Second Voters United Copycat Group
Flower Mound Leader / / Stacy Wright
Disunity Hits Voters United
Splinter group supporting unendorsed council candidates
Some disappointed members of Flower Mounds most influential political action committee, Voters United to Preserve Flower Mound, have formed a group of their own.
Voters United, Too was established after Voters United conducted a caucus to determine which candidates the organization would endorse for the May 3 town council election. The 93 members of Voters United, Too still consider themselves members of Voters United.
Some of the Voters United members did not support the candidates that were endorsed incumbent Stephani Spruill for Place 1, Tim Trotter for Place 3 and Sydney Bentz for Place 5 -- and felt there was no need for the caucus, since all of the candidates running for a position are members.
Place 5 incumbent Sara Wingard, Place 3 candidate Chris Torley and Place 1 challenger, Bill Carr were on the short end of the Voters United ballot. The organization had endorsed Wingard in her previous council campaigns.
What was the purpose? said John Harrison, a Voters United, Too member. The voters should have a say-so based on qualifications.
Mailboxes of Flower Mound residents were filled with similar fliers this week from both groups endorsing different candidates.
Bentz and Trotter won the endorsed with 197 votes. More than half of the votes were cast by the nominating committee comprising of Voters United president, Vicki Fulfer, Voters United director, Marsha Gavitt and Flower Mound Mayor, Lori DeLuca.
We believe that Sara Wingard and Chris Torley are more qualified candidates, Harrison said. We are just a group of concerned Voters United members who want to get our voices out.
Therefore Voters United Too is endorsing candidates, Chris Torley, who is running for Place 3 and Sara Wingard, who is running for Place 5.
The caucus was a fraud, said Councilman Jim Cook, a founding member of Voters United, Too. They have no bylaws, no constitution, no written rules. Three people took it upon themselves and decided they would be a nominating committee, without consulting anybody.
Cook said with no rules and regulations, they have just as much of a right to decide who they want to back.
Deluca stated in an e-mail that the same nominating committee has been endorsing candidates for six years.
Well it seemed like everyone who is running was a (Voters United) member and we thought lets see if there was an interest, Gavitt said.
About 217 votes cast from the approximately 3,000 members in Voters United, Gavitt said, there were
She said she thinks a lot of people just didn't think it was necessary for them to come.
Voters United sent out a caucus notice to all 3,000 members, giving them a choice to either attend the caucus and cast their ballot there or give their proxy vote to the nominating committee.
The noticed had to be signed, dated and received by March 26.
We believed the proxy ballots are flawed, because there were no names and candidate qualifications mailed to the Voters United to Preserve Flower Mound members, Harrison said. You have a nominating committee and it was never explained to the membership, what criteria was going to be used in determining what candidate would be endorsed.
Gavitt said the nominating committee evaluated the candidates thoroughly.
In addition to supporting Voters United's four primary positions, Gavitt said they also monitor the candidates performance in office.
We feel like we have endorsed the best candidates in each election, Gavitt said.
And, Fulfer said if only in-person ballots were counted and the proxy votes thrown away, Trotter and Bentz still would have won by a 2-to-1 margins.
Fulfer and Gavitt said they were not elected into their seats. Fulfer said Deluca asked her to take over the presidency of Voters United after Deluca was elected into office in 1998. And Fulfer said DeLuca and herself gave Gavitt the title of director, after she had been helping out a lot.
DeLuca said she is still very involved with the organization she founded, but Fulfer runs the day-to-day operations and takes care of the financial reporting, while Gavitt takes care of the convention, silent auctions and mailings.
But Cook said there is really one person running things behind the scenes and that is DeLuca.
As mayor she is picking her council this is not good, Cook said. He said it is a recipe for disaster.
I do support Deluca, like I support the president, Cook said. I just dont want the president (referring to DeLuca) picking the congress. You need checks and balances.
But DeLuca said if this election seems strange, its because this years election is also about next years election.
Its no secret that Jim Cook wants to be mayor, DeLuca said. In fact, Jims neighbor Chris Torley offered me a $5,000 campaign contribution to run for a county or state office, or any office outside of Flower Mound.
She said she declined the offer and things have been tense on the council every since.
Cook and Torley denied the allegations and said they gave money to support her mayoral campaign.
In fact, Cook said he doesnt ever have any plans to run for mayor.
Spruill said last year, after a council meeting, Cook said it was his intention to divide and conquer and take over Voters United.
Cook said that never happened. Its easy to make those wild accusations, Cook said.
Meanwhile, Voters United is in the process of filing a complaint with the Texas Ethics Commission.
Voters United member, Marilyn Jenkins said the Voters United, Too logo and website are copy cats.
Flattering or not, most people feel this is a deliberate attempt to confuse and mislead the voters, Deluca said.
Even though the logo is not legally copyrighted, Fulfer said they have an attorney looking into it.
Voters United, Too is in the process of forming their by-laws and plan to elect their president and vice president.
And if you are wondering, who's endorsing Bill Carr Wingards predecessor, who is challenging Spruill -- he said he already has an endorsement by Voters United president Fulfer.
Carr displayed a letter from Fulfer at the Flower Mound Republicans forum last Saturday.
In the letter, Fulfer applauded his quick thinking brought up about Timbercreek Elementary to the council.
You stood up for the voters and the town, Fulfer wrote. That take courage and back bone.
But Fulfer said the letter was written back in 1997 and she doesn't even remember what the issue was.
I was not president of Voters United at the time, Fulfer said. I wrote the letter as an individual.
Fulfer said if he is presenting it as an endorsement of the president of Voters United, he is misrepresenting the letter.
Even though Bill Carr is a member of Voters United, he did not seek their endorsement.
The caucus was a joke, Carr said. It was crazy to seek something that I wasnt going to get. They (the endorsed candidates) were pre-selected.
But Gavitt said they never pre-endorse or pre-commit.
Meanwhile, Spruill is among those to whom the controversy is no surprise.
Theres been kind of a power struggle for more than a year, Spruill said. The division is no surprise to me.
For the Voters United to Preserve Flower Mound Web site is www.voters-united.com.
For the Voters United, Too web site is www.voters-united.org.