After publishing a press release from the Paul Simpson campaign touting his fundraising ability, I received a message from a Republican campaign worker saying the people giving to his campaign were literally wasting their money.
People are giving money to Paul for what?
Literally wasting it
I thought that was an interesting comment from someone that makes their living off of campaign contributions. But perhaps other people are wondering why Simpson is raising large amounts of money for his campaign and for the party, so I thought I’d take a moment to explain.
Obviously, it’s easy to explain why he must raise money for the party. It is a large county and Simpson’s strategy is much different than the days when Jared Woodfill and Gary Polland ran the party on the backs of elected officials and candidates. Simpson has set up a series of satellite offices around the county and has a professional staff to pay for and he prefers not forcing candidates and elected officials to pay for that. I remember when the doors to the party were locked by the landlord because the party had no money to pay the rent at the old location on Richmond. And the employees went unpaid for months at a time and then had their salaries cut before eventually being laid off. I don’t think that Simpson wants to see that happen again.
Believe it or not, it’s even easier to explain why Simpson raises so much for his own campaign. Actually, I don’t have to explain it, I’ll show you an email that explains it for you:
From: “Dr. Hotze Public SFH” <XXX>
To: “XXX” <XXX>
Subject: The Battle for the Republican Party is on Again!
February 12, 2018Dear XXX,
Greetings my friend!
I believe that we need to restore our nation to its Godly heritage. We are in a life and death struggle for our culture, for our Constitutional rights and for the Biblical principles upon which they were founded. We must redouble our efforts! We need to elect candidates who believe in Ronald Reagan’s conservative philosophy and defeat the RINOs.
The Republican Primary election season begins with early voting next Tuesday, February 20. The sample ballots from Conservative Republicans of Texas(CRT) and Conservative Republicans of Harris County (CRHC) need to be printed and mailed this week. We have already mailed over 300,000 Early Applications for Ballot Mail in Harris County and in targeted races across the state.
Attached is the Conservative Republicans of Harris County sample ballot for your perusal. CRHC and CRT have been distributing this type of sample ballot in Harris County since 1992. These organizations have an 86% won/loss record.
It is critical that we nominate conservative candidates during the upcoming Republican primary to face the Democrats in the November General Election.
It is also imperative that we replace the current Harris County Republican Party (HCRP) Chairman, Paul Simpson, whose failed leadership led to the disastrous defeat to the Democrats of all countywide Republican candidates during the 2016 elections. Simpson went 0 for 43. Hillary Clinton carried Harris County by 162,000 votes. Simpson and his RINO supporters ran away from the conservative moral issues and the conservative Republican base of support. Chris Carmona will take advantage of our positions on the conservative moral issues to draw the minority churches and communities into the Republican party.
Chris Carmona is our candidate for the chairmanship of the HCRP. He is a conservative leader who was the past co-chairman of the National Young Republicans and who is the current executive director of the Texas Young Republicans. Chris Carmona has been the head of minority voter outreach for the HCRP both under Jared Woodfill, when he was chairman, and under the current chairman. Chris Carmona will bring together a team of winners who can activate our conservative Republican base. If we keep doing what we did in 2016, then we will inevitably get the same results.
The Democrats want to turn Texas blue. To do this they have to sweep Harris County in the November General elections. The Soros funded groups are pouring money into Harris County to accomplish this. The Democrats want to turn Houston into another Chicago. All the major metropolitan areas of Texas are controlled by the Democrats with the exception of Harris County. The Democrats have been working like fiends through their socialist Marxist organization,Battleground Texas, to turn out the minority and millennial vote to put Texas in the Democrat camp. If we lose Harris County, then we lose Texas and there will never be another Republican elected to the White House.
The Democrats are running RINOs, who are really Democrats, in the Republican primaries. The teachers’ union is encouraging their members to vote in the Republican primary.
We simply must turn out our conservative voters in the Republican Primary.
The cost of printing and mailing 450,000 sample ballots to everyone in our targeted districts, who voted in the 2016 Republican Primary, with follow up phone calls, is 250,000. This will pay for the printing and mailing. Additionally, we are using social media, targeted to Republican Primary Voters, to post our sample ballots. We have already spent 250,000 on EABMs, robo phone calls and video endorsements for social media.
I would like you to consider investing 5,000, 10,000. 15,000 or more in this effort to keep Harris County and Texas in the Republican column.
We have an opportunity to nominate and elect solid conservative legislator and judicial candidates to oppose the Democrats in the General Election and to make the Texas House a conservative body. The Texas House has been controlled by RINOs, Speaker Joe Straus and Rep. Byron Cook, until now. They both came under tremendous political pressure during the last session which caused them to decide not to run for reelection. Straus’ supporters are still pouring money into the Texas Senate and Representative races to maintain their control.
Straus, Cook and their lieutenants blocked Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s and the Texas Senate’s conservative legislation last session. We have an opportunity to elect solid conservatives to Straus’, Cook’s and their lieutenants’ seats and recapture the Texas House for the conservative Republicans.
Please let me know that you will continue to support these efforts by investing 5,000, 10,000, 15,000 or more in this effort.
Time is of the essence!
Committed to our success, I remain, as always,
Sincerely yours,
Steven F. Hotze, M.D.
Founder Conservative Republicans of Harris County
Conservative Republicans of Texas(bold highlights added)
I think that Dr. Hotze’s email makes it very clear why Paul Simpson has to raise money if he wants to continue to be party chair. I like the way Hotze said “Carmona is our candidate for party chair” because the old guard of the party is combining their efforts in an attempt to regain control of the party. A quarter-million being spent against Simpson by just one of the “Big 3” slates? After reading that, I’m not sure that anyone can say that Simpson is raising too much money. I’ve been very clear that I’m neutral in this race but I have to point that out.
I was talking about Dr. Hotze’s letter with a friend, a former SREC member and we were talking about how Carmona could fund the party if he can’t raise large amounts of money (campaign finance reports show that he has raised a total of $1,485). Clearly, the three slates that are pushing Carmona’s campaign (for free?) have little to no history of donating to the party. Dr. Hotze puts a lot of his own money into his slate card but the other two guys profit from candidates. I brought up the doors being locked by the landlord when those guys ran the party and my friend (a Carmona supporter) says “Oh, don’t worry about that. Texas Right to Life or Empower Texans will step in and pay the rent.”
That possibility had not entered my mind. Can you imagine the purification that will happen in the HCRP if those groups gain control?
Maybe, just maybe, those people that are donating to Simpson’s campaign already had that thought and don’t consider it to be literally wasting their money.
I hope that Carmona addresses fundraising in a more complete way that what is on his website:
Fund the Party with a Realistic Vision for Growth
- Re-launch the Grassroots Fundraising Club
- Invest in your party and put skin in the game
- Provide value-added benefits so people want to invest
And while I’m hoping for things, I hope that both candidates will address the problem that we have in Precinct 1 and what they think can be done to close that gap. If that gap isn’t closed, Harris County Republicans are in deep trouble.
Related:
Harris County Republican Party: The curse of the slate mailers
I wonder how many voters said “Republican campaign worker” could of contacted for their candidate instead of gossiping and attempting playing party politics. 1st rule of working on a campaign, you dont talk about any other campaign other than your own.
“much different than the days when Jared Woodfill and Gary Polland ran the party on the backs of elected officials and candidates.”
That’s a nice slogan, but it simply is not true. Anyone can look up HCRP’s finance reports from 2016 and see how much money was raised from elected official and candidates, and remember that many told him “no thanks.” For several cycles now, Paul seems more effective at raising money for his own campaigns than for the party. And how much money is really needed to produce a couple of generic postcards that say “Harris County Works?”