Benkiser wins re-election as Texas Republican Party Chair

Newt Gingrich (photo)

Former Speaker of the House

Tina Benkiser easily turned back a challenge from Paul Perry with nearly 70 percent of the delegates

Tina Benkiser today won re-election to lead the Republican Party of Texas, easily fending off a challenge from a Ron Paul partisan who had been critical of the party leadership.

Benkiser won about 69 percent of the delegates' votes, more than doubling the total garnered by Ellis County resident and former Justice of the Peace Paul Perry.

Elsewhere on the second day of the RPT convention, a pair of keynote speakers advocated increased oil exploration as the best way to lower gas prices.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said that he would renew efforts to drill in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, in northern Alaska and in the Rocky Mountain shale. He would combine that with the sell off of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a move that he said would prick the speculators' bubble in the oil market.

Of the financial speculators who some fault for the recent run-up in the price of oil, Gingrich said, "We don't need to investigate them. We need to drive them broke. I'm personally relatively happy (with that)."

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) said that Senate Republicans were turned away in attempts to expand oil drilling. She criticized the Democrats whose plan she said consisted solely of taxing windfall profits and investigating alleged price gouging.

"I'm not exaggerating," she said. "That's their plan. What does that do for Texas families who are spending $100 at the pump? Not one thing."

The convention also adopted its platform today. Notable by its inclusion was language sponsored by Senator Dan Patrick criticizing the new margins tax. Patrick was unsucessful in his efforts two years ago.

Hutchison also criticized the Trans Texas Corridor as well as "tolls on highways that have already been paid for by Texas taxpayers."

Democrats have set as a goal taking over the Harris County government this cycle much as they did in Dallas County last cycle. In keeping with that, the Harris County Democratic Party met a few blocks from the Republican Party convention with local media outlets to promote its countywide candidates, led by County Judge candidate David Mincberg. They also unveiled a new Web site put together by Matt Angle's Lone Star Fund featuring a "rap sheet" on the GOP countywide incumbents.

Republican leaders at the convention have downplayed the Democrats' chances. Harris County Judge Ed Emmett yesterday said that Republicans would be victorious this fall, saying that if Dallas County was the GOP's Alamo then Harris County would be the GOP's Battle of San Jacinto.

Hutchison said that the burden was on Republicans to "walk our precincts" and "register our neighbors." She said that her goal is to take back Dallas County for the GOP. "Between now and Election Day, I will work my heart out for the Republican Party, for the hard working taxpayers of Texas and for our brave men and women overseas."

An edited version of a post from Harvey Kronberg's Quorum Report.