Harris County Republican Political Consultant Joins Fight Against Public Safety
Harris County Republican Party consultant Kevin Shuvalov has apparently joined the fight AGAINST Houston firefighters. While he is supposedly working to elect Harris County Republicans in the November election, he is also working to support the Houston Police Officers Union and Sylvester Turner’s opposition to Houston firefighters and public safety. Shuvalov held the same strategist position with the Harris County Republican Party in 2016 – and failed miserably. No Harris County Republican elected officials on the 2018 ballot can be happy with this situation.
Blakemore is putting the band back together with Shuvalov, Sara Kinney, and Begala/McGrath. The very people who brought you Devon Anderson and SB2190 are the ones working against taxpayers, public safety, and firefighters. Worse by voting against Prop B you are voting to raise your taxes. If Prop B fails Sylvester Turner will be moving to place the removal of the Property Tax Cap/Revenue Cap on the next November ballot. It should always be remembered that the City charter can only be amended every two years. Voting for Prob B prevents the property tax removal.
Every single countywide Republican lost in 2016 because Shuvalov ginned up democrat votes for Sarah Davis in HD 134. This will be the strategy for the police union in 2018 – to turn out democrat votes against firefighters and public safety. Shuvalov will work HD 134 to turn out the votes against the firefighters and get his client, Sarah Davis, elected. None of this is good for the Harris County Republican ticket.
Special interest politics has dominated Paul Simpson’s term in office and it has cost our local party dearly. The Simpson strategy has always been to appeal to liberal ideology at the expense of Republican core values. Campaigning against public safety is Simpson’s worst decision yet.
Make no mistake, this issue is coming up because Shuvalov worked against the firefighters on the SB 2190 legislation, and the police bond that followed. Paul Simpson testified in favor of SB 2190, which was horrible public policy. Borrowing money to pay a debt you couldn’t afford in the first place is always a bad idea. This is the reason economists always advise again pension obligation bonds. Houston firefighters opposed SB 2190 because it punished them for being responsible stewards of the public dollar since they made the City of Houston fully fund their pension. Shuvalov, Simpson, and Mayor Turner supported taking $873 million from firefighters for a debt they didn’t incur.
Many Republican elected officials will be scared to go against the police and they should lose. There is a core group of very liberal and special interest Republicans surrounding Paul Simpson who continue to sell out Republican core values. They all need to leave and do so before the election.
Simpson & Co., I am running out of “I told you sos.”
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Did you forget that Rebuild Houston which is on the ballot is also a charter amendment so if it passes and the fire department issue fails, the Mayor will not be able to make any additional changes to the charter, (eg tax cap removal) for two years.
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Doug,
No, I listened to Republican City Council members recently say that I should support the “rain tax”, Rebuild, ReNew Houston- whatever they are calling it these days. I am voting NO on ReBuild and YES for the Firefighters. Btw, there is not one City Councilman who does not think the parity issue won’t pass. The City so brilliantly framed these as public safety issues during the SB2190 campaign and no one other than the Mayor and HPOU are going to campaign against it. There is a very famous legal case at play here, and a simple legal concept. Goose V Gander
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No, I absolutely knew and want ReNew to fail and FF parity to pass.
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I was referring to this sentence: “If Prop B fails Sylvester Turner will be moving to place the removal of the Property Tax Cap/Revenue Cap on the next November ballot”
That is incorrect if Prop A passes.
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True, but if the voters vote for the rain tax again I am likely to move.