Shannon McClendon Announces Campaign for Texas Senate (SD-25)
Five-time Governor Rick Perry Appointee, Fiscal Conservative, Property Rights Advocate, Pro-Business Supporter, and 2nd Amendment Patron
Seeks Republican Nomination for Texas Senate District 25
Shannon McClendon
Hays County – Hays County attorney and property owner Shannon McClendon today announces her campaign for the Republican nomination in Texas Senate District 25.
“I am passionate about limited government and individual responsibility to allow our economy to thrive,” said McClendon. “My law practice includes protecting private property rights. I am fiscally conservative and will be a fierce advocate for reducing taxes for the health of our economy and stopping government intrusion into our personal lives.
“District 25 is not merely where I live, but where I have made a life for close to two decades. I would be honored to represent the views and values of my neighbors in the Texas Senate,” said McClendon.
Shannon says, “As a fourth generation Texan, I am confident in Texans working together to make the best Texas ever. We are very fortunate that Hurricane Harvey did not directly impact the residents and businesses of SD 25 as it was forecasted to do. So now is the time, and I am motivated to work together to plan to minimize the impacts of floods and droughts, and ensure the economic prosperity of District 25 by helping bring businesses and create jobs in our area.”
Shannon McClendon primarily practices energy law. As part of her law practice, she represents landowners, homeowners, ranchers, and farmers to protect their property rights in transmission line routing cases. A founding partner in Webking McClendon, PC, McClendon was also a partner at Gardere Wynne Sewell, LP. Prior to earning her Doctorate of Jurisprudence from the University of Houston Law Center, she was a computer systems analyst with Texas Instruments and the Space Transportation Shuttle Operations (STSOC) at NASA.
McClendon was part of the first generation of young women to join the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Corps of Cadets. After leaving A&M to pursue career opportunities in the emerging field of computer science, she finished her undergraduate studies at the University of Houston in Clear Lake, graduating magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in American Jurisprudence.
McClendon has an extensive record of trusted public service, having served as a board member of several state agencies. She was appointed by former Governor Rick Perry twice to the Texas Board of Professional Engineers, twice to the Texas Appraisers Licensing and Certification Board, and to the Texas Board of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, where she also served under Governor Greg Abbott.
“I know the power of government and the importance of limiting its reach into our lives,” says McClendon. “We need to keep government out of our bathrooms, bedrooms, and company boardrooms, and return the focus to our classrooms.
“Government should do a few things well, and otherwise stay out of our lives and quit wasting taxpayer money.
“Let’s empower our youngest generation with the tools of self-sufficiency, developing their potential through education. Let’s build needed infrastructure, planning and protecting our Hill Country communities from floods and droughts, making our roadways safer and more efficient, and providing the necessary energy to power our lives.
“Let’s preserve law and order, keeping our communities safe from the trafficking of drugs and people by securing the border. And let’s increase punishments for the criminal sex trafficking trade that exploits and abuses women and children.”
McClendon serves, or has served, on a number of organizational boards, including: the Texas Business Hall of Fame (Emeritus), the University of Houston Alumni Association, and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). She is a member of the State Bar of Texas, the Gulf Coast Power Association, the Texas Federation of Republican Women, the NRA (life member), and the Texas State Rifle Association (life member).
Shannon, and her wife, Cathy Webking, have been together for more than nineteen (19) years. They live on a ranchette in Hays County with their German Shepherd Dog, Stella, and two Ragamuffin cats, Titos and Lucchese. The couple takes great pride in being stewards of God’s land. Both Shannon and Cathy are active members of the Presbyterian Church (USA) of Lake Travis.
Since I happen to live in the Houston area, it’s good to see three Houston area reps on that list. Two other area reps, Jim Murphy and Kevin Roberts, came close with scores of 88. The moral warriors didn’t do so well on this scorecard.
You will notice that not a single senator received the highest designation, which is no surprise if you followed along during the session. The TAB was constantly at odds with the Governor and Lt. Governor over social issues.
Here is the list of bills that the TAB used for their scorecard.
House
Franchise Tax Repeal – HB 28
Raise-the-Age – HB 122
Transportation Network Companies – HB 100
Prohibition of Fees on New Construction – HB 1449
Recruit Texas Program – HB 108
Dry Cleaner Environmental Response Program – HB 1515
Hailstorm Litigation Reform – HB 1774
Comprehensive Development Agreements (CDAs) – HB 2861
Railroad Commission Sunset – HB 1818
Freestanding ER Transparency – HB 3276
Civil Suits Brought by Local Governments – HB 2533
Major Events Reimbursement Program for NASCAR – HB 3294
Sanctuary Cities – SB 4
Balance Billing Reform – SB 507
P-TECH Program – SB 22
Air Quality Permit Reform – SB 1045
Port Financing – SB 28
Senate
Sanctuary Cities – SB 4
Port Financing – SB 28
P-TECH Program – SB 22
Entities Subject to the Public Information Act – SB 408
Texas Emissions Reduction Program (TERP) Reform – SB 26
Transportation Network Companies – HB 100
Balance Billing Reform – SB 507
Recruit Texas Program – HB 108
Air Quality Permit Reform – SB 1045
Hailstorm Litigation Reform – HB 1774
Railroad Commission Sunset – HB 1818
Major Events Reimbursement Program for NASCAR – HB 3294
Civil Suits Brought by Local Governments – HB 2533
Discriminatory Legislation – SB 3 (First Called Special Session)
Just as I said would happen, the usual suspects are blasting emails, Facebook posts and Tweets claiming that they were responsible for ‘ousting’ Speaker Joe Straus. Dr. Steve Hotze even made a video praising God for the victory.
The horses prepared for battle but the victory belongs to the Lord.
Well then.
The thing is, that it isn’t quite the truth. Oh sure, Speaker Straus did announce he was not running for re-election, that much is surely true. But the ousting part? Not so much.
Embry also had the tally for the Speaker elections:
The members consistently voted for Straus because he did what he said he would do – he let the members run the place. He called it the ‘will of the House’ and took the heat for those representatives that didn’t have the courage to publicly go against the loudest activists in the party.
It remains to be seen if the business community and local governments as well as the teachers coalesce after this demeaning session, but they have pretty much lost all confidence in two of the big three.
Speaker Joe Straus today stunned even his closest colleagues with his announcement that he would not seek re-election to his seat in the House. This after polling in the field showed that even his weakest San Antonio precincts were solidly behind him. In addition, there was no possible math that did not have him re-elected to lead the House.
While his low opinion of the hysteria-based rhetoric of other statewide officials and the off the rails priorities of the special session(many but for his efforts) would have further made the recovery of the Gulf Coast even more protracted than it would otherwise be were barely camouflaged, one of the great stings had to be Governor Greg Abbott reassuring CEOs that Straus would kill the bathroom bill at the same time he was rallying pastors to sermonize on its behalf from the pulpit.
Obviously, I don’t think Kronberg was as stunned as others seemed to be. Beyond that, a couple of things stand out. First, as Kronberg points out, there was zero chance that Straus would not have been re-elected, both to his seat and to the Speaker’s gavel. Zero. Second, he reminds us of the duplicity of Abbott. Think about that as you re-read Kronberg’s opening line:
It remains to be seen if the business community and local governments as well as the teachers coalesce after this demeaning session, but they have pretty much lost all confidence in two of the big three (emphasis mine).
If there is one thing that Speaker Straus is not it is duplicitous. He isn’t going to rail against something publicly while privately supporting it, unlike Gov. Abbott’s ‘bathroom bill’ shenanigans. It simply isn’t his style.
“A confident leader knows when it’s time to give it back,” Straus said. “And I feel really good about the last year or so when I’ve been able to speak for myself about issues I care about and not necessarily every member of the legislature’s priority. And the reception I’ve gotten since I’ve been more outspoken has been really strong and really positive. And so I want to do more of that, find other ways to serve the state.”
“And I have to tell you as I’ve traveled the state, speaking out on issues that I think are important to our economy and important to most people, not just Republicans but most Texans who want to see our economy and our opportunities grow and…do things that attract jobs and not chase them away, the response I’m getting is very, very strong. And I’ve had people suggest, on a daily basis, that I run for another office, I don’t have plans to do that but I will be looking forward to speaking out more and more about issues that I think are important to most people. What that leads to, we will have to see. But I think there is a hunger for a republican voice out there that stresses issues that maybe haven’t gotten enough attention around the Capitol the last few years.”
Last year, before he decided to speak for himself, Speaker Straus spoke to the C-Club of Houston. His speech was about education in Texas and the path forward. By all accounts it was a complete flop. It was dispassionate and the reports were that he didn’t say anything of note on the issues. You know the kind of speech that when you leave you are left wondering what the heck the speaker was saying? That kind. Perhaps that speech and the reviews of it contributed to Speaker Straus deciding to speak on his priorities instead of trying to thread the needle representing 149 other voices. For Dr. Hotze’s pleasure, there is something in the Bible about being lukewarm.
Whatever caused him to reach the decision to give Texas Republicans an alternative voice to the increasingly shrill ones that have dominated Republican primaries the past few years is mighty welcome in my household. As I said yesterday, for now it is just a dream but sometimes dreams come true.
Mount the horses and prepare for battle. There is an army of PTA’s, PTO’s, local elected officials and business owners to organize.
The 85th Legislature passed Senate Bill 1893, which was signed by Governor Abbott on June 15, 2017. This legislation creates the tenth and eleventh administrative judicial regions. The eleventh administrative judicial region is now composed of Brazoria, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Matagorda, and Wharton counties. Prior to this legislation, these counties were represented by Olen Underwood, presiding judge of the second administrative judicial region.
The Governor appoints a presiding judge to each of the now eleven judicial regions. These judges serve a four-year term. The presiding judge:
promulgates and implements regional rules of administration;
advises local judges on judicial management;
recommends changes to the Supreme Court for the improvement of judicial administration; and
acts for local administrative judges in their absence.
Very importantly, presiding judges have the authority to assign visiting judges. In August 2017, 29 separate visiting judge assignments were permitted in Harris County. This list includes Belinda Hill and Brock Thomas. Hill served as the First Assistant District Attorney for Mike and Devon Anderson and supported the decision to jail a sexual assault victim. After nine years at the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, Thomas, son of former Harris County Sheriff Tommy Thomas, was appointed to serve as judge of the 338th District Court. Thomas lost reelection in 2008 and started a law firm with Devon Anderson. Thomas won election to the 338th in 2012 and again lost reelection in 2016.
Also, alarmingly, Marc Brown, aka Mr. Susan Brown, served as a visiting judge in the 180th District Court on July 31, 2017 and September 6, 2016. Why is a current, sitting appellate justice serving as a visiting judge in a trial court?
As you can see, the powers of the presiding judge are significant. Guess who has applied to serve as presiding judge of the newly created eleventh administrative judicial region? None other than Susan Brown – the judge who allowed her grand jury to be used for an unlawful purpose. If Governor Abbott choses to appoint Susan Brown to this position, he would send a terrible message to Texans.
Abbott must remember the 185th Grand Jury and the fact that this grand jury was misused for a political purpose. Some folks may have forgotten that Marc Brown actually appeared before this grand jury. A group of folks worked together to get rid of District Attorney Pat Lykos. They couldn’t do it legitimately, so they created a fake controversy and used Susan Brown’s grand jury to generate deceitful headlines.
Brown, et al. has led the justice system in Harris County down the wrong path. After the 185th runaway grand jury episode, the criminal district court judges got together and elected Susan Brown to serve as the administrative judge of the criminal division. Think about that a minute. Brown’s grand jury is used for an unlawful purpose and then her fellow judges nominate her to serve as their representative. Under Brown’s leadership, the judges decided to hide the identities of their grand jurors. More importantly, in her leadership role Brown supported not releasing the Planned Parenthood grand jurors.
They plan to use United States District Judge Lee Rosenthal’s bond ruling to put the democrats on trial during the gubernatorial election season. The truth is that Brown and friends are on the wrong side of this decision. Instead of taking action to repair the broken bail system, Brown, et al. allowed this decision to be made. If they had made appropriate decisions, the issue would not have been ripe.
For many years, the Browns and friends have gotten by with these misdeeds, but the line must be drawn right now. Contact Governor Abbott right now to let him know that Susan Brown and any character from the old guard.
Governor Abbott’s Appointments Office
512.463.1828
Gaby Fuentes, Governor Abbott’s Appointments Director
Primary challenges aren’t all that unusual in the Texas Republican Party but most of the time it is some fringe candidate with no chance of winning going up against an ‘establishment’ guy. In the race for Texas HD23, we do see an ‘establishment’ type in the form of Rep. Wayne Faircloth, who was first elected in 2014. But this time he has a very, very serious challenger by the name of Mayes Middleton. I suspect that Rep. Faircloth is in deep trouble.
Why? Because Faircloth has no grassroots or activist support. Truth is, he never has but he didn’t have a serious challenger in the 2014 primary and he was viewed as the best chance to take that seat from the Democrats after Craig Eiland retired. And it worked to everyone’s benefit as Galveston County was changing from blue to red. He hasn’t been a disaster for the party but neither has he been a leader. You can look at his committee assignments, bills authored and press statements to understand this.
You can also look at his campaign finance reports, which I did.
Faircloth
Cont
Exp
COH
Loans
Median
Number Cont
15-Jan-17
$153,698
$44,185
$183,670
$30,000
$500
95
15-Jul-17
$10,875
$43,241
$155,786
$30,000
$250
13
I included the January report to give a better representation of his fundraising ability and number of contributors. If you look at it casually, it looks like his fundraising is okay, not stellar but I’ve seen much worse. The problem comes when you look deeper. Here is what his report from January looks like if you break it down into something most of us can understand.
15-Jan-17
Contributions
Median
Number of Cont
In-Kind
$77,173
$2,000
17
Entities
$66,000
$500
57
Individuals
$10,525
$250
21
So in reality, more than half of his reported contributions were In-Kind, mostly from large PAC’s including him in their mailers for the November 2016 election. That’s nice and helpful but it doesn’t allow you to direct your campaign. Plus, most of those organizations won’t be as big of players in a primary challenge.
As for the Entities, those are also PAC’s but they gave directly to his campaign. Again, those types of organizations usually aren’t in play in a primary because they need to mitigate their risk if their chosen candidate loses.
The most telling are the 21 Individual donations. Sure, he had some big name support (James Dannenbaum, Charles Butt, Tilman Fertitta) and it is possible that they could write much larger checks if they need to. The problem is that he had one, count ’em one, contribution under a $100. That’s a problem in a primary, where enthusiastic support is needed versus a general where it is more about a voter’s party choice.
Okay, enough about Rep. Faircloth. What about his challenger? Well, let’s take a look.
Middleton
Cont
Exp
COH
Loans
Median
Number Cont
15-Jul-17
$59,809
$36,790
$480,019
$485,000
$10
250
Obviously the first thing anyone is going to notice is that $485,000 loan. I don’t care who you are, that’s a lot of money. The second thing that the more observant are going to notice is that the numbers don’t balance. I mean, if you loan yourself $485k, raise $60k, spend $37k, you should have more than $480k on hand. Why? Beats me. I see this all the time and have never tried to figure out why. Perhaps you can.
More important for our purposes is the rest of the report. Recall from Rep. Faircloth’s report that 93{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of his contributions were from Entities, not Individuals. Mr. Middleton, on the other hand, had one contribution from an Entity, that being Hoover Slovacek LLP for $500. Interestingly, that is the firm of the Harris County Republican Party Finance Chair Joe Slovacek.
Not that Mr. Middleton didn’t score a few big donors, he certainly did. Perennial large Republican donors Holly Frost, Windi Grimes and Wilkes Farris made large contributions. But they aren’t the story this time. The story is the number of smaller contributors and who they are. I’m not going to name them all but everyone knows Galveston County Tax Assessor Collector Cheryl Johnson. And then you have the Senate District Director for SD11 Scott Bowen. Further down the list you have the Texas SREC rep from SD11 Tanya Robertson. The activists in the district seem to have chosen a side.
And instead of one contribution under $100, Mr. Middleton has 179 individual contributors at $50 or less. Make fun of small donors all you want but if you give a guy $5 and you live in his district, you are going to vote for him.
Mr. Middleton also has the enthusiastic backing of the Empower Texans mail list, an important force in Republican primaries. Like I said earlier, I suspect that Rep. Faircloth is in trouble.
Following their marriage in a small chapel on the Middleton family ranch in Liberty, Macy Shaver and Mayes Middleton led the parade to Tony’s for a no-holds-barred celebration that continued from one decade into the next. The champagne flowed into the wee morning hours as guests, numbering more than 250, danced to a 15-piece band, the restaurant large enough to accommodate all.
Guests grazed through a variety of food stations that included everything delicious under the sun from lobster and stone crabs to a Viennoise table laden with 20 different desserts. No typical wedding cake for this creative couple. The center of culinary attention was a colossal ice cream bombe 6-feet-tall.
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