On Tuesday, the Harrison County Republican Party Executive Committee censured State Rep. Chris Paddie (R–Marshall) by a vote of 9-1.
The resolution stated its purpose is “to demonstrate the widespread dissatisfaction with the lack of representation we have received by Chris Paddie, and the solidarity of the grassroots in opposition to his continued status as our elected representative.”
Listed Grievances
The resolution cited 18 specific grievances, including Paddie’s opposition to House rule changes, such as appointing only Republican chairmen to major committees in the House, or requiring a record vote for members of the powerful House Calendars Committee if they decline to schedule legislation for the whole House to vote on.
The party also cited Paddie’s opposition to items relating to Republican Party of Texas legislative priorities, such as not allowing a vote on legislation that would ban taxpayer-funded lobbying statewide after it was heard in his own committee, or also gutting a ban on the practice by local governments by injecting loopholes.
The censure stated:
Representative Chris Paddie has demonstrated a consistent pattern of actions demonstrably opposed to the first, second, fourth, ninth, and tenth core principles of the RPT Platform, by repeatedly voting contrary to these core principles, and abusing his authority as Chairman of the State Affairs Committee in the 87th Texas Legislature to thwart the advancement of bills favorable to these Core Principles.
Paddie has been in office since 2013 and currently serves as the chairman of the powerful House State Affairs Committee. He earned among the lowest scores for Republicans on Texans for Fiscal Responsibility’s Index, scoring a 33 of 100. He was ranked the 70th most conservative lawmaker of the 83 Republicans in the House of Representatives, according to a Rice University Index.
Paddie responded to the censure:
Instead of trying to tear apart the Republican Party, I will continue working to deliver conservative victories and will let my record speak for itself.
House Speaker Dade Phelan took to Twitter to say:
This is absurd. HD-9 knows and all of Texas deserves to know that Chris Paddie represents true Texas conservative values and votes his district every single day in the Texas Legislature.
The censure resolution also attempts to encourage the five other counties located in House District 9 (Shelby, Sabine, Cass, Marion, and Panola) to pass a similar resolution.
Next Steps
The censure resolution will be sent to the State Republican Executive Committee (SREC) for their review, where it might be considered in a future meeting of the SREC. If it passes, it would then enable the state Republican Party to request that Paddie not file for re-election, among other provisions.
