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February 3, 2021 4:38 PM SB: Texas GOP Chair Allen West likely to have difficulty influencing legislators unless he first calms inner conflicts at the partyA chairman apparently chosen by roughly 600 delegates out of about 12,000 might one day wield influence at the Legislature but not before focusing on party infrastructure; Vice Chair Cat Parks disagrees with West on legislative priorities, highlighting that the RPT isn’t structured like a right-wing enforcement group wherein everyone marches to the tune of a few wealthy donors Aggravation was building
among many in the GOP this week after the Republican Party of Texas
began directing folks to the Empower Texans Scorecard ratings of
lawmakers as a resource. “The merging begins,” quipped one political observer
after the Scorecard was linked
on the party’s homepage. During a brief but polite
phone conversation with Chairman Allen West, it did not seem apparent to
him why promoting Empower Texans through the RPT website would be
controversial. Of course, this is a group whose cottage industry revolves
around attacking Republicans and spending millions of dollars to defeat them in
elections. Chair West said he would
check with party staff about how it happened. It is just the latest fire to put
out after questions about party finances, a nonstop defense of West’s “We
are the Storm” slogan, and the firing of a party staffer over social
media posts from last month’s deadly riot in Washington. In a follow up
conversation, the party’s communications director Luke Twombley
said the Empower Texans ratings were used as a placeholder while the party
could build its own page about information on members of the Legislature. The
Empower Texans link was subsequently removed from the RPT’s main webpage, but
it is still being disseminated as a “resource” by the chair of the party’s Legislative
Priorities Committee. And that may be of more
significance when it comes to how this session will unfold.
By Scott Braddock |
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Copyright February 03, 2021, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved