The most recent example is a huge biennial event called the Harris County GOP Judicial Signing Party. The party spends a huge amount of money that they have a hard time raising to host an event that allows judicial candidates to get signatures for their petitions in order to avoid paying the filing fee to get on the ballot for the primary. I want to point out three problems with the event that is being held this year.
Held in the middle of Rosh Hashanah
The event is being held on Thursday evening, September 5th, smack dab in the middle of Rosh Hashanah, celebrating the Jewish New Year. Which means the party is shutting out the Jewish population in Harris County. Why is that important? Seriously?
Incumbents only
The signing party is for incumbents only. Want to know why we have some judges that suck? The HCRP has become the Incumbent Protection Society.
Party of the Rich
The IPS signing party is being held at the Westin Galleria, and “Complimentary heavy hors d’oeuvres will be served”. Awesome. I suppose that’s better than “light” hors but you know what this does? Um hmm. It just reinforces the perception that Republicans are the party of the rich.
Perception is reality these days
I was at a meeting with Rep. John Culberson last week and he mentioned that his district included the three largest synagogues in the area and that he had begun a dialogue with the Rabbis to reach out to the Jewish community. I don’t think he knew how high the hill was that he was going to have to climb.
Paul Simpson, who is running to replace Jared, told me that this was just another example of how out of touch the party is with the diversity of the county. He doesn’t think that this one single event will prevent the party from engaging the Jewish community but the three things listed above hurt us in the effort to expand the party in general.
I had a long conversation with Jared about the way the date was picked. He told me that he appointed a seven member committee that includes a representative from each of the judiciary levels on the ballot. They picked the date and location and had already signed the contract when someone pointed out the date problem and asked them to move it. Jared conceded that had this been Easter or Christmas, someone on the committee would have known not to schedule it on that date. He did promise that the party would host “many” signing parties around the county before the filing date.
Hey, we’ll give you seconds! Vote for us but don’t for a minute expect to be a part of the team!
I guess I can’t blast Jared too much about this one as it is just another in a long string of examples of why the party is shrinking under his leadership. A strong leader would have recognized the problem, cancelled the contract, and moved the date. But Jared isn’t exactly a strong leader – an excellent, if not great, spokesperson for the party but not a strong leader.
And that is just the way the pay to play slates like it.
No Jews, blacks, browns, Asians, or gays allowed. Women can do the behind the scenes work but let’s not have them run things. But at election time, let’s go out and ask everyone to vote for our candidates! Awesome strategy.