In March 2014, Harris County elected a new county party chairman. Jared was the ousted 12 year incumbent, from the spot.. Although you'd think that someone who had been in the position for that long and kept getting re-elected MUST have been doing a great job, right? WRONG!
Sadly now Steve Munisteri is resigning as our State Party Chairman after five great years of service to us. We will miss him, but know he's going on to bigger, better things. That leaves the position open and since his resignation comes before the next state convention, the job of electing a new chairman falls to the State Republican Executive Committee or SREC for short. There are four candidates in the field, Robin Armstrong, former State Vice Chairman, and current National Republican Committeeman for Texas, Wade Emmert, current chairman for Dallas County GOP, Tom Mechler, current State Party Treasurer and of course, Jared Woodfill, the recently unseated Harris County GOP Chairman.
Let's take a look back at some of the highlights from Jared's tenure as Harris County GOP Chairman:
Jared Woodfill Led the Decline of Harris County Republican Dominance
• The Harris County Republican Party delivered Harris County for the Republicans in every presidential election from 1968-2004 and Gubernatorial elections from 1994-2006.
• With no county party organization and a lack of leadership from Woodfill, Obama and the Democrats won Harris County in 2008, 2010 and 2012.
For 12 Years Jared Woodfill Failed to Grow the Grassroots
• Over 600 of Harris County’s 1,064 precincts did not have a Republican Precinct Chair.
• 20 years ago Harris County had over 700 Republican precinct chairs. When Woodfill left office there are fewer than 460.
Jared Woodfill Lost the Trust of Grassroots Donors
• A review of Texas Ethics Commission documents show that in 2012, under Jared Woodfill’s leadership, the county Party spent $.78 of every dollar raised on consultants and paid campaign
advertisements with only $.01 going to grassroots activities.
Jared also mismanaged his own personal finances and The Houston Business Journal recently reported the IRS has placed a $40,000 lien on theWoodfill Law Firm for unpaid taxes. Hmm...
Now, let me ask you if you think that this resume that I've shared qualifies Jared to be the state party chair? Jared dutifully ignored the development of the grassroots, and pandered to a select few he surrounded himself with at the peril of the party. He spent more money on high dollar consultants and he let the pay-to-play slates take over Harris County which allowed candidates for any and all offices to be chosen by a few top paid endorsers!
We've come so far as a state, we cannot afford to let Jared take the helm and repeat what he did in Harris County to the State GOP. The election will take place on March 7, 2015 at the next quarterly meeting of the SREC. Let me tout some of Steve's record: From his resignation announcement:
"It has been my honor to serve as RPT Chairman since June 2010 and oversee our party’s efforts during the last three election cycles. I am proud that by working together, we have had a net increase of 1,182 Republican officeholders during my time in office, representing an increase from 45% of all state officeholders to 67%. We have also set the all-time record for most number of elected Republican Texas State Representatives and Republican Texas Congressmen, as well as tying the record for most number of Republican State Senators.
At the same time, we paid off the party’s debt to $0 for the first time in 18 years and have remained debt free since November 2010 while bringing in over $22 million in revenue. This would not have been possible without the support of literally tens of thousands of grassroots activists and donors, for which I will be forever grateful."
Debt paid off to $0. A net increase in Republican officeholders and an all-time record for most number of elected Republicans in the State House and State Senate. Texas can't afford to go backwards. The vote is scheduled for March 7th. Contact your SREC representatives and let them know who you support. Just say 'no' to failed leadership!
Great line up of factual information. That's sorely needed in this ridiculous scrum for State Party Chair. Nice job by The Political Chicken.....AGAIN.
ReplyDeleteThank you sincerely. Been hearing about this type of stuff and so far this corroborates what I have been hearing and seeing.
ReplyDeleteGood to see other folks starting to opine about this very topic.
Wonderful stuff -- I've nominated you for a weekly competition of important blog posts, so hopefully this will get a traffic boost. It certainly deserves it.
ReplyDeleteAll, thanks for the kind words. Greg, that would be awesome! Thank you!
ReplyDeleteKelly, I had not heard of the Political Chicken until it landed in my mailbox somehow, unsolicited by me. I think I'll keep you! This is an enlightening article that, as noted by others, enumerates the failures of the past Harris County GOP Chair that had been hinted about elsewhere. This information needs to be widely disseminated.
ReplyDeleteSadly, Munisteri is not a 10th amendment guy. He has never supported nullification of federal violations of the U.S. Constitution. He is afraid the Feds would send in their storm troopers. Yet, state defiance of the feds is exactly the method that Thomas Jefferson prescribed in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions for the states to oversee & control of the federal branches so that they stay within the boundaries of the enumerated powers of article 1, section 8. Nullification of federal over-reach has been applied many times since then, but just not frequently enough. Any candidate Munisteri endorses will reflect his view on that subject.
ReplyDeleteThe only difficulty that true conservatives should have in selecting the best Presidential candidate is to make a choice between Governor Scott Walker and Senator Ted Cruz. None of the others should even be on the radar screen. The nearest second choice, Rand Paul, should be eliminated because of his foreign policy views. None of the others should even get a second look.
Texas needs to take a hard-right turn. Too bad that the candidates for the Texas GOP Chairmanship are not hard core conservatives.
There has been too much "bi-partisanship" in the Texas Legislature, especially in the House, with the re-election of Joe Straus, a proven liberal with an "R" behind his name. Scott Turner, a true conservative was rejected by those who are so-called “Republicans.” I still can't get over the persecution of Tea Party constitutional conservatives by RINO’s at both the state and federal level. RINO’s love to lose national elections and betray their constituents at every level. No genuine conservative bill will survive the 84th legislative session because Straus has appointed committee chairmen, vice chairmen and calendars who will explicitly obey his bill-killer directives as they have done for the past 6 years. Straus was re-elected by 77 of the 96 Republicans, and 100% of the Democrats in the House. Straus appointed 25 Republican Chairmen, 13 Democrat Chairmen, 13 Republican vice chairmen. Democrats LOVE Joe Straus who effectively gave them 50% of the House control by appointing 25 Democrat vice chairmen to offset the 13 Republican vice chairmen. Compromise with socialists is the legacy of Texas Republicans. The Texas legislature has:
(a) refused to close the borders,
(b) refused to authorize the round-up and deportation of illegals and their families,
(c) refused to cut off social services, education, and monetary benefits to illegals, (d) twice refused to pass ALAC (American Law for American Courts) legislation, and according to Texas Representative Dwayne Bohac (District 138), is currently set to reject it for the 3rd time in its current version (HB562) to ban Sharia Courts and the use of foreign law in Texas,
(e) refused to amend the state constitution to allow recall elections to remove elected representatives who displease their constituents,
(f) refused to abolish personal property taxes in this state, and
(g) refused to nullify the enforcement of federal directives that violate the U.S. Constitution, regardless of the federal agency or court, or non-governmental agency through which such directives are channeled.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives decides what bills are to be passed, and those that will fail. The state reps are essentially told to shut up and not to make waves over the issues that affect the entire state. They made that pact when they re-elected the current Speaker, knowing full well his obstructionist history. Therefore, the Texas House of Representatives is a liberal body. Its voting record clearly shows that it has repeatedly rejected the proud conservative traditions of this state and our nation’s Judeo-Christian heritage, and embraces a redistribution of wealth philosophy.