For whatever reason, Bland has not appointed Polland to any new ad litem cases in her court since taking the bench.
Paul Bettencourt says opponents have been accusing Polland of pressuring judges for appointments ever since he ran for chairman, and Bettencourt has never seen hard evidence for any such claims.
Troy Fields
Polland finally got the podium - but not the spotlight - at the state GOP confab.
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"I've not had anybody ever come to me and say, 'I've got a problem; I was leaned on [by Polland],' " says Bettencourt. "If they did, and it was substantiated, it would be a major problem, because that's one of the things I strongly oppose…."
Polland attributes his success at the county courthouse to his own legal skills, and not to his status as chairman.
Republican congressional candidate Sudan recently tapped Polland's firm in his continuing legal fight with his first wife, Maggie Mackenzie, over child support payments. Since Sudan already had a divorce heavy hitter, J.D. "Bucky" Allshouse, as his attorney, observers wondered what Polland's associate David Cook could contribute.
The judge hearing the Sudan litigation is state family court Judge Eva Guzman, a Republican recently appointed to the bench by the governor. Eight days after Cook was designated co-counsel, Guzman issued a one-paragraph summary judgment in Sudan's favor. That hardly stilled the courthouse buzz that when the going gets tough, the tough hire Chairman Gary.
On a recent morning, downtown pedestrians peered at a curious sight. A man, seemingly oblivious to the immediate street scene around him, hoofed down a sidewalk in the county's justice complex. Gary Polland wore a headset apparently attached to a cell phone, and was busily jawing into the attached microphone.
A scorching July sun had already pushed temperatures into the 90s. The day had not been made any cooler for Polland by a Houston Chronicle editorial cartoon lampooning his attempt to pressure judges in the sodomy case. He was drawn holding a hatchet and a sign reading, "rule 'rite' or else."
Hits keep mounting on Polland. So do questions as to how long he can get away wearing his dual hats, that of a conservative GOP county chair and a court-appointments hound.
A GOP judge who does not appoint Polland to cases puts it this way: "Honestly, who needs the headache? Polland is one of these people that you never want him to think you think that he is a tunnel to any favoritism. Because his mind works like that."
Certainly many marvel at the successes thus far for an unlikely conservative leader. "Atypical?" chuckles his former law partner Richard Frankoff, now president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association. "I think it goes to Gary's ability to do things and get things done. Good, bad or whatever. This guy isn't there because he's part of the team; he's there because of what he's done."
Where he goes when he's done is more uncertain. Bettencourt believes that after six years, holding the county chairmanship becomes a diminishing-returns proposition for anyone.
"I expect to see Gary in the future trying to become national party chair, or running for something on the political policy side, legislature or Congress. I'll never see him doing nothing. He loves this -- it's his nature to be involved in the political process."
Polland says he has been approached to run for a number of political offices in the past several years and "will keep an open mind as to whether I will run for something else in the future."
David Jones saw that obsession when he accompanied his friend to the last Bruce Springsteen concert in Houston. During the performance, Polland sat motionless. In the short ride back from Greenway Plaza to his own car, Jones saw Polland transform into an animated Republican chair, calling a string of political cronies to run party chores. "I mean, it was just constant chatter about the political game."
The Boss, at least this overlord of the local GOP, had begun his own brassy concert, coddling and cajoling assorted troops into action. Jones worries that Polland has limited his political future by the enemies formed from this no-holds-barred approach.
"Gary can be a rhetorically reckless person sometimes, and it'll be the thing that keeps him from moving on, probably," Jones says. "He can be so strident in his public comments about the other side."
But for the moment, there's no contesting who's the Boss of the Harris County Courthouse.
"It's absolutely his day," confirms Jones, "and he's going take advantage of it and run with it as long as he can."
