Politics As Ususal in Fort Bend County, Texas

You can go from one day to the next without seeing it, but every once in awhile, here in Fort Bend County, you walk right by the snake pit that is our county government and GOP – because they’re one and the same - and they’re all down there, writhing, spitting venom, and eating each others’ young.

It’s the GOP bashing other GOPers, and it wouldn’t be so bad except that what’s going on now affects the forces of good also.

It’s all spelled out in FortBendNow. County Elections Administrator J.R. Perez wants to combine some voting precincts and eliminate voting locations, all of this in an effort to avoid spending tax dollars to buy more voting machines. That all sounds nifty, but I have a couple of points of concern.

First, they tell me that there is a lot of growth in the county. All you have to do is take a drive along the Grand Parkway or FM 762 and see the houses spring up like mushrooms after a rain. New houses mean new voters and that means you need to buy more voting machines, OK?

Second, since the county is growing, what is all this guff about elimination of 8 precincts and consolidation of 40 others? Shouldn’t it be going the other way?

But then, all you have to do is listen to who howls the loudest, and it’s comes from precinct chairs that would be eliminated: seven of the eight are on the GOP county executive committee. This represents a sizeable chunk of the committee that has been nipping at the heels of GOP county chair Gary Gillen since he was elected. One of them, Dean Hrbacek, is rumored to be considering a run against Democratic Congressman Nick Lampson next year.

So it’s not about saving taxpayer money, is it? It’s all about eliminating the opposition within the GOP.

I tell you, they think that they own this county. Well . . . maybe it’s because they do.

As pointed out in the FBN article, the howling and cries of foul essentially brought everything to a screeching halt (JR, Gary, you didn’t think they’d object?) and we’re back to square one. And now we have J.R. Perez wringing his hands, complaining that he doesn’t “have enough equipment to do a presidential election. If you add 10 new voting locations, I definitely don’t have enough equipment.”

So get some.

J.R. needs to get off the dime, stop playing with the maps, and get on the phone to Hart Intercivic, the makers of that glorious voting machine that every write-in voter loves to hate, and order up some more of those machines.

Because if you don’t have enough machines to run an election, and you know it, and are down on public record as saying it, can you spell v-o-t-e-r s-u-p-p-r-e-s-s-i-o-n?

Fort Bend Republicans Suing Each Other – Starting the Year With a Bang

I haven’t posted on this in awhile, and it seems that there is nothing more fun than watching our Texas Republican competition squabble over money, power, and what’s on the menu. Well, OK, only the first two.

Everybody loves Mystery Chicken.

Now there’s been an even trade. Lawsuits passing each other like ships in the night.

First the Fort Bend Republican Party’s Executive Committee files suit charging that Gary Gillen, the chairman of the same political organization, breached his fiduciary duty, committed fraud, conversion, tortious Interference with Contractual Relations, and tortious Interference with Prospective Relations. You can get a copy of their filing here.

OK, basically they are saying that Gillen violated his duty of “loyalty and good faith” when he served his own selfish interests by diverting the GOP’s shindig to his own PAC, that he lied to them while he was doing it, used the GOP mailing list to carry it out, and used his authority as chairman of the Fort Bend Republican Party to arrange the dinner.

And, yeah, that’s pretty much what he did, you have to hand them that.

That last bit was caught on video, by the way. You have to admire the extent to which these people will go to embarrass each other. Click on the You Tube to watch Gillen’s actions as “a chairman” exposed.



Pretty neat, huh? I particularly like his explanation that he was acting as either the chairman of the PAC or chairman of the event, but not chairman of the party.

The suit seeks a temporary restraining order to stop him from continuing with this, but the judge, 240th District Court Judge Thomas Culver III, said no, but he’d hear arguments on Monday.

When he was asked to comment on this, Gillen said that it was “a sad way to use the money that people have donated to elect Republican candidates to office.”

Which is an odd statement, considering that the two lawyers who filed the suit, Michael Stanley and Brent Carpenter, say that the party isn’t paying them anything for their services. But then, Gillen would have to sign any check sent to them, and I don’t see that happening anytime soon. But they didn’t say they were working this pro bono, did they?

Then this past Wednesday, Gillen fired back. His lawsuit, which you can find here, charges Linda Howell, Dean Hrbacek, David Stone, Jim Hammack and William Benton violated Roberts Rules of Order and for that reason, they filed the lawsuit without legal authority and that it should be dismissed for that reason.

No, really. That’s his case.

Roberts Rules of Order?

Wait, there’s something about that issue and Gillen that is haunting me. Ah, now I remember. It was a muse posting from an eternity ago about the cataclysmic standing room only GOP meeting that took place last May. The quote that was nagging me? In reference to Gillen’s constant stalling the meeting to confer on meeting procedures, muse wrote “Someone please send the guy to a Roberts Rules of Order training”.

Well, I guess someone was reading. Not only did he go to the training, he based an entire lawsuit on Roberts Rules of Order. Or his lawyers did, anyway.

The rest of the filing is a recount of all the public feces flinging that has taken place.

That and stuff he wants these people to stop doing like intimidating people at the Marriott and “contact” sponsors of the Lincoln-Reagan Dinner.

Anyway, the fun continues and it seems like there are calls for popcorn all over the internet these days. Popcorn for we, the observers. Hey, don’t the participants get anything? Doesn’t seem fair. So for the participants: Pass out the chainsaws!