ping
"This year, the signs were there early, and we knew it, but for whatever reason, our leadership did nothing about it."
'bout sums it up...
I and a few other local Precinct Chairs chose to "slightly" question, with the intent to energize a little different direction with the process we were trying to accomplish in CD22 and the Tom DeLay situation...
Our intent was not to disrespect the desire or direction "they" wished to lead us into...
But after we saw the results, and the further erroding of the process (we followed the law and election code on the books at the time) and the failure to get a "front-runner" in place and ready to become a common name in the conservative voting block in our district...
We were left with basically nothing...We had to have a debacle of a meeting, that was further cast into oblivion by the media as "secret" (which it was not), a 3rd of the PC's (mostly from Fort Bend County, some were there, I saw them) didn't bother to show up, at the behest of some sour grapes from a particular candidate seeking this nomination...
And we had to make a decision, and work this issue from a write-in contingency plan...
So we were dealt a hand that was going to be an extremely hard challenge in the time we had left before Tuesday November 7th, 2006 to get this done...
And after some of the things I saw that day, I was impressed with some of the numbers I saw on the special election, but when it came time to get it done for the general portion of the ballot...
I think "stupid" took over...If 62% went to the "write in" in the "special election, what happened to the 62% when you clicked to the next page???
If my harsh tone took over in that last statement, I'm not sure I'll apologize at this time...I'll think about it...But after I saw a couple of people, and my Democrat counterpart saw this too, vote for a candidate in the special election, and then in the write in in the general election write in "MICKEY MOUSE" and "BATMAN"...
I have to honestly question this...
We stood aside for a moment Tuesday out of earshot of anyone, and he told me that he didn't want his guy to win that seat like this...
My Democrat counterpart has been a nieghbor of mine for 35 years, he's known me since I was a kid who would come over and dig up in his flowerbeds with his son, to play with our Tonka trucks...We both have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for the election process in our Precinct...
Our politics and philosophy may be diametrically opposed in certain areas, but I'll tell you, if both of us were elected officials in Austin or D.C., He and I both could guarantee you things would get done, and everyone would be happy...
That type of working relationship in politics is very unlikely in this day and age...And with folks voting the way they do...And they are certainly entitled to do it whatever way they want to...I am certainly not at this stage going to be taking my toys out of the sandbox, and running away...
Maybe its time to not think about who's in the sandbox playing for us up there...Maybe its time to tighten that sandbox, and make it a bit uncomfortable for "anyone" playing in it...We can do that from our level...Its a message that can be started and pounded into our "County Party Chairs" and driven to those up the chain, that you guys better get your acts together, and stop belittle-ing the base...
Otherwise this can happen to any political party...