State of the HCRP: Chair Forums, Finances, Future

Making progress. That is probably the best way to put it. We will not “be there” until after the March 2nd primary, and quit possibly an April runoff, but things are moving in that direction. More and more voters are telling me that they understand the need for a change in leadership. Whether or not that translates into actual votes for change remains to be seen but there is definitely a shift taking place, and that shift will continue to take place even if the leadership doesn’t change this time around.

Campaign Finance

First off, how is the party doing financially? The answer remains, unfortunately, not very well. The current chair and his campaign staff, Rapid Responder Richard Dillon and Facebook Coordinator Bill Kneer all point to “record” dollars raised. Maybe that is so, I don’t know. What I do know is that, as of the January 15th filing, the Campaign to Re-Elect Jared Woodfill had more dollars on hand than the Harris County Republican Party. It seems odd to me that a campaign for an unpaid position would have more resources at its disposal than the county party in a county of four million people. Plus, there is that little disparity with the Harris County Democratic Party – they have almost five times the amount of cash on hand and a much smaller overhead to maintain.

As you can see, the HCRP actually had more contributions but also far more expenses. But we must commend Mr. Woodfill – without his firm paying the salary of the receptionist, the situation would be much like last year when no one was there to open the doors. Woodfill-Pressler payed $11,243.26 for her services during the months of July – October. Add that to the $11,000 contributed by a former Democratic judge and you begin to see reality. The HCRP must reduce its overhead if it is going to be financially sound.

Speaking of campaign finance, how did the candidates fare?

As expected, incumbency does have its advantages. Which is one reason that I think Mr. Woodfill doesn’t need to misuse party resources. But I digress. These reports really aren’t as bad as they might seem to an outsider. First, most challengers to entrenched incumbents have far fewer resources to play with. In this case, if you combine Mr. Hubbard’s and Mr. Simpson’s COH, they have about 40{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} compared to the incumbent. That is a lot. Plus, it doesn’t account for the boots on the ground of their campaigns. While Mr. Woodfill has two people, plus Sen. Dan Patrick’s radio station and Terry Lowry’s paid-time radio show, Mr. Hubbard and Mr. Simpson have literally hundreds of volunteers. That might help them to overcome the funding disparity in the long run. Might. Mr. Woodfill has been on the air since before Thanksgiving, paying Sen. Patrick $4,590 and Mr. Lowry $2,000.

As I noted, it is to be expected that Mr. Woodfill would have a demanding lead in fundraising. What was unexpected was the source of that money. Charles Coussons, former Democratic Judge of the County Civil Courtt at Law No 4, until he was swept out in the 1994 Republican sweep, was Mr. Woodfill’s largest donor, by far, giving him $16,000 from October-December of last year. In addition, Mr. Coussons gave the HCRP an additional $11,000, with $10,000 of that going to an ad in the “Chairman’s Report“.  Why an ad, you ask? Because Mr. Coussons is now a candidate, on the Republican ticket, for County Probate Court No. 1, running against Loyd Wright.

Why is this interesting? Well…glad you asked. If you click on the HCRP’s website for information on the 2010 primary, you will see a big fat sign next to Mr. Coussons’ name. Like this one:

Leadership council, eh? Hmm, let’s check Mr. Coussons’ voting record. Why, lookie there! That’s right, boys and girls, not a single vote in a Republican primary since 1994. Now, if I were Sen. Dan Patrick, here is where I would start using “Cowboy Logic”, connecting dots where they don’t exist and forming conspiracy theories that have no foundation. But…I’m not Sen. Patrick. You now have the information, do with it what you will. I’ll get back to Mr. Coussons’ donations in a bit.

Chair Forums in Pasadena and Clear Lake

I had the opportunity to attend both of the forums that have been held this week. There is another tomorrow: if you can make it, you should. They are very, very informative and you can see for yourself how the tide is shifting.

First, the Pasadena forum sponsored by the San Jacinto Republican Women. It was moderated by Judge Ed Emmett, one of the two bright spots in Harris County Republican leadership, the other being Leo Vasquez. Judge Emmett did a great job at keeping the forum moving and keeping the tensions in check. It is obvious that Mr. Woodfill is starting to feel the pressure, as Judge Emmett had to ask him at one point not to attack Ed Hubbard on a personal level.

It was a contentious debate, with 21 questions. Don Large was not able to attend due to illness (for which I thanked him, his presence would have added a half-hour). Mr. Hubbard and Mr. Simpson continue to home in on the finances, the decreasing primary turnout and the vacancies in precinct chairs. Mr. Woodfill continued to stress his success in 2002, 4 and 6, while bristling at the statements of the other two candidates.

The one question that really stood out was the very first one. The question was obviously designed to trap Mr. Hubbard and perhaps Mr. Large had he been there. The question was: should the “bigger tent” include both pro-choice and pro-homosexual individuals. Mr. Hubbard gave a good answer by saying that “you don’t build a party by first deciding with whom you will not work”. Very good. But Paul Simpson hit this one out of the park.

He stated, simply and eloquently: “the party should be a coalition, not a club”. How true is that? Every single one of us has differences of opinion on most issues, even if they are minor. To use an often quoted phrase from Ronald Reagan, you don’t throw out someone that is on your side 80{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the time. In today’s HCRP, it would be restated as: “you don’t work with someone that disagrees with you 5{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the time”. That is what is wrong with the Harris County Republican Party.

Mr. Woodfill’s answer? He will always “stand on issues”. In other words, adios if you disagree with anyone on anything. Which brings us back to Mr. Coussons. If Mr. Woodfill, as he claims over and over and over again, will stand on issues no matter what, why is he now accepting $27,000 from a man that, for his entire voting life, has supported a party that advocates for abortion for convenience, paid for with your tax dollars, advocates for the elimination of any reference to God in schools, advocates for gay marriage, advocates for welfare increases, and advocates for any number of other issues that are anathema to a conservative? We welcome all converts, but we aren’t talking about Gov. Rick Perry, who changed parties 20 years ago, we are talking about a guy that voted in the 2008 Democratic Primary. We shouldn’t be afraid to ask Mr. Woodfill, why?

Here are their closing statements from the Pasadena debate:

(click here to view pictures from the Pasadena forum)

Last night, the forum was held in Clear Lake by the Clear Lake Republicans and was moderated by Judge Louis Ditta. Although it was somewhat shorter, it was still informative. There were a total of 7 questions, and each candidate was allowed an opening and closing statement. Don Large was feeling better and did attend. I thought there were two notable things that came out of the debate.

First was the crowd’s reaction when Scott Brown was announced the winner and the crowd went wild and broke out into song. I put up a short mp3 in this post. The air was electric with excitement, with hope truly filing the air.

The second thing I noticed was Mr. Woodfill’s demeanor. He was answering charges that were not made at this debate – they were made the night before. At one point, Mr. Hubbard had to explain to the crowd that this was the sixth forum and the statements being referred to were talked about elsewhere. Mr. Woodfill is an astute observer of politics and knows when the wind is shifting and folks, it is shifting.

(click here to view pictures of the Clear Lake forum)

Precinct Chairs and Enthusiasm

The push for new precinct chair filings was a success, with 181 new people getting involved. The flip side is that many current chairs didn’t reapply, resulting in a smaller net gain that should have been. The great news is that the new people are excited to be there – it will be up to the next leader to capture that enthusiasm and channel it into overall gains for the party. I noted that Eric Dumatrait, currently running in LaPorte’s 682 (my old stomping grounds) was at the forum last night, soaking it all in, getting ready to serve. And I see that with others at all of the meetings I attend.

Outlook

Awesome, if there is a change in leadership. Not so great if the voters decide to remain a closed party. The Harris County Democrats are licking their chops at the thought of Bill White’s coattails helping to knock off Judge Emmett and Tax Assessor/Collector Vasquez. We cannot let that happen!

If the voters re-elect Mr. Woodfill, we must convince him to work with people that he normally wouldn’t associate with. I have seen him at exactly one event that wasn’t scheduled by his team, that being the big Tea Party event at the race track. That’s it. It will be far easier to work with a new leader to stem the Democratic tide. Either way, we must come together and work hard to continue the momentum of the Republicans in Massachusetts.