Big Jolly Politics

politics in Harris County and Texas

It’s time for the Oust Straus crowd to step up and fund the RPT

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As you surely know by now, the Republican Party of Texas’ State Republican Executive Committee members voted to censure outgoing Speaker Joe Straus. And the people rejoiced. Or, more specifically, a few activists in the party.

Others, not so much.

elizabeth bingham joe straus srec

elizabeth bingham joe straus srec

I think that Ms. Bingham has a pretty good handle on the issue.

One Harris County SREC member, Mark Ramsey, has waited a long time for this and was thrilled with the vote. And he came up with a way for people to show their support of the “Rule 44 Censure”. Here is his idea:

mark ramsey joe straus srec censure rule 44

Sounds like a plan to me. Of course, past experience says that most keyboard warriors will not contribute but who knows? Maybe this will be wildly successful and tens of thousands of Republican primary voters will send in $44 to the state party. Of course, they will probably need another link to do so because the link Mark provided goes to their Federal account but the Party can fix that.

And it looks like the Party could sure use the money. I went in and took a look at the party’s finances under the last three chairmen, Steve Munisteri, Tom Mechler and of course, James Dickey, the current star of the show. Below are a few of the things I found.

First, total funds raised in the State accounts and the time each chair was (has been) in the office.

james dickey steve munisteri tom mechler

Munisteri was a fund raising machine. Mechler held his own. Dickey needs to up his game.

Here is what Cash on Hand looked like when the previous two chairs stepped down and at the end of the current chair’s last reporting period:

james dickey, tom mechler, steve munisteri

Note that I included the Federal account, which for Dickey is at the end of November. This makes the COH situation look much better than it really was at the end of the year. Notice that during Dickey’s near 7 months, the party’s COH at the state level has dropped by more than half.

These levels aren’t as dire as the time that the Harris County Republican Party’s doors were locked by the landlord but they are a cause for concern. Hence, all you Oust Straus warriors need to pony up and send in your $44, post haste.

Dickey has gone to great lengths to stress that his vote to censure the Speaker was done with a great deal of thought and was only done in the interest of party unity. No, seriously, that’s the line he is using. And have no fear, he is going to have the RPT staff hard at work on the “messaging” surrounding the censure.

james dickey joe straus censure rule 44

I mean, what else does the staff have to do, right?

Now, you might believe that Mr. Dickey thought long and hard about his vote. You might accept his explanation that he voted the way he did for party unity and to put this matter to rest. You might. I don’t.

Remember, Mr. Dickey was not voted into his position by the delegates to the convention. He’ll get that opportunity at the next convention. For now, he is the appointed chair, appointed by the very same SREC members that he had to get support from to be appointed. No biggie, right? Well, maybe but I think if you look at the finances closely, some of you are going to agree with me that Mr. Dickey’s vote was secured from the start of this nonsense.

Even though he was appointed and not elected, it took money to convince the SREC members that the other guy is a RINO and Dickey is the true, pure conservative that the party needs. Let’s take a look at Dickey’s financial backers.

james dickey campaign finance

Okay, so he raised just under $30k to get the job. I suspect he’ll have to raise a fair bit more to retain it. Note James Skaggs’ contribution of $10k.

Do you remember a new political action committee named the New Leadership PAC? Their sole purpose in life is to Oust Straus and his “lieutenants”. Let’s take a look at their top donors:

new leadership pac donors

Huh. There is Mr. James Skaggs with another $10k contribution. Okay, whatever, it’s a tie in but who cares? Right?

Well, let’s now take a look at the top donors to the RPT during Mr. Dickey’s short tenure.

james dickey joe straus censure rule 44

Now, do you really, truly, way down deep in your heart think that Mr. Dickey ever for one second considered not voting to censure Speaker Straus? He wanted unity all right – with the people that are funding the party and the Oust Straus movement.

For more background on the personalities in the above lists, see Scott Braddock’s report over at QuorumReport.com.

And for you Oust Straus’rs, best click over to the RPT website and hit ’em with your $44. I’m looking forward to seeing the tens of thousands of $44 donations on the next campaign finance report!

Update:

Here is that financial document handed out at the Oust Straus meeting of the SREC:

oust straus

Robin Armstrong Talks Convention

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ArmstrongDTPach

Dr. Robin Armstrong, a self-identified Cruz supporter, appeared before the Downtown Houston Pachyderm on April 7. Dr. Armstrong was campaigning for a position on the Republican National Convention Rules Committee. The 56 delegations to the Republican National Convention will pick their members for the four committees: rules, platform, credentials, and permanent organization. The Rules Committee has 112 delegates – two members, a man and woman, from every state, U.S. territory, and Washington D.C.

The Republican National Committee Rules Committee will be critical this year. “He who writes the rules, rules — as the old saying goes,” said Gary Emineth, former chairman of the North Dakota Republican Party and expert on the party’s rules. The slightest of rule changes will all be designed to hurt one candidate or help another.

Ted Cruz is hoping to rely on the delegates from Texas, his home state. The Texas selection of a National Committeeman and Committeewoman is governed by Rule 40.

Rule No. 40 – National Committeeman and Committeewoman At the Biennial State Convention held in presidential election years, each Congressional District shall caucus and recommend a man for Republican National Committeeman from Texas and a woman for Republican National Committeewoman from Texas. These recommendations shall be forwarded to the National Nominations Committee by the district’s member to the committee, who shall support them on at least the first (1st) round of voting. The National Nominations Committee shall select one (1) man and one (1) woman from these recommendations to be submitted to the Convention as nominees for these positions. Nominations from the floor shall be allowed only for candidates recommended by at least three (3) districts, or by petition signed by delegates equal in number to at least twenty percent (20{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}) of the convention voting strength. In the event of a vacancy in the office of National Committeeman or Committeewoman the vacancy shall be filled by a majority vote of the State Republican Executive Committee to serve until the next biennial state convention.

Texas Rule 40 should not be confused with RNC Rule 40b, which was enacted in 2012 to keep Ron Paul off the ballot. Morten Blackwell, member of the standing RNC rules committee, explains in a RedState piece how lawyers from the party misled and blocked his attempts to oppose the 40b rule. In 2012, this was a big fight between party establishment types and the Ron Paul loyalists. Now, four years later, it is amazing how a perceived defeat can be a larger moral victory.

Rule 40b “stops votes from being counted for candidates who could not prove majority support from at least eight state delegations. It also mandates that candidates meet the eight-state threshold “not less than one (1) hour prior to the placing of the names of candidates for nomination pursuant to this rule and the established order of business.” This rule was put into place to help Mitt Romney in 2012. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. D.C. emergency rooms are full of establishment Republicans in “not Cruz, never Trump” stupors. Dr. Armstrong thinks he has a cure.

Dr. Armstrong’s campaign is interesting because it seeks to unite both Trump and Cruz supporters against any attempt to remove rule 40b from the plank. All politics is local, right? What is more local than Harris County resident Ted Cruz teaming with Trumpsters to defeat the establishment who created Rule 40b just four years ago.

Dr. Armstrong stated he would work with Trump delegates to prevent any attempt to remove 40b. At the time of Dr. Armstrong’s presentation, only Trump had acquired the required amount of delegates to qualify under 40b. Not so for Cruz and Kasich.

Armstrong told the crowd that he believed Cruz would obtain the requisite amount of eight state delegates, which he did the next day. Dr. Armstrong’s tactic is also a very good way to appeal to Trump delegates at the state convention, all the while, being a Cruz supporter.

As a medical doctor, Dr. Armstrong is no dummy. The bigger question is whether he is the right guy to make the argument or do we need someone with a more persuasive non-medical skill set to represent Harris County and Texas on the Rules Committee.

Notice that I said Harris County because the top of the ticket will greatly impact local candidates. One judge on the November ballot recently said that he thought a Trump nomination could doom the entire Harris County republican ticket. I am not sure that I agree; but, the fear is real with elected officials. The “Never Trump” and “Never Cruz” campaigns are divisive and hurt current republican office holders, no doubt. My advice would be to start the “NEVER HILLARY” or “NEVER BERNIE” campaigns right where you are standing. The problem is exacerbated because Cruz is from Harris County. Republicans have other problems with the local ticket. Dr. Armstrong’s tactic is clever but I am not sure that it will work.