Local man Clay Hunt threatens groundwater candidate in video

Wearing his Catholic priest collar, he says write-in candidate Troy Hibbitts should be "run out of town"

A man who is a priest and belongs to an old ranching family here has threatened a candidate running for a director’s seat on the Kinney County Groundwater Conservation District board, and commented on the other three Save Our Springs candidates who have vowed to try to preserve Las Moras Spring, one of tenth largest springs in Texas.

Clay Hunt, in a video that runs a little over 13 minutes, spent the greater part of his time disparaging the four Save Our Springs candidates and claiming they have certain party affiliations, even though the race for Kinney County Groundwater Conservation District is not run on party lines.

The video is entitled “Message to the People of Kinney County, Brackettvillem TX and beyond in regard to these Elections:”

Several times, he called the four men “trouble for our community” and “very dangerous.” He said they surely will vote for Kamala Harris and called them “opportunists.”

Hunt admitted he doesn’t know the candidates.

Nonetheless, he said, “all of them are imports. They weren’t born and raised here. They moved here….” (Disclosure: this reporter is an import, moved here “recently.”)

In fact, only three of the four current groundwater board members were born here. And only one, Matt Bland, is running for re-election.

Hunt said that County-at-large write-in candidate Troy Hibbitts, a science teacher at Brackettville High School, “should have been run out of town a long time ago.”

Hunt called Hibbitts “a libtard,” a derogatory slur that extremists use which combines the labels “liberal” and “retard.”

Hunt, who says he is a scientist, said Hibbitts should have never been allowed to become a teacher in Brackett. Hibbitts holds a bachelor’s degree in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences and a master’s of science in Quantitative Biology. (Wikipedia defines quantitative biology as “the use of mathematical, statistical or computational techniques to study life and living organisms. The central theme and goal of quantitative biology is the creation of predictive models based on fundamental principles governing living systems.”)

At the Sunday, Oct. 20 candidate meet and greet, Hibbitts spoke from the gallery about correlations, and he had the crowd’s attention. After the meeting, several people approached Hibbitts with questions.

See minute 54:52 of the meeting video:

Video by Adam Olson for the Las Moras Springs Conservation Association

Hunt pointed out that City-at-large candidate Richard Gonzalez is a native American Indian.

“We love native American Indians,” he said. “I don’t know if that guy’s a Christian, and I know he messes around with other things like ancient pagan things to the Indian peoples of old. That ain’t good,” he said.

He said he didn’t know a thing about “that cowboy” Perry Menley, candidate for Precinct 4, but “I know it ain’t good that he puts himself in association with a group of guys like this.”

Hunt said he doesn’t know David Palmer, candidate for Fort Clark MUD-at-large, either, but “I know that his wife is a radical Democrat or that she believes in the Democratic party platform. I know she ain’t at all pro-life.”

Christie Palmer, a traditional conservative Republican, responded to Hunt in the comments section of his YouTube video and asked him to correct his statements.

“You do not know me,” Palmer wrote. “I am not a radical Democrat. I am a registered Republican and I research the candidates and vote my conscience. I am pro-life. My husband is a Republican. He cares deeply about Fort Clark Springs and we have lived here for over 20 years. Please correct this.”

Hunt strayed further off the candidates to name Will Conoly, who is also part of an old ranching family here, as “big money” intent on taking over the water board.

Hunt said he doesn’t know Conoly either, “but I’ve been told he’s a hard core Democrat and that makes him not good in my book.”

Hunt closed by challenging the candidates to “come find me anytime if you have a problem with what I’m saying.”

He then removed his hat, blessed the viewers and gave the sign of the cross.