Rep. Patricia Harless enters fray in HD132, pay-to-play politics

In a must read post on George Scott Reports titled Veteran Texas House Lawmaker Eviscerates Pay To Play Slates As Destructive To GOP Future; Uses Schofield’s Race In District 132 As Example, State Rep. Patricia Harless throws down the gauntlet on candidate for House Representative 132 Mike Schofield and the Harris County pay-to-play slate endorsement system.

“The pay to play system that has evolved in Texas’ largest county where Republicans play such an important role in statewide elections too often elevates weak candidates to the general election that cannot withstand the scrutiny of public exposure,” Harless said.

“Many statewide candidates who depend upon Harris County for important votes in statewide election tell me they are stunned when they get to Harris County and are too often forced to play a sick political game with power brokers because they fear their opponents will get critical financial support if they don’t go along and ‘pay the piper’ so to say,” Harless said.

“I believe in the profit motive of business and I have worked in the private sector and in my service in the Texas Legislature to demonstrate this,” she said. “But when the Republican Party has allowed just a few individuals in Harris County to create a modern version of Chicago style politics to both profit and influence the entire party, then I feel obligated to take a stand.”

And on Schofield:

“Michael Schofield apparently believes that because he worked for the governor of Texas that he is entitled to be promoted to the job of state representative of a community to which he moved to achieve his goal of becoming a state legislator,” Harless said. “What’s tragic to the system is that he would not have a chance without the support of pay to play slate endorsements like those he gets from Steve Hotze and Terry Lowry.”

“The slates give money and prestige to Schofield’s claims of importance that are not in any way associated with his actual importance in state government,” Harless said.

…

Harless said that if you could take a private poll of Republican legislators asking them about their knowledge and attitude towards Schofield, most of them would say: “Who is this guy?” she said.

Go read the whole thing. Good to see Harless stepping out and challenging the status quo. It is very unusual for a current state representative to get this involved in a race that might result in her working with the guy she’s criticizing, much less attack the big boys in Harris County.