Hotze may be a gadfly, but his mischief can have serious consequences
There’s a certain school of thought that says a conservative gadfly such as Steven Hotze should simply be ignored by polite society, as he busies himself trying to meddle in our electoral politics.
After all, Hotze — a physician by background, whose Houston practice specializes in “wellness” — holds no elected office or other position of public trust. Although wealthy, he’s not one of the largest donors in Texas politics. Granted, he has historically wielded some influence via his role as head of the Conservative Republicans of Texas PAC, which issues a scorecard making endorsements in GOP primaries. But Hotze’s ability to influence what happens in Harris County is waning, as Democrats take control of more and more local offices.
People who subscribe to this sanguine view of things had occasion to revisit it this week.
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg on Tuesday announced that former Houston police Capt. Mark A. Aguirre has been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon as a result of an Oct. 19 confrontation with an air-conditioning repairman that resulted from a “citizen’s investigation” into supposed voter fraud in the region.
The confrontation began when a black SUV rammed the back of the repairman’s truck early in the morning in south Houston. The repairman got out of his truck to see if the driver was alright and the driver — Aguirre — allegedly responded by drawing a pistol and ordering him to the ground.
After being arrested, Aguirre was defiant, according to an affidavit filed by Houston police Detective John Varela. He explained that he was part of a team that had the repairman under surveillance for days and alleged that the repairman was holding hundreds of thousands of fraudulent ballots in his truck and at his home as part of a scheme orchestrated by local Democrats.
“I just hope you’re a patriot,” Aguirre said, according to Varela.
This might go without saying, but none of Aguirre’s allegations were true. The repairman, who is not being identified by the Houston Chronicle, was minding his own business when someone
slammed into his truck, which was full of tools and parts, not fraudulent ballots. The repairman subsequently let police search his vehicle and his home. They found no evidence of any such chicanery whatsoever.
“We are lucky no one was killed,” Ogg said at a press conferences announcing the charges.
A true statement. Although the confrontation
happened in October, the news that Aguirre had been charged drew national attention — coming, as it did, at a time when many Americans are on edge about the civic strife that has permeated the nation in recent weeks.
What’s so ominous about the situation is that Aguirre was telling the truth when he told Varela he was part of a team. Grand jury subpoenas show that in September and October, he received payments totaling $266,400 from an outfit called Liberty Center for God and Country, which is led by Hotze and former Harris County GOP chair Jared Woodfill. The bulk of that money was received the day after the alleged assault.
Aguirre was also involved in a lawsuit that Hotze filed this fall, challenging Harris County’s decision to allow voters to drop off mail-in ballots before Election Day. In an affidavit, Aguirre alleged — without evidence — that Democrats were scheming to goose their prospects in the election by submitting up to 700,000 fraudulent ballots.
And in the wake of
Ogg’s press conference, Hotze wasn’t backing down. At a press conference Wednesday Hotze, joined by Woodfill, expressed skepticism about the charges against
Aguirre — “one man’s word against another man’s word,” as he put it — and breezily reiterated his bizarre claims that Democrats’ plans for the cycle involved hundreds of thousands of fraudulent mail ballots.
To Hotze’s point, Aguirre hasn’t been convicted of anything, merely charged. But the charges he’s facing are serious ones, punishable by up to 20 years in prison. And Aguirre himself, who has worked as a private investigator since being fired from the Houston Police Department in 2003, seems to have soured on the idea of getting involved in any “citizens investigations” going forward.
“No. I’m done,” Aguirre said during his first court appearance Friday, after prosecutors asked whether he would continue working with the Liberty Center for God and Country.
That’s good news. But Hotze, to go by his press conference this week, apparently plans to continue spreading misinformation and stirring up mischief.
State leaders such as Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, along with the majority of the state’s Republican lawmakers, are focused on substantive issues as Texans continue to straggle through the coronavirus pandemic and prepare for the coming legislative session; that’s to their credit.
It would be tempting to do the same. But — as one bewildered air conditioning repairman can attest — turning a blind eye to the kind of shenanigans we’ve seen from Hotze this year doesn’t work.