Let's get a few things straight about the health of the Travis GOP

The proverbial bus.

Let's set a few things straight about the health of Travis GOP under recent leadership.

It has been inferred in the race for Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas that County Chairman James Dickey, one of two candidates vying for the position, led the Travis GOP into chaos.

All's fair in a race for state chairman, but let's not throw the hard work and dedication of some of the most passionate Republicans in the most liberal city in Texas under the proverbial bus. These hard-working conservatives who give of their time and treasure to fight against high odds in "the blueberry in the tomato soup" of Texas deserve better.

The Travis Tracker will not fire back at these individuals by naming names or quoting these persons verbatim. We have opted to focus on the accusations themselves.

1. Dickey lost seat to Robert Morrow (the "court jester") because Dickey did not campaign adequately or inspire enough volunteers to defend his incumbent status.

Bottom-line: Mr. Morrow had so awful a reputation among local conservatives that no one ever dreamed he would win the election. Out of an abundance of caution, Chairman Dickey commissioned a poll which showed Robert ahead by a comfortable margin -- a complete shock to anyone privy to this information. This gave Mr. Dickey a few weeks to campaign (sound familiar?). His campaign consisted of everything you would expect in a chairman's race, including lawn signs, plenty of TV and radio appearances, and lots of visits to clubs and various official meetings. Morrow, on the other hand, barely lifted a finger other than writing his personal email list.

This phenomenon has been covered in great detail on this blog. And guess what? It's not the only time a long-shot candidate with unorthodox views managed to eke out a win on a fluke. Read more:

http://thetravistracker.blogspot.com/2016/03/robert-morrow-voters-likely-christmas.html

2. Morrow was removed because he bumbled his way out. 

Mr. Morrow was declared ineligible to serve due to a miscalculation on his part (running for President of the United States as an independent write-in, which took him out of the GOP) but a lot went into this. Read the story you won't hear about in the liberal media here:

http://thetravistracker.blogspot.com/2016/08/robert-morrow-resigns-travis-gop.html

3. The party was thrown into chaos after Morrow was elected.

To the contrary: the Travis County Republican Party showed themselves to be quite disciplined during this period (you won't hear that in the mainstream media, either). Under the banner "Bigger Than That," the county party came up with a plan to transfer resources to a side-organization and made no attempts to unconstitutionally thwart the rightful winner of the race. Better: Mr. Dickey stepped aside after his term expired and orchestrated a peaceful transition of power. This took no small amount of personal restraint.

That the Travis GOP managed to wrap up the "Morrow Saga" in about half a year (while heeding the law and even allowing Robert to moderate his share of meetings) is nothing short of an American success story. This was all done with little in the way of external support and NO help from a media bent on heralding the "implosion" of the Republican Party.

Read more about this successful plan here: http://www.traviscountygop.org/get-involved/bigger.html

4. "Only" two Republicans were elected after Dickey returned to the chairmanship.

Rather, 18 fully supported Republican candidates won office with jurisdictions partially or completely inside Travis County's borders. Keep in mind two things before reading the below article: 1) Travis is an overwhelmingly Democrat county and the odds are long, especially when it comes to judicial seats and county-wide races, and 2) there was a significant "anti-Trump wave" and record numbers of new voters (30+% of whom had no primary history) threatening all candidates.

http://thetravistracker.blogspot.com/2016/11/dickey-theres-much-to-be-proud-of-this.html

5. Travis GOP was in bad financial shape during Dickey's term(s) in office.

While there were concerns over inconsistent accounting practices (the county party has been through several volunteer Treasurers who each employed different methods), the Travis GOP has made significant efforts over the past year to reconcile its books, hiring an outside auditing firm and tasking full-time office staff (yes, they expanded!) with creating a more reliable accounting procedure going forward.

Claims that Travis GOP was "broke" before the 2016 primary are true ... technically. The party does not "bury its talents" but spends donor dollars on supporting candidates through either direct support or in maintaining a staff to assist candidates. It has not been the practice of Travis GOP to hold on to much from one election cycle to the next but to spend it as wisely as possible. Paid office staff were itinerant.

In recent years, the Annual Ronald Reagan Gala was the dominant source of funds. Prior to each gala, Travis GOP would naturally be scant on funds. However, that feast-or-famine course has been altered within the last year or so to allow for multiple fundraisers during the calendar year and to work on a framework of "sustaining" donations to maintain and expand operations.


Whether you support James Dickey or Rick Figueroa in Saturday's State Republican Executive Committee vote on selecting an interim state chairman, the Tracker implores you not to violate Reagan's 11th Commandment in your speaking up for either candidate.