Downtown Pachyderm

I was literally worried that Paul Simpson would catch fire yesterday during his presentation at the Downtown Pachyderm.

For years, Simpson has blamed all of his losses and failures as chairman of the Harris County Republican Party on President Trump. Simpson, following President Trump’s 2016 victory, did not mention President Trump’s name one time for three years in the Harris County Executive Committee meetings attended by hundreds of precinct chairs. Paul Simpson is obviously a Never Trumper supported by Never Trumpers.

Simpson does not deny his Never Trumper status. If you ask Paul why the Republicans lost Harris County in 2016, he will say because of Donald John Trump. What about 2018? Same problem. This is absolutely garbage logic, but it is what you get when he is taking money from Never Trumpers. Money over principle.

Yesterday, Simpson attended the Downtown Pachyderm forum for the Harris County Republican Party Chairman’s race and I was there to ask a few questions.

I regularly attend this group and wanted to see what he would say about the resolution passed by the Executive Committee on February 3 removing his campaign consultant Kevin Shuvalov and Mammoth Marketing Group.

The Downtown Pachyderm group normally has one or two Simpson supporters attending and a few more showed up to this meeting. Simpson never mentioned the resolution and Tom Zakes, the moderator, was determined to not let me ask about it.

I did get to ask Simpson about why he thought it was important to circumvent the Vacancy Committee and run precinct chairs through the Executive Committee only. As many of you know, my wife serves as Secretary of the Vacancy Committee. Before each meeting, she reviews the background of each applicant. This is a lot work for her and the committee. I can tell you that many members of this committee work very hard to follow their duties and responsibilities.

It is clear that Paul does not want the Vacancy Committee to actually screen applicants based on his call for the direct approval of applicants by the Executive Committee bypassing the Vacancy Committee interview process. This is a slap in the face to the Vacancy Committee and the HCRP Bylaws. The Vacancy Committee process is very important. For example, an HCRP employee was interviewed by the committee. During the meeting, it was revealed that this employee had a D voting history and previously worked for at least one D campaign.

At Thursday’s meeting, Simpson supporters were able to ask softball questions and burn time. This tactic, however, required Simpson to speak, which was revealing. For example, Paul described his discussion with a real estate developer supporter who did NOT want to give money to the party because of social conservative issues. Paul did not reveal the name of this alleged contributor. It could have been Alan Hassenflu who provides office space to Paul Simpson’s consultant, Mammoth Marketing Group, or Dick Weekley (his mother-in-law is the former President of Planned Parenthood). Both have given money to Paul and the party. Maybe this is why Paul wholly failed to show up in the fight to protect David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt from prosecution by former “Republican” DA Devon Anderson.

Yesterday, I wanted to ask Simpson about Clint Moore’s resolution the year before supporting Paul Bettencourt’s property tax proposal. The resolution required the party to disseminate the resolution to all statewide elected officials and county parties. The day after this meeting, Simpson met with the HCRP staff and instructed the staff to NOT disseminate the resolution. Paul directed all calls concerning the resolution from precinct chairs to be routed to Nathan Gordon, who now works for Mammoth Marketing Group, Paul Simpson’s consultant. I asked Paul if he knew whether or not a recording existed of that meeting with staff. Paul Simpson had no memory.