The Taylor County Republican Party voted 15 to zero this week to censure State Representative Stan Lambert. The ten-point proclamation is drawn from the party’s priorities and platform.
Chair of the local party, Ryan Goodwin, says much of their displeasure stemmed from Lambert’s support of Lubbock’s Dustin Burrows instead of David Cook to be Speaker of the House, “Who you vote for as speaker is a big deal because they’re able to help control the calendar, decide who’s going to be in charge of that. They help put people on committees. So legislative priorities get kind of stalled depending on who your speaker of the house is.” If the censure succeeds, the punishment could be blocking Lambert and other censured representatives from running on their party’s ballot for the next 24 months.
The party invited Lambert to discuss the censure, and Goodwin says they were disappointed he did not attend the meeting where they voted. Lambert said he had other commitments at the time, but will be holding town hall meetings this summer in which he will discuss the 89th legislative session.
Representative Lambert told KACU’s West Texas Dispatch that he doesn’t think these censures will withstand legal challenges, “Can an unelected body, which is basically our local Republican Party, only the chair is actually elected. So it’s really an unelected body trying to decide who can or who can’t run for office. And I think that goes strictly against the Constitution of the United States, and that’s why it won’t be held up in court.”
Party Chair Ryan Goodwin says Taylor County is one of a handful of local parties that has censured their State Representative. He expects the State Republican Executive Committee to consider the censure later this summer. He says that by then, the committee may have as many as 30 people to process.
