Hello again Ultimate Fort Bend (and redhottexans.com) readers! Things were a little more quiet in the local conservative scene last month, and December was filled mostly with a sharp drop in temperatures and Christmas parties hosted by various local grass-root groups.

Now many of the same organizations have come out of hibernation and are rapidly heating up the county with a hot level of activity and outreach.

The Fort Bend GOP released its first e-Newsletter in December, featuring a great deal of useful information and including a little blurb about the Fort Bend Young Republicans written by yours truly.

The Spirit of Freedom Republican Women's Club also released its January 2010 newsletter recently, which includes the instillation of new officers. Tina Gibson is the new President of the Club, which is interesting because the President in 2009 was Babs Miller, and Mrs. Gibson's husband Mike Gibson is now also challenging Mrs. Miller's husband and incumbent Fort Bend GOP Chairman Rick Miller in that contest.

From my own limited experience since returning to Fort Bend last August, both men are extremely active and have been nothing but helpful to young conservatives such as myself. This means we will likely get a lively contest with great candidates in the coming months.

Spirit of Freedom is itself off to a good start. On the morning of Friday the 15th I drove to Spring Creek Barbecue (the Club's new meeting place) to see the forum/debate for District Attorney featuring incumbent John Healey and his two Republican opponents, Nina Schaefer and Richard D. Raymond. Just as with the first of these debates covered here recently in Zen T.C. Zheng's article, the fight and rhetoric were in full swing.

District Attorney Healey repeatedly touted his successful track record, new initiatives, and many years of experience with the job. He left a number of attacks from his opponents (regarding certain cases or office decisions) go answered, while the two challengers in turn did little to address the examples of success that Healey mentioned. Nina Schaefer touted her experience in several key areas of law, while Richard Raymond mentioned his own management and business experiences.

The Fort Bend Young Republicans are also lighting up the scene left and right, including open events such as a Social Mixer Super Bowl Football Pot to be held tomorrow night on Monday the 18th at Buffalo Wild Wings. They also recently hosted a watch party during the gubernatorial debate, turned out participants for important events hosted by conservatives in the Katy and other nearby areas, and have elections of their own coming up soon.

In my opinion one of the biggest causes of the FBYR's large turn-out and skillful west-Houston event-coordination has been the new group's rapidly growing Facebook group, which will probably hit 150 members before the end of this month.

For young students and professionals, the ability to keep track of community events and share breaking national and local political news on the groups Facebook Wall has been a real help. Feel free to join the group yourself if you wanted to be notified of regular events without having to constantly search them out yourself.

The Fort Bend County Tea Party has also been putting on activities almost non-stop. Last week they hosted Kimberly Fletcher, founder of the Abigail Adams Project, at the Sugar Creek Country Club. This past Saturday they also helped organize carpools to get people up to the Nullification Rally at the state capitol, and on Thursday January 21st they will host a "Convention 101" seminar at the Town Center La Madeleine's from 6:30 to 8:00 P.M.

The purpose of the meeting will be to discuss:

-Why attend the conventions
-Precinct convention
-Senate district convention
-Strategies
-Committees and volunteer opportunities
-Parliamentary procedure

They are asking that anyone who would like to attend please RSVP at rsvpfbctp@gmail.com as there are only a few spots left. I can say from personal experience that when I attended a FBC Tea Party event there in August we had standing-room-only.

That's all from me for now. If you want me to report on, promote, or attend your conservative organization's or candidate's event, or if you just want to share some juicy political gossip, drop me a line at nickwenker@gmail.com

Otherwise, as always, please visit my website at www.redhottexans.com for more in-depth commentary and extra features such as pictures and videos from the events...and don't forget to click on the "Become a Fan of Red Hot Texans on Facebook!" button in the top right corner to track RHT on Facebook and get notified whenever I put a new article up on either website!