Big Jolly Politics

politics in Harris County and Texas

James Dickey Dismissal of Republican Party of Texas Officers

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tom mechler
Tom Mechler

While James Dickey, the current Republican Party of Texas (RPT) State Chair, has recently been dealing with questions surrounding his former problems with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), information has come to light about whether he purposely misled the State Republican Executive Committee (SREC) to get elected RPT State Chair on 6/3/2017.  At the Friday State Chair candidate forum on the day before he was elected, a question was posed to both candidates by the forum moderator, Patrick O’Daniel who also was serving at the time as the RPT General Counsel, related to retaining the RPT party officers.  The video of the forum question can be found here (Dickey’s response begins at 1:00): https://youtu.be/18FUngPuNME

https://youtu.be/18FUngPuNME?t=1m4s

Here’s the question and Dickey’s response:

O’Daniel:    “Will you keep the current party officers and committee chairs in place and if not, who will you replace?”

Dickey:       “As both Patrick (referring to the RPT General Counsel who asked the question) and Tom (referring to the RPT Treasurer, Tom Washington) can confirm, I had conversations with both, asking if they were willing to stay on if I win election tomorrow.

There’s a very logical process for making change.  You figure out the goal, you figure out the talents and skill needed, and match the people with the talents and skills needed.  Until I’ve got an indication that we’re not going to meet the goal or that we don’t have the necessary talents and skills, my bias is to leave things alone.  And that’s exactly what I’ll do and that’s why I extended those invitations to Patrick and Tom.”

O’Daniel:    “And just to make it clear on my own part, I did say I’d accept for either one (meaning Dickey or his opponent Rick Figueroa).  So, just to be clear.”

The next morning after Dickey was elected by a margin of one vote, he fired all of the officers except the Sargent-at-Arms and the Finance Chair.  When he was confronted at lunch by Melinda Fredricks, former RPT Vice-Chair and current SREC member, she asked him why he lied to the SREC.  His response was “I didn’t lie, I chose my words carefully and never said I would keep the officers, I said I asked them if they were willing to stay, not saying I would have them stay.”  Melinda then asked him “why did you mislead us?”  He replied “I had to or I would have lost the race because 2 votes would be determined based on my response.”

Judge for yourself as to the above transcript (or go online and watch the video) but most would argue he made it clear he would keep the officers by saying he “extended those invitations to Patrick and Tom”.

Delegates will have to decide whether Dickey deserves to be trusted with our great party and should he be elected State Chair at the June 14-16 State Convention in San Antonio based on other character questions that have been raised about him and because of his previous action to purposely mislead the SREC concerning the party officers to get elected.

James Dickey’s SEC Problems

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tom mechler
Tom Mechler

Nearly 14 years ago, James Dickey, current RPT State Chairman, got into serious trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  When this information recently came to light, some have questioned the validity or relevance of the information, given that the incident took place so many years ago.   But others have maintained that it is very relevant since it gives a window into Dickey’s character. If Dickey lied to investors 14 years ago, resulting in investors losing of millions of dollars, can he be trusted to tell us the truth today?  That’s an important question since he’s currently running for election at the June 14-16 Republican State Convention in San Antonio.

  • According to information obtained from the SEC’s website relevant to the issue (sec.gov/litigation/litreleases/lr19631.htm), on 6/16/2004 the SEC filed a complaint against James Dickey, and his partner, for fraudulently offering and selling investment securities from three Texas-based hedge funds to investors from July 1998 through October 2001. Although the hedge funds were losing significant amounts of money (up to 90% of the funds invested), Dickey marketed the securities to investors as if the hedge funds were gaining, even after he knew that was not the case.  Additionally, to gain the confidence of investors, he misrepresented that he and his partner had well-known and prominent brokerage firms as a prime broker, when in fact the funds never had a prime broker.

 

  • Before the case went to trial in the Northern Texas Federal District Court, Dickey consented to a permanent injunction, without admitting or denying the allegations, but agreeing to an order to pay disgorgement of $85,052 plus $18,952 for prejudgment interest for a total of $104,004, representing monies received by Dickey from the hedge fund fraud.  He pled poverty to the court so the repayment amount was dropped to $35,000 (He agreed to pay $10,000 within 10 days of the final judgment and $1000/month for 25 months to the Court-appointed Receiver for the case). The federal court entered the final judgment on 3/6/2006.

 

  • Dickey’s partner did not settle with the SEC and subsequently lost in a jury trial and on appeal to the 5th Circuit so a federal district court has established the underlying facts of the charges comprising the SEC complaint which Dickey cannot deny.  Part of his partner’s defense in the jury trial was that the losses were a result of the tragic events of 9/11. The court found nearly all of the fraudulent activity (all the way back to June 2000) occurred prior to 9/11.

 

  • Dickey is not prohibited from talking about the case (as he has alleged publicly), but the court agreement that Dickey signed forbids him from denying the allegations or even hinting that they are false. Otherwise, the SEC may petition the Court to vacate (cancel) the Final Judgment and restore the case to its active docket. Some have questioned if Dickey’s actions to encourage his supporters to make such statements publicly have already violated the Final Judgment to which he agreed. (see link: http://tommechler.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Dickey-consent-to-final-judgment.pdf)

Here’s the original complaint with the facts of the case as filed by the SEC: www.sec.gov/litigation/complaints/comp18749.pdf.  Here’s the final judgment: http://tommechler.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Dickey-final-judgment-of-perm-injunction.pdf

Tom Mechler served as Republican Party of Texas State Chair just prior to James Dickey. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University and an MBA from the Wharton Business School in Finance.

RELATED

In Defense of James Dickey

 

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

Woodfill brings tour back to Harris County

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Former Harris County Republican Party Chair and current candidate for Chair of the Republican Party of Texas Jared Woodfill brings his “Take Back Our Party” tour back to Harris County this week.

The tour actually started in Harris County back in February and were sparsely attended. However, once the tour moved out of Harris County, the rallies were very successful and are the primary reason most insiders think that Woodfill has an advantage going in the race.

Here are the details of the two events in Harris County this week:

jared woodfill for republican party of texas logo

Wednesday, April 13, 2016, 6:30 p.m.
“Take Back Our Party” Rally & Meet and Greet
John Phelps Annex
101 S. Richey, Pasadena, Texas 77506

Thursday, April 14, 2016, 7:00 p.m.
“Take Back Our Party” Rally & Meet and Greet
The Way Church
24418 I-45, Spring, Texas 77386

Ross Ramsey at the Texas Tribune weighed in on the race in an article titled Analysis: No Middle Ground in Race to Lead Texas GOP.

Mechler wants the party to bring in more voters — he’s talking about minorities and millennials, among others — who have generally eluded the charms of the GOP. He doesn’t think it’s his job to tell the state’s Republican officeholders what to do.

“Every Republican should be comfortable within the party,” he says. “My vision is and will be that is that this party is welcoming and embracing all conservatives from all over the state of Texas.”

If I were Ramsey I would have asked Mechler exactly what he’s done while in office to bring in minorities and millennials.

Woodfill is a bully-pulpit guy, a political figure whose effectiveness depends on everything from actual microphones on actual podiums to social media, news media and advertising.

He is appealing for the support of others who, like him, think the state political party should be whipping the Legislature to keep it in line with the GOP platform and the beliefs of Texans in its voting base.

Woodfill is definitely a bully pulpit guy and a very effective one. That was his strength while chair of the HCRP and he has gotten much better after learning the nuances of social media.

The question for Texas Republicans is really pretty simple. Do you want a milquetoast guy as your leader or do you want someone that is willing to take the body blows and potshots that come with stating the clear positions of the party without backing down or wavering from them?

 

Woodfill continues to push back against HERO bullies

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jared woodfill
Jared Woodfill

Gotta love Jared Woodfill. When it comes to a fight, he simply refuses to back down or be bullied. From the department of “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander” comes this:

 

Woodfill Texas Public Information request regarding the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO)

Well, maybe in this case, I need to say it differently so that the HERO proponents can grasp it. Let’s try this: “What’s good for the gander that thinks he’s a goose is good for the goose that thinks she’s a gander”. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

In case you’ve forgotten, Houston voters destroyed Mayor Annise Parker’s attempt to redefine gender (among other things) in a 61-39 thrashing. The supporters of the measure filed multiple Public Information Act requests, similar to Parker’s own attempts to subpoena emails and sermon notes from Houston pastors. Yvonne wrote about it here.

It’s about time Republicans fought back against these bullies. I wish the Republican Party of Texas understood how critical it is that we do that, now, while the issue is hot, and every single time these people try to bully us. Being passive doesn’t work with these folks, you have to fight on their turf.

Kudos to Jared for fighting back. Hey Mechler, you watching this?

Jared Woodfill: Move the 2016 Texas GOP Convention

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Brilliant move by Jared Woodfill:

jared-woodfill-faith-family-freedom-banner

Time to Take a Stand and
Move the 2016 Republican Party of Texas Convention from Dallas
By Jared Woodfill

On Tuesday the Dallas City Council approved an aggressive and dangerous bathroom ordinance that allows men into women’s bathrooms. The bathroom language comes just one week after Houstonians overwhelmingly rejected a similar ordinance, Houston Proposition 1-Bathroom Ordinance. It is outrageous that one week after Houston voters rejected the idea that it is ok for a man to enter a woman’s bathroom, the Dallas City Council would pass the same provision.

It should be noted that without public input, the Dallas City Council approved the controversial language in a late night closed-door meeting. The new language clearly allows biological males who identify as females, including registered sex offenders, to have access to women’s bathrooms, locker rooms and shower rooms. Like the Houston Bathroom Ordinance, the new version of the Dallas ordinance is a threat to safety and freedom and allows the government to fine private small business owners for taking principled stands. It is time for us to take a stand!

The brazen move pushed by the radical LGBT political movement comes just one week after Houston voters decisively said “no” to a radical, expansive bathroom ordinance and power grab that threatened the safety and liberty of Houston residents. The Houston Bathroom Ordinance was voted down in a historic vote, 61{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} – 39{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}.

Throughout the Houston campaign, the opposition argued that rejection of the Bathroom Ordinance would result in, among other things, conventions leaving Houston. We as a Republican Party now have an opportunity to send a message to the Mayor of Dallas and its City Council who are willing to sacrifice the safety of our wives, daughters and mothers on the altar of political correctness. We as a Republican Party have an opportunity to send a loud and clear message to the radical left by moving our 2016 Republican Party of Texas Convention from Dallas to another city. We should not reward Dallas with our business when its leaders brazenly reject the principles embodied in our 2014 Republican Party of Texas Platform. The Dallas Mayor and City Council sent us a clear message on Tuesday – they do not respect our values. It is now time for us to send a clear message and move the 2016 Convention from Dallas to another city.

I am asking you to call on the Republican Party of Texas to move the 2016 Republican State Convention from its planned location in Dallas to another city.

Please encourage the Republican Party of Texas (RPT) to protest the Dallas City Council measure by moving the Republican Party State Convention scheduled to be held in Dallas from May 12-14. We must put our principles and the safety of Republican women ahead of convenience. Dallas’ elected representatives on City Council have shown obvious contempt for the values that we as Texas Republicans and conservatives hold most dear and we must show them that there is a price for their contempt. I suggest that the convention be moved to a city where our Republican women are in no danger of government-sanctioned invasion of their most private spaces by the opposite sex, some of whom could be sexual predators.

Houston would be an excellent choice for the RPT State Convention considering the voters’ 61-39 vote on November 3rd rejecting men in women’s bathrooms. It would also counter the opposition’s argument that the Bathroom Ordinances defeat will hurt the Houston economy. Please join me in encouraging the Republican Party of Texas to move the 2016 RPT Convention from Dallas.

Contact Information for the Republican Party of Texas:
http://www.texasgop.org/contact/

Contact Information for the State Republican Executive Committee (SREC) members:
http://www.texasgop.org/leadership-directory/state-republican-executive-committee/

Please let your voice be heard on this issue.

Web – Email – Facebook
Message From Jared Woodfill
To inform on conservative issues and activism in Houston, Harris County and Texas
Pd pol ad by The Elect Jared Woodfill Campaign – Larry Hicks Treasurer

 

Absolutely freaking brilliant. Turn the losers’ argument against them. Houston Mayor Annise Parker thinks there will be economic sanctions against Houston because we crushed her dumbass, unnecessary, divisive law? Well, let’s reverse that formula and see what happens when when yet another city’s leadership wants to force something on the citizens. Brilliant.

It’s also a brilliant move in Woodfill’s campaign to be the leader of the Texas GOP. The current interim dude, Tom Mechler, has not been impressive to put it mildly. He’s so out of touch he claimed in an email that Harris County GOP Chair Paul Simpson “led the fight against HERO”. I don’t know what universe Mechler is living in but sitting on the sidelines and not lifting a finger to help is hardly the mark of leadership.

The Harris County GOP is having its last Executive Committee meeting of the year this coming Monday, November 16th. A resolution supporting Woodfill’s call to move the convention will be introduced. We need to pass it unanimously.

I’ll also point you to an Op-Ed by Woodfill and Dr. Steve Hotze in the Houston Chronicle, Defeating HERO: We were defending our culture and protecting women’s well-being. As far as I’m concerned, it is a bit too conciliatory and doesn’t take the proponents of the ordinance to task for their many lies and overall nasty conduct. I hope they don’t think this is over because the proponents are already talking about reintroducing it at the last city council meeting of the year on December 15th, AFTER the runoff election on December 12th.

Don’t forget to hashtag your thoughts on this with #boycottdallas! 😉