SAN ANTONIO REPUBLICAN WOMEN

Transcription

1 SAN ANTONIO REPUBLICAN WOMEN Summer 2015 Edition PRESIDENT S MESSAGE Greetings Everyone! I can't believe half this year is over. Once again Congratulations to Melissa Wegrzyn of O'Connor High School, recipient of the Fern Burke Scholarship presented by SARW at our May meeting. She will be attending Texas State University in the fall. Thank you, Chief Justice Sandee Bryan Marion, for your kind words of encouragement. As you can see from some the photos posted in this newsletter, San Antonio Republican Women have been extremely busy this year. We have lobbied at the State Capitol, made book presentations, reached out to young Republicans, phone banked, block walked, networked with other republican clubs, and the list goes on. SARW participated in the grand re-opening of the Bexar GOP Headquarters. It was a huge success. Thanks to our liaison, Debbie Wall, for representing our club. In June we had our first "SARW NIGHT" of phone banking at the Republican Party of Texas Headquarters. We had a wonderful turnout that produced great results. We hope to continue doing this on a regular basis. In July SARW joined up with our "Sister" club, Bexar County Republican Women for a joint evening meeting at Bexar GOP Headquarters. Thanks to our Guest Speaker, Chris Byrd, for his presentation on "Sharia Law and Women." Over 50 were in attendance. It was a great evening of fellowship. Laura Koerner and her committee have been working diligently on our "Summer Spectacular" Fundraiser. The event is Thursday, August 6 at Maggiano's Little Italy (at the Rim). Justice Don Willett will be our guest speaker. There will be a Silent Auction and most of all - you will be able to watch the FIRST Republican Presidential Debate on the big screen! It will be fun watching it with your fellow Republicans and cheering for your favorite candidate. It is going to be a fabulous evening. I hope you will join us! JULY NO SARW Summer Month Meetings! AUGUST 6 SARW Summer Spectacular. Maggiano s Little Italy (at The Rim) RSVP@sarepublicanwomen.com 15 Poll Watcher Training. 2:00 3:30 p.m. at Bexar GOP Headquarters, 909 NE Loop 410, Suite 514, SA, TX Young Republicans of Bexar County. 6:30 pm, Ray s Pizzaria, 7214 Blanco Rd. RSVP to karenm@bigplanet.com. SEPTEMBER 10 SARW Meeting. 11:00-1:00 pm, San Francisco Steakhouse. Guest speaker: Judge Crystal Chandler on Human Trafficking. RSVP to Linda Bulger: RSVP@sarepublicanwomen.com NFRW Convention in Phoenix, AZ. For more information: nfrw.org@conventionphoenix Poll Watcher Training. 2:00-3:30 pm Bexar GOP Headquarters, 909 NE Loop 410, # Chairman's BBQ Cook Off. 2:00 pm, Alzafar Shrine, 901 North Loop 1604 West Our next general meeting will resume on Thursday, September 10th at San Francisco Steak House. Judge Crystal Chandler will speak on Human Trafficking, a very serious problem effecting San Antonio. Enjoy the rest of your summer, be safe and I look forward to seeing you soon! - Sylvia Gartner

2 JUSTICE DON WILLETT, SUMMER SPECTACULAR GUEST SPEAKER Justice Don Willett has a gold-clad resume: twice-elected Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, former White House Director of Law and Policy, and Clerk on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals after he earned a J.D.-M.A. at Duke. But Justice Willett built his career on a foundation of hard work. His parents never graduated from high school, and growing up in a 35-person town in Texas, he worked to support his family after his father passed away. As a kid, he competed in rodeos and was a professional drummer. Today he s one of America s top jurists, as well as author of one of the wittiest Twitter accounts (@JusticeWillett), with broad-ranging commentary on law, politics and culture.

3 CONGRESSMAN LAMAR SMITH CONFERENCE CALL REVIEW, JULY 6, 2015 Congressman Smith has graciously invited a group of local active Republicans that are concerned about Legislative issues to be a part of his Grassroots team. The team is made up of medical professionals, businessmen, activists, representatives from area Republican Women's Clubs, and other interested constituents. The goal is to get an update from Mr. Smith regarding legislation that he is working on as well as respond to questions and concerns from the group. Congressman Smith began by thanking every one for being part of the call. He then gave us an update of the issues that he is currently working on with his committees. His most current effort as Chairman of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee is reigning in the EPA. He has called Gina McCarthy, Public Administrator of the EPA to testify before his committee. The topic at hand was the onslaught of regulations issued by the EPA that are killing jobs and raising electricity prices. The EPA has continuously issue regulations that costs jobs without making the data they use to formulate the regulations public. Thus the public currently has no opportunity to contest regulations that effect many aspects of property rights. Congressman Smith successfully added several funding amendments to an appropriation bill that gut funding to the EPA until they comply. Another project of the Science Committee is to fully fund NASA. The Obama Administration has cut spending for NASA by $400 million to fund Climate Change projects. As a result U.S. Astronauts are being taxied to the International Space Station by the Russians. The cost for the transportation of our astronauts is in the tens of millions per flight. Congressman Smith will be hearing cases on the Judiciary committee, of which he is the former Chair. The committee is in the process of reviewing the policies of sanctuary cities that ignore immigration laws. This practice has enabled illegal immigrants to remain in cities and commit heinous crimes such as the repeat felon who killed Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco. The question and answer session time was very interesting with comments regarding Common Core, the Import Export bank, and the Greek financial crises. A physician on the call voiced his concern regarding the future of patient care under ObamaCare. He noted the inability of Physicians in private practice to stay in business due to soaring costs and regulations. This situation will continue to force doctors to become part of the federal system thereby lessening standard patient care. Congressman Smith recently cast his 50th vote to real, replace, or dismantle ObamaCare. Your own SARW representative contributed by thanking Congressman Smith for bestowing the Congressional Medal of Honor to Lt. Col. Dick Cole. The medal was given in recognition of his service during World War II and his participation in the flights over Tokyo as Jimmy Dolittle's co-pilot. Mr. Cole resides in Comfort, Texas. I took the opportunity to ask about a regulation coming out of the Obama Administration giving HUD Secretary Julian Castro Federal power to be involved with local zoning. This directive is the 'Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing' regulation. This regulation will have a direct impact on communities by changing zoning laws to enable low cost/ subsidized housing to be built in suburban areas. This will have a direct impact on schools, transportation, businesses, and taxes. The social engineering aspect will greatly affect the voting patterns of precincts in traditionally Republican areas. Doing some background research on this disturbing regulation last month, I found that Congressman Paul Gossar, R- AZ, CD 4 has written an amendment to fight this re-distribution effort by the Obama Administration. It is "The Local Protection and Property Rights Protection Act". His office was very appreciative of the call, I encourage our members to contact him via his website at gosar.house.gov or Congressman Smith, who is now a co-sponsor of the bill at lamarsmith.house.gov. The Judiciary committee will have hearings on this, administration officials will be called to testify, and the impact of the regulation will be accessed. Chairman Goodlatte can then determine the agenda that will go to the floor for a vote, that is where input from constituents is very helpful. Please express your support to Mr. Gosar and Mr. Smith on this issue. Republican Women can be a strong force in helping defeat this Democrat effort to gain control of key voting areas. - Respectfully Submitted by Deborah M. Wall, Grassroots Team for Congressman Lamar Smith

4 OUR CONDOLENCES: To the family of LARRY LOVEALL who passed away on May 15 th. To SARW Member, Jo Ann Peyton Taylor, on the passing of her son DAN on July 11, Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. SEPTEMBER GUEST SPEAKER: JUDGE CRYSTAL CHANDLER Crystal Chandler is a judge of the Bexar County Court of Law #13, a court especially designated to handle misdemeanor criminal family violence cases. She was elected in 2014, effective January 1, Judge Chandler graduated summa cum laude from Winston Churchill High School. She received her undergraduate degree from Incarnate Word College and earned her J.D. from St. Mary's University School of Law. For the past 15 years, she has proudly served as a Bexar County Assistant Criminal District Attorney. She spent several years as a felony prosecutor for the Family Justice and Victim Protection Division. She later joined the Criminal Trial Division where she continued to handle violent and high profile cases. In 2007, she helped co-found Chapter 61 Ministries, a non-profit organization engaged in the fight against human trafficking. She spoke throughout the state educating and raising awareness of domestic human trafficking. Later, Chapter 61 started a nationwide campaign titled "Truckers Against Trafficking." It has evolved into a national non-profit which, in 2013, was named to the United Nation's list of 100 Best Anti-Human Trafficking Practices in the world.

5 SUMMER SPECTACULAR INVITATION ADDRESSING SARW/ BCRW JOINT MEETING

6 SARW GENERAL MEETING

7 AUSTIN, TEXAS

8 ASIAN REPUBLICAN CLUB

9 ALLISON GARCIA S SWEARING IN AS STUDENT BODY PRESIDENT TEXAS A&M- SAN ANTONIO YOUNG REPUBLICANS MEETING

10 PHONE BANKING AT RPT BEXAR GOP GRAND RE-OPENING

11 BEXAR COUNTY REPUBLICAN WOMEN 95 TH BIRTHDAY FUNDRAISER PRESENTATION OF GEORGE W. BUSH BOOK TO BROOKS ESTRELLA ACADEMY SARW MEMBER, ANN PEDEN, AS GUEST SPEAKER AT REPUBLICAN CLUB OF BEXAR COUNTY MEETING

12 SAN ANTONIO REPUBLICAN WOMEN EDITOR P.O. Box San Antonio, Texas Return Service Requested Kristin B. Partida, Editor