July 4, 2020

West Texas Local GOP Votes to Castigate
Governor for COVID-19 Freedom Trampling

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor

The coronavirus celebrated July the 4th in Texas with a bang on Saturday amid record-shattering case and hospital counts and a vote by GOP activists in Odessa to condemn Governor Greg Abbott for his handling of the pandemic as the lone commander here.

The Ector County Republican executive board approved a motion to censure the governor on a 10-1 vote that could trigger a chain reaction of similar moves by local GOP organizations between now and the state convention that the party is planning to stage in Houston in person this month.

The group of conservative party loyalists endorsed the resolution that accused Abbott of violating the state and federal constitutions and the Declaration of Independence with the suspension of laws that his emergency orders superceded with an overreach of executive power.

The local party declared in the resolution that the governor had failed to preserve freedom in Texas with decrees that culminated in the shuttering of businesses throughout the month of April.

Abbott's lockdown constituted a "denial of due process to millions of Texans, constituted takings without just compensation by closing businesses without just cause, denied the people the right to freedom of assemble, and imposed onerous mandates, fines, and imprisonment upon the people" according to the Ector resolution.

The activists in the Odessa area say nothing in the stinging Abbott rebuke about the governor's goal of protecting the public health and the long-term economy with the minimal restrictions that he's imposed here during the initial outbreak. The scathing assessment of Abbott's leadership also ignores the criticism that he received from Democrats and some fellow Republicans for reopening Texas on a fast track that has backfired with the virus resurgence.

The Abbott admonishment resolution doesn't recognize that the dramatic actions were taken for the sake of the state's survival in a pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 2,600 people in Texas. The activists failed to recognize in the anti-Abbott rant that Ector County is one of two dozen in Texas where the number of new cases has more than doubled in the past two weeks. Ector County has set records for new confirmed infections on 10 days in the past month as a major hot spot in the second surge.

With the party already staggering amid bitter internal warring, the county party's denunciation of the GOP's top Texas leader could be the opening salvo in a full-scale mutiny that could be shaping up for the state convention that the Republicans are planning to stage in Houston in person less than two weeks from now.

While the governor is the target of the local Republicans' wrath, Texas GOP Chairman James Dickey could be a bigger loser than Abbott if the Ector party maneuvering sets off a chain reaction in the midst of an imposing challenge from Allen West in a bid for re-election at an upcoming convention that still has a good chance of going virtual with a shift to Zoom.

West served one term in the U.S. House as a representative in a district in south Florida after a career in the military. A significant number of the activists who are turning against the governor have appeared to be backing West for the state party's top leadership post. Hardline conservatives perceive to Dickey to be an Abbott ally after the state party boss defended the governor when restrictions that he'd imposed at the end of March sparked an initial outcry on the right.

The Democrats in the meantime are the undisputed winners in the clash between the establishment and grassroots conservatives just months before the general in a state where the GOP could be poised to lose in a presidential contest for the first time since 1976.

The coronavirus can take most of the credit for the Republicans' epic unraveling in a state where the number of new infections has soared almost 175 percent in the past month. The state's frantic game of catch up is being seriously complicated and undermined by Republican leaders who are rejecting Abbott calls for a Texas team effort with public announcements that they plan to ignore the mask order and limitations on public gatherings that he implemented last week.

Texas posted its highest daily count of new infections with 8,258 new cases today as records were blown apart in Dallas and Bexar counties. The daily infection tally hit high points in El Paso, Denton, Brazoria, Jefferson, McLennan, Taylor, Tom Green and Victoria counties as well.

The San Antonio and Dallas areas have been getting slammed this week with records falling again on Saturday with 1,334 and 1,085 new cases in Bexar County and Dallas County respectively.

The Waco area has been one of the two hottest Texas spots in the second surge with the virus breaking records for three of the past four days in McLennan County where the new case count has skyrocketed more than 199 percent in a week.

As a growing Central Texas locality that still revolves around Baylor University with Chip and Joanna as a publicity bonanza, McLennan County has been getting a massive dose of COVID-19 in the second round after having one of the lowest rates among the major population centers with the initial dusting. McLennan posted yet another high mark today with 271 more coronavirus cases on the daily log sheet.

The virus had appeared to have little interest in Corpus Christi as well the first time around as Nueces County had the lowest rate of infections among areas of similar sizes or larger. Hidalgo County had appeared to be getting off almost as easily during the initial outbreak while neighboring Cameron County had twice as many cases but a relatively modest record nonetheless during the pandemic's first two full months with South Padre Island as a prime incubator.

Both Nueces and McLennan counties had daily infection tallies go up almost 500 percent during the past two weeks when the number of new cases more than doubled in Hidalgo County during the same span of time. The disease has been making up for lost time with a vengeance in other midsize destinations like the Midland-Odessa area, Wichita Falls, San Angelo and Tyler where the virus has left a path of shattered records in its wake during the recycling after very low initial rates.

With San Antonio as the hub, Bexar County appeared to escape the wrath of the first outbreak on paper before the numbers started soaring in the past month.

RESOLUTION