We have had good and bad CC GOP County Chairs in the past. I think that many inside the Collin County Republican Party agree that Shelby Williams was the worst chair in the history of the party. He made such a mess of our party that it is hard to know where to start to explain what a disaster he was.
Something very pertinent is the poor financial shape in which he left the party after mismanaging our yearly fundraiser, the Lincoln Day Dinner. If you vote on Election Day at an "Election Day Only" polling place, look at the staffing for our party. I have heard from multiple people that only one election clerk will be permitted at Election Day Only polling places. That should give you a long line at the Republican setup. Fortunately the Democrats will be there and I hear that they will be better staffed. It's the lack of money that is the problem. Traditionally the Democrats have processed ballots for Republicans, so you are in luck.
Another example of how bad Shelby Williams was as County Party Chairman, when i went to the kickoff for the Woody Huffines campaign for County Commissioner, Pct 4, versus Shelby Williams, I can tell you that his kickoff party was packed wall-to-wall with both factions of the party: the Grassroots and the Establishment. There are a handful of precinct chairs still loyal to Shelby Williams, but the party as a whole turned against him and forced him out. Most people do not know it, but there was a resolution prepared to demand his immediate resignation. Shelby Williams resigned abruptly because he heard we were going to vote to ask him to leave. That would have been a public record. What we have as hard evidence of this is a cryptic comment in a call-for-meeting about a letter from a precinct chair. That was the letter demanding his resignation.
Shelby Williams was there less than a year and he made a big mess of our party. He was horrible right from the very beginning. At the organizational meeting where he was sworn in he set the tone for his entire reign. This meeting was marred by lying, cheating, chaos, and bullying.
First, he wanted to change our party rules without telling us what the changes were. As we struggled to postpone a vote on the rules until we could see the changes, Williams' hatchet-man, Stephen Kallas, made so many interrupting motions that we could not tell what we were voting on. Stephen Kallas plunged the meeting into chaos.
As it became clear that we did not want to be rushed into signing a contract without reading it, i.e., passing rules changes without knowing what the changes were, Mr. Williams resorted to a bluff. He told us that if we did not pass his rules, then we would have no rules and he would adjourn the meeting without us accomplishing anything. That bluff was a lie. The old rules would have governed our meeting, but enough precinct chairs were scared so as to vote for unknown rules. Other precinct chairs were so confused by Mr. Kallas's interrupting motions that they voted for the rules change when they thought that they were voting against the rules change. It was a chaotic mess and a harbinger of the year to come. Lying, bullying and chaos were the hallmarks of the Shelby Williams reign.
Then there was the cheating. The Shelby Williams camp knew that I was going to be re-elected as the HD66 chair, so they implemented a clever cheat. In the vote for HD66 chair, a little old lady from HD67 insisted on voting in my election. I had votes to spare and I did not have the heart to call the Sergeant at Arms to have the little old lady ejected. Because I was declared the winner, I did not call a Point of Order and insist on a re-vote. That was the trap that they set for me, and I fell into it. In the many hundreds of pages of Roberts Rules of Order there is only one event that permits an untimely point of order: when jurisdictional lines are crossed. That clever cheat allowed Shelby Williams to create new precinct chairs to vote against me, and to have vote after vote, after vote until my supporters were worn out by the persistent and intense bullying.
We learned a lot about cheating under the Shelby Williams reign. And the tradition of cheating continues. Mr. Williams made Stephen Kallas his First Vice Chair, and now Mr. Kallas is running for JP4 Justice of the Peace while living in the JP1 precinct. Shelby Williams is gone, but his bad influence continues.
Republican voters have a right to know what has happened inside our party. I have postponed telling you because it is unpleasant and I don't like shedding light on our failings. We have to do better. We still have problems with bullying, not in our Executive Committee meetings,but out in the polling places.
I knew Shelby Williams would be a bad party chair and I warned people, but there were too many uninformed voters and he took power and damaged our party. Heaven only knows what kind of damage he might do as a County Commissioner.
Thank you for your patience on a complicated topic.
Robert Canright
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