Notice of Response to Any Future Frivolous Ethics Complaints by Former Chairman or His Followers
October 10, 2024 | Montgomery County, TX
On October 6th, 2024, an open letter to all Montgomery County elected officials was published on the party’s official Facebook page by Jon Bouché, Vice Chairman of the Montgomery County Republican Party. Here is the text of that letter:
A message from the Montgomery County Republican Party Vice Chairman Jon Bouche to ALL Montgomery County Elected Officials.
Texas Ethics Commission Violation Complaints Workshop Coming Soon for Elected Officials in Montgomery County??????
Since Bryan Christ was tossed out of office by the MoCo voters in May 2024, he and his folks have been harassing the local Republican Party and elected officials who did not support him by filing multiple complaints with the Texas Ethics Commission.
Enough is enough!
Please be advised that if the party or even one more elected official receives an Ethics Complaint from Bryan or his crew, I will assemble a team to audit the Campaign Finance Reports of Bryan, he and his wife Kristin’s Republican Voters of Texas PAC, their Montgomery County Republican Club PAC and EVERY SINGLE ELECTED OFFICIAL who has given money to them or supported them while they are harassing the party.
Then, we can all have a workshop together at party headquarters to respond to those complaints. It will be an incredible waste of time for all involved during this very important election season but unfortunately, this is the path that Bryan and Kristin Christ have chosen.
The letter comes in the wake of former County Chairman Bryan Christ and his followers filing multiple Texas Ethics Commission (TEC) complaints against Charles Shirley, who is the Treasurer of the Montgomery County Republican Party.
In response to the open letter posted by Vice Chairman Bouché, Treasurer Shirley responded:
I think Bryan and Kristin Christ would love a workshop on ethics complaints. That’s all Bryan does. It makes me wonder what he actually does for a living. The number of frivolous and stupid ethics complaints he files makes me think he doesn’t have time for anything else. He seems to enjoy it because the complaints do not accomplish anything, but he feels the need to waste time on them.
Every elected official who has ever had to file a Campaign Finance Report with the TEC is aware that there are rigorous reporting requirements and any error, no matter how small, can result in fines, administrative actions, injunctive action from the court, or even the potential for referral for criminal prosecution. Because of this, any formal complaint which results in an audit of an elected official’s TEC report is no small matter as it has an effect similar to being audited by the IRS.
When Vice Chairman Bouché was asked what compelled him to post the open letter, he stated:
Audits certainly have a legitimate purpose as an oversight tool. However, after multiple frivolous complaints over a sustained period of time to the TEC by our former Chairman and his folks, I came to believe that the purpose of their complaints was simply to harass and intimidate Mr. Shirley and the party in an attempt to cause reputational damage.
And since we are going into the biggest election of our lifetime, we really need to have the party focused on getting President Trump, Senator Cruz and other Republicans elected instead of dealing with such foolishness.
Instead of continuing to fend off all of these ridiculous complaints by our former Chairman and his supporters, which they have been filing without consequence, it was time to bring the matter to everyone’s attention and take a stand. And I believed that the most effective way to do that was to enjoin all of the elected officials who are supporting our former Chairman into the process.
The idea is simple: Either we will all go through the pain caused by the TEC complaints together or the harassment will stop and no one will have to deal with it.
This form of harassment by our former Chairman and his wife not only undermines the integrity of the auditing processes, but it can also have a chilling effect on our county as it discourages good people from running for office and can even cause some to quit serving because of the time and expense associated with answering and defending against these harassing complaints.
The Montgomery County Republican Party meticulously files all required reports with the TEC and posts all financial documents publicly on our website. Meeting minutes, financial statements, and other exhibits, may be found by clicking on “CEC Meeting Minutes” under the “Our Team” tab on our website. TEC filings are publicly available on the Texas Ethics Commission website. In addition, we have already addressed the Christs’ claims publicly in a news release on our website.
Under the steadfast leadership of County Chair Gwen Withrow, the party has been coming together and has been very focused on having a successful election effort.