Following his resignation last month, the outgoing chairman of the Dallas County Republican Party has offered a scathing rebuke to a GOP congressman.
Mark Montgomery, who resigned in July, describes Pete Sessions as a “career politician” who put his own reelection “above the wishes of Dallas County voters.”
In a statement released over the weekend, Montgomery alleged that Sessions brokered a deal with Democrats to not contest any of their seats in South Dallas, giving renewed credibility to a long-standing rumor among party activists. Montgomery said he faced intimidation and threats from Sessions, and was asked by the congressman’s staff to violate federal campaign finance laws, in addition to demands that the county party’s fundraising efforts be run through Sessions’ office.
Montgomery’s full statement:
Top Republican Refused to Support the County Party
It was with deep regret that I had to resign as the Chairman of the Dallas County Republican Party last week. However, the care and welfare of my family comes first and foremost above the job that I was elected to perform. The position of Chairman of the Dallas County GOP is not only a full time job but also requires attending meetings and functions at night. The time has now come that I can no longer ignore the needs of my family over the requirements of the Party.
The Dallas County GOP has three main functions. One is to find and vet candidates to run for public offices. We have already found a few good men and women that are willing to run for and fill current and future vacancies.
The second function of the party is to hold elections. We recruited over 700 Republican election judges and clerks to serve in upcoming November election and the primary next year.
The third function of the party is to raise money. The GOP office has a monthly overhead of $13,000 to pay staff, rent and operating expenses. Money raised beyond that is used for programs to promote the party in general and all Republican candidates.
Our elected officials have a big role in the support of the County Party. The officials and the party are to work hand in hand together to raise money and win elections. Sadly, and to the disenfranchisement of those who elected me to office, I was immediately faced with strong opposition from within our own Party.
A couple of weeks after I won the Primary Election, I made an appointment to meet with Congressman Pete Sessions (R-CD32) to introduce myself and discuss how we could work together. The Congressman called me personally to say that he was looking forward to meeting me and asked if he needed to bring anything to the meeting. I replied that I just wanted to meet him and talk about plans going forward. He said, “So we are just going to put our feet up on the table and shoot the bull?” which I replied to as “yes”.
When I met him at his campaign headquarters he was noticeably irritated. To make a 20 minute story short, he stood over me, shook his finger in my face, made threats, demands and launched insults. He pounded on the table demanding that I not do any work in South Dallas to promote Republicans running for office.
Of course it is well-known that Congressman Sessions has a verbal agreement with Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-CD30) that the Republican Party will not run a viable candidate in South Dallas as long as the Democrat Party doesn’t run a viable candidate in North Dallas, particularly in his district. In other words, the Democrats can run South Dallas and the Republicans will run North Dallas. If you have doubts, then why have Republican candidates been discouraged from entering races in South Dallas, and been unsupported by the Party when they ran anyway?
Then there was the accusation from the Congressman, that according to Facebook gossip, Russ Ramsland and I were launching a campaign to support the Libertarian candidate, Ed Rankin, against him in the November election. There is no truth whatsoever to the accusation. It is purely rumor-mongering and gossip.
Sessions has worked against the County Party by telling some of the State elected officials not to support the County Party and that they could depend on him instead to help with their elections.
I also think that most people would find it appalling that a Sessions campaign worker, who is also a County Party precinct chair, would ask me via email, to send out fundraising notices from candidates, which is a violation of Federal law. You would think that after watching the Clinton email scandal unfold that the worker would have learned a lesson. I guess that sometimes vengeance has no conscience.
Numerous attempts were made from the County Party to bring Sessions and his staff to an understanding that we had the best interest of the County as our upmost priority which also included his reelection. All of these attempts were met with a flat refusal.
I wish to thank the voters of Dallas County who elected me to serve as your Chairman. You all have shown me overwhelming support and it was my honor and privilege to have served you in the short time that I had in the office.
To me, it is a shame that a career politician will put his reelection above the wishes of the voters of Dallas County.
Mark Montgomery
