The 1st meeting of the Dallas county Republican executive committe went well. We nominated and approved judge Beth Maultsby as the Republican candidate for the 303rd Family District Court on the November 2nd ballot, since the previous office holder, judge Richard Johnson, had died after the Republican primary in March.

There were two speakers for the evening. First was Matthew Dowd, the chief strategist for president Bush re-election campaign. He lives in Austin and only moves to Washington DC for the duration of the campaign.

Next was ambassador Jeanne L. Phillips, appointed by President George W. Bush as the United States Permanent Representative and Ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in Paris, France. Ambassador Phillips led the U.S. Mission OECD from August 2001 until June 2003. Her primary policy interests were the enforcement of the Anti-Bribery Convention of the OECD, corporate governance and reforms of the OECD for the 21st Century.