Lone Star Republicans at the convention are rebelling against a rule change they say would reward big donors

Tightly controlled political conventions are all about getting the entire party singing from the same songbook, but one of the country’s largest states, rock-red Republican Texas, could upset the chorus as the delegation is preparing to go to war with the Republican National Committee over a rules change that they say could sideline grass-roots activists and concentrate party power in the hands of wealthy donors.

“This is the hill to die for,” Texas delegate Tom Washington, the assistant treasurer of the state party, told Salon on the convention floor. It’s “disgusting and disturbing,” said at-large alternate delegate Mark Russo from Rockwall, Texas.

The change, approved last week by the Rules Committee, which convened here in Tampa before the convention began, would allow a presidential campaign in future elections to veto any delegates sent to the national convention to support its candidate.

While we usually know who the party’s nominee will be long before the convention, it’s not official until delegates vote on selecting the ticket at the convention. Delegates are elected in local and state nominating conventions, and then sent to the national convention assigned to presidential candidates based on the proportion of the vote each candidate won in the state. Opponents of the rule change fear this would allow the winning candidate to disavow elected delegates and stack the convention with big donors and loyalists who could change rules, write the platform or otherwise take the party in a direction that grass-roots activists wouldn’t support.

The opposition seems to have started with supporters of Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who have rebelled against several aspects, but has spread to the entire delegation from the Lone Star State. “This is very distributing to me. Even though I’m a Romney supporter, this is bad policy for this convention, it’s bad policy for future conventions,” Richard Hayes, a Romney delegate from Denton, told Salon. “The Texas delegation is rock-solid in defeating this rule and supporting the minority report,” said Washington, who is not a Ron Paul supporter.