Jonathan Neerman chaired the Dallas County Republican Party from 2008 to 2011 and remains an active supporter of GOP candidates and causes. As a partner at Jackson Walker LLP in Dallas, Neerman is a noted commercial, real estate and securities litigator with experience at the trial and appellate levels in state and federal court. Points asked him to discuss where the Texas Republican Party is today and where it’s going in coming election cycles. This is a longer version of the interview that appears in Points’s print section.
How optimistic should a Texas Republican be heading into the November election?
It’s hard to imagine a scenario in which Republican candidates don’t sweep every statewide office. Wendy Davis does not appear to be getting any traction with independent or soft Republican voters, which she must have to win the governor’s race. Greg Abbott is running a smart campaign that should help down-ballot Republican candidates.
Does the apparent split between factions of Texas Republicans concern you?
The GOP is a coalition of various political factions. That there are disagreements, sometimes public, between those factions should not surprise anyone. My concern for the future is the level of participation from mainstream GOP voters in the primary process. We currently see a very narrow section of each party’s base nominating candidates who are supposed to be representative of the entire party. This leads to candidates often running myopic campaigns focused on sound bites, rather than solutions.
Is your concern one of philosophy or process?
In this instance, policy and process are linked. A handful of third-party groups have done a very good job of motivating a vocal minority of voters to participate in the primaries. Candidates are fearful of these groups, so they often shy away from having open discussions about possible solutions to policy problems. Instead, they stick with campaign rhetoric that ignores issues facing families every day. General election voters then become turned off and choose not to participate in the process.
Does this division in the party worry you for the long term, or is it a temporary condition? And how should concerned Republicans go about fixing it?
The divisions are more exposed because of the weakness of the Democratic Party in Texas. Without strong Democratic candidates to oppose, third-party groups seem to spend their time applying false purity tests to defeat mainstream Republican candidates. Business and civic leaders have taken notice of this, and I expect they will become more engaged.
When you point to third-party groups and purity tests, doDo you mean Michael Quinn Sullivan’s groupsor others under the tea party banner? And haven't we been hearing about increased engagement from business and civic interests for several cycles?
You can certainly look at Empower Texans as one of the pioneers of the third-party efforts, but you can also look at the proliferation of groups around the state that coordinate their campaign activities. They focus on turning out their bloc of support for their favorite candidate but don’t do much to encourage political debate. If a candidate does not agree 100 percent with these groups, he or she is branded a heretic. I think you have already seen business and civic leaders more engaged than they were in the past. Donors are smarter about which campaigns they are willing to support.
But how does that explain the primary defeats of state Sens. John Carona and Bob Deuell or even David Dewhurst (twice) or Dan Branch in the attorney general’s race?
I disagree. These underscore my point. Organized, well-funded third-party efforts assisted the campaigns that defeated these candidates. These efforts, coupled with low turnout in the primary, lead to the defeat of these candidates.
Sullivan would argue that engaging what he calls the conservative grass roots has led to a more vibrant Texas GOP. Do you disagree?
It depends on what your definition of vibrant is. These groups have certainly provided an outlet for that segment of the party, but I don’t see how they have done anything to grow the GOP. They exist to promote a certain agenda, not to support a party. Nor do I see that they have done much to address future problems facing our state.
Are those mutually exclusive goals? Isn’t any political party, at some level, a grouping of agendas?
A political party should, in part, be a place to debate competing ideas. That debate can’t take place if only one segment of the party participates.
Yet the fault doesn’t lie with those participating, does it?
No question. One may disagree with their philosophies and their tactics, but there is no disputing their success. The success of these groups is due, in part, to their ability to work outside the framework of the party. These groups are also not bound by the state’s campaign finance regulations, which gives them additional flexibility.
Have Texas Republicans done enough, or taken the right steps, to make inroads beyond their base of white and aging voters?
We can always do better. I think the outreach is easier at the candidate level. Some of the platform planks that were approved at the last convention make it more difficult for the party to build any momentum.
The GOP will not be able to sway Hispanic voters until, as a party, we moderate our rhetoric on illegal immigration. The delegates at the 2012 convention approved a plank that encouraged a guest-worker program. Two years later, the delegates rejected this “Texas Solution” and replaced it with a more hard-line approach. This plank may be supported by party activists, but it erodes any movement toward growing our base of Hispanic voters.
I also think the language in the platform regarding the LGBT community hurts our ability to attract new voters.
How do you expect Gov. Rick Perry’s abuse-of-power indictment to affect the 2014 vote? As a lawyer yourself, how would you advise him?
I don’t expect the indictment to have any impact. Voters who are aware of the indictment view it through the prism of their own political beliefs. I don’t see the indictment causing many, if any, Republican voters to change their vote.
So you don't see the indictment of a sitting governor affecting turnout for either party in November? And what of the governor's hopes of running for president again in 2016?
I’m a civil lawyer, so I would advise the governor to ignore legal advice from me on criminal matters. I think most voters in Texas already have opinions of Gov. Perry, and it is not likely that this indictment will change them. The indictment may have helped the governor in the short term. Republican base voters around the country view it as a political maneuver by the Democrats. The governor will point to the indictment as a temporary scar from his battles with the left.
Do you see anything that bucks the trend of Texas’ urban areas, including Dallas County, moving more firmly toward the Democrats?
I disagree with the premise. I think Dallas County is very much a toss-up this cycle. The results in 2008 and 2012 are somewhat skewed because of the popularity of President Obama. The 2008 election activated a new group of Democratic voters. In 2010, most Democratic countywide candidates won their races by a few percentage points. President Obama He is not on the ballot in November, and I expect Greg Abbott’s coattails to help the GOP down-ballot candidates. This also means that the county party will need to run a coordinated campaign with the candidates to target low-turnout areas of the county. I hope they will.
As an interested spectator, what advice might you offer to Texas Democrats?
Pundits always predict the problems facing the GOP in future elections, but I think the Democrats face similar problems. To placate their base, Democratic officeholders have had to cast votes that independent voters view as too extreme. These voting records have impeded the party’s ability to recruit legitimate statewide candidates. No candidate is perfect, but the Democrats have to put more emphasis on recruiting.
This Q&A was conducted, edited and condensed by Dallas Morning News editorial writer Mike Hashimoto. His email address is mhashimoto@dallasnews.com. Jonathan Neerman’s email address is jneerman@jw.com.
