Editorial: Local Officials Play Partisan Politics, Involved In Out-Of-State Groups & Money

Hays County Women’s Political Caucus has a track record of only supporting Democrats.

Candidates fling out the endorsement as bling with a letter and seal as glitter on social media with readers of these posts having no context regarding the endorsement process.

As a candidate in the past with an impeccable 30-year track record as a watchdog in our community for the preservation of our natural environment, promotion of small businesses, advocating for victims of slum lords with the solution being a Tennant’s Council, student housing safety issues, fighting developers dollar bills whose projects deleteriously impact neighborhood integrity, and requesting protection of Native American Artifacts from housing and road projects its surprising Hays County Women’s Caucus has never endorsed any of my bids for elected office.

These issues close to my heart seem aligned with the goals of all residents here in our community, regardless of political party affiliation.

These issues are local issues that impact the safety and quality of life and the long term sustainability of our ecosystem.

Why have I never received the flash and sparkle from the Hays County Political Caucus? Because I don’t bow down to the blue party. 

It’s the residents who end up black and blue from candidates elected to office who are noticeably silent once they sit up in the big boys and girls chair on the Dias. The lack of knowledge of the land development code is painfully apparent upon viewing televised meetings.

These inexperienced elected officials result in poor decision making and prioritize their pet ideologically driven projects influenced by a national political landscape to the detriment of the nuts and bolts like flooding, the ecosystem, and economic development. 

If more attention had been paid to the roll-out of the flood grant recently versus cite-and-release, perhaps the neighbors in Blanco Gardens would not have received that unsavory 30-day notice to move sheds and fences.

Perhaps hotel expenses would already have been recouped as there are national models in place which verify this is a possibility.

It took painfully long even to get this acknowledged by elected officials, including former City Councilmember now County Commissioner candidate Lisa Prewitt.

Yet, when it comes to fighting tooth and nail for local issues, candidates who hold fists in the air leave the public throwing their arms up in frustration from the sneak-attack leadership style of City Manager Bert Lumbreras and his city staff pumping out 30 days notices, sending them out before a holiday weekend.

Then we get a reactive stance versus proactive implementation.

There is no place for national public affairs in local municipal governance. There is certainly no place for partisan politics in city public policy.

As Prewitt has consciously decided to climb the ladder to become a career politician, the climate of local elections has taken a toll on Red versus Blue that has impacted the races of highly qualified candidates.

Social media is often like a high school cheering section versus an educated discussion forum of voters.

Or, more importantly, engaged citizens seeking solutions we can agree upon as a cohesive community.

The work does not stop once you punch the vote for your candidate. How many residents actually pull an agenda packet and watch the local meetings to see why your utility rates increase each year?

And of course, these ultra lefty 30-somethings do not own property taking the hits like our seasoned citizens and working professionals.

Now, something the hippies may want to understand is that travel junkets by city staff and our elected officials not only directly impact property taxes, but they result in increased utility rates. 

Mark Rockeymoore’s recent memo in tonight’s City Council packet giving proverbial “blessings over” increasing your utility rates does not account for the years of exorbitant travel as it directly relates to your utility rates. 

I will be breaking this down in future articles how our progressives like to spend your tax dollars for the advancement of their personal political careers learning fancy new words, making out of state connections, and discovering new ways to run a campaign with national connections at the expense of the in the trenches issues.

San Marcos deserves boots on the ground from elected officials.

Year after year, Hays County Women’s Political Caucus has endorsed candidates who have never stepped front and center at the microphone at a public hearing or citizen comments by virtue of their allegiance to the donkey.

Exemplar case examples: Joca Marquez, Mark Rockeymoore, Omar Bacca. All three of these candidates had never been active in local politics prior to their filing for City Council.

Incumbent Mark Rockeymoore states in his video blog “The Path Forward” that he believes in aliens and UFOS. I’m unsure why this is relevant to a local campaign video blog.

Should neighbors be concerned about the threat of neighborhood integrity from an alien takeover?

Will there be a close encounter of the third kind launching pad in downtown San Marcos?

Does the Land Development Code require another cloak and darkness set of changes during a pandemic on Zoom to protect us from E.T?

E.T. go home and send these inexperienced candidates packing back to the planet from whence they came.

However, even more, troubling than Mark’s admittance in conspiracy theories in his video blog post is his statement that he had no experience before being elected.

In the video on Facebook, he states, “the first term I was finding out what the job was about, it was like being hit in the face with a fire hose, and I was taking in all this information.”

I always thought the idiom was drinking from a firehose.

And with Mark’s continual reference to criminal justice reform is concerning to many in our community considering the context of national political terrain of local candidates in connection to Soros.

Chair of the Criminal Justice Reform Committee, Mark Rockeymoore, clearly has agendas he is seeking to push through City Council.

And, his colleague Melissa Derrick is in lockstep as his wing girl. At the Oak Heights forum on Sunday, she asked the candidates if they would repeal cite-and-release.

In 30 years of being involved in our community, I have never seen a current elected official who was allowed to ask questions at a candidate forum of current candidates running for election.

If Melissa felt so strongly, she could have had a friend ask the question. Does San Marcos have to worry that we will become another Austin with our public safety under threat of defunding the SMPD budget?

I mean, under Mark’s ideology, we may need the cops to protect us from the aliens, after all.

What is more troubling than the knitting hands of Hays County Women’s Caucus are national organizations that infiltrate local elections. Trickle-down partisan politics via endorsements occur with monetary support and social media hits.

And this turns into a deluge from the stratosphere, perchance where the aliens reside in highly organized crowdsourcing from ultra-left-wing organizations with no investment in our community.

Being backed by special interest money infiltrates San Marcos, and local candidates are claiming bragging rights.

Take, for example, Lisa Prewitt, who is running for a County Commissioner seat; most recent announcement,

“Hello Friends, We wanted to reach out to let you know that our campaign is gaining momentum, energy, and building so much incredible support! In the midst of all of our hard work to flip the Hay County Commissioners to a Democratic majority, something awesome happened this week!

Lisa’s story was shared on the Pantsuit Nation Facebook group, which has over 3 million members!

“The response from Pantsuit Nation was incredible, and within just a few hours, we increased our Facebook followers by 767%, received contributions from supporters in several states, and progressives from across the country started taking notice of our little grassroots campaign right here in Hays County.”

In my opinion, Pantsuit Nation seems to be a bunch of seersuckers with their private group, intent on infiltrating local communities as their Facebook page states, “We build power nationally and locally.” 

Hays County deserves the most qualified candidates in tune with local concerns, not bulleted topics popular on Facebook by readers who never take an interest in pulling a City Council or County Commissioner agenda.

Electric Utility rates are impacted by exorbitant travel junkets, which Lisa Prewitt was front and center during her “career” on the San Marcos City Council to Smart Growth Conferences.

Anyone experienced in neighborhood integrity or historical preservation issues is keenly aware that “Smart Growth” is the Death Star to local landmarks and natural resources. 

Lisa’s recent endorsement by Pantsuit Nation is troublesome. First, Lisa is receiving campaign donations from out of state funders.

Second, invite-only groups on Facebook are not transparent in terms of goals or tactics to the general public.

Now I’m sure Lisa has stated on more than one occasion during her first two bids for city council her concerns about outside developer interests.

What is troubling is that she does not see she is committing the same fallacy with an ultra left-wing agenda with a bunch of britches outsiders. 

What happened to these humble beginnings of Lisa and her focus on the hyper-local.

Third, it is virtually impossible to follow the money trail with these organizations that the smarty pants affiliate themselves.

I would much rather see where the money is coming from the local business community writing checks to a candidate versus outside agitators. 

Take, for instance, Dr. Henderson’s race a few years back. The public hammered him for taking money from Scott Gregson.

Well, we knew he accepted a check from Scott, and at least this was transparent. We don’t know where the money is coming from regarding these “nonpartisan ultra left-wing organizations.

I’ll go for the Pippi Longstocking candidate any day of the week over the Pantsuit Nation with its secret Facebook group, outsider crowdsourcing, and dark money. Lisa is just blowing hot air up our skirts when she purports. 

“Now, I am embarking on running for Hays County Commissioner–my first partisan race,” Prewitt said, “Because I cannot sit by and watch our commissioners erode voting rights in my county while they sell out and gentrify communities to the highest bidder, accepting dark money and making backroom deals at our expense.”

Professor Lisa Maria Coppoletta | Editorial

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