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REPUBLICAN LIBERTY CAUCUS OF TEXAS 2003 CONVENTION
Report Authors: Harvey Klee, Jason Pratt, John Reed, and Don
Zimmerman
August 2nd, 2003 - Addison, Texas (North Dallas)
The
Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas successfully
held its annual convention on the afternoon
of August 2nd at the Addison Convention Center in North
Dallas. Special speakers at the
Caucus Convention included Congressman Ron Paul, Jerry
Patterson (Texas Land Commissioner and Republican
Liberty Caucus of Texas Chairman) and Dennis McCuistion (local
television celebrity and economics expert). Over
90 RLC members were in attendance.
Click links below or buttons to
the right to view video of major speeches:
RLC members in attendance at Convention
 The
highlight of the Convention was the exciting speech by the honorable
Congressman Ron Paul. He gave us his congressional recap with his
perspective and commentary on positive and negative trends that he sees.
As usual, he was enthusiastically received. This year the RLC of Texas
honored Congressman Ron Paul with the
"TRUE PATRIOT" Award
for voting against the ominous PATRIOT Act and for educating many Texans on
the threats to our liberty that this bill contained. To view Congressman
Ron Paul's speech, please
CLICK
HERE.
Congressman Ron Paul addressing RLC members
Our
esteemed, RLC of Texas,
Chairman Jerry Patterson also spoke to the RLC members and highlighted the need for
us, as Republicans, to unite in defense of Freedom and Liberty and to guard
ourselves against the inevitable Democratic attack that is gearing up as we
speak. We must be vigilant in guarding our liberties and be prepared for
future Democrat attacks.
Commissioner Jerry Patterson addresses RLC members
We
also elected officers at this convention, here are our new Officers for the RLC of Texas
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE:
o Chair -- Jerry Patterson
o Vice Chair -- Penny Langford
o Secretary -- John Reed
o Treasurer -- Richard Relph
o At-Large Member -- Trey Summitt
The new Committee later voted to keep Don Zimmerman on as Executive
Director and voted in the new Appointees/Administration:
Executive Director Don Zimmerman Hosts
Convention
ADMINISTRATION:
o Executive Director -- Don Zimmerman
o Political Director -- Michael Franks
o Media/Communications Director -- Bill Zimmerman
o Legal Counsel -- Tammi Kannar, Harvey H. Klee and Linda
Thomas
BOARD OF ADVISORS:
o Rob Booth
o Lonnie Brantley
o Gary Gates
o Mike Holmes
o Donald Huffines
o Jay Leib
We also honored ten new RLC Regional/County Coordinators for
volunteering to represent the RLC of Texas in their respective counties and to
help us grow our organization.
o Bob Bagley - Montgomery County
o Joey Dauben - Elllis County
o Eric Dondero - Brazoria County
o Michael Franks - Wharton County
o Harvey H. Klee - Llano County
o Phil Pepin - Bexar County
o Sajjad Rizvi - Waller/Harris Counties
o Bill Summitt - Dallas County
o Bob Vick - Burleson County
o Bill Zimmerman - Tarrant County
Another highlight of the evening was the Discussion Panel on Education Choice,
titled: "Was Public School Local Control, Local Financing Better?", hosted by
Dennis McCuistion with Panel Discussion on School/Education Choice:
o Tim Lambert, President, Texas Home School Coalition
o Matt Moore, Education Analyst, National Center for Policy
Analysis
o Harvey Klee, Columnist and Former Candidate for Llano
Independent School District
o Deborah Frazier, Trustee, Carroll Independent School
District
Dennis McCuistion speaking before
Discussion Panel
Dennis McCuiston, host, introduced
this session with an overview of some of the issues regarding local control
and school choice in Texas and then gave each panelist a few minutes to
introduce themselves by answering a question. All panelists were
supporters of local control & school choice, although in different ways and
degrees (from home schooling to vouchers, in varying
forms.) Tim Lambert of the Texas Home Schooling Coalition made the notable
point that home-schooling parents get an education themselves (possibly
correcting some of the educational shortcomings of their own public
educations) as they teach their children at home.
Comments from the audience were lively and included questions about whether
the one-room schoolhouse (all ages in one class) was superior to the current
teaching paradigm, how special-needs children would be educated in a
non-public system, whether vouchers play into the hands of the regulators and
in the end increase the cost of schooling, and how much of the money raised by
taxes actually reaches the school classroom (Harvey Klee revealed statistics
that showed that while the average cost to educate a pupil was $7,000 per
child, the taxes taken from the taxpayer in Llano county averaged $15,200 per
child - with the remainder unaccounted for, or lost in the
"Robin Hood" funding system.)
McCuiston closed the panel by asking each panelist to give a 1-minute summary.
The summarized responses were:
o "Separate School and State"
o "Get involved in your Child's School"
o "Stay Aware of the Issues"
o "Local Control Matters - and Parental Control is Best"
Our Convention content and venue were exceptional, and many members got
valuable networking
out of the many breaks. We'd like to thank the Dallas / Fort Worth RLC
organization team that made this Convention a great success, to Jerry
Patterson and Ron Paul for continued support, and to our great RLC of Texas
members that love Liberty more than license!
In addition, special thanks goes to: Jay Leib for handling Convention
Registration, John Pankratz for working Audio setup, Jason Pratt for honoring
Congressman Ron Paul with the "True Patriot" Award, John Reed for helping in
Convention Registration, Richard Relph for working on Video, Bill Summitt for
coordinating Convention, Trey Summitt for also coordinating Convention, Bill
Zimmerman for coordinating Panel Discussion on School/Education Choice, and
Don Zimmerman for hosting the Convention.
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