This Week’s RWMC Meeting!

For those of us who attended Tuesday night’s meeting of the Republican Women of Milam County, it was a good time. The meeting room at the Budget Host in Cameron was full with many people sitting against the wall. And everyone had a great time taking in What the speakers had to say.

First, Borah Van Domrolen spoke. Borah is the National Committeewoman representing Texas to the Republican National Convention. Borah got us all off to a great start as she filled us in on the happenings with the Republican National Convention and the various activities of not only the Central Texas area, but in the national arena also.

While she gave us more info that we could have asked, Borah also is a load of fun to listen to. We thank Borah greatly for both taking the time to come and speak with us and for all she has done to help the conservative cause in Milam County including her guidance in the creation and building of the Republican Women of Milam County.

The next speaker was Megan Higginbotham who is the newly elected Female Representative to the State Republican Executive Committee for Senate District 5. Megan and her counterpart, Russell Martinez of Walker County, will represent the 10 county senate district covering Williamson to Walker Counties. Megan let us know what is going on in the district and how she can help us here in Milam County. We also greatly appreciate Megan and her stepping up to run for the position, for her service, and for her visit with us.

Later we made the plans for the August “Rally in the Park” to be held at the Cameron City Park. The Rally will take place on August 13th and we will have U.S. Representative Bill Flores as our Featured Speaker. As is the tradition with this annual event, we will have free hotdogs, lemonade and Blue Bell ice cream. It’s always one of the highlights of the year for us and this year it will also be the kickoff to the November elections and what we hope will be a sweep of the offices here in Milam County.

We had a great time and enjoyed the fellowship as well as the snacks. I would encourage everyone to get involved this year and come to the Rally in the Park. It will be a good time for all and the chance for us to hear from and talk to the candidates for office as well as our current incumbents at all levels of government. Including the opportunity to get the information on what’s going on in Washington straight from Rep. Flores.

Till Next Time,

Bill

June 19, 2012 – Republican Women’s Meeting

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to drop everyone a quick note to let them know that this Tuesday, June 19^th; the Republican Women of Milam County will be having their monthly meeting at 6:30 at the Budget Host Inn and Suites in Cameron.

Now that the primary is completed, we are waiting on the runoff so we can get the last remaining races out of the way. Then we can move on to November and do as they said at the state convention and “Take Back Our County.” Both of the candidates for Milam County Sheriff have been invited to Tuesday’s meeting so it would be a good opportunity to come by and discuss the race with them.

Also during the meeting we will have some guest speakers. Our New State Republican Executive Committee Representative Megan Higginbotham will be on hand as will National Republican Party Committeewoman Borah Van Dormolen will also be with us. Both of these women will discuss their offices and the issues that affect us all.

We will also be discussing the August Old-Fashioned Rally in the Park as this year’s special guest will be U.S. Representative Bill Flores. So come on out Tuesday and spend some time with a great group of Milam County Conservatives. I know many times we get these emails and think about them but don’t go to the meetings, but we need everyone’s involvement this year. This is the most important election of our lifetime, now we have to make it the most important election in our life.

I look forward to seeing you all there!

Thanks,

Bill

The Convention!

Well, I was able to shoot out updates and Twitter some but I don’t think I got out as much as I wanted to. I did get the first morning’s activities out so let me just play a quick game of catch-up.

The first afternoon and second morning was spent in our Senate District 5 Caucus. During this time we elected our representatives to the permanent Rules Committee, the Platform Committee, as well as several other committees.

Russell Martinez of Walker County and Megan Higginbotham of Williamson County were chosen to act as our Representatives for the next two years. I look forward to working with both of them. Voting was difficult because all the folks running for these offices were good quality people and any of them would have made good representatives for SD-5.

Later that afternoon we had more speeches with Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Senator John Cornyn, and Lt Gov. David Dewhurst. Then we began the review and acceptance of the Party Rules and Platform. We finally had to recess from that for the first Congressional District Caucus session. During our first CD-17 Caucus session we choose the Caucus Officers and I was privileged to be chosen as the Vice-Chair of the CD-17 Caucus. After that we had an address by CD-17 Representative Bill Flores.

After the CD-17 Caucus everyone broke for the night’s gatherings. Some went to the Governor’s Gala event which featured the likes of Rick Santorum. I chose not to go and I think I got the best out of it as I ran into Herman Cain in the lobby of our Hotel and was able to have a pretty nice conversation with him. What a super nice man.

We discussed several things including my Great-Uncle who was one of the founders and leaders of the Henry County Georgia GOP where Mr. Cain lives. I think I got the best end of the Gala deal because I didn’t even have to buy a ticket and got to spend some time with a real gentleman of the Republican Party.

Later that night we reassembled for the nights work to finalize the rules and platform finishing up about 11:30 pm. These sessions are some of the fun of the convention as you see all the folks with agendas and all the people who have WAY too much knowledge of Robert’s Rules of Order. To many folks it is boring and hard to follow, but in reality it is honestly how the wheels of democracy work.

Saturday we all got up bright and early to head to the second and final CD-17 Caucus to elect our representatives for the Republican National Convention in Tampa. We also had to elect an Elector to the National Convention as well as the National Committeeman and Committeewoman for the Republican National Executive Committee. Then we finally headed to the Arena for our last General Session and the concluding votes on the National Delegates and Electors.

The final speakers were the National Committeeman Dr. Robin Armstrong and Committeewoman Col. Borah Van Dormolen (US Army Ret.) – Two exceptional conservatives. Ted Cruz and David Dewhurst also spoke about their July run-off for the US Senate. But the best speeches of the day were those of Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson and Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. These two men are the sort we need in the highest offices.

Following the speeches we still had one last hurdle, and thanks to the Congressional District representing Fort Worth we had to wait until 5:30 pm to begin the final voting; nothing like having the hometown folks holding up the works. But we got it all done and we headed home having completed the tough work that needs to be done to allow our party to function and to organize our mechanism towards victory in November.

I would like to personally thank all those who attended the convention. For the second convention in a row we were able to have a full delegation and were able to vote at full strength. For a small county like Milam County I can’t even begin to tell you how significant that is. So thank you to those delegates and alternates who stood fast and took part.

If you are interested in the 2014 convention then come on out and get involved. The 2014 convention will be in Fort Worth again and we are already making plans to make the 2014 the best experience for the Republican Party of Milam County Delegation.

Got to Get Some Rest,

Bill

CD-17 National Delegates!!

Congratulations to the three delegates elected to represent CD-17 at the National Convention in Tampa.

Jess Fields - Brazos County
Jon Gimbel - McLennan County
Donna Davidson - Lee County

First Morning!!

Well the first General Session of the 2012 Texas GOP Convention is in the books. The SREC and Chairman Munisteri have done an excellent job making this a wonderful event. Already I can honestly say this convention is miles ahead of the 2008 convention.

Chairman Munisteri welcoming us to the 2012 Texas GOP Convention.

We opened the session with a welcome address from Chairman Steve Munisteri followed by speeches from Governor Perry and Attorney General Abbott. I must take a minute here and say that while I am glad to have Greg Abbott as Attorney General, most of the other office holders at the state and federal level must be glad also because I doubt anyone wants to run against him. He is and has been the protector of Texan rights and is one of the most motivating and passionate public officials I have ever seen.

Attorney General Abbott Firing up the crowd!!

We are on our lunch break this afternoon and will reconvene in our senate districts at 2:30. Milam County will participate in the Senate District 5 caucus along with Brazos, Freestone, Grimes, Limestone, Leon, Madison, Robertson, Walker, and Williamson Counties – Always good to see friends and always good to get back to the grassroots level.

 

More to Come,

Bill

We Made It!!

Short blog from the iPhone app!! We made it to the convention, got our passes, and got to our room. Now it's time for some dinner!!

We have an excellent view of the convention center and I'm looking forward to a short jog around downtown before things start tomorrow morning (did you hear that Fawn)!!

More later after we eat something and I get the computer set up!!

State Convention Is Coming!!

This is the week/weekend of the State GOP Convention. As we speak, delegates are already meeting in Fort Worth on various committees to determine the direction and representation of the Republican Party of Texas for the next two years. In 2010, Milam County’s own District Court Judge John Youngblood represented Senate District 5 and sat on the Rules Committee. Those folks have the lion’s share of the work this week while the rest of us will show up Wednesday or Thursday.

I plan to arrive on Wednesday night and look forward to sharing the evening with my wife and friends as we prepare for a busy three days of meetings, caucusing and voting on the future of our party, out state, and our country as we select delegates to send to the national convention in Tampa, Florida in August.

Delegates and alternates from Milam County were selected at the County Convention in April. They are as follows:

Delegates
David Barkemeyer - Cameron
Les Davenport - Rockdale
Kyle Deal - Cameron
John Ferguson - Cameron
Rick Gommert - Rogers
Brian Harper - Rockdale
Roderick Holcombe - Cameron
Stephen Husher - Cameron
Marilyn Johnson - Thorndale
William Whitmire - Milano
John Youngblood - Cameron

Alternates
Doyce Neal Larson - Milano
Jamie Larson - Gause
Herbert Vaughn - Rockdale
Sandra Turner - Milano
Donna Orsag - Cameron
Margia Barkemeyer - Cameron
Anne Harper - Rockdale
Margaret Holcombe - Cameron
Alan Gardenhire - Rockdale

I will be sending updates, pictures and other helpful tidbits from the convention via my new Blog App on my phone and on the Milam GOP Twitter account at @milamgop. Check it out!! If you can’t find it just search for my name, Bill Whitmire, and you should be able to find it.

If there is anything you would like to know or anything you would like represented during the SD-5 or CD-17 Caucuses then let me, or any of the delegates know and we will be happy to address them.

Thanks to you all for your support and look for the updates as we go.

Thanks Again,
Bill

OKAY – I heard ya!!

Sorry it’s taken a week to get this out but with the state convention coming up, the paperwork that needs to be done to report the results of the primary election, and prepare for the runoff I am just now catching up. But here is some of the information that I thought you might like to read and a little graph I thought you might like to see.

First, let’s look at a little history. The most primary voters in a GOP primary before 2010 was a little over 700 voters. In 2010 we broke our records and everyone’s expectations by registering 1678 primary voters.

This primary we almost managed to reach our record total of 1678 during the early voting stage of the primary with 1578 voters. Cap that off with the 1669 voters and from Primary Election Day and you have a grand total of 3247 GOP voters in this year’s primary election. Now compare that to only 548 votes in the Democrat Primary and I think it’s clear the Milam County has turned a political corner.

I know there has been a lot of talk about the number of GOP primary voters being high due to the Sheriff’s race being chosen in the GOP primary. And while that may have had a strong initial draw, the low number of uncommitted votes in the other GOP races shows it’s obvious that Milam County voters are embracing having a choice in the Primary.

Finally Milam County voters and candidates are choosing to vote based on their values and not just on the notion of only having one party to chose from in local elections. The trend is clear and the graph below demonstrates that clearly Milam County will no longer be considered a Democrat stronghold – Congratulations!!



Thanks, Bill