THE HARRIS COUNTY REPUBLICAN CIVIL WAR COULD MAKE OR BREAK DAN PATRICK’S LITE GUV BID Sen. Patrick is banking on Houston, where chaos has broken out in GOP Chairman’s race Over the last couple weeks, it has become impossible to deny that a civil war has broken out in the largest county Republican Party in America – and the way this fight plays out in Houston before the March primary could have serious implications for the political aspirations of Sen. Dan Patrick in his bid to preside over the Texas Senate. Patrick, a Houston radio host and lawmaker who has given up his Senate seat, said in his announcement for higher office that the support he enjoys in the Bayou City is key to his statewide strategy. Simply put: Patrick is banking on Harris County in a way that the other three candidates in the race are not. The problem with that now is that Republicans there will also have to make a fundamental choice about who will lead the local party. This year’s challenge to six-term incumbent and conservative flamethrower Jared Woodfill is objectively the most serious one he’s faced but, at the same time, he’s never one to be counted out until the voting is done. Challenger Paul Simpson has run previously but this time he has business and establishment Republicans behind him like former RPT Chairman George Strake, former Swift Boat Veterans for Truth spokesman John O’Neill, mega-donor Dick Weekley and – as first reported by QR – Harris County Judge Ed Emmett. In making the endorsement that came with a $10,000 donation, Emmett said Woodfill has taken the party so far to the right that “Ronald Reagan would probably not be welcome in today’s Harris County Republican Party.” Woodfill boasts the endorsements of, among others, Empower Texans President Michael Quinn Sullivan, Texas Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly, members of the Houston delegation to the Texas House and the US House, and yes Sen. Patrick. In Schlafly’s endorsement on Friday morning, she said I believe that Texas is so important that if we lose it, we lose America. We cannot let that happen!” Woodfill has made the kind of social issues that are important to Schlafly a centerpiece of his chairmanship and his campaign. Just this morning, he is in the Houston Chronicle criticizing Mayor Annise Parker for getting married to her longtime female partner in a California ceremony. When it came to light that Judge Emmett was supporting the challenger, Woodfill told QR that Emmett is the kind of man who runs away from social issues.” Sounding a bit exasperated, he said Emmett would “put social issues on the backburner. Woodfills supporters have made appeals on his behalf including lines like this from an email obtained by Quorum Report on Thursday evening and published in full on Big Jolly Politics today: Simpson would be catastrophic to HCRP (Harris County Republican Party) and would essentially delete all the efforts of the pro life/anti gay movement in Harris county.” The other key difference for Simpson this time is resources. When the most recent finance reports became available this week, the challenger had raised over $60,000 and had around $50,000 on hand. Woodfill, who may have taken for granted that he wouldn’t have to run a real race, showed a paltry $5,000 on hand but said his fundraising will pick up, especially now that the gauntlet has been thrown down by Judge Emmett and others. There have been rumblings out of Houston over the last six months or so that business leaders would, at some point, try to undermine Patrick’s statewide campaign because they could not disagree with him more on his hardline stance on immigration and his vote against the state budget. You may remember that Patrick was for the state budget before he was against it. He never expressed huge concerns until it was on the floor for final passage, much to the aggravation of then Senate Finance Committee Chairman Tommy Williams. On the day of the vote, Patrick refused to explain his decision to reporters. He has since explained it in campaign ads and at campaign events. “Woodfill and Dan Patrick share the same base,” said University of St Thomas in Houston Political Science Chair Jon Taylor. The professor is a Republican who has long warned members of his own party of the damage they’re doing to themselves by not recognizing demographic shifts in Houston. Indeed, Democrats started to win at the countywide level in 2008. Woodfill counters that by pointing out there were over 500,000 straight-ticket GOP voters in Harris County in 2012. “That’s the best in our party’s history,” Woodfill said. Taylor pointed to the financial support Simpson has garnered: “That’s telling me something. The business types who are worried about the future viability of the Republican Party here are scared to death of what happens if guys like Woodfill and Patrick are in charge.” Patrick may not get as much support as he thinks hes going to get,” Taylor said. Theres a real split among Harris County Republican voters. The KSEV movement has petered out in many respects. Its nowhere close to what it was 6 years ago, he said. KSEV is Patrick’s radio station, by the way. A lot of people are laying low and backing away from that. On the other hand, the infighting could actually end up helping Patrick in a low turnout election. Taylor and others said that they did not expect to see turnout higher than around 15 percent in Harris County and elsewhere. In that situation, only the “true believers” will turn out, Taylor said. “It could make Patrick voters even more entrenched here than they already are, if you can imagine that,” he said with a laugh.
Posted on: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 20:13:56 +0000
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