Waxahachie Republican comes under fire from potential opponents over vote for anti-bullying bill and his connection with fundraiser for anti-bullying foundation
TEA PARTY TARGET | Waxahachie Republican state Rep. Jim Pitts, left, talks with Waco Republican state Rep. Charles “Doc” Anderson during proceedings in the Texas Legislature in January, 2010. Members of the Tea Party are said to be targeting Pitts for defeat in 2012 after Pitts voted in favor of anti-bullying legislation this year, and reportedly hoped to use. (Eric Gay/Associated Press)
David Webb
The Rare Reporter
Politics just don’t seem to get any nastier than they do in Texas, judging from a group of Texas Tea Party members’ apparent plans to exploit an appearance in Dallas by an internationally known anti-bullying champion.
The Tea Party members reportedly hope a planned appearance by British rugby star Ben Cohen this month at the Dallas gay rights parade can be used as a weapon against an incumbent Texas state representative in the Republican Primary.
The legislator, state Rep. Jim Pitts, a Waxahachie Republican, is scheduled to appear at a fundraiser for Cohen’s anti-bullying StandUp Foundation on Sept. 16, prior to the rugby player’s appearance as a VIP guest at the annual Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade on Sept. 19.
Cohen, 33, retired from professional rugby in May of this year to focus on the Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation he created to combat homophobia and bullying. As an athlete he represented the brands Brive and Sale Sharks. He is married to a woman and has twin children.
In November 2000, Cohen’s father Peter Cohen was killed while protecting an attack victim at a nightclub he managed in Northampton, England. He died a month later from head injuries. Three men were found guilty of the violence.
Cohen — a World Cup winner who is straight but has many gay fans — has said in interviews the stories he heard from gay people about being bullied and feeling suicidal as a result of the violence they experienced drew him to the issue years ago.
The Dallas fundraiser, organized by a gay resident, was scheduled to take place at Pitts’ Highland Park home. It was relocated after published reports created controversy, and news of the uproar reached Cohen’s representatives.
The situation nearly derailed Cohen’s planned four-day visit to Dallas, according to the organizers.
The sports star’s representatives reportedly wanted no association with Texas’ volatile political climate, made infamous in recent years by ultra-conservative, anti-gay Republican presidential candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
Texas Tea Party members learned about Cohen’s planned appearances when Dallas Voice published a report about them online.
At one point, the agitators who had heard about the report but couldn’t find it online, erroneously claimed that the newspaper had pulled the story in an effort cover up Pitts’ involvement with the fundraiser.
The Tea Party members antics came to light when they twice asked Joey Dauben, the publisher of the conservative Ellis County Observer website, to reach out to a Dallas Voice writer he knew for information.
In the last communication, the Tea Party members wanted to know if the newspaper or any other organization would be taking pictures at the fundraiser that they would be able to obtain for use against Pitts in a campaign.
The Tea Party members’ supporters reportedly have no plans to demonstrate at the event or crash it.
Pitts reportedly is being targeted by Tea Party members because he advocated the passage of anti-bullying legislation in Texas and voted in favor of two measures backed by Equality Texas. The legislator reportedly offered the use of his home for the fundraiser because of his interest in the issue.
Although Pitts backed the anti-bullying measures, he has been criticized by LGBT advocates for voting to ban LGBT resource centers from college campuses. That has left some observers puzzled by the Tea Party members’ tactics.
Dauben said that his criticism on his blog is more motivated by Pitts’ apparent residency in Dallas when he represents Waxahachie, rather than his participation in the fundraiser.
Two Texas Tea Party members, Linda Bounds and T.J. Fabby, have announced plans to oppose Pitts, who has been in office since 1992, according to the Ellis County Observer. It appears the two candidates and their supporters are willing to do just about anything to get one of them elected.
David Webb is a veteran journalist who has covered LGBT issues for the mainstream and alternative media for three decades. Email him at davidwaynewebb@yahoo.com.
This is perhaps the most poorly written article I have ever read. To call the title misleading would not accurately describe the “whole bunch of nothing” contained in this article.
The only information I could pull from this article is two people who are running against Pitts asked if photos of the event would be available.
The tea party does not deal with social issues. There are Democrats, gays, and many other groups who are members of the tea party. The tea party deals only with fiscal issues. Dallas Tea Party, the largest in the country, is non-partisan and doesn’t endorse candidates. The principles that guide our actions are:
– Limited government
– Fiscal responsibility
– Personal responsibility
– The rule of law
– National sovereignty
I am the founder of the Dallas Tea Party so I know of what I speak. The title of your article grossly distorts the content of the story. Pitts is considered by many to not have voted responsibly on fiscal issues. It is the right of his constituents to run against him.
Why not try to find something a little more exciting to report and stop trying to create news?
Phillip Dennis
Anyone who thinks the Texas Tea Party isn’t filled to the gills with social conservatives is out of their gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender miind.
Neither T.J. nor Linda Bounds asked me or anyone else about the fundraiser. It was a member from the Cedar Creek Lake Tea Party, a non-partisan organization.
I just wanted to clarify that both campaigns had nothing to do with the requests for the photos and the fundraising information.
I do, however, take high compliments for “dirty tricks.” lol.
Sir, I would like to address the accusations you have made regarding the Tea Party. You do have your facts correct regarding the two candidates opposing Mr. Pitts this election cycle. That is about all you have correctly stated though. The Ellis County Tea Party does not oppose Mr. Pitts on the grounds of his support for Anti-Bullying legislation. Nor to be promote a candidate or candidates. Our role, as a conservative organization is to present the facts about the incumbents and candidates and allow the membership to decide for themselves whom to support. If you would like to go to our website, http://www.elliscountyteaparty.org, and actually read what we’re about you might find that we support the principles of true conservativism, fiscal responsibility and smaller government. Bullying, on any level, against any one or group is not something we support. Conversely, that behavior would be something we have and will openly condemn.
I would like to point out that I wrote that members of the Tea Party and supporters of the candidates initiated these actions, not the candidates nor officials of the Tea Party. And I do think the candidates would probably be more than thrilled to use whatever tactics they can to beat Pitts. This is Texas, after all, and you don’t get much more conservative than Ellis County in Texas. What’s more, this is an opinion piece. As it happens, I don’t write the headlines for my columns, but even so I have no problem with the use of “dirty tricks” to describe what is being contemplated by the supporters of the candidates.
The whole premise of your article is way off base. Nobody in the Tea Party has said a negative word about the anti-bullying issue. Your online editor, John Wright, contacted me on Facebook about the fundraiser flap. Here’s the conversation:
September 1 (20110901 at 15:39) John WrightYou’re a complete idiot for suggesting Dallas Voice is involved in any kind of cover-up. First of all, the text you’re referencing is in a press release, not part of our post. Second, we have published an entire second post detailing PItts’ involvement. Please tell me why in the hell we want to cover this up. Then get a life. https://dallasvoice.com/jim-pitts-1087895.html
September 1 (20110901 at 15:43) Clint StuttsJohn, I simply posted what I had available at the time, and said for folks to take it with a grain of salt. If you’ll notice, Joey Dauben posted a later article from the Voice that cleared it up. And I didn’t suggest a coverup, one of the links I posted suggested that. Finally, I assume you’re an adult and can communicate without insulting people. Name calling and insults are simply unnecessary.
September 1 (20110901 at 16:15) John WrightInsults? The only insult was you suggesting that we were involved in some sort of cover-up, without even bothering to check our site.
September 1 (20110901 at 16:16) Clint StuttsAgain, I didn’t suggest you were involved in a coverup, I simply posted a link that suggested it, and I advised folks to take it all with a grain of salt. Do you know what that means?
@Clint. There were conversations going on in different venues. I read a string of comments on topix.com posted by social conservatives who were suggesting that Dallas Voice had engaged in a cover-up. I based my column on what I had observed and been told. I was unaware of any communication you had with anyone else at the Dallas Voice.
They remind me of those bugs that after fornicating, the queen breaks the necks of her hubby.
Just say seig Heil to them and watch the smile before they realize what they gave away.
They are of the same mind set as the people who dragged a poor black man to his death in TX back in 1999. That act was to get notoriety for starting a new Christian KKK chapter
Tea Party is dead. They should do the right thing anb go bury themselves. They are stinking up the place.