Leppert continues charge in Senate race

The fun part of commenting on politics when you aren't supporting a specific candidate is that you get to watch all of the candidates with a sort of, kind of, unbiased eye. No one is truly unbiased of course, which is why I qualified that but in the race to replace retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, the only bias I think I have is that I know some of the candidates better than I do others. And when you don't know much about a candidate, it is easy to get fooled by all of the "operatives" from either side pushing information. And let me tell you, the "operatives" are in high gear in spreading negative information about former Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert – if you don't believe me just follow the Twitter hashtag of #txsen for a few days and you'll see what I'm talking about. Be careful though – you could drown in that sea of muck.

The thing is, most of the time when I look into one of these negatives, I find out that it isn't exactly the truth, if you know what I mean. For instance, one guy on Twitter keeps insisting that Leppert has a liberal record on taxes as mayor. Really? Well, in a word, no, he doesn't. In 2007, his first year, Dallas City Council did raise taxes but over the objections of the new mayor. Then, in 2008 and 2009, they listened to him and rejected increases. In 2010, he lost the fight again, with the City Council approving a 6.5{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} tax increase. If I were Politi-Farce, I'd say this charge was False, in the vein of Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire.

Or they take the fact that he participated in a gay pride parade as proof that he supports gay marriage or civil unions. Forget that he hasn't endorsed this position and in fact has stated the opposite, he was photographed wearing a rainbow ribbon in a parade! You know what this reminds me of? The time someone found out that I had started attending a church in Houston called Ecclesia, which is located in the heart of Montrose. Why, there are homosexuals that attend that church!, they said. Yeah, says I, just as there are also cheaters, liars, swindlers, thieves, and gossips in your church. Your point?

My point is that we need to learn, as Republicans, that our conservative ideas should be spread far and wide, to every social group, not just people that agree with us 100{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}. Just as Ecclesia Pastor Chris Seay has decided to show the Montrose community the love of Christ rather than be the moral police of the community. As mayor of Dallas, was it not Leppert's duty to be responsive to all citizens, even if he didn't agree with them on every issue?

Of course, not every charge is false. Leppert did in fact donate $1,000 to Democrat Ron Kirk in 2002 when Kirk was running for Senate. He also has given to Jim DeMint, Jeb Hensarling, David Vitter, George W. Bush, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Daniel Inouye – in other words, a whole lotta Republicans over a whole lotta years. You'll have to decide if his contribution to a Democrat automatically excludes him from your vote. CORRECTION – obviously, Sen. Daniel Inouye is not a Republican – wanna be my editor?

Enough of that – this isn't an endorsement, it is only an attempt to get you to look beyond the rhetoric of political "operatives". You should do that for all candidates in all races. Right, I know, time is limited. All I can say is that doing it this way is the only way you can find the truth about a candidate – you either take voting seriously or you don't. 

Now, finally to the headline! Yeah! The Tom Leppert for Senate campaign released yet another great video today. Say what you want about the candidate, his team is easily producing the best campaign videos. Not even close for the other guys and gal. Check it out:

Once again, straight and to the point. And I love the fact that he looks at the budget problems as "opportunities" to right this ship: the glass is half-full! I'm tired of pessimism!

I think the case for or against Tom Leppert will eventually boil down to this question: is the City of Dallas better off today because he was Mayor? If it is, and his team can get that message to voters, he has a shot at pulling a rabbit out of the hat. If Dallas is not better off, no amount of slickly produced ads will help him.