Big Jolly Politics

politics in Harris County and Texas

Please Vote To Retain Jack Morman As Commissioner Of Precinct 2

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When Jack Morman ran for Harris County Commissioner of Precinct 2 in 2010, I had never heard of him.  And I’ll bet almost all Republicans had never heard of him either.  Morman was an attorney who had never held any public office before.   He easily won the Republican primary but no one really believed that longtime Democratic Commissioner Sylvia Garcia could be unseated.  After all, Garcia represented the east side of the county which has a large Mexican-American population.

As it turned out, Morman was swept into office by a red wave.  Since then, Harris County has been inundated by a blue wave and the waters have not receded.  With such a large Mexican-American population, Morman is in for the fight of his life.  His opponent’s last name is Garcia.

For years, I have been a volunteer with the facilities crew at the Armand Bayou Nature Center.  Sylvia Garcia did little to help maintain the nature center’s facilities.  In contrast, not long after he took office, Jack Morman had his precinct workers help look after the ABNC facilities and they are still doing so to date.

My only beef with Morman is that he supported the restoration of that rusting Astrodome, which in my opinion should have been razed to the ground years ago.  Other than that, he has done an outstanding job as Commissioner of Precinct 2.

I’m afraid the Mexican-American community will vote for Adrian Garcia just because he is one of their own, not because he is deserving of the office.   And then there is the straight-party option which swept Morman into office, but which now would favor the Democrats.

Morman has served all of the residents in Precinct 2, not just Republicans, but Democrats, whites, blacks, Latinos and Asians as well. Whether you’re a Democrat, Republican or Mexican-American, Jack Morman deserves to retain his seat as County Commissioner.

So, I urge all of you who reside in Precinct 2, to please get out and cast your vote for Jack Morman.  And I urge you Republicans to also collar your Democratic and Mexican-American friends and ask them to vote for Morman too.

Beltway 8 toll bridge replacement is a critical part of Harris County’s transportation plan

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Do you think that someone that lives in the Heights and works in the museum district is qualified to comment on the traffic problems on the Beltway 8 toll bridge? I don’t. If you live on the southeast side of Harris County, you’ll get a laugh out of the op-ed that the Houston Chronicle printed written by Ben Rose, a former Democratic Party candidate for State Rep.

When the op-ed was first written, the entire theme was that County Judge Ed Emmett and Pct. 2 Commissioner Jack Morman were wasting taxpayer dollars replacing a perfectly good bridge that was, in the words of Mr. Rose, “a relative Mecca for traffic issues in Greater Houston – someone can virtually fly across it compared to the time it takes to drive through one of several other stretches of highway in the region.”. That should give you your first clue that Mr. Rose has no idea what he is talking about. The Beltway 8 toll bridge a Mecca for traffic issues? Good grief.

I wouldn’t even have noticed this op-ed if the Chron’s Deputy Editor of the opinion pages hadn’t Tweeted that he wasn’t aware of the debate about this until Mr. Rose wrote about it. As I replied back, there is not a debate because there is no controversy. This project has been on the drawing board for years and is critical to the future of the east side and the economy of the Greater Houston area. Mr. Rose seems to know nothing about either.

More important is that Mr. Rose didn’t know that this was a toll bridge and that no taxpayer funds were being used. And seemingly no one on the Houston Chronicle editorial/opinion staff knew this before publishing Mr. Rose’s op-ed. After this fact was pointed out, he or someone on the Chron staff changed it to complain that toll revenue could not be used on projects unrelated to toll roads. Their solution? That Judge Emmett and Commissioner Morman should lobby the legislature to change the law so that toll revenue could be used to fund projects completely unrelated to tolls. Or even worse, that the county should ignore the law and use toll revenue on unrelated projects until the Texas Supreme Court stopped them.

What the heck?

I suppose we’d better get used to these types of editorials, columns and op-eds increasing in frequency prior to the November elections. That Houston Chronicle and it’s editorial board and opinion columnists have much invested in seeing a “blue wave” hit Harris County in a non-presidential year. If it doesn’t happen, they can say that at least they tried and those dumb voters struck again.

As for the replacement of the Beltway 8 toll bridge itself, like I said earlier it is much needed, is critical to the future of the east side and it has been on the drawing boards for years. Click here to read an unbiased news report from Houston Public Media.

Torres said the cable-stayed design allows for deep foundations to accommodate soil conditions. And since there won’t be pylons in the middle of the water the Ship Channel will be easier to dredge.

“Doing this method allows for constructing the bridge essentially in the same footprint and there was no need for additional right-of-way,” added Torres.

HCTRA’s Roxana Sibrian said the new bridge will be a huge improvement in terms of safety.  The current bridge only has two lanes each way with no place to pull over.

“Currently if a driver for one reason or another breaks down the roadway shuts down,” explains Sibrian. “And that’s not favorable for drive times.”

If Mr. Rose had any familiarity at all with the Beltway 8 toll bridge or the east side of Harris County, he would have known this. But hey, partisan politics, right? You know, the type of politics that the Houston Chronicle editorial board screams about constantly? Sheesh.

If the Houston Chronicle news reporters want a scoop, get Commissioner Morman’s challenger on record saying that the Beltway 8 toll bridge replacement is an “unneccessary” “vanity” project. That will be news. Perhaps they could assign it to Dug Begley, who wrote about the bridge earlier (New Ship Channel Bridge will be one for the record books):

Though the biggest single project for the county, the project cost is covered by toll revenues from the system and not taxpayer funds. County commissioners, acting as the executives of the toll road authority, approved the project.

“This is a great example of how well a toll system is designed to work,” Morman said. “We would not be able to do projects like this if we had to wait on tax money.”

…

Like suspension bridges such as the Golden Gate Bridge, cable-stay bridges have a distinctive design and become major parts of the skyline around them.

For Harris County, the aesthetic was an add-on, and there are plans to light the towers. But the primary goal was to have four lanes and shoulders for safety.

“We definitely want function over form,” Morman said on a recent visit to the construction area.

…

Morman said though complex, the new bridges are a huge boost for business around the ship channel and eastern Harris County.

“It is huge for the port,” he said. “The extra capacity is coming as we know it is in demand. It seems like every year is a record year for the port.”

Hopefully Mr. Rose and the Chron opinion folks will read the news portion of the newspaper before committing to these kinds of partisan attacks in the future.

About that August bond election for Harris County

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Been a bit since I’ve agreed 100% with Tio Pablo but his thoughts on the recently ordered bond election in Harris County is spot on. From the Inbox:

Are the “Dog Days of Summer” Setting in on Harris County Taxpayers?
Series of summer special property tax rate election events coming, but still time to move them to November!

HOUSTON – Senator Bettencourt (R-Houston) is speaking out on behalf of taxpayers following the announcement by more than one taxing jurisdictions that special elections to raise property tax rates will be occurring throughout the Summer and better public policy is to hold them on the November General Election date.  This is occurring so quickly that the Klein ISD Trustees are voting on a TRE election Monday, May 14.

I am worried about voter fatigue as well taxpayer’s pocketbooks!” said Senator Bettencourt. “Rather than spend money on special elections these taxing jurisdictions still have the chance to do the right thing and schedule their proposed tax rate increase elections in November.”

Governor Greg Abbott (R-Texas) granted permission for Harris County to hold an estimated $2.5 billion Harris County Flood Control Proposition on a non-uniform election date on August 25th, the date of Hurricane Harvey’s landfall.  In his approval letter, Governor Abbott highlighted, “…billions of federal dollars either are currently available to Harris County or will be available to the county before it has the ability to issue the bonds requested…” 

In their letter to Governor Abbott, Harris County Commissioners Court stated, “We must show the various federal agencies that matching funds are available now in order to apply for Harvey related grants that are already available.”

However, the Governor also stated in his letter, “Congress purposefully provided much of those matching dollars through Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds so that local government would not need to match the federal grants.” This strongly suggests that waiting to hold the election in November will not stifle the flow of federal money nor change the facts that the CDBG funds do not need a local match.

At their quarterly Executive Committee meeting this week, the Harris County Republican Party nearly unanimously passed a resolution calling for “Harris County, City of Houston, and Klein ISD governments to schedule their respective bond and/or tax cap repeal elections as part of and on the November General Election date.” Resolution author Clint Moore stated, “Rather than disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters, our elected officials should put these tax rate increase elections on the November ballot.  I thought we were beyond choosing these sorts of obscure election dates, but I guess not.”

Voters throughout Harris County may return to the upcoming May 22 Primary runoff election, a probable 9 penny June tax rate ratification election in Klein ISD the weekend of the Republican State Convention, a county bond election in August, and potentially the Mayor’s announcement that he wishes to bust the voter approved property tax rate cap by November general election.  “It is a fundamental truth that our Republic functions better when more people are able to cast their ballots in a Democracy,” concluded Senator Bettencourt.

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I watched the Commissioner’s Court meeting when they made the decision to hold the election in August. You can watch it by clicking here and then clicking on Item V, (Part 1 of 2). It was a nightmare for anyone that cares a whit about fiscal policy, small government, transparency, open government or basic fairness to taxpayers. Strong statement since I am a huge fan of Judge Emmett and Commissioners Radack and Morman but that is exactly the way I saw it.

The decision basically boiled down to the best guess of the commissioners as to which date it was most likely to be approved by the voters. Commissioner Rodney Ellis was the only one that wanted it in November but it wasn’t for any of the reasons Bettencourt mentions above, he simply thinks that more of the po’ folks will turn out to approve it. He changed his vote at the urging of Commissioner Radack so that the court would be unanimous when it sent the letter requesting permission to hold the election to Gov. Abbott.

Because there has been NO groundwork laid, there was only an open ended conversation about which group of identity politics driven activists would get their fair share. It was disgusting. Speaker after speaker lined up extolling the virtues of their particular identity group wanting a share of the bond money, the bigger, the better. It was like watching a litter of kittens lining up in front of mama cat. This is what happens when government is driven by identity politics and activism instead of sound fiscal and engineering policy.

Maybe I’m being too hard on the Commissioners but I don’t think so. Disgusting.

Mi amigo Neal Meyer weighs in on the issue over at blogHOUSTON.

Third, considering that an August election would result in a very low voter turnout, there is an issue of legitimacy. If this election results in a turnout of 50,000 voters voting in favor of the bond, while a mere 30,000 vote against, that means only a tiny percentage (like 2-3 percent) of the 2+ million voting electorate of Harris County ends up making the decision that everyone else has to live with. I’ve long gotten tired of this kind of stuff happening, which is why I’ve been pushing for several years now to require voter quorums for bond elections to pass.

Believe it or not, I might actually vote in favor of a bond proposal for flooding, but only after my concerns listed above are addressed. I would like to see a full vetting of the bond proposal, which means delaying the public vote until the November 2018 election. That would give the electorate another 2 1/2 months to analyze and debate the proposal. The November 2018 election will also result in a higher turnout, which will give the bond vote stronger legitimacy.

There is no need to hurry, so why not wait?

Neal is exactly right. Why not have a full vetting before voting on such a nebulous proposition? Note that he doesn’t sound like an angry voter, just a frustrated one that knows full well there will not be a full vetting and most of the bond is simply going to be guess work on the high side of the equation.

There is no need to have the bond election in August. The only reason to do so is a political calculation on the part of the Republicans on the court. Sad.

Harris County Republican Party disaster with a little hope!

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Okay, so I’m not done throwing datasets at you from the disastrous 2016 election for the Harris County Republican Party. I’ll even throw in a little hope for the 2018 election this time, although those promised ‘solutions’ are still going to be a while. Hey, it takes time to talk to as many stakeholders as possible!

One of the questions asked was about turnout. I’ve already put that out there for the last 5 general elections in the county but still people want more! They want to see net turnout by state rep districts so that they can comment on the party’s allocation of resources. Okay, we can do that but it is only relevant for the 2012 vs 2016 Presidential turnout because of redistricting. Take a look.

This table is sorted by the percentage increase for each State Rep District:

harris county republican party

Since percentages don’t win elections, this one is sorted by the increase in ballots cast:

harris county republican party

And lastly, take a look at the same districts sorted by increase in Straight R votes:

harris county republican party

When you look at that data, ask (at least) two questions. Where did the party allocate its resources and what was the message the party was pushing? Then ask, did their strategy work?

When I talk to people that were very involved with those decisions, I’m told that a significant portion of the resources went to SRD’s 133 and 134. Obviously we know the message was “Harris County Works” so “vote straight Republican”. I’ll let you answer the questions posed.

But all is not lost! There are some results in County Commissioner Jack Morman’s Precinct 2 that suggest it isn’t all doom and gloom for his reelection bid in 2018. Here are the results for the ‘governing’ candidates that ran in his precinct:

harris county republican party

As you can see, Republicans won 3 of the 5 races. And it is really amazing how close Jim Leitner came to beating Vince Ryan in that precinct. And it is really, really super duper amazing that George Moore beat Sherry Matula AND had more votes than Devon Anderson. How many of you have ever heard of George Moore or even know what he was running for? Matula has fairly high name recognition in a large part of Precinct 2, so that makes it even better. One last question: which slate sent mailers into Precinct 2 on behalf of George Moore?

Morman has two full years to work on making the precinct even better for Republicans. And before you say ‘Adrian Garcia, oh no!’, look at that result for Hickman over Gonzalez. That happened in a high turnout Presidential election, one where the Democrats were focused on turning out Latinos to defeat Trump. And don’t forget to look at the turnout numbers already posted for non-presidential years. Plus, we’ll have a much stronger ticket with Ed Emmett, Chris Daniel and Orlando Sanchez running. Anything could happen in the next two years but barring something unexpected (a possible primary challenge to Greg Abbott?), the R’s should do quite well.

I’m starting to look forward to putting forth my solutions to this mess and see your reaction. There were mistakes made and we didn’t have to get slaughtered. There is hope! But the big question remains: when will the HCRP leadership accept responsibility for the disaster and will they decide to look for solutions outside of their inner circle?

Harris County Republican Party disaster continued…last one!

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So, is this my last look at the disastrous 2016 election results for Paul Simpson’s Harris County Republican Party before offering promised solutions? Maybe. We’ll see.

As I said in the previous look at the HCRP’s disastrous results, I don’t think that Republicans in Harris County understand how bad it really, truly was. I still see people saying that it’s okay, we’ll do better in 2018, it’s all Trump’s fault, yada yada, yada. The level of delusion is fairly amazing if you ask me. And no, I do not think that Paul Simpson is 100{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} at fault for the disaster although it is a given that he must bear the brunt of the blame. It is very disappointing that he is, publicly at least, trying to shift the blame and not taking any responsibility for it. Oh well.

In this data exercise, we are going to look at the county from a State Representative District and County Commissioner Precinct by State Rep straight party voting perspective. That’s a long sentence to say that the charts below should be self explanatory but if not, think about your State Rep and your County Commissioner and how they affected (or didn’t affect) the 2016 general election in Harris County.

Lots of data, not much commentary because I really, truly want other people to chime in via comments or email. I understand that many people don’t want to put their thoughts out publicly, so email is okay. And as usual, I won’t make your email public unless I ask you. And I promise that I will have plenty of commentary and specific suggestions in the very near future. For now, I prefer to continue thinking about it and talking to various HCRP players.

When you look at the data, remember that redistricting happened between the 2010 and 2012 elections. I’ve chosen to use the party affiliation and name for incumbents entering the 2016 election. Let’s get started.

First up, total ballots cast 2008 – 2016 by State Rep district sorted by 2016 high to low:

harris county republican party 2016

Wow, you’d think that the R’s would have wiped out the D’s by looking at that table. Let’s look at the turnout percentages:

harris county republican party

Interesting. The R district vs D district turnout is very close to total ballots cast, again indicating that Republicans should have cleaned the Democrat’s clock. And wow, Sarah Davis’ district must rock for Republicans! Right?

Now that you’ve seen the total ballots and turnout percentage, let’s take a deeper dive into straight ticket voting. Because, you know, that was Paul Simpson’s campaign theme in a nutshell – Harris County Works! Vote straight Republican and go home! This table shows each State Rep district sorted by the straight ticket Republican vote for each district:

harris county republican party

Huh. The districts are staring to shift a bit. Now let’s show a table sorted by the net (R straight votes minus D straight votes) straight ticket vote between Republicans and Democrats:

harris county republican party

Oops. Looks like the high turnout in a more than a couple of R State Rep district didn’t translate into a straight ticket voting for R’s onslaught.

Now let’s look at the State Rep districts in terms of ‘Independent’ or non-straight ticket voting:

harris county republican party

There is a whole lot of strategy packed into that table if you choose to see it. But if you are a consultant from Austin advising Paul Simpson, you probably don’t.

I thought it might be interesting to take another look at the voting by County Commissioner Precinct, this time in terms of State Rep districts.

harris county republican party
2016 Harris County Net Straight Ticket Republican Voting for County Commissioner Precincts 1 and 2 by State Rep District
harris county republican party
2016 Harris County Net Straight Ticket Republican Voting for County Commissioner Precincts 3 and 4 by State Rep District

Once again, a whole bunch of strategy outlined in those tables. But hey, I’m just a blogger! What do I know?

And of course, we have to know how the County Commissioner precincts did in terms of net difference between R’s and D’s in straight ticket voting. Because, you know, we have to know!

harris county republican party

harris county republican party

And as we saw earlier, Harris County County Commissioner Precinct 1 swallows up the other three in favor of Democrats.

Okay, that’s enough for today. Like I said, I’ll keep thinking about it but I’ve dropped enough hints and clues here for anyone that is paying attention to know what I’m going to say.

And here is another clue but maybe one you didn’t think of. The Sarah Davis that won in 2010 on a Tea Party, anti-Obamacare wave is not the Sarah Davis that won in 2016 on a platform of pro-abortion, pro-LGBT causes. Think about that real hard.

Adios, for now.

Does Harris County Work?

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(This post needs a bit of context. On Friday, October 7, Stat Sen. Paul Bettencourt sent a press release about the Harris County property tax rate. I didn’t think much of it because lowering property taxes is Bettencourt’s mission in life. Then I received a call from a down ballot Republican candidate frantic that Bettencourt was undermining the Harris County Republican Party’s Harris County Works marketing slogan. There is your context.) 

Does Harris County Work? On the surface, it seems as though State Sen. Paul Bettencourt doesn’t think so. He has a beef with the Harris County Commissioner’s Court and their tax rates. From his press release, titled “Sen. Bettencourt Busts Another Property Tax Myth, that ‘I Did Not Raise Your Taxes, Because I Did Not Raise Your Tax Rate’“:

Major urban areas in Texas are experiencing rapid taxable value growth and, in the past, the vast majority of cities and counties generally leave their rate unchanged or only cut it slightly, taxpayers’ tax bills have increased. In Harris County, for example, the taxable values have increased by $117 billion between 2011 and 2015, resulting in a nearly 53 percent increase in the county’s general fund property tax revenue or a calculated $568 million. During the same time frame, Dallas County’s taxable values grew by $33 billion, a 21 percent increase. Since Dallas County left their tax rate unchanged from 2011 to 2015, taxpayers paid 21 percent more by 2015 than they did in 2011.

“Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins made a true attempt to cut the tax rate this year in his county, but lost the vote 3–2. Harris County, the largest county in the state, has not set its tax rate but publicly noticed an overall no change in the tax rate. Harris County should follow the lead of the other tax rate cutters,” Sen. Bettencourt added.

Click here to read Bettencourt’s press release. 

Timing

It isn’t surprising that Bettencourt would be talking about property taxes. After all, property taxes have been his signature issue through the years and he makes his living off of protesting property tax appraisals. What is surprising is the timing, thirty days before a critical election, and the target, Republicans that control Harris County.

I mean, seriously, don’t you think that Harris County Republicans have a big enough problem in front them without infighting? So why now? Well, there’s actually a good reason for the timing. From Bettencourt spokesman Robert Flanagan:

Harris County Commissioners have not currently proposed a tax relief plan, and are currently in their tax rate setting process (three meetings: October 4, October 11, and October 19), which makes this the best time to comment.

Okay, I get that Tio Pablo is trying to influence the commissioners to set a lower rate but he knows he isn’t going to change their minds. I mean, seriously, he knows that more than most because he’s been an insider on this issue so long. But that is my opinion. He doesn’t set the tax rate calendar, he has to live by it like the rest of us. So he really had no choice.

HCRP Marketing of Candidates

But even more than the timing, think about the HCRP’s slogan – Harris County Works. Remember that? They even have a website:

harris-county-works-website-screenshot-101016

Although it hasn’t been updated since last year’s city elections even though we are less than 30 days away from this year’s presidential election (how sad is that?):

harris-county-works-website-screenshot-bill-king-101016

But they are still using the slogan on the Republican Judges website, which is current for this year’s election:

harris-county-republican-judges-website-screenshot-800x500

If I were on the Harris County Republican ballot and spending my life’s savings, I’d be a bit upset about this, especially coming from a high profile Republican leader. So I can understand the frantic call that I received.

Property taxes are burdensome and not the most effective way to fund government but that is a subject for another day. Harris County is unique among counties in the country because of the large unincorporated area and the large population in that unincorporated area.

Commissioners

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett had this to say about the press release:

He seems to be busting a myth that only he knows about. Of course taxes go up with increased appraisals even if tax rates stay the same.

  • I wish he would take steps to change the appraisal process.
  • I wish he would allow federal and state funds to pay for indigent health care that is now paid for by county property owners.
  • I wish he would meet with county officials and seek real solutions.
  • I wish he would recognize that we have completely exempted the first $200 thousand appraised value for Harris County senior citizens.
  • Most importantly, I wish he would discuss fundamental change to the flawed property tax system so urban counties do not have to rely on it.

Since he represented Harris County for years on the Harris County Appraisal District, I would like to know why the appraisal process and appeal process is still so bad. I sincerely want to work with him and the Legislature on real reform.

Interesting points from the Judge.

Precinct Two Commissioner Jack Morman was light hearted about the issue, telling me that if Bettencourt can get something done in Austin that will make it feasible for him to lower property taxes, he’s all for it and wishes him success. Morman noted that he too pays property taxes. I asked him if he thought that the budget was fat and bloated. He pointed out that because the two biggest issues for the county, criminal justice and indigent health care, are not discretionary and must be addressed by the county, there is relatively little money left for quality of life expenditures.

Morman also pointed out that the unincorporated part of the county is almost as populous as the City of Houston. You can read more about that in these two Houston Chronicle articles: Visualizing the country’s fifth largest city and Growing pains: Unincorporated Harris County population expected to swell past Houston’s. The swelling population, combined with the fact that the county doesn’t have a sales tax or receive franchise taxes, increases the burden on property taxes and highlights the need for serious property tax reform.

In short, Emmett and Morman think that Harris County Works but that Bettencourt could help make it work even better. And both are willing to help him.

Bettencourt’s views

As for Bettencourt, he said he is ready and willing to help. And that he has talked to the commissioners and that his door is wide open if they want to meet to discuss property taxes.

We went over Judge Emmett’s points above and here are Bettencourt’s responses.

  • Appraisal process reform is part of his agenda for overall property tax reform.
  • Harris County opposed SJR 61 introduced in 2013 by Sen. Charles Schwertner that would have required local property taxes to be cut if the state accepted funds from the PPACA (Obamacare). I looked it up and he’s correct – click here for the witness list and note that Harris County registered to testify against it. Obviously, even if the legislature did receive funding from Obamacare, the Harris County lobby group was tasked with defeating the attempt to offset those local taxes.
  • Bettencourt said that he had met with several Harris County Commissioners and has an open door if they want to meet at any time.
  • Bettencourt gave an example of a senior that had property appraised at $162k, it went up to $234k, now the senior was paying taxes. Thus the shared concern about the appraisal process.
  • Bettencourt said that he had invited Judge Emmett to testify at one of his hearings but that the Judge had a conflict on his calendar. This was the first time he had heard after 50 hours of public testimony that urban counties wanted a different tax system that didn’t rely upon property taxes.

Bettencourt’s biggest concerns are that Harris County’s property tax revenues have increased by $568 million in four years, the increase of 53% is far too high, and that the county is the most solvent county in Texas with the revenue stream being used to build up reserves. Lowering the property tax rate by a penny will not stop the inflated property tax revenue stream from continuing to build the reserves but will provide relief to the 30,000 laid off workers in his senate district.

So what’s the deal?

Obviously with an issue this complex, there is no way that I can put every argument into one blog post. But I do need to try and answer the frantic question posed above: will this undermine the Harris County Works campaign?

I think the answer is no. All we have here is a disagreement between two camps on revenue. It is a major disagreement, a fundament disagreement, a philosophical disagreement between good, solid, conservative Republican politicians but not one that will hurt down ballot candidates.

And if anyone thinks that Tio Pablo isn’t going to help the local effort, rest assured, he is. He told me that he sent out 145,000 robo calls today asking Republican voters to vote straight ticket.