TexasGOPVote.com’s Bob Price was the featured speaker at the Downtown Houston Pachyderm Club on Thursday, 8/9. He spoke about:
- Mitt Romney’s potential VP choice
- Ted Cruz’s victory
- Local elections in November
On Romney’s VP choice, Bob gave a rundown of the pluses and minuses of each of the candidates thought to be in the running. At the time, it appeared to most that Rob Portman (R-OH) and so there was a lot of conversation about what he meant to the ticket. Bob wasn’t particularly fond of Portman’s bid, saying that he lacked in the excitement department. Well, Mr. Romney must have heard Bob because two day’s later he picked Paul Ryan (R-WI) and the excitement scale went off the chart.
On the Cruz win, Bob was realistic and noted that it was a broad coalition of people that had voted for him, not any one group. He even noted my recap of the race, which was much appreciated. Bob sat this one out as far as picking a candidate because he knew we had two good candidates and preferred to watch both from a distance.
On the local elections in November, Bob is concerned, as Republicans should be, about getting Republicans to the polls and then getting them to vote straight R. He pointed out that current Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia was the top vote getter in 2008, topping the total of County Judge Ed Emmett by 37,000 votes. In this election cycle, it appears that the Democrats in the county will not be motivated to get to the polls as they were in 2008 but we cannot sit around and bank on that perception – if we do, our candidates could go down in flames. We need to work together and have a major GOTV push, along with educating voters that they can (and need to) vote straight R and then cross over down ballot if they have a specific Democratic candidate that they want to vote for. Many voters still are not aware that you can do this.
I was pleased to see a few candidates at the meeting and disappointed that more weren’t there. It is absolutely necessary for down ballot candidates to rally the base and put them in a working mood. Hopefully, more candidates will start participating in these small club meetings very soon. Otherwise, their hard work in the primary could very well have been wasted.
If you haven’t been to a Downtown Houston or Greater Houston Pachyderm meeting, you should try to get to one. They are fun, informative, and you will meet a lot of like minded people. In the next two weeks at the Downtown Houston Pachyderm meeting, you’ll be able to hear Terry Lowry (ahem) or me! That’s right, Terry Lowry, he of the party purification wing, will be the speaker this coming Thursday, 8/16. Lord have mercy, I wish I didn’t have another luncheon already scheduled. I’d love to hear him answer questions about keeping precinct chair positions vacant because he doesn’t like a candidate’s personal lifestyle. But alas, I can’t make it. Perhaps someone will pick up the ball and ask him a few tough questions. I’ll be there on the 23rd and have a special treat for all those Cruzbots that hate me for choosing David Dewhurst. I really wish a wuss named PolitiJim would have the guts to attend instead of hiding behind his keyboard. I tell ya, it is weird to have a stalker at the age of 53 and being a grandpa and all! And I promise, you can ask me any question and I’ll answer it without dodging. So make plans to be there on August 23rd at noon!