Wade Emmert's no longer on the fence about attempting to succeed Jonathan Neerman as Dallas County Republican Party chair. After telling us last week that he was interested in the position, he's now committed to running against current vice chair Debbie Georgatos (pronounced Jor-jah-tos). Precinct chairs will choose between the two in a May 17 election at Fellowship Dallas just south of party headquarters in North Dallas.
"I think a lot of [the precinct chairs] want to see a continuation of Jonathan's fine work, and they see me as the best person to do that," Emmert says.
The winner will serve the remainder of Neerman's second term, which began in May 2010 and ends in May 2012. The next election for chair is during the March 2012 primary.
Emmert, who ran unsuccessfully last year to become county judge, is a member of Mensa and practices corporate law and civil litigation at Burford & Ryburn. He has represented several large companies, including TXU, Oncor, Methodist Health System and Energy Transfer Partners. Emmert claims Georgatos has questioned whether he can dedicate the appropriate time to the job since he's a busy lawyer and raising two young sons, but Emmert doesn't see those issues as harmful to his candidacy. After all, Neerman also is a lawyer and raising two young children of his own.
"Since when is it a negative for a Republican to have a job and a family?" Emmert asks rhetorically.
Emmert's main focus is "fighting election fraud," which is outlined on his website, where he also claims the controversial replacement of Elections Administrator Bruce Sherbet with Toni Pippens-Poole means "stopping corruption will be even more difficult now."
Neerman, who's out of town on business, and Georgatos couldn't be reached for comment.
Update: Georgatos still hasn't returned our call, but her Facebook profile just opened up for all to see. In it, we find out that she's a former president of Park Cities Republican Women, worked for Kay Bailey Hutchison's failed gubernatorial campaign and currently serves as the local co-chair of Michael Williams's U.S. Senate campaign. Oh, and she's a member of the 75230 Tea Party too, so there's that.
