GOP plays musical precinct chairs

by BRAD ROLLINS

With no shortage of marquee matchups on both parties’ primary ballots Tuesday, the campaign for internal control of the Hays County Republican Party has drawn little notice.

Candidates are vying for the county party chairmanship as well as five precinct chairmanships, echoes of recent skirmishes within the local GOP between adherents of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul and more mainstream Republicans. Hays County Democrats, by contrast, have no contested precinct chair elections and party chair Katie Bell Moore is running unopposed.

Election Day is Tuesday, March 2. Early voting runs through Friday. As of Monday, 1,489 Democrats and 1,830 Republicans have cast ballots in early voting.

Two years ago, an insurgency of Paul supporters won several precinct chairmanships and attorney Craig Young was elected county chair. A little more than a year into his term, in April last year, Young resigned the chair position. Now he’s back in the running, this time for Precinct 337 chair in the Wimberley area where Young recently relocated from Kyle.

“I wanted to get back in and stay involved in the party. If I don’t win, I’m still going to be around,” Young said. Young is running against incumbent precinct chair Glenda Wilcox, a teaching assistant.

In three other precinct chair races, candidates aligned with Young are competing against incumbents: Precinct 116 (Rob Roark versus incumbent Jimmie Scott; Precinct 225 (David C. Crowell versus incumbent Stuart G. Hoyt; and Precinct 330 (Sean Bolock versus Jim Green). There is also a contested race in Precinct 113 where Naomi Narvaiz is competing against Teresa Alvelo although Young said neither of those candidates are affiliated with a particular faction.

Young said, in general, that the intra-party campaigns have been less contentious than in recent years “because there’s less at stake.” Unlike in 2008, a presidential election is not in play and winning delegate slates to the state and national conventions are less important.

Precinct chairmanships are largely organizational ground-level positions responsible for delivering neighborhoods to the polls; precinct chairs also comprise the party’s executive committee.

Two candidates competing to be party chair, incumbent Bud Wymore of Buda and Clark Regan of San Marcos, are also conducting campaigns with few obvious signs of rancor.

“It’s very exciting to see democracy in action and we’re just working hard to get people to the polls,” said Wymore, 27, a law student appointed to the chairmanship last year after Young’s resignation.

Said Regan, a 60-year-old marketing manager, “I’m just very aware that we’ve got some folks out there that are disenfranchised and not happy. I just want to take the pulse of what’s going on and work to unite the party.”