The conservative Republican Party grassroots are calling for reforms to be implemented immediately by the current leadership of the Harris County Republican Party (HCRP). The aforementioned grassroots have accepted the dismal state of our county party for well over a decade. However, the extreme threats to our Nation and our State due to an indifference to the US Constitution, socialist policies, and crony capitalism have caused an awakening of the Republican grassroots in Harris County. Consequently, the state of affairs that exist in the HCRP will no longer be allowed to exist. The basis of grievance for the grassroots can be summarized as follows:
- The HCRP leadership has made insufficient outreach to recruit Republican Precinct Chairs to fill the approximately 51{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of vacant voting precincts in Harris County. With only 430 of 885 precincts having Republican Party Chairs installed, the HCRP begins each election cycle at a logistical disadvantage to the Democratic Party which field well over 500+ precinct chairs. This problem will be greatly magnified as the result of the upcoming 2010 census due to an expected increase from 885 voting precincts to 1064.
- The HCRP leadership has laid bare a record of incompetence and mismanagement with respect to raising funds in the largest voting county in Texas (3rd largest in the nation) to adequately fund HCRP facilities and operations. The fact that all the smaller surrounding counties have much larger budgets and reserves than Harris County is a source of embarrassment. The HCRP leadership has become lazy and slothful with its fundraising activities. Preferring to exhort money from candidates for access to HCRP semi-endorsements (Republican Leadership Council logos) and speaking fees, instead of making the effort to gather traditional funding from the natural Republican constituencies in the business and political community. Houston is the Nation’s energy capital and is home to an ex-Republican President, cabinet members, and other notable public servants. It is a serious indictment that the HCRP cannot raise enough revenue to provide a stable yearly budget and a rainy day fund to cover unexpected expenses.
- The HCRP leadership has demonstrated a dismal record of fiscal management. Every HCRP-sponsored activity appears to be operating on a shoestring with sufficient funding coming only at the last minute or as a result of the event itself. This has been more than revealed with the HCRP Executive Committee banning the extortion of speaking fees from Republican Primary Candidates at the 2012 HCRP Senate District Convention. This scheme would have charged some primary candidates as much as $500 for as little as 30 seconds speaking time on the floor of the convention. This puts true Republican grassroots candidates at a huge disadvantage to incumbents and better funded candidates. The fact that the HCRP leadership had not planned for and gathered sufficient funds for a mandatory activity whose execution is required by the Texas Election Code is absolute grounds for citing mismanagement of HCRP finances.
- The HCRP leadership has refused to be transparent and open with respect to the county Party’s finances. The HCRP leadership has consistently refused an independent audit of the HCRP books. The leadership has stated that due to the fact they cannot adequately fund the party, they cannot pay for a third-party audit. However, at the April 2 Quarterly HCRP Executive Committee Meeting, a resolution calling for such an audit was blocked by parliamentary procedures even through it came with a offer to independently pay for the audit from outside sources. The conservative Republican grassroots have never been successful in petitioning the current leadership to open their books to an outside independent auditor.
- Finally, the HCRP leadership does not provide any assistance to Republican precinct chairs needed to execute a ground game and get-out-the-vote effort comparable to the Harris County Democratic and other national progressive organizations efforts. Any “help” provided by the HCRP only consists of recycled out-of-date precinct chair training and HCRP “Victory” Strategy meetings that usually serve as campaign stops for the Republican County Chairman, Jared Woodfill. The HCRP leadership does not solicit input from the precinct chairs regarding what is needed in field in terms of material, tools, training, and other resources to help them win elections for conservative Republican candidates.
Under the current HCRP leadership, the Republican Party in Harris County has been and will continue to be an ineffective Party organization that cannot organize and execute winning strategies in Harris County elections. The current leadership is content to win some contests and cede other to the democrats through the excuse of “demographics”. They depend on the natural conservatism of the average Texan and great conservative candidates to win the day. It is not through HCRP devices and actions that Republicans are able to win in Harris County.
Therefore, the conservative Republican grassroots of Harris County demand the following reforms:
- That an audit of the HCRP financial records be completed before the end of the 2012 calendar year. The completed audit report shall be made available, as a matter of public record, to HCRP precinct chairs, the Republican Party of Texas, the media, and the public at large. If the HCRP operates in a open, transparent fashion, it will avoid the appearance of corruption or cronyism and maintain the good faith of the Party.
- Should the audit of the HCRP financial records reveal any impropriety or criminal issues, it is the will of the conservative Republican grassroots that those affected or charged with the revealed misconduct to resign immediately from any HCRP office or elected position.
- Within 3 months of receipt of the public release of this letter, the HCRP Finance Committee develop an outreach plan to the Harris County business and political community for the purposes of adequately funding the HCRP. This outreach plan must include, as a minimum, a process to ensure transparency to party donors, a proposed annual 2013 budget, an implementation plan needed to ensure Republican victories at the National, State, and local levels in Harris County, and performance metrics ensuring that funding is being spent judiciously in achieving HCRP goals and initiatives.
- Following the example of the Republican Party of Texas, establish an HCRP Rainy Day Fund. Identify critical/ mandatory activities and outlays that must be performed and set adequate funds aside as a fall back should the need ever arise. Define the circumstances for which such a fund be utilized to prevent its operation as a “slush” fund for the HCRP leadership.
- Desist from all activities that result in better funded Republican candidates gaining an advantage over less-well funded grassroots candidates. For instance, sample Primary ballots on the HCRP website that show the Republican Leadership Council logo by candidates who can afford to pay the $1,000 fee. This gives the appearance of an “endorsement” for the public who may seek information from the website. Also desist from advertising in any “pay for play” voter guides and similar publications. The HCRP leadership should disavow any relationship and/or consulting arrangement with those who participate in this practice.
- Commensurate with funding levels, the HCRP leadership shall develop a robust outreach plan to fill a increasing percentage of Harris County Precinct Chairs (for example, 50{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}/2012; 65{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}/2013; 80{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}/2014…).
- Commensurate with funding levels, the HCRP leadership shall develop a modern training regime, provide GOTV materials, and make available technologies needed to reach the voters (e.g., call from home, Precinct Manager, etc.) to the Harris County Precinct Chairs in order to maximize their effectiveness.
- The HCRP shall look for ways to funnel resources to Republican candidates in general elections rather than drain them in order to fund HCRP operations.
If the current HCRP leadership is unable or unwilling to accept and enact these reforms, we ask that they step aside and let others start the hard work to build the HCRP into an effective and efficient Republican County organization that will rival State Party organizations both inside and outside Texas and will only be second to the Republican Party of Texas and the Republican National Party.
This is the vision and expectation of the conservative Republican grassroots of Harris County.
Dale Huls
HCRP Pct. 0655
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Thanks for putting this together Dale. The folks that lead HCRP seem so worried about accepting new people that they don’t welcome them. I bet the democratic party says “come on in …..you are welcome here”. WE say “do you support every bit of the gop platform? You aren’t one of those libertarians are you?”
The HCRP party could be much bigger but folks like Bill Kneer think it will be destroyed unless new folks are interrogated and vetted to the point that new members say “forget it”. Members create a new platform every year so to hold every new member’s feet to the fire is not warranted. Let them join and make the party better. When security is too great…..freedom suffers.
I will start by saying that I always prefer a complaint that starts with the phrase “I see this problem and this is what I will do to solve it.” I disagree with much of what Randy Kubosh has said about the local party, but I admire his wilingness to pony up the dough to resolve what he sees as a problem. I will always listen to what Dorothy Olmos says, because I know she has personally recruited new precinct chairs on the east side and has operated an office there. When my son was in boy scouts, I mentioned at a committee meeting that I thought we should do a service project every month, just like we were going camping every month. Before the meeting was over, I was in charge of organizing the monthly service projects.
I always look with skepticism on any document that starts with the claim “I am the grassroots.” I would certainly not describe the current state of the local party as “dismal.” We have won 90 {997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the county wide elections in the last ten years. Compare that to Dallas County, where once the dems started winning again, they didn’t stop. No other decade in the hitory of the Harris County GOP can compare to what we have done with the current party chair.
I do not see it as a major problem to have vacancies in precinct chair positions. Some of these precincts are drawn to contain three alligators and a pipeline. Others vote 90 percent dems. We can put an alternate judge in those boxes for the general election. I don’t think we want a nominal chair who does nothing, but hampers achieving a quorum at our quarterly meetings.
I do not claim to be privy to the inner workings at 3311 Richmond. But I know when I call there, the phone is answered, and when I send them an email, it usually gets a response.
I do agree that the SD conventions should be a budget item, included in our annual fundraising.
I disagree that listing membership in the RLC on the party website is an “endorsement”. Instead, it tells those who look that this is a person who has put his money where his mouth is. The cost to join can be spread out as $83.33 per month, which won’t bankrupt most serious candidates. If that is too much, you can still join for free, if you sign up 5 other members.
But looking at the numbers on the website, there are twenty races with one (or more) of the candidates but not all who are members. In some of these races, including that for party chair, the candidate with less funding has joined, while the one with more funding has not. That is the same number as the races where a candidate is unopposed but has joined the RLC. There are another ten races where ALL the candidates have joined. But there are over 50 races where none of the candidates have joined, including one race where a candidate has spent $6 million for tv ads.
I think that if someone is willing to make the commitment of personal funds to support the HCRP, they should be recognized with something more than a tote bag.
You say that businesses should donate to the party operations, as a “traditional funding.” But this is not the 1970s, when political contributions were tax deductible.
What was offered at the April 2 Executive Committee meeting was an attempt to amend the bylaws, which was not permitted under the rules of the party without proper notice. I learned parliamentary procedure in high school. It is the basis for operation at the executive committee, the SD conventions, and at the state conventions going back to the 80’s and probably before. With new precinct chairs, they may not be familiar with it, but it doesn’t take much experience to learn.
I don’t know how you can say that the party does not provide resources for precinct chairs for grassroots involvement. In 2010, I got several emails from the party with name, address and phone numbers of 1Rs, 3Rs and regular voters in my precinct. I used them to provide direct mail and block walking guidance, which was very useful since I had just moved to the neighborhood.
To my knowledge, the HCRP has never advertised with the Hotze, Lowrey or Polland newsletters. I understand that people who do not get their endorsements are suddenly angry with them, but they are simply doing on a county-wide scale what I have been doing on a small scale for decades.
The real problem this year is that the elongated primary season has led to sniping and nasty comments in emails, blogs and facebook postings like “Your spouse is ugly” and “You should go to jail,” instead of concentrating on real issues and qualifications.
I’m solidly with Dale and TexasBea. Sadly for our county, state, and nation, it’s a David vs. Goliath battle for qualified new candidates with vision and energy to surmount the big-monied names. That’s where an effective HCRP can use its resources to help level the playing field.