Ever since Sugar Land Mayor David Wallace, Fort Bend County Clerk Dianne Wilson and a trio of recently resigned county GOP officials teamed up to form the Fort Bend Conservative Club, leaders back at the official local Republican Party have been looking in the rear-view mirror.
| Fort Bend Politics |
| By Bob Dunn |
C-Club founders have made no secret about their intentions to raise money for candidates closer to what they see as the center of the political spectrum. Without directly saying so, they have strongly suggested that drivers of the Republican Party of Fort Bend County have steered too far to the right.
Members of the county GOP Executive Committee have worried that the new club would try to achieve its fund-raising objectives by creating an event to overshadow the party’s big spring money maker – the Lincoln-Reagan Day Dinner.
As it turns out, those worries were well founded.
Dueling For Dollars
The C-Club has officially announced it’s holding a “Presidential Gala” on March 7, about a month after the Lincoln Day event, which former county GOP treasurer and Gala Chairman Richard McCarter says will “most likely be Fort Bend County’s largest conservative event during 2008.”
But is it conceivable the C-Club’s fund-raiser could possibly outshine the GOP’s premier annual money-making event? You decide:
Speakers at the Lincoln Day dinner at Sugar Land’s Marriott include Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael L. Williams and Pentagon Sept. 11 attack survivor Lt. Col. (Ret.) Brian Birdwell.
Featured speaker at the Gala at Texas Safari Ranch is former White House press secretary and Fox News analyst Tony Snow.
Feel free to record your votes in the comments section below.
In a press release sent by C-Club public relations agency Marion Montgomery, McCarter says money raised from the Gala will be used to support “fiscally conservative candidates who share our same desire to preserve quality of life in Fort Bend County.”
The press release came out a little ahead of the club’s new web site, which consisted on Friday of a one-page hosting company place-holder. But as of today, you can see that $10,000 will get you two 10-person tables, plus 10 VIP tickets for the Gala.
(As a side note, back in October when FortBendNow reported on it, Paula Stansell was listed as the C-Club’s vice chairman. The by-invitation-only club’s new web site now shows the vice chair is vacant. Stansell has announced she’s running against incumbent Charlie Howard for state representative in District 26.)
What Next?
The fun should begin in earnest once the C-Club, a registered political action committee, starts endorsing candidates “who possess high moral principles and fiscally conservative positions on governance.”
If the group is successful in its fund-raising, it will become a force to be reckoned with. One that’s sure to give the official local GOP plenty of fits in the months to come.
Whatever else it does, the founding and population of the C-Club gives breadth and depth to the rift that has rent the local GOP asunder in the wake of the TDE (Tom DeLay Era).
Another Ron Paul Makeover?
Libertarian Bob Smither, who ran against Shelley Sekula Gibbs and eventual winner Nick Lampson in 2006 for the 22nd Congressional District seat, is considering taking another run at it.
Smither said he hasn’t made up his mind yet, but if he runs for CD-22 this time around, it could be as a Republican.
Stay tuned.
