Sometimes, the primary system produces a real stinker of a candidate. This year’s Texas Republican primary certainly did that in the RR Commish race. I’m sure that David Porter is a nice man, a good man, and his family must be very proud of him. But seriously, he isn’t qualified for the job and the biggest reason he won is that the other guy’s last name was Carrillo. And in the low turnout R primary, dominated by aging voters that knew nothing about either candidate, it was easier to self-identify with Porter. You can argue that until you are blue in the face but until you come up with a more reasoned explanation, I’m going to hold firm to that.
But even if Mr. Carrillo had won, you would still have had to look hard at Jeff Weems. He is very well qualified, very bright, very articulate, and most importantly, very balanced. Is he to the left of me politically? Sure he is. So what? Most people are. But RR Commish isn’t a place for an ideologue, or someone trying to move to a higher political office that is an ideologue. It is a place for someone that knows what the heck they are doing, and Mr. Weems knows what he is doing in this industry.
I’ve met Mr. Weems about 5 times on the campaign trail, more than enough to get a basic feel for his personality. At one of the meetings, I criticized him for taking a potshot at Mr. Porter that I thought was over the line. Rather than blame his staff, he took full responsibility – that is unusual these days. I know it shouldn’t be but it is. A lot of politicians do fit the caricature that we have of them – Mr. Weems doesn’t. He seems to me to genuinely want to do a good job as a commissioner.
And I’m sure that Mr. Porter genuinely wants to do a good job should he be elected. In my opinion, he just doesn’t have the skills necessary. And he certainly doesn’t have the skills of Mr. Weems.
So I’m voting for him and hope you do as well. Do like I said yesterday: vote straight R, then go down the ballot and make adjustments here and there as necessary.
Website: JeffWeemsforCommissioner.com
Facebook: Jeff Weems