“Oh give me a break. The “grassroots” is really just a bunch of Ron Paul zealots who want to take over the state party convention and nominate a buch of Paulbots to make up the Texas delegation to the Republican National Convention.”
That’s a typical gut reaction, but it’s not true. I am not involved in this mess, but I have been an active conservative Republican for a relatively long time [since college—of course, there are colleagues of mine who have been active since well before I was born]. Our county party is currently very united and conservative, but that is because of a recent purge of former leadership, who was a more power hungry group.
Gary Poland is no nutcase. If you do not know who he is, just look him up on Google. He is about as grass roots as they come, including serving as Harris County Party Chair [a position that takes an amazing amount of time with zero pay]. He was instrumental in both State and National Republican gains during the late 1990s and early 2000s, and was considered one of the most effective County Chairs in the nation. If he has a concern, it is not something that the State Party should ignore.
The Paul bots tried to take over the Nueces County convention, but weeks before that they started harassing Nueces County Republican officials. Typically they sent letters and lots of email spam to these officials calling the “m&#$%^@^(!ers”. Yeah thats really professional. Their list of alternative delegates had no one who has been active in the party.
Ahh.. Gary Poland(sic it is Polland) wasn’t marginalized by the party because he was Conservative, on the contrary, it was because he supported liberal Democrat Al Green. Polland was also criticized by Conservatives because of his McCain like desire to reach across the isle (Polland called it “ideological issue allies”). He is one of those who complains about abandoning Conservative ideals to fat cats then at the same time, tries to make a ‘big tent’ party comprised of all his ‘thin cat’ friends, no matter if they are Conservative.