Two Named To GOP Committe Often Oppose Brass

Delegates skipped District 22 caucus, TEA Party alternates the key

Top ranking Senate District 22 Republicans ladled their
approval on two operatives originally viewed as upstarts by
long-term McLennan County GOP stalwarts.

In a repudiation of the politics of exclusion, County
Republican Chairmen and delegates to the Republican State
Convention elected Jimmie Kerr and Janet Jackson to the
State Republican Executive Committee Saturday afternoon.

Their election was confirmed by the Rules Committee and
the convention approved their placement in the 62-member
Senate District 22 State Repubican Executive Committee.

They reportedly shut out the other two announced candidates,
Waco attorney Chris DeCluitt and Molly Smith, the daughter
of a two-term committeewoman from McLennan County, by an
estimated 20 votes each.

According to party executives, such nominations are
considered all but an assured ticket to being named later to
the committee by the State Chairman.

Over the past year, Mrs. Jackson has toured the 10-county
District training prospective precinct chairmen how to gain
election to that post, how to get out the vote by
registering new electors, and signing up those who can't
make it to the polls as absentee or early voters.

She has helped lay the groundwork for Hispanic Republican
clubs in more than half the counties affected.

Mr. Kerr has helped sign up a large number of precinct
chairmen in McLennan County.

Both have accused party chairmen and other powerful
functionaries in McLennan and Bosque Counties of ignoring
requests for information and the proper forms for filing for
election to the all-important precinct chairmanships.

In some cases, they have both alleged, the county chairmen
have merely entered the names of the election judges
appointed to run the precinct contests as candidates for
Precinct chairman.

Most delegates to the convention were reported to have
eschewed the Senate District caucus and allowed alternate
delegates, many of whom are TEA Party activists, to step in
and cast their votes for the pair, both of whom were
instrumental in the formation of the Hispanic Republican
Club of McLennan County.

McLennan is considered the swing county in the district with
91 voting precincts and the largest population of any of the
10-county area.

In an interesting side note, McLennan County Republican Chair-
man Joe B. Hinton, the retired Exxon-Mobil Vice President for
Europe, did not attend the executive committee caucus.

His long-time associate, former County Chairman and multi-term
Texas State Representative M.A. Taylor and his wife Virginia
did not attend, either, according to sources who were in the
caucus.