That’s right. The dysfunctional Republican Party in the biggest red county in the country has decided to thumb their nose at the energy and enthusiasm of the people that have been, in the words of Houston Tea Party Society founder Felicia Cravens, “doing the work that the HCRP refuses to do”. That work being recruiting new precinct chairs, training them, recruiting new voters to attend Precinct Conventions, training them, teaching them to get elected to attend Senate Conventions, training them, teaching them to write resolutions, training them on how to get them adopted, etc. People like Jennifer Heiden, Suzanne Guggenheim, Catherine Engelbrecht, Artemio Munoz, Ernie Garza, Claver Kamau-Imani, Paul Simpson and Ed Hubbard.
Instead, in mid-December, Mr. Woodfill announced that the old pros would be coming out of retirement to lead Victory 2010 in Harris County. I guess it took them quite some time to get out of their rocking chairs because there wasn’t another peep about Victory 2010 until this past weekend at the Senate Conventions, where Mr. Woodfill enthusiastically introduced them. Which was probably a good idea because each time the attendees were asked for a show of hands if they were first-timers, more than half of the crowd obliged. And those newcomers weren’t there because of anything the HCRP has done.
Okay, so 90 days went by without a peep from Victory 2010. I thought perhaps they were doing some super secret work in the background, so I asked 17 different precinct chairs about it. Not a one of them had heard anything about Victory 2010 other than the original email blast indicating that the old dudes were coming to the rescue. I did notice that the “Leadership” page on the HCRP website had been changed – it too went backwards, reverting to photos at least a couple of years old. Conspicuously missing was Terry Lowry, Chair of Voter Registration. Also missing were the Rapid Response Chair, Richard Dillon, the Social Networking Chair Bill Kneer, Minority Outreach Chair Bill Calhoun, and Grassroots Coordinator Eric Story.
Thinking that was odd, I attempted several times to get an answer from the paid staff at the HCRP, without success. I posted an open request on Facebook – no answer. Lots of rumors though. Rumors that would further split the dysfunctional HCRP, so I chose not to pass them on. I saw Executive Director Jeff Yates at the Senate Convention on Saturday and asked him directly. He pretended not to know, brushing me off faster than powdered donut sugar from his chin. Finally, very frustrated, I told Mr. Woodfill that I was going to pass on the rumors. And I received an answer.
Turns out that Mr. Woodfill has directed that all of those activities be run through the Victory 2010 chairs. Fine, but…exactly why was it so hard to get that answer? Weird. The rumors were a lot juicier, I’ll leave them to your imagination since Mr. Woodfill filled me in. It took him all of 15 seconds. Yet Mr. Yates or Mr. Cowart couldn’t return any of three emails over a week. Busy, busy, they are! Right.
But I digress. Each co-chair of Victory 2010 gave a speech at the convention. Eckels didn’t say anything that I bothered to write down. Polland seems to me to be very overconfident, saying that Barack Obama is a gift to Republicans, the Dems have very weak candidates, so look for a rebound from 2008. Perhaps he is correct but that is a different message than he sent out via his TCR yesterday:
Our campaign needs to be one of vision and ideas for dealing with challenges and of compare and contrast with the other side. Please be clear, they will be prepared, tough and well funded.
That is a bit more realistic, I think. In that same review he said:
We need to unify our 7.5{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the registered voters and seek out swing voters who will be important in November.
Now, I have no idea what he means by 7.5{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} (I did email him to clarify but I’m just a lowly minion and do not expect a response) but he is a rare bird in conservative circles when he acknowledges that Republicans must actually seek out swing voters. No wonder Terry Lowry’s name was removed from the HCRP website.
And then it was Bettencourt’s turn. Or Uncle Paul, as he calls himself. Tio Pablo to that group we need to reach as a party. Every time he refers to himself that way, I can’t help but think of all the crazy uncles that families everywhere try to hide in the closet. Maybe that is just me.
During his speech, he talked about the 3 Amigos coming out of retirement to save the day. He noted that they are going to change the rules back to the old days, when there were Precinct Vice-Chairs and Block Captains. That was shortly after he praised Mr. Woodfill’s leadership. Disconnect?
So anyways, I asked a couple of people about this. Do they have to change the rules? Were the rules changed to prevent this? I never got a definitive answer, I only know what Mr. Bettencourt said.
He also said that the gloves were coming off and that they were not going to be afraid to define the Democrats. He started with Bill White, saying, remember these numbers:
- $2.6 million
- $250 million
- $5.6 billion
Okay, I remembered them. The first being Mr. White’s income from one company while he was in office. The second being the amount of City of Houston employee pension fund money that was diverted to the general fund. And the third being the amount of property tax income collected during 7 years under Mayor White.
Lastly, he talked about the super secret plan that the Democrats had in their effort to win statewide. Their plan, according to Tio Pablo, is to win Harris County with 54{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the vote, compared to Republicans at 42{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} and Libertarians at 4{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}. If they do that, look for Texas to be purple.
And folks, with this kind of vision put forth by the HCRP, that just might happen.
Over the last year and a half, not one of the men heading up the Victory 2010 campaign has bothered to participate in a single grassroots event. No rallies, no meetings, no meet and greets. Nada, nothing, zilch.
And not a peep from them since the announcement in mid-December. The most important thing they’ve accomplished is to remove Terry Lowry and his “deputize Momma to register her family” campaign from the official capacity that Mr. Woodfill gave him.
I have a simple question for the 3 Amigos: if the HCRP, under Mr. Woodfill’s leadership for eight years, cannot fill 50{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of Precinct Chair vacancies, how are you going to add Precinct Vice-Chairs and Block Captains in significant numbers in eight months?
If your answer is to concentrate in white suburban areas and “get out our vote”, then I’d have to say you’ve missed an awful lot while sitting in that rocking chair.