Audio By Carbonatix
Anderson Cooper, for one, will be disappointed, but Debbie Georgatos is no longer part of the Republican Party’s local leadership team. The avant-garde filmmaker and would-be Beat poet has resigned her post “as a courtesy,” newly installed Dallas County GOP chair Wade Emmert tells Unfair Park this morning.
“She resigned,” Emmert says. “There was no drama. But, no, she wasn’t fired. She resigned just out of courtesy to me. I thought about putting
out a video to announce it, but I didn’t do that.” The lawyer laughs. “I’m joking.”
I called the former candidate for Dallas County judge this morning because a Friend of Unfair Park forwarded along this list of new party leaders, which names Jason Villalba — chair of the Dallas County Chapter of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly — the party’s new vice-chair, the position held by Georgatos.Villalba, you may recall, is the guy who didn’t ask Ed Okpa to that mayoral forum at Thomas Jefferson till “outcry” convinced him maybe he oughta extend the invite.
Brint Ryan’s the new party finance chair. And I know you remember him: Ryan ran against Ann Margolin for Mitchell Rasansky’s District 13 council seat in 2009. And it got fugly.
Emmert’s on his way to WFAA to tape Sunday morning’s episode of Inside Texas Politics. The subject, per host Brad Watson’s tweet: “What’s GOP strategy now for very blue DalCo?” Emmert says, for starters, it involves bringing a guy like Villalba into party leadership.
“He’s not only a very capable guy, but have you ever seen a Hispanic taking such a leadership role in the county GOP?” Emmert says. “He’s so well respected in the community. I didn’t want an outreach program; I wanted to integrate other perspectives into our leadership. He wasn’t chosen because he’s Hispanic, but he does bring a community the county party has typically struggled to reach.”
