have very little say in the Presidential Primary.
The Republican Party of Texas MUST change our primary delegate selection back to winner take all if we are going to have any say at all in the Presidential Primary Election, and as a State Republican Executive Committeeman (SREC), I will fight for that. I have heard that Texas will not be allowed to resubmit their delegate selection plans to the RNC, but I believe Texas needs to stand up against the Republican National Committee (RNC) and demand that they allow us the ability to change our delegate selection back to winner take all since it is not our fault that the liberals took Texas to court and forced us to change our Primary Election Date.
Click Here to see the Signed Court Order pushing the election to April 3rd, 2012.
Here is a Summary of the New Texas Primary Election:
February 1, 2012 - New residency deadline for candidates seeking election to the Texas House and Texas Senate. (There is no residency requirement for Congress).
February 1, 2012, 6:00 p.m. - New deadline of court-ordered reopened filing period, in which candidates for all offices have the opportunity to amend, withdraw or file a new application for the ballot.
February 3, 2012 - New deadline for Democratic and Republican county executive committees to conduct drawing for candidate order on ballot.
April 3, 2012 - Date of the 2012 General Primary Election.
April 14 or April 21, 2012 - Date of County and Senatorial District Conventions, as determined by the State Chair of each political party.
June 5, 2012 - Date of the 2012 General Primary Runoff Election.
Also, Click Here to see the Propositions that will be on the Texas Republican Primary Ballot