By SHEILAH PEPPER
The Gazette Staff
Munisteri named chair of Texas Republican Party
Adams ousted after just eight months
Dallas: Houston lawyer Steve Munisteri was named chairman of the Texas Republican Party following an unusual floor fight June 12th as the state convention neared its close.
Growing concerns over financial problems and a lack of grass-roots organizing allowed Munisteri to defeat Cathie Adams of Dallas, who had held the post for only eight months.
Munisteri, 52, received over 59 percent of the vote from more from 7,000 delegates who stayed to take part in the vote.
He said he would reach out to independents and the growing group of Hispanic voters, as well as Republicans, to strengthen and expand the party.
Munisteri, in 1981 while in college, was founder of the Young Conservatives of Texas and he has been involved in various GOP races for 38 years.
He said the first priority is to get Rick Perry re-elected as governor and to take back the U.S. House and Senate in November.
Perry addressed the convention and went after his opponent, Democrat Bill White, painting him as an elitist and a friend of big government. He used a similar theme in his primary race against Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison terming her a "Washington insider."
However, when he won the primary, that night he immediately went after Barack Obama, causing some pundits to wonder if he has en eye on the White House although Perry has consistently said he does not. Finally, at the convention, he turned his sights on White.
An immigration proposal was one of several platform initiatives that were debated during the convention. The platform is a non-binding blueprint indicating the wishes of party members. The immigration proposal calls for a law similar to the one recently passed in Arizona. This might cause the governor a problem as he recently stated that he thought the Arizona law might not be appropriate for Texas.
In a June 12th speech in Travis County, Bill White mocked Perry's upcoming book, titled "Fed Up." In the book, Perry asserts that the federal government is expanding its reach through bailouts, massive spending and imposing the hugely expensive Obamacare health plan on the states.
White said he was fed up with Perry's policies, especially those dealing with education spending and dropouts. The rally was the start of a six-month effort to raise money and recruit volunteers.
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