| Fort Bend Republican Party Chairman Gary Gillen on Thursday surprised luncheon attendees at a Republican women's group with the news that he and four other officers in the county's executive committee will be resigning their posts.
Leaving with Gillen are secretary Nancy Porter, treasurer Richard McCarter, parliamentarian Dick Hudgins and general counsel Farhan Ahmed.
Gillen, who won the office in May 2006, faced critics from the outset. At his first meeting as party chair, a group of precinct chairs blindsided him with a successful bid to have the local party's rules rewritten, taking away from Gillen some spending authority and power to nominate party officers.
Friction between Gillen and a vocal group of precinct chairs, who cast votes as members of the party's executive committee, have not slowed in the 18 months since.
Gillen accuses his critics of comprising a “fringe group,” and he blamed them for his decision to leave the office.
“We all believed we were no longer able to do our jobs because of the constant infighting with the fringe group that was fighting us at every turn, attacking us at every turn.”
Members of the executive committee, in turn, have accused Gillen of unethical behavior. He was sued by his own party in 2006 when he formed his own political action committee and used that, rather than the formal party structure, to host the annual Lincoln-Reagan fundraising dinner.
In recent weeks, Gillen has faced two new controversies. He refused to sign off on the purchase of postage for the county party's October newsletter, citing the decision of those in charge to place an advertisement for Congressional District 22 candidate Dean Hrbacek directly next to an article about candidates in that race.
More recently, precinct chair Dave Stone of Sugar Land has circulated an e-mail in which he alleges the county party violated state and federal election and tax laws and could be liable for tens of thousands of dollars.
“I think that was just one more straw,” said Gillen, concerning the charges. “These accusations, these claims, have been made for months. We have talked to the Texas Ethics Committee, the Federal Elections Committee, the IRS and experts in law and finance, and we don't believe that any of these charges are accurate.”
Filling Gillen's position is the next big question for the party. Texas Election Code states the secretary for the county executive committee must call a special meeting for the purpose of appointing a new chair.
State party spokesman Hans Klinger said this represents the first instance where both a party chair and a party secretary stepped down, and said Friday party officials are researching the proper procedure.
“Being that this is an unprecedented move, we are reviewing and methodically going through what the bylaws say, and we'll have a statement on how this is going to go as soon as we finish the process,” he said.
Precinct chair Therese Raia of Sugar Land has been active in Republican politics in Fort Bend County for decades. She supports the new party bylaws, which she said were not aimed at Gillen.
“If they were not proper bylaws that had good substance and good direction, they would have never passed. Let's face it: majority rules,” she said.
As for Gillen's resignation, she said “nobody was notified they were going to do this.”
“If they had the intent of resigning, then the honorable thing to do was to call an executive committee meeting and to make that announcement to us there,” she said.
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