***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***
9:00 a.m., February 10, 2016
CONTACT: Linda Curtis, Executive Director, Independent Texans PAC, 512-657-2089,
Linda Curtis
ljcurtis@indytexans.org
HEAD: Independent Texans Alleges Golemon Selling Voter Data He Gathered Door to Door in House District 17 (Lee, Bastrop, Caldwell, Gonzales and Karnes counties)
BASTROP, (February 10th, 2016) — Linda Curtis of Independent Texans PAC alleged today that House District 17 candidate Brent Golemon is “not telling voters that he is selling their data when he knocks on their door and asks for their vote.”
Curtis explained further that, “Golemon told me that he is getting paid for data he is collecting on voters in his door to door work by a group outside of HD 17. I hope the voters will ask Golemon about it and who’s paying him for the data. I am embarrassed to admit that I too was conned by Golemon in last February’s special election runoff – the same Golemon who crows that he’s the real ‘grassroots’ guy in this race. HD 17 voters should not trust him again.”
Data gathered on voters is used to target mailers, social networking and phone banking with messages that resonate with voters wooing them to vote for or against a certain candidate or issue. Curtis said, “Golemon tipped his hat in his swaggering closing remarks at the February 1 debate with Cyrier that ‘You’re going to hear a lot coming out over the course of the next four weeks that unfortunately I cannot control’. I think he’s referring to the groups coming into District 17 with messaging that he doesn’t have the guts to say himself. We just saw one such mailer yesterday out of Houston. Does anyone believe these guys give two hoots or a holler about our water and land resources in HD 17?”
Independent Texans recently switched their support from Golemon to John Cyrier in the Republican winner-take-all primary for Texas House District 17. Curtis said, “Our endorsement group decided to support Cyrier because he delivered an important water protection bill (HB 3163) for the residents fighting the ‘water wars’ in Lee and Bastrop counties, while Golemon did little to help. Once Golemon lost the endorsement, he’s been using the data he’s been paid to collect on voters to diminish our and Cyrier’s efforts to protect our groundwater.”
Curtis put out this email to supporters last Friday detailing Golemon’s failure to report over $28,000 in expenditures on a report due in February 2015 in his last race. Golemon later swore under oath that he had discovered the expenditures sometime in mid to late May 2015, because, in Golemon’s words, “The political expenditures which were made from personal funds were not recorded.”
Independent Texans has posted a lengthy 24 question survey with answers from both candidates on the “HD 17” page of its website at IndyTexans.org.
For more information call: Linda Curtis, 512-535-0989