Brown County, TX
Republican Party

2006 STATE REPUBLICAN PARTY PLATFORM

• Protecting Union Member’s Dues – We support legislation requiring labor unions to obtain the consent of the individual union member before that member’s dues can be used for political purposes. Candidate Eligibility – We believe a candidate running for office should be required to actually reside within the geographical boundaries of the office sought.
• Voter Registration – We support needed legislation to restore integrity to the voter registration rolls and to reduce voter fraud. Furthermore, we support:
  
  
  1. repeal of all Motor Voter laws;
  2. re–registering voters every four years;
  3. requiring first time registrants to produce photo identification;
  4. proof of residency and citizenship, along with voter registration application; provide a federal or state government issued photo ID at the time of in person voting.

• Electoral College – We support the Electoral College.
• Voting Rights – We support equal suffrage for all citizens of voting age who are not felons. We oppose any identification of citizens by race, origin, or creed and oppose the use of any such identification for purposes of creating voting districts.
  We support those provisions of the Voting Rights Act that achieve these essential ends and support necessary renewal of those provisions.
• Felon Voting – We affirm the Constitutional authority of state legislatures to regulate voting, including authorizing the disenfranchisement of convicted and incarcerated felons of the right to vote. The Legislature should not relax or dilute these laws in any way.
• Protecting Active Military Personnel’s Right to Vote – We urge the Texas Secretary of State and the U.S. Attorney General take necessary steps to ensure that the voting rights of our U.S. Armed Forces will never be denied or obstructed.
• Filing Date for Primary Election – We urge Texas legislators to change the Election Code date of the filing for the March primary from January 2 to the second Monday in January.
• Fair Election Procedures – We support ongoing modifications and strengthening of election laws to assure ballot integrity and fair and impartial elections at all levels of government. Specifically, we support:
  
  
  1. increased scrutiny and security in balloting by mail;
  2. prohibition of internet voting and any touch screen voting or other electronic voting which lacks a voter verifiable paper trail;
  3. prohibition of mobile voting;
  4. vigorous criminal prosecution by district attorneys or county attorneys for election fraud, and use of jail sentences as a deterrent to violators;
  5. repeal of the “Help America Vote Act” which unconstitutionally dictates to the states the manner of administrating elections; and
  6. efforts to ensure that each polling place has a distinctly marked and if possible separate location for Republican and Democratic primary voting so that in vulnerable precincts voter intimidation and coercion will be eliminated.

• Residency Requirements - We support legislation that “determines residence in accordance with the common-law rules, as recognized by the courts of this state and of the United States, except as otherwise provided by the Texas Election Code.”
• Water Districts – We call on the Legislature to allow voters the ability to recall elected officials of an irrigation district, fresh water supply district, municipal utility district, or any other special purpose district.
• Campaign Finance Reform – We call for the immediate repeal of the McCain-Feingold Act. We oppose any so–called “campaign finance reform” that restricts free speech, the right to publicize the voting records or positions of public officials, and the amount of individual or Political Action Committee campaign contributions. We support full disclosure of the amounts and sources of these funds.
• Enforcing the Platform – We believe it is the responsibility of the Republican State Chairman of Texas and county chairs to implement this platform by requiring party and public candidates to indicate their support for or opposition to a plank of the platform prior to their acceptance as a candidate on the Republican ticket and to make such information available on the Party website. We strongly expect the SREC Candidate Resource Committee to consider candidates’ support of the Party platform when granting financial or other support.
• Platform/Legislation - We urge the Texas Legislature to modify the Texas election code to clearly permit a political party to require each of its candidates to indicate their support for or opposition to each plank of the platform prior to their acceptance as a candidate on the primary election ballot. The election code should also permit the publication and distribution of the candidate’s responses.
• Conflicts of Interest – We promote the passage and/or strengthening of local, state, and federal legislation prohibiting the influencing or voting of any publicly elected official or appointee in any matter for which a conflict of interest exists respecting a personal benefit or benefit to a member of that official’s or appointee’s family by blood or marriage. No elected state official should be allowed to represent paying clients before a state agency.
• Lobbying Limitation – We support legislation to prohibit former legislators, government employees, and officials from acting as lobbyists for a foreign government and/or any business for a period of five years immediately after leaving public service. We support legislation to prevent lobbying by any organization receiving federal grants except that relating to its tax status.
• Legislative Accountability – We support permanent legislative rules requiring that all votes on bills cast in the Texas House and Texas Senate be record votes that are freely available to the electorate.
• AWOL Legislators – We encourage the Texas House and Senate to formulate rules to compel the attendance of absent members, and provide effective penalties to those who attempt to bust the quorum by leaving the state or hiding within it, including consideration of expulsion for prolonged unexcused absences.
• Public Integrity Unit – We call upon the Texas Legislature to immediately secure the impartiality and probity of the Travis County Public Integrity Unit, by transferring its powers and funding to an impartial statewide elected judicial entity such as the Office of the State Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
• Term Limits – We call upon the United States Congress, the Texas Legislature, and the Republican Party to establish reasonable term limits.
• Filibuster - We support a return to the traditional form of Filibuster in the U.S. Senate.
• Rosebush-Blocker Rule - We oppose the Rosebush-Blocker rule in the Texas Senate.
• November Election – We believe that all public elections, except for primary elections, should be held in November.

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