The Galveston County Daily News

When political strategist Karl Rove speaks, a lot of people listen. Some heckle and a few throw things.

So when island Realtors Karen Derr and Alice Melott heard the former adviser to President George W. Bush would be the featured speaker at the Texas Realtors Association’s convention in September, they were appalled, they say.

“What kind of message are we sending to the public we seek to serve by our very invitation to such an infamous politico?” Melott said in a letter to association leaders.

Melott, a Keller Williams agent, Derr and other area Realtors have launched an e-mail campaign to persuade the association’s leaders to strike Rove from the speaker lineup at the convention, which is set for San Antonio and is expected to draw about 2,000 members.

Derr, of Karen Derr and Associates Realty, which has an island office, said she fears Rove’s detractors would disrupt a convention that’s supposed to be about selling property, market conditions and legislative issues affecting the industry.

The association of which she is a former board member is nonpartisan, she said.

“Our main goal is to promote property sales in Texas; we don’t need that kind of atmosphere at the meeting,” Derr said.

But association leaders say they have no intention of uninviting Rove, the brains behind Bush’s political campaigns who wielded much power in the White House before stepping down in August.

“I’m personally proud of the Texas Association of Realtors for asking one of the most influential and controversial people in public policy today to be part of our annual convention,” association Chairman Randy Jeffers wrote to Derr in an e-mail.

In an interview Tuesday, Jeffers said that outcry about Rove’s presence at the convention wasn’t widespread. Jeffers said he has received about 17 angry e-mails about Rove’s speaking engagement. The association has 90,000 members.

The association isn’t choosing political sides, Jeffers said. Past convention speakers have included state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, who is co-chair of the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

“We’ve had moderates, left-leaning politicians and right-leaning politicians; this is just a different name attending,” said Jeffers, managing broker for Coldwell Banker First Equity in Amarillo.

“We have great respect for our members and their ability to filter information and make independent judgment.”

But some Realtors say the issue boils down to whether the Realtor trade group wants to be associated with Rove, who until 2006 was the focus of an investigation involving the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity in 2003.

“Rove definitely does not embody the ethics we want the public to associate with Realtors,” said Bill Hammond, an agent with Karen Derr and Associates Realty.

Prosecutors chose not to seek an indictment against Rove on federal perjury charges in connection with the leaked identity case.

Plame’s husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, had challenged Bush administration assertions that Iraq had sought uranium from Africa, evidence that Iraq had amassed weapons of mass destruction, an impetus for the war that continues today.

“As a final point concerning alleged illegal or unethical activities by Mr. Rove, we are not aware of any pending actions against him and want to refrain from engaging in any type of speculation in the highly charged political climate of this election year,” Jeffers said in correspondence to Derr and other Realtors.

The association wants its members to engage in political discussion, Jeffers said.

Hammond said he plans to organize a protest of Rove at the convention. He also said the association’s dues should not be used to pay Rove’s speaking fees, which in some cases are as high as $40,000.

Registration fees, not membership dues, will pay Rove’s speaker fees, Jeffers said. What Rove will earn for the convention speech was not immediately available, Jeffers said.

In April last year, Rove spoke to the College Republicans at the American University in Washington. When he walked outside, more than a dozen students began throwing things at him and at his car, according to reports.

In March this year, Rove’s speech to about 1,200 University of Iowa students was interrupted by about 200 protesters. Two people attempted to perform a “citizen’s arrest” on Rove, accusing him of crimes while a member of the Bush administration.

Rove has been identified in some news reports as an informal adviser to Republican John McCain in his presidential campaign against Democrat Barack Obama.

The Texas Association of Realtors’ convention is scheduled for Sept. 6-11.