Taxpayers have emerged as the big winners with the defeat of Conroe Independent School District’s $807 million bond/tax hike proposal. With all precincts reporting and 15,230 votes cast, the bond failed with 8,297 against and 6,933 in favor, or 54.48 percent to 45.52 percent.
The results are the latest in a long string of victories in recent years for Montgomery County’s grassroots activists, as tea parties and other conservative groups mobilized to defeat the tax hike. Election returns demonstrated that the tea party continues to gain strength in the county’s population centers: The Woodlands and Conroe.
The Montgomery County Republican Party took a strong stance against the bond and played an instrumental role in ensuring its defeat. The MCRP executive committee had passed a resolution condemning the bond and then demonstrated the will and ability to back up that resolution with results.
The county’s two tea party groups, the Texas Patriots PAC and Montgomery County Tea Party, both opposed the bond as well, with the Texas Patriots PAC sending an anti-bond mailer.
Countless grassroots activists knocked on doors and made calls in an effort spearheaded by Kelli Cook. Precinct chairs came out in force, walking their precincts with anti-bond literature. Eric Yollick published a steady stream of articles exposing waste in the bond on The Golden Hammer.
Lacking a network of grassroots supporters, the Montgomery County establishment attempted to buy the election instead, with government contractors spending tens of thousands of dollars hoping the bond would pass so they could get the business. Conroe ISD administration waged a campaign of threats and fear mongering within the district, hoping to turn out employees to vote for the bond.
In the end, Montgomery County’s political elites were again soundly defeated. The grassroots activists have great cause for optimism, with new people moving into the county making the good old boys more and more irrelevant. The trend continues with the defeat of the bond and the great victory for conservatives and taxpayers it represents.