Bill Kneer Wants You to Shut Up

The Patriot Statesman posted a piece this week in response to this article from precinct chair Dale Huls, where Dale made the case for reform of the leadership of the HCRP.  Bill Kneer penned the piece to take up the defense of Chairman Woodfill, which we'll take a closer look at below.  


The article begins by quoting Huls, then offers this: 


While the accusations of the well-intended yet misguided seem to fire up a few against our current leadership the accusations made are just flat wrong. 


The accusations are "just flat wrong" Kneer says.  One expects a point-by-point refutation to follow.  Instead Kneer continues:


So let’s take some time to highlight the positive things that have happened within Harris County over the last decade under the leadership of Chairman Jared Woodfill.

• 4 out of 5 Republican sweeps within Harris County
• Well over $10 million raised to support the local party
• The Harris County Republican Party has remained debt-free
• In 2010 presided over the biggest victory in the 62 year history of the Harris County Republican Party
• Under the leadership of Jared Woodfill the local party has stood strong for our conservative values and has never caved in to pressure from the left

Ever the cheerleader, Kneer defaults to the party talking points.  Four sweeps in five terms looks impressive, certainly.  But claiming to have raised over $10 million becomes problematic.  A look at the Texas Ethics Commission reports reveals 80% of contributions in that quarter came from campaigns. The debt-free claim is silliness, because an entity that would lend to the HCRP would require at minimum some kind of accounting or audit, something the leadership runs from.  Moving on to the 2010 election, it would be instructive to see what the HCRP did in order to achieve this.  (There might have been something else going on during 2010 to boost conservative voter turnout, but I can't think what it might have been.  Maybe some original grassroots political movement or something.) 


Now the last item: "stood strong for conservative values" and "has never caved in to pressure from the left."  Kneer can't resist picking up the pom poms again, and attempting to recite platitudes as proof.  Which conservative values?  Fiscal responsibility?  And WHAT pressure from the left?  Pressure to do what?  Kneer, again, never says.  


Kneer tackles one of Huls' points this way: 

These misguided critics would take the great conservative record and spin a different story, “The HCRP leadership has laid bare a record of incompetence and mismanagement with respect to raising funds in the largest voting county in Texas (3^rd largest in the nation) to adequately fund HCRP facilities and operations.”

This statement is not only wrong but it is a downright lie. The truth is, that while no one is perfect Chairman Jared Woodfill has done an incredible job at growing our party within Harris County. Under the leadership of Jared Woodfill the County’s political map has become so red that the only chance a Democrat has is being appointed through the courts.

Again with the platitudes, Kneer is short on details.  "Incredible job at growing" the party.  The "political map has become so red" that no Democrats stand a chance.  Perhaps Kneer and company think repeating a lie makes it true.  A quick look at this map and this map show how much in denial they are at Richmond Avenue.  The fact that Democrat Bill White won Harris County in the 2010 election for governor will have long-reaching implications - Democrats are in control of the ballot board and serve as the election judges for early voting.  Ask True The Vote whether they think that's "so red" in this county.


Kneer then jumps back onto the financial picture, repeating "ten million dollars" as if it were a mantra to ward away vampires:


Chairman Woodfill does not ask for money, just to save it in the bank account and collect dust. Chairman Woodfill does the responsible thing. He plans a project, documents the plan, counts the cost, then and only then he goes out and gets the money to complete the task at hand. This is the responsible thing to do and he is done well for the last10 years. Under Jared Woodfill’s leadership our Party has grown and remained debt-free in the process.

Interesting.  I would wager there are members of county party leadership who would beg to differ.  But this also looks like an invocation of Luke 14:28 - "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?"  Problem is, without budgets or audits no one can know whether this is true.  You can't COUNT THE COST that you can't see; without audits and budgets there is no way to evaluate this claim.  Kneer claims Woodfill does all these things, then offers no proof but his say-so.  Isn't that remniscent of what Nancy Pelosi wanted Congress to do - approve things and THEN evaluate them?

Kneer next tackles a charge that has not been made.  He sets up his straw man by saying he always hears complaints of Republicans turning into RINOs or weak defenders of conservatism.  But not Jared!

Throughout his lifetime, Jared Woodfill has stood strong for the social and fiscal conservative values embodied in the Texas Republican Party platform. There’s not been one time where Jared Woodfill has caved in and betrayed our commonly held beliefs. He has stood strong in the battle against those on the Left as well as those on the Right who would have us leave the time-tested principles and convictions that have brought us victory.

Again, Kneer has no examples here, merely his word.  But that doesn't matter, because the charge has not been made.  Nothing to see here.

The job of the Harris County Republican Party chairman is not to do all the work by himself. It is to lead our local Party and be the spokesperson of “we the people” that make up the base of our County Party. To spread the vision of the Republican Party to all those who do not know who and what we are and stand for. There’s no one here locally that articulates our conservative message is consistently, and precisely, as Chairman Jared Woodfill.


I would argue that the chairman of the party is supposed to manage, grow, and maintain the party as well.  But going with Kneer's definition of spreading the vision, is this why the Outreach Committee hasn't met in ages?  


Now the pitch: 


Let’s not change generals the night before the battle, and take a chance on losing our nation. Jared Woodfill has been a great leader, a man of honor, integrity, and consistency.


Yes, great leaders never changed generals.  Not Lincoln.  Not Truman.  And this same argument was used in 2010 against the current Republican Party of Texas chair Steve Munisteri; he'd never be able to be ready for the fall election, he'd take too long to learn what he needed to know.  In mere months, however, Munisteri had pulled RPT out of huge six-figure debts, and back into the black in time for the 2010 election.  And notice how Kneer equates a Woodfill loss to a chance at "losing our nation."  What kind of awkward hyperbole is that?  


Kneer closes with this:

Since 2008 I have stood by Jared Woodfill and fought as hard as I could to help grow our local Party and save our nation. And since 2008 I have had the same people consistently nipping at my heels complaining about everything we do while they do nothing.  It is easy to criticize, especially when you do nothing to assist in growing the Party.  Every two years we hear from the same malcontent faction.  After the Primary, we don’t hear from or see these critics offering to lift a finger to help the Party, but come Primary time, they are there prevaricating and criticizing without having served the Party in the interim.

I call on all those who continually find fault and complain to man up, shut up, and help us defeat Democrats in November!

This is the best part of the whole piece.  Kneer charges unnamed critics with being biennial malcontents, only criticizing the party when primary elections roll around.  Who are these non-working malcontents, Bill?  


Would it be Dale Huls, who joined the party as a precinct chair in 2010 and, in addition to working with the Clear Lake Tea Party on their board, has worked on his wife's campaigns for state house, served on the board of Saddle Up Texas, attended Clear Lake Area Republican meetings and has attended Republican conventions as well as conservative rallies in Washington D.C.?


Would it be David Jennings, who has researched and then posted more information about the party than the party itself?  


Would it be Paul Simpson, founder of Conservatives in Action - a group who helps precinct chairs manage voter information in their precincts?  Paul who dares challenge the way HCRP is doing things, and who hopes to improve, strengthen and grow the HCRP?


We don't know, because Kneer doesn't say.  But Kneer DOES say they should shut up.  Bill would prefer critics to remain silent, but why?  Is it not possible to both criticize an organization AND work for its success?  


Aren't the two sometimes the same thing?  


Edited to add - It'd be very interesting to go drop your opinion on to Kneer's article, just to see whether they are moderating comments as well.  Most posts don't have comments, but that could be because they write such crap.  So go on, leave a comment, and report here below whether your comment made it to the light of day!

Thoughts on Saddle Up Texas Results

We're still finding event coverage, but given that Ron Paul won the text poll by a huge margin, and given that he won the in-person vote by 4 percentage points, I doubt the media will be reporting the story of the poll results, except, perhaps, as a means to pound on Perry for his poor showing.  


First, for the record, the results:

There were in-person votes of 707, and text votes of 3321.


I want to say a few words about the results.  First, Ron Paul did so well because his supporters invested time and money to participate and spread the word about the event.  They turned the event into a rally, a fun gathering, but one in which they were determined to have an impact on the results.  Anyone who supports a candidate and complains about how Ron Paul supporters push for their candidate needs to check himself and get over it.  These supporters recognized a chance to send a message about support for Ron Paul, and they took full advantage of it.  Only Newt Gingrich supporters had the vision to do the same, and guess what place Newt took in the poll?  SECOND.  RIGHT BEHIND RON PAUL.  After three years plus of opposing big government, wasteful spending and class warfare, one would think conservatives supporting an idea or a candidate would learn that they need to do more than just feel a certain way.  They MUST learn to act. They must do more than listen to speeches and watch debates and cheer from their armchairs.  They must also WORK for their cadidate of choice.  I already hear the grumbling of "Of COURSE Ron Paul won the poll."  There's no "OF COURSE" about it.  Get off your butt.  Support YOUR candidate like that, and there's no telling how far he will go.  Envision what would have happened if YOU cared enough to invest an entry fee, bring ten like-minded friends, sent e-mails to encourage others to do the same.  Quit bitching about Ron Paul and start taking notes.


So kudos to the Ron Paul team.  Well done.  I don't care what anyone says, you are learning a lot about campaigning, building momentum, and fighting for what you believe in.  For the record, I did not vote for Ron Paul in either poll, and can't be counted among the Supporter Class he has built, so don't even start with the accusations that I'm shilling for Ron Paul.


A few more things; Ron Paul supporters, numerous as they were at the event, couldn't dominate the in-person poll the way they did the text vote.  This reflects the fact that Paul has a long way to go to convince primary voters (whose votes can't be gamed like a text poll) that he should have their support.  The differences in the poll results between in-person and text polling should signal that the game isn't merely won by a battle of perception.  It must also be won on the streets, block by block, house by house, and person by person.  People discount Paul poll wins precisely because they are so easily gamed.  Serious candidates have ground game in the primary.  It will be interesting to see whether Paul has that level of support as the candidates, the Bedouin of politics, drag their caravans from state to state.


Also, Gingrich, Santorum, and Perry appear clustered in the middle.  People who discount Ron Paul automatically will say that this is now a three-way tie in Texas for the Not Romney slot.  Most interestingly, Mitt Romney finished fifth in both polls, indicating almost zero support for Romney in Texas.  I suspect that's because his team had no presence in Texas, because the voters at the poll trended towards tea party, and because perhaps Texans and conservatives wanted to tweak Iowa and New Hampshire a little.  


The event was a wonderful celebration, but the biggest loser wasn't Romney or Huntsman.  The biggest loser was the Texas GOP and the local Republican parties who did not support the event.  Harris County GOP and Fort Bend GOP both supported the event through their executive committees, and Fort Bend had a significant presence during the event, led by Chair Sharon Roberts (not so much HCRP Chair Jared Woodfill.)  But it would be difficult to find any other county Republican party who did anything to support the idea of a Texas GOP straw poll.  If anyone can find any other local party that supported the endeavor, I will publish a correction.  And eat my shorts.


Most disappointing was the lack of involvement from the state party.  The Republican Party of Texas had floated the idea of a poll well after Saddle Up planning was underway, and reported that there was not enough interest to put on the event.  That's fair.  Endeavors like this cost huge sums, involve many people, and involve a huge element of risk.


But given that the RPT didn't have to invest ANYTHING into such an event, one wonders why they were so loathe to help publicize it.  I have met Chairman Steve Munisteri, supported his election, and spoken with him at length before the planning for this event, and I am dumbfounded at the reason the party refused to send even one e-mail on behalf of the event.  I won't make wild accusations or surmises, but I personally believe he owes me an explanation.  Chairman Munisteri, if you're paying attention, you have my number.  I'm always available to take your call.  Just be aware, there are rumblings deep in the grassroots about the leadership in the RPT, and this deliberate snub has only increased it.  You will have a long way to climb before you're above ground.  Reelection is right around the corner, unless the primary dates keep getting pushed back, and Saddle Up now has a pretty extensive contact list.  I'm just saying.


It was a three-day political conference unlike anything else we've ever put on.  People had a great time; the speakers were phenomenal, the Veterans so inspiring, the musicians so fantastic, the emcees - all our favorite radio hosts in one weekend! - were so generous and gracious, the presenters were so informative, the attendees so responsive and supportive, the Minute Maid staff and contractors so professional and helpful.  We could not have asked for a better first-effort result.  As VP of the organization behind Saddle Up, I have to say I've got immense respect and inexpressible admiration for all the people who worked so hard for no personal gain, just the chance to give Texas a voice and help some Veterans' organizations with their good work.  You can still make donations to the cause at the Saddle Up website.


And to the Senate candidate who bailed without word, notice or even a "screw you" - I can not express how pissed I am.  David Dewhurst and his team owes all the attendees a huge apology, not to mention the organizers.  Again, you have my number.  Don't send a minion to talk to me, either.  I'm done with that.  I took this blow-off very personally.


Texas and the nation have not heard the last of Saddle Up Texas.  This is only the beginning.


Saddle Up!