Sour grapes are funny things. After the amazing victory by Juan Garcia over Republican Gene Seaman in the Coastal Bend in 2006, local republican officials just cannot come to grips with reality. Repeatedly, the Nueces County GOP apparatus continues to swing wildly into the air, hitting nothing and looking like fools.
First, since his win, four frivolous ethics complaints againt Rep. Garcia filed by local GOP officials have been dismissed by the Ethics Commission.
Second, former Nueces County Republican Chair Joel Yowell filed a massive public information request of Rep. Garcia’s State Representative office, including every email, phone call and employee document ever generated by the office. After Garcia's staff was forced to burn dozens of taxpayer-paid man-hours complying with his request, Yowell sent the records back unopened, simply changing his mind. Yowell gave no reason for his sudden change of heart. I suspect he is afraid of what happens if we peer into his house.
Third, in an even more bizarre episode, Republican staffer and campaign consultant, Todd Gallaher, got caught using state computers for campaign work, created an email account designed to look like it was from Rep. Garcia and tried to blackmail a sitting Coastal Bend Sheriff. Later, he lied to an ethics watchdog group who filed a complaint against his boss by claiming to be Dallas Morning New reporter.
This week, Mike Bertuzzi, current Nueces County Republican Chair, sent out 20,000 mailers attacking Rep. Juan Garcia for not returning campaign contributions given by Corpus Christi businessman Mauricio Celis. Not surprisingly, Bertuzzi, the ring leader of this bumbling "gang that couldn't shoot straight", didn't bother to check his facts.
Last January, Garcia donated the Celis money to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, which serves severly injured American service personnel from South Texas.
The “Center for the Intrepid” serves military personnel who have been catastrophically disabled in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and veterans severely injured in other operations and in the normal performance of their duties.
Here is clip of Rep. Garcia addressing the local media on the false mailers:
ADVERTISEMENT
It is amazing that Todd Hunter's lackeys are so intent of following his directives that they forget to fact check. Or, maybe they do fact check and are simply comfortable lying to the voter.
What is really happening in House District 32 is that the voters found someone who can represent their interests. They have proven themselves to be fiercely independent. That is my old home district and I have found that people are happy with Rep. Garcia and are glad to be rid of the partisans who used have had their way down there. That is why people have crossed party lines to vote for Garcia. He's is a different kind of Democrat - endorsed by the NRA and the Texas Medical Association, a Commander still flying with the U.S. Navy Reserves, supported as strongly in the affluent posh neighnorhood of Key Allegro as he is in the struggling neighborhoods of South Taft - and its driving the GOP Leadership crazy
District 32 is a microcosm of what has ignited across this land. Throughout the country, people are tired of the politics of division. Over 75,000 people showed up for rally in Oregon yesterday. They want their country back. No longer will we let them to put politics before the people.
People like Bertuzzi, Yowell and Hunter hate this. They live to divide because their message just does not resonate any more. We yearn for one united country not the “us against them” mentality that has damage this country for almost the last 8 years. The stakes are too high to let these people scare us into believing their spin.
In an amusing note, Mike Bertuzzi has managed to get himselfsued in the Texas Supreme Court. During the 2008 Republican Primary, Bertuzzi is alleged to be hiding some inner party shenanigans. It appears that delegates were preordained undemocratically and that activist members were not allowed to be delegates. I say, “appears” because the Republican refuse to release the minutes or the records of who the delegates are. There is even a weird You Tube clip about this (weirdness starts at 3:39). I guess transparency in government is only good when you ask for it from the other side. Hey Bertuzzi, R.W. Emerson has something to tell you, “What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.”
UPDATE: Apparently, the Republican leadership didn't like that Garcia gave the money to a veterans group (from a Garcia email blast)
Veteran Mike Lohan responds to Nueces Co Republican Party Chair Bertuzzi's comment that giving to the Fallen Heroes Fund was not the right thing for Juan to do:
"I know of no more noble cause than giving to the www.fallenheroesfund.org, which rehabilitates the severely injured Marines, soldiers, sailors, and airmen so they may possibly return to living productive lives. Juan made the right choice."
