Gary M. Polland
Encyclopedia
Gary Michael Polland is a Houston
, Texas
, attorney
who is the former elected chairman of the Harris County
Republican Party
(1996–2002) and the publisher of the Texas Conservate Review, which he issues periodically on the Internet
. From 2001-2006, the politically conservative Polland cohosted with the liberal
commentator David A. Jones a weekly one-hour program Texas Politics - The Real Deal on Houston Media Source. In 2006, Jones and Polland created a new show at the Public Broadcasting Service
outlet in Houston, The Connection, Red, White & Blue, a half-hour discussion and interview show.
, which called him the most effective party chairman in the nation. Other publications in which Polland has been cited are the American Spectator, the Houston Chronicle
, and Inside Houston Magazine.
Polland has been politically close to such Republicans as Karl Rove
, the former chief advisor to U.S. President George W. Bush
; U.S. Senators John Cornyn
and Kay Bailey Hutchison
, Governor
Rick Perry
, Lieutenant Governor
David Dewhurst
, and Attorney General
Greg Abbott
. He is a leading fundraiser for Republicans, having secured more than $3.5 million for candidates and causes between 1996 and 2006.
In 2004, Polland led the Texas Legislative Mission to Israel
. He serves on the national boards of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Jewish Policy Center, and the board of the Susan B. Anthony
List, a pro-life
political action committee
. He is also the vice chairman of the United Jewish Communities. Though he is himself Jewish, Polland has worked closely with the conservative Christian
community within Harris County on political matters. Polland resigned in protest from the Anti-Defamation League
after the group criticized conservative Christian activism.
Polland has been honored by the Republican National Hispanic
Assembly and the National Federation of Pachyderm
Clubs. He was designated "Reaganite of the Year" by the Reagan
Alumni Association. He has written A Time for Choosing 35 Years Later, an update of Reagan's classic speech from October 27, 1964. Mrs. Polland tells the story of her husband's infatuation with Reagan since Polland, at the age of 14, heard the speech that Reagan delivered on behalf of the Republican presidential nominee, Senator Barry M. Goldwater. She said that Polland often played Reagan tapes in the early 1970s, long before it was clear that Reagan might become president at some point in the future.
Polland is also active in the interest group Citizens Lowering Our Unfair Taxes (CLOUT), which seeks property tax
relief in Texas. CLOUT finds that "appraisal creep" has hit Texas homeowners as hard as those in the Northeast, his native Illinois
, and in Wisconsin
.
Polland ran unopposed to a second term as Harris County chairman in 2000, but he stepped down in 2002 to contest the District 17 seat in the Texas State Senate in the March party primary
. The seat was vacated by veteran Republican J. E. "Buster" Brown
of Lake Jackson
. Polland lost badly to the physician Kyle Janek
, who went on to win the seat in the November general election
. Janek polled 8,495 votes (68 percent) to Polland's 3,967 ballots (32 percent). In a post-election letter to supporters, Polland wrote: "We ran a strong campaign based on our common conservative philosophy. We faced an incumbent [state representative] who was the darling of the Austin lobby. We were outspent at least two-to--one . . . " Janek was reelected in 2004 and 2006.
Polland won the support of many well-known Texas and national Republicans in his Senate bid including former presidential contender Steve Forbes
, the publisher from New Jersey
, former Texas Secretary of State George W. Strake, Jr.
, former U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle
, Virginia
Republican activist Morton Blackwell
, and former presidential candidate and director of the Campaign for Working Families Gary Bauer
.
In 2004, Polland contributed to African American
Democrat Al Green in Green's successful primary challenge to 9th Congressional District U.S. Representative Chris Bell. Green, a lawyer and justice of the peace, won the nomination—and thereafter the general election—in the heavily black district, 13,920 (65 percent) to Bell's 7,125 ballots (33 percent). Another 2 percent of the vote went to a third candidate.)
In January 2007, Polland warned the Texas Republican Party that it could face serious decline in the 2008 elections, if the conservative grassroots
were not activated and brought into the mainstream of the party.
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, attorney
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
who is the former elected chairman of the Harris County
Harris County, Texas
As of the 2010 Census, the population of the county was 4,092,459, White Americans made up 56.6% of Harris County's population; non-Hispanic whites represented 33.0% of the population. Black Americans made up 18.9% of the population. Native Americans made up 0.7% of Harris County's population...
Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
(1996–2002) and the publisher of the Texas Conservate Review, which he issues periodically on the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. From 2001-2006, the politically conservative Polland cohosted with the liberal
Liberalism
Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...
commentator David A. Jones a weekly one-hour program Texas Politics - The Real Deal on Houston Media Source. In 2006, Jones and Polland created a new show at the Public Broadcasting Service
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
outlet in Houston, The Connection, Red, White & Blue, a half-hour discussion and interview show.
Career
Under Polland's tenure as the Harris County Republican chairman, the GOP continued to win majorities in the county even if Republican candidates lost in the Houston corporate limits in contested races. Polland earned national recognition for his party's success from such publications as the national conservative weekly Human EventsHuman Events
Human Events is a weekly American conservative magazine. It takes its name from the first sentence of the United States Declaration of Independence...
, which called him the most effective party chairman in the nation. Other publications in which Polland has been cited are the American Spectator, the Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
, and Inside Houston Magazine.
Polland has been politically close to such Republicans as Karl Rove
Karl Rove
Karl Christian Rove was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to former President George W. Bush until Rove's resignation on August 31, 2007. He has headed the Office of Political Affairs, the Office of Public Liaison, and the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives...
, the former chief advisor to U.S. President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
; U.S. Senators John Cornyn
John Cornyn
John Cornyn, III is the junior United States Senator for Texas, serving since 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party. He was elected Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee for the 111th U.S. Congress....
and Kay Bailey Hutchison
Kay Bailey Hutchison
Kathryn Ann Bailey Hutchison, known as Kay Bailey Hutchison , is the senior United States Senator from Texas.She is a member of the Republican Party. In 2001, she was named one of the thirty most powerful women in America by Ladies Home Journal. The first woman to represent Texas in the U.S....
, Governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
Rick Perry
Rick Perry
James Richard "Rick" Perry is the 47th and current Governor of Texas. A Republican, Perry was elected Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1998 and assumed the governorship in December 2000 when then-governor George W. Bush resigned to become President of the United States. Perry was elected to full...
, Lieutenant Governor
Lieutenant governor
A lieutenant governor or lieutenant-governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction, but is often the deputy or lieutenant to or ranking under a governor — a "second-in-command"...
David Dewhurst
David Dewhurst
David Dewhurst is the 41st and current Lieutenant Governor of Texas, serving under Governor Rick Perry since January 21, 2003. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as Texas Land Commissioner from 1999 to 2003. Dewhurst announced on July 18, 2011, that he was running for the...
, and Attorney General
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...
Greg Abbott
Greg Abbott
Gregory Wayne "Greg" Abbott is the Texas Attorney General, and is the second Republican since Reconstruction to serve in that role. Abbott was sworn in on December 2, 2002, following John Cornyn's election to the U.S. Senate...
. He is a leading fundraiser for Republicans, having secured more than $3.5 million for candidates and causes between 1996 and 2006.
In 2004, Polland led the Texas Legislative Mission to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. He serves on the national boards of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Jewish Policy Center, and the board of the Susan B. Anthony
Susan B. Anthony
Susan Brownell Anthony was a prominent American civil rights leader who played a pivotal role in the 19th century women's rights movement to introduce women's suffrage into the United States. She was co-founder of the first Women's Temperance Movement with Elizabeth Cady Stanton as President...
List, a pro-life
Pro-life
Opposition to the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-life, or anti-abortion, movement, a social and political movement opposing elective abortion on moral grounds and supporting its legal prohibition or restriction...
political action committee
Political action committee
In the United States, a political action committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates or to advance the outcome of a political issue or legislation. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a...
. He is also the vice chairman of the United Jewish Communities. Though he is himself Jewish, Polland has worked closely with the conservative Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
community within Harris County on political matters. Polland resigned in protest from the Anti-Defamation League
Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League is an international non-governmental organization based in the United States. Describing itself as "the nation's premier civil rights/human relations agency", the ADL states that it "fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals and protects...
after the group criticized conservative Christian activism.
Polland has been honored by the Republican National Hispanic
Hispanic
Hispanic is a term that originally denoted a relationship to Hispania, which is to say the Iberian Peninsula: Andorra, Gibraltar, Portugal and Spain. During the Modern Era, Hispanic sometimes takes on a more limited meaning, particularly in the United States, where the term means a person of ...
Assembly and the National Federation of Pachyderm
Elephant
Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...
Clubs. He was designated "Reaganite of the Year" by the Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
Alumni Association. He has written A Time for Choosing 35 Years Later, an update of Reagan's classic speech from October 27, 1964. Mrs. Polland tells the story of her husband's infatuation with Reagan since Polland, at the age of 14, heard the speech that Reagan delivered on behalf of the Republican presidential nominee, Senator Barry M. Goldwater. She said that Polland often played Reagan tapes in the early 1970s, long before it was clear that Reagan might become president at some point in the future.
Polland is also active in the interest group Citizens Lowering Our Unfair Taxes (CLOUT), which seeks property tax
Property tax
A property tax is an ad valorem levy on the value of property that the owner is required to pay. The tax is levied by the governing authority of the jurisdiction in which the property is located; it may be paid to a national government, a federated state or a municipality...
relief in Texas. CLOUT finds that "appraisal creep" has hit Texas homeowners as hard as those in the Northeast, his native Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
, and in Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
.
Polland ran unopposed to a second term as Harris County chairman in 2000, but he stepped down in 2002 to contest the District 17 seat in the Texas State Senate in the March party primary
Primary election
A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....
. The seat was vacated by veteran Republican J. E. "Buster" Brown
J. E. "Buster" Brown
James Edward Brown, known as J. E. "Buster" Brown , is an attorney and lobbyist in Austin, Texas, who served from 1981 to 2002 as a Republican member of the Texas State Senate from District 17, based in Brazoria, Fort Bend, and part of Harris counties, south and west of Houston...
of Lake Jackson
Lake Jackson, Texas
Lake Jackson is a city in Brazoria County, Texas within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. As of a 2006 U.S. Census Bureau estimate, the city population was 27,614....
. Polland lost badly to the physician Kyle Janek
Kyle Janek
Kyle Janek, M.D. ,is a former Republican member of the Texas Senate, having represented District 17 from 2003 until June 2, 2008. The district includes portions of Harris, Brazoria, Fort Bend, Galveston, and Jefferson counties...
, who went on to win the seat in the November general election
General election
In a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
. Janek polled 8,495 votes (68 percent) to Polland's 3,967 ballots (32 percent). In a post-election letter to supporters, Polland wrote: "We ran a strong campaign based on our common conservative philosophy. We faced an incumbent [state representative] who was the darling of the Austin lobby. We were outspent at least two-to--one . . . " Janek was reelected in 2004 and 2006.
Polland won the support of many well-known Texas and national Republicans in his Senate bid including former presidential contender Steve Forbes
Steve Forbes
Malcolm Stevenson "Steve" Forbes, Jr. is an American editor, publisher, and businessman. He is the editor-in-chief of business magazine Forbes as well as president and chief executive officer of its publisher, Forbes Inc. He was a Republican candidate in the U.S. Presidential primaries in 1996...
, the publisher from New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, former Texas Secretary of State George W. Strake, Jr.
George Strake, Jr.
George William Strake, Jr. , is a Houston, Texas, businessman and philanthropist who served as Texas secretary of state from January 16, 1979–October 6, 1981, during the administration of Republican Governor William Perry Clements, Jr...
, former U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle
Dan Quayle
James Danforth "Dan" Quayle served as the 44th Vice President of the United States, serving with President George H. W. Bush . He served as a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from the state of Indiana....
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
Republican activist Morton Blackwell
Morton Blackwell
Morton C. Blackwell is an American Republican Party activist. He is president and founder of the Leadership Institute , a 5013 non-profit educational foundation that teaches political technology....
, and former presidential candidate and director of the Campaign for Working Families Gary Bauer
Gary Bauer
Gary Lee Bauer is an American politician notable for his ties to several evangelical Christian groups and campaigns.-Biography:...
.
In 2004, Polland contributed to African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
Democrat Al Green in Green's successful primary challenge to 9th Congressional District U.S. Representative Chris Bell. Green, a lawyer and justice of the peace, won the nomination—and thereafter the general election—in the heavily black district, 13,920 (65 percent) to Bell's 7,125 ballots (33 percent). Another 2 percent of the vote went to a third candidate.)
In January 2007, Polland warned the Texas Republican Party that it could face serious decline in the 2008 elections, if the conservative grassroots
Grassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
were not activated and brought into the mainstream of the party.