Note: Art Bedford, Chairman of Texans for Initiative and Referendum Rights, explains why be thinks the Texas Republican Party has banished I&R for Texas citizens from its party platform for the last 14 years. Art says Texas is one of only two western states without I&R, Kansas being the other – and that major immigration reform (like the recent bombshell in Arizona), and term limits, have been forced on state officials by their citizens through I&R.Send your comments and news tips to roundup.editor@gmail.com, to Mr. Bedford at acbedfo@hotmail.com, or click on the "comments" button at the bottom of the story
Fellow Texas I&R Supporters,
I have some good news and bad news to report. The good news is that a resolution to put a pro I&R plank back on the Republican Party of Texas (RPT) Platform has made it through the Senatorial District conventions and is headed to the Platform Committee at the State Convention next month. A pro-I&R plank was on the RPT platform from 1979 to 1996. Two separate advisory referendums on the Republican party primary ballots showed the rank and file favored I&R by margins of 7 to 1 and 5 to 1.
In the mid-90s, however, as the party came into control of all branches of the state government, the platform plank favoring I&R was replaced with one opposing it. This was mainly accomplished through Texas Eagle Forum leaders such as Shirley Spellerberg and Cathie Adams influencing the committee. Shirley Spellerberg was on that committee; she has been a one woman wrecking crew when it comes to quashing all efforts to obtain these rights for the people of Texas.
Why? Unfortunately, The Texas Eagle Forum is a special interest group just like every other one with lobbyists in Austin, albeit conservative. It is all about control over the legislative process. These groups benefit from the present system because they have a monopoly on influencing legislation and they are protected from public scrutiny. They oppose I&R because they believe that the $200 million or more invested in lobbying each session buys more influence with 181 legislators than it would with the 10 million Texans who vote.
Now for the bad news. Cathie Adams is now the head of the RPT and guess who is back on the Platform Committee? You guessed it – Shirley Spellerberg. The deck may be stacked but they will have to hold a subcommittee hearing to decide the resolution’s fate and the hearing must be open and they must entertain public testimony.
The committees will meet June 7-11 and the schedules are not posted, but I believe that there will be a sign-up sheet for those who want to testify on behalf of any resolution. Rest assured, I will be there to testify. What I need to know is are there any other supporters who would be willing and able to make it to Dallas on a day’s notice to testify in behalf of I&R. If so, we need you! Please contact me at acbedfo@hotmail.com or phone me at the number below.
Thank you,
Art Bedford
Chairman, Texans for Initiative & Referendum Rights (www.initiativefortexas)
State Coordinator for Citizens in Charge Foundation (www.citizensincharge.org)
(936) 288-0781
2 comments:
Most politicians of both parties would rather eat their children than have I&R in Texas. I moved here from a State (Colorado) that had an I&R process and it worked very well. We were able to limit tax increases to 1% with a Constitutional Amendment called the “Taxpayers Bill of Rights”. The politicians hated it and fought it in court but we the people won. We would have never been able to get the greedy legislature to pass something like that. It doesn’t matter what party you swear allegiance to, you should be in favor of Initiative & Referendum. I wish we had it for the country as well.
The last Anonymous clearly exemplifies the huge problem with the neo-Republican Party ignorance. He or she must go back 30 years to justify his own rationale for getting lied to and screwed by his own politicians.
He can't see that his own right wing politicians are duping him and his ilk big time - by playing on his ant-government hate to get his ugly and mindless neo-conservative support.
Unfortunately many Democrats have had that done to them with Obama - war, oil drilling, Miranda rights, and other issues.
Except last Anon is clearly a hateful and disgusting person. Ignorance is one thing, but ignorance with hate is the worst of all worlds.
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