If you read nothing else this election season, read this.
Mon, Feb 26 at 10:21 AM
Parnell’s endorsements are about like Parnell himself, all image no substance. He’s probably wow’d a bunch of those politicians with his stolen valor lawman stories. Parnell is a lot like most politicians. He doesn’t let the truth get in the way of a good story. Especially if it’s a story that makes him look good.
Parnell likes to talk about how he’s endorsed by the Sheriff Office Association (SLEAMC to be exact.) He doesn’t mention that they did not vote for him. Around a year before this election, SLEAMC had new elections for its board members, and in what was a shock to no one, the winners were the people most loyal to him.
Then, instead of letting SLEAMC members vote for who to endorse, those new board members just announced that SLEAMC was endorsing Parnell. Now SLEAMC has voted every other time, but I guess Parnell didn’t want the members to vote for Jeff.
Just think about that for a minute. Parnell can’t even win an endorsement vote from his own agency that he’s ran for over a decade. That’s part of why the Sheriff’s Office is a toxic work environment. Parnell and his leadership team runs the agency with a culture of fear and retaliation. Employees are told not to express their opinions, not to talk to certain people, not to look at certain websites, and not to visit certain businesses. Like a certain patrol deputy put it “I don’t even look at that website. I mean, what if they want to search my phone?”
Two deputies left the department and went into business for themselves. These two individuals were told by several deputies that the deputies were “encouraged” not to ever do business with them. One deputy stopped going after his supervisor told him it would be bad for his career to be associated with that former deputy.
What a leader and what a guy. No wonder he didn’t allow his own employees to have a say on who SLEAMC endorses. Now technically Parnell doesn’t control SLEAMC, his most loyal employees do.
Parnell’s only other law enforcement endorsement from McLennan County is Constable Charlie Guerrero. You remember him right? The guy who Parnell heavily campaigned for so that Matt Cawthon didn’t become Constable. That same election with the strange radio traffic on the SO channel and a large vote swing at the last minute in Guerrero’s favor. That same election where deputies were threatened with polygraphs for their possible connection to this blog. Was there voter fraud? I don’t know. I do know that’s a lot of smoke for there not to be a fire somewhere.
Now let’s look at the rest of his endorsements (taken straight from his facebook page)
Governor Greg Abbott – politician
Congressman Pete Sessions – politician
Congressman Bill Flores – politician
State Senator Brian Birdwell – politician
State Representative Doc Anderson – politician
Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller – politician
McLennan County Commissioner Jim Smith – politician, but at least a local politician
Sheriff Trace Hendricks (Bosque County) – Another county
Sheriff Ray Del Bosque (Zapata County) – Another county
Sheriff Rodney Watson (Hill County) – Another county
Sheriff Eddy Lang (Bell County) – Another county
Sheriff Scott Williams (Coryell County) – Another county
Ted Nugent – local celebrity
District Attorney Josh Tetens – politician that Parnell heavily campaigned for
Constable Charlie Guerrero – see above
Rev. Ramiro Peña – no idea who this is
Texas District Clerk Jon Gimble – local politician
CLEAT – an Austin based police union
Those were from his facebook. He’s also got his cousin, the Hollywood director, backing him. And don’t forget LUCA, a Lubbock based political group that has all of 5,000 Facebook followers and a PO Box for an address. That and his pay-to-play, Houston based, LINK magazine.
For a man whose campaign slogan is “A Lawman First,” this sounds a lot like just another politician running for office. I’d rather vote for the guy who is endorsed and supported by the actual lawmen in this county. But that’s just me….
