State GOP Statements on Rudy Giuliani
Breakfast Speech and Press Ban Disputed

Sources Say DeLay Behind Welcome Event Snub,
Contend GOP VP Opposed Ex-Mayor's Invite

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor

State GOP officials are sticking by their stories about a missed opportunity to have former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani speak to the Texas delegation during last week's Republican National Convention and a media ban at a Texas welcome party on the eve of the event in New York City. But high-level Republican officials in Texas and Washington are insisting that the state party's accounts are not true.

Republican sources say that Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst had Giuliani lined up to speak at the delegation's final breakfast session. Giuliani - a hero in the aftermath of September 11 and a superstar at the national convention - had thrilled delegates on opening night with a speech that won widespread praise from moderates and conservatives alike. Dewhurst had planned to introduce Giuliani to the delegates from Texas at the breakfast, but sources say he abandoned the plan after state party Vice-Chairman David Barton threatened to publicly protest the invitation to the ex-New York mayor if he showed up at the breakfast as planned.

Conservative Republicans from Texas in New York City for the convention had voiced serious concerns about the possibility of a Giuliani bid for president in four years. They do not like the idea that the former mayor of the nation's largest city is pro-choice on abortion and opposes a ban on gay marriages - the top two hot button issues with social conservatives in the state and national parties. But even some staunch conservatives from Texas said they were surprised when hearing that a state GOP official might have tried to block Giuliani from speaking to the Texans in town, saying it would have been exciting to have a celebrity of the ex-mayor's magnitude even if he didn't agree with them on key issues.

On the day of the final breakfast, Barton denied that he'd attempted to veto the Giuliuani breakfast speech, saying that he and State Chairwoman Tina Benkiser had been all for the ex-municipal leader speaking to delegates. Texas Republican Party Alexis Delee on Wednesday backed up Barton's account, saying that he never said or did anything to suggest that he was opposed to having Giuliani speak at the breakfast. She said Barton got the word about Giluiani at the convention hall on Wednesday night and tried to contact Benkiser, who was somewhere else in Madison Square Garden where the event was held. Delee said state party officials only had about 10 minutes to make a decision on whether they could juggle an already full schedule to fit Giuliani in. During that short time period, Giliiani accepted an invitation to speak to the Ohio delegation breakfast the following morning instead, Delee said.

Dewhurst knows Giluiani from past business dealings. The former New York mayor cut an ad for Dewhurst in his 2002 race for lieutenant governor. When the Texas lieutenant governor met resistance in his effort to bring Giuliani to delegation breakfast, sources say he told the ex-mayor simply that a time slot couldn't be worked out, hoping to spare Giuliani from the embarrassment of being snubbed by a group of Republicans from Texas.

The circumstances surrounding the press snub at the delegation welcome event at the New York Stock Exchange are even more curious than the Giuliani breakfast no-show. Republican sources say that state Republican Party officials were trying to accommodate U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay when they intentionally misled Texas reporters about an alleged media ban at the delegation's welcome party at the New York Stock Exchange on the night before the convention opened. When hearing a few days before the welcome event that the press had been invited, sources say that DeLay informed the state party that he would not be coming to the bash at the stock exchange if reporters were there.

Several hours before the welcome party got under way, state Republican officials told reporters they would not be welcome at the delegation's welcome party because the NYSE refused to allow media to attend events there. Benkiser was caught off guard at a press conference when told by Dallas Morning News reporter Christi Hoppe that the NYSE spokesman denied that the exchange had such a policy. "I'm not aware of that," Benkiser said.

Delee today said that state party officials were informed of the media prohibition policy by Kevin Edgar, the director of governmental affairs for the NYSE. But stock exchange spokesman Ray Pellecchia told Capitol Inside today that he stood by his initial statement that no such policy exists - and he said that Edgar agrees with him on this. Edgar had referred a call from the newsletter to the spokesman. Pellecchia declined comment on what Edgar might have told Texas GOP officials.

The spokesman reiterated that groups with events planned at the NYSE have the right to bar media from attending them. Based on the stock exchange official's statements, the welcome event could only have been closed to the press if the state party and event sponsors wanted it that way. Several corporations paid for the NYSE event.