Big Jolly Politics

politics in Harris County and Texas

On mental illness and David Dewhurst

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letter-to-the-editor

(Editor’s note: As I mentioned earlier, I had the privilege of speaking at the Downtown Houston Pachyderm Club today. A moving speech against the tactics of Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst’s campaign was given by Judge Bill Henderson. Although readers will be unable to see the passion with which Judge Henderson delivered this speech, I asked him if I could republish it in full for you.)

First and foremost I want to tell you that what I am saying today is my opinion and I am not speaking for my employer, County Judge Ed Emmett. I have reason to believe that he will agree with a lot of what I am saying, but I want to make it clear that I am not speaking for him.

The issue of mental health has been put in play by the Dewhurst campaign. The accusation that Sen. Patrick sought treatment for depression 30 years ago and had to be hospitalized is despicable. It does not matter whether it was Commissioner Patterson or Gov. Dewhurst who made the accusation, the Dewhurst campaign has sought to benefit from the accusation. I personally believe it has backfired on the Dewhurst campaign because there are so many of us who have personally been treated for depression or have had close family members that were treated. In fact, I believe Sen. Patrick should be congratulated for seeking medical treatment for a medical condition and then following the advice of his doctors.

It made me angry that Gov. Dewhurst would do this. He has been an ardent supporter of increased resources for treating mentally ill Texans and to do what he has done is beyond inconceivable. But it was not until I read Susan Fordice’s article in yesterday’s Deer Park Broadcaster that i realized why I was so angry. I have placed copies of Ms. Fordice’s article on every table and anybody who doesn’t get one, I have more with me.

Let me read one paragraph in her article:

Stigma is a powerful and unnecessary deterrent to care for a person experiencing symptoms of a mental health concern. it is especially important for not only our families and friends, but also the media, elected officials, and others in leadership positions to view and to portray people with mental health issues sensitively and realistically; and to challenge the use of stigmatizing language which is common, often accepted and rarely questioned.

I am here today to challenge the use of stigmatizing language by the Dewhurst campaign. We are not talking about discouraging good people to run for public office because they have sought treatment for mental illness, although that may be one consequence. More importantly, we are continuing the stigmatization of seeking treatment for mental illness. Those veterans who come home from the battlefield who feel like they will be less of a person for seeking treatment. Or the mother who suffers from post partum depression but doesn’t believe she should seek treatment. We as a society owe it to those who are suffering from depression, whether temporarily or permanently, to encourage them to seek treatment. Senator Patrick has always included people who are unable to take care of themselves as one of the four groups that the government must care for and that is just part of the 80% that Sen. Patrick and I agree upon. To show him and others that I support individuals who seek medical treatment for their depression, he will get my support in this election. I thought I would probably support Gov. Dewhurst but I must make this statement.

Bill Henderson

On Dewhurst and Patrick: Two Wrongs Don’t Make a Right

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Ed Hubbard
Ed Hubbard

That is a saying that my parents drummed into my head as I grew-up, and it remains one of those rudders in my conscience keeping me on as even a course through life as possible. I was reminded of this rudder as I tried to comprehend the latest developments in the Republican Primary run-off race between David Dewhurst and Dan Patrick.

I have been critical of members of my own party when I felt they have not lived up to their political promises or the trust we put in them with our votes. Sometimes I have used very forceful language when conveying my criticisms.

For instance, I have made my political distaste for Senator Patrick and his tactics very public over the last few years, and I’ve even satirically likened his antics to the old comic strip character “Fearless Fosdick”. Recently, I described what I viewed as “the discord Senator Patrick has sown as he has blown like an ill-wind through Republican Party politics in this county”:

… From his abuse of his radio station to attack fellow Republican officeholders and candidates as they have had to pay him for advertising, to his declaration of “RINO hunts” against anyone he deems unworthy within the party, to his support for the failed status quo in our party administration in order to try to obtain and maintain political control over its apparatus, to his abusive demagoguery of the immigration issue in his latest campaign to savage his fellow Republican candidates without regard to how such vitriol will impact our party’s relationship to the Latino community for years to come, he has shown me, once again, that while he may have the political skills to win elections, he does not yet have the temperament to be Lieutenant Governor.

But my argument with Senator Patrick always has been political—his political tactics and strategy, his political judgment, his political rhetoric, and his political temperament and character—not personal. And I have supported his opponents in this primary because of what I perceived as their political strengths and his political weaknesses. Had his opponents verbally bludgeoned Senator Patrick with the consequences of his own political demagoguery, I would say that he had reaped what he had sowed.

However, that is not how this race is ending. No matter how wrong I may feel Senator Patrick has behaved—and continues to behave—politically, nothing justifies the recent personal attack on him over his bout with an episode of depression 30 years ago.

Nothing! Two wrongs don’t make a right.

Have we learned nothing about depression and its treatment since the embarrassing Eagleton episode 42 years ago?

Have we learned nothing about mental health generally over this time?

Most importantly, is this any way to treat a neighbor, or the message we wish to send to all of our neighbors who may have struggled, or be struggling with personal or family mental health issues?

I will not be voting for Senator Patrick in this primary—I’ve made that clear. Unfortunately, I can no longer say that I will be voting “for” David Dewhurst. I simply will hold my nose and vote for the lesser of two political evils in this race—and that is the saddest statement I can make about the state of this race.

Tired of gutter politics? Come out and support Dan Patrick

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I don’t care who you intend to vote for in the run-off for Lt. Gov., the despicable attacks on Sen. Dan Patrick make me sick. If you live in Harris County, particularly in the northeast are, Dan will be speaking at the regular meeting of the Kingwood Tea Party this Monday evening.

kingwood tea party dan patrick

Kingwood Tea is the most influential tea party in Harris County and they have supported Dan from the start of this race, so it makes sense that he would be speaking there in the closing days of the race.

I’m sickened by the type of attacks that the guy I support, David Dewhurst, has put out in the last two months. The worst possible thing he could have done was take on Jerry Patterson and let him have control of his campaign, which is why I coined the term “Dewtterson”.

It would be awesome if so many people showed up at this meeting that they had to move it outdoors. You don’t have to support Dan or vote for him to know that what the Dewtterson campaign, along with one compliant media outlet, has done to Dan is just plain wrong. I’ll have more on this later but for now, mark your calendar and show up in Kingwood Monday evening.

 

Tea Parties Need to Take a Second Look at Lt. Gov. Dewhurst

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dale huls
Dale Huls

Here we are just days away from the 2014 Republican Primary Run-off Elections. Patrick or Dewhurst…Dewhurst or Patrick, is there a clear and simple choice for the Texas Tea Party movement? Is there one candidate that the tea party can trust to advance our agenda of personal freedom, economic freedom and a debt-free future for our children and grandchildren? Who knows? Ultimately, it’s a crap-shoot…or is it? Let’s look a little deeper now that we only have two choices left for the Republican Lt. Governor candidate.

To be fair, I have supported Lt. Gov. Dewhurst for re-election since the four challengers (Dewhurst, Patrick, Patterson, and Staples) announced their candidacies. This surprised many of my friends in the tea party movement. They looked at me like I had two heads (and both of them crazy). How could I support Dewhurst! Look at what he did to Ted Cruz during the US Senate campaign! He’s the establishment in Austin that we are fighting against! Talk about hard to defend your pick, it didn’t get any harder than this.

Indeed, even before the campaign season started…for most tea parties…David Dewhurst was not an option. Opinions were already set. An unspoken “anybody but Dewhurst” approach was pursued by everyone driven by their revulsion of the previous “scorched earth” tactics used against Ted Cruz and the continuing overspending and increases in the Texas State budget. Indeed, Lt. Gov. Dewhurst had become radioactive to the vast majority of tea parties in Texas. It seemed that everyone, including my own tea party, was searching for reasons to support one of the other remaining candidates. And for the most part, they found one reason or another to throw their support to one of the other three. The Clear Lake Tea Party endorsed Todd Staples by an overwhelming majority. It was a cold and lonely place on the CLTP Board standing up for Dewhurst and my arguments fell on deaf ears.

Yet, in the months before that vote to endorse Staples. Like many others, I was also looking for that “white knight” tea party candidate who would champion our principles and causes. However, Ted Cruz and Louie Gohmert already had jobs. So I sat down and did my own analysis of the Republican candidates with their names in the hat.

Ordinarily, Patrick should be a shoo-in for tea party support. He truly does have one of the more conservative voting records in the Texas Senate. He did form the Texas Legislative Tea Party Caucus during the 82nd legislative session. Additionally, he assembled a Texas Tea Party Caucus Advisory Committee composed of many leading tea party activists in the State to advise the caucus. So why was this not a slam dunk for Senator Patrick? Patrick claims that new “authentic conservative” leadership is needed in the Lt. Governor’s office. Maybe the problem seems to be with the word “authentic.” The sense of many in the tea party was that they were being “played.” Several Tea Party Caucus Advisory Committee members have said that the Texas Tea Party Caucus has been ineffective in setting tea party supported policies and championing them in the legislature. Although Patrick often casts conservative votes on many issues (such as his voting against the State budget this session), his votes are never a deciding vote. Patrick also has a reputation as a “bully” and an “ideologue,” which was visibly demonstrated when he stormed the House floor to confront Rep. Steve Toth over his CSCOPE oversight bill which Patrick promised to scuttle in a backroom deal with the CSCOPE administrators. This particular instance gave some in the tea party a deep glimpse into his character. Some of us still remember, Dan Patrick’s ambush interview of Ted Cruz on his radio show that upset the grassroots state-wide. With his election year revelation regarding Lt. Gov. Dewhurst’s leadership abilities, the tea party grassroots should remain unconvinced of Senator Patrick’s motivations and ultimate goals. Ultimately, I decided that Dan Patrick was no “tea party champion.”

So if not Dan Patrick, what other choice is left? It was not enough to only vote against someone. I needed to vote for someone in this election, so I gave David Dewhurst another look. I found that the original disagreements over spending and the State budget with Dewhurst still remain. I am still against the water amendment (No. 6) passed in November that was supported by the Lt. Governor. However, as I looked at the overall performance of Texas during the national financial crisis starting last decade and the hardships and anti-prosperity policies of the Obama regime, I began to evaluate things in a different light.

The tea parties are looked at as the L’Enfant Terrible of the Republican Party. We are conservatives who are terrifyingly candid by saying embarrassing things to and about the Republican Establishment. We are also portrayed as uncompromising and naive with respect to politics. While it may be true about us saying candid things that embarrass the establishment, we are growing up and maturing.

Getting past the Senate race campaign, the State budget, and a revolving-fund water amendment, I began to focus on the whole Dewhurst record. I discovered that he has be responsible for increasing the DPS budget by $800 Million to build the infrastructure necessary for Texas to be able to close its own borders for the first time. That after Patrick’s Sonogram Bill stalled in the Senate that Dewhurst personally pushed through the bill’s passage in the Senate. That under Dewhurst, as Lt. Governor, Texas has had lawsuit reform, election reform, stopped the State from adopting Medicare expansion, rejected Common Core, and greatly expanded our internal energy sources. With these in mind, I looked at other States and how they are faring with respect to Texas. Texas leads the nation in job growth. One third of all jobs created in America are in Texas. Approximately, 1200 people a day from other States come to Texas. If Texas has been so bad under the watch of Lt. Governor Dewhurst, then why are we in such great shape compared to the rest of the country?

After I looked at the Lt. Governor’s entire record, I next looked at the man. Who was this guy who ran such a cutthroat campaign against Ted Cruz who I actively supported during the campaign? Who was this politician that from the CLTP perspective seemed hardly to recognize that there was a Texas tea party movement? My questions were answered as I worked with the Dewhurst campaign team last year when they reached out to grassroots around Texas. I and other activists were brutally honest with our advice to the Dewhurst campaign. Sometimes our suggestions and input were taken and acted upon, sometimes not. However, they kept coming back and asking. That is all we in the tea party are asking for. A chance to be heard! We know that we won’t get everything we ask for, but that is all right. As long as you are listening and making valued, principled judgments, I am okay with being on the losing side of things from time to time. Just ask my CLTP Board!

And then, I finally got to interact with David Dewhurst directly. From the time I spent with him in person and on the phone, I gathered my own sense of the man and who I thought he was. I got a feeling of “authenticity,” “integrity,” and “sincerity” from the Lt. Governor. He seemed earnest that I understand his positions and rationale, yet was never condescending or dismissive over my concerns and issues. Sometimes we would agree to disagree and others I could see enlightenment enter his eyes regarding concepts and concerns he had previously not thought of. For the first time my personal assessment agreed with my political assessment, that I was indeed backing the right horse in this race.

Like I said before, backing Dewhurst was a lonely place in the tea party. However, after the primary and the field now down to just two candidates, the CLTP was trying to figure out what its next steps would be regarding the run-off. The Patrick team contacted Robert Gonzalez, then President of the CLTP, to set up a meeting to “bury the hatchet” regarding our opposition to his candidacy for Lt. Governor. We agreed, and in good conscience, Robert decided it was only fair to give Dewhurst a similar opportunity to address our tea party board. Dewhurst accepted our invitation and on a Friday at the First Baptist Church of Seabrook, the Lt. Governor sat with the CLTP Executive Board. Sitting down, the CLTP Board was very anti-Dewhurst for all the reasons previously stated. My fellow board members began questioning with a vengeance and hitting on topics like education, the TSA anti-groping bill that failed, the Wendy Davis filibuster, budget issues, border security, open carry, Obamacare, tort reform, local elections and debt reform to name just a few. Dewhurst spent three and a half hours with us answering questions, giving background information, and discussing problems and solutions. After our meeting, my fellow board members seemed rather stunned at the way things had turned out. I was asked “was that for real” to which I replied “that is the David Dewhurst I have been working with for months, you are just seeing this for the first time.” In fact, one of my friends on the board commented that “if this is for real, I owe you an apology.” No apology needed. I understood their mindset intimately because it was once my own.

After a week of reflection and debate, the Clear Lake Tea Party Executive Board announced their endorsement and support of Lt. Governor David Dewhurst for re-election as Texas Lt. Governor. To those who read these words, take note that it is a rare thing that so many strong and opinionated people can re-evaluate their positions, change their minds and publicly reverse their stance.

But this is not the end of this story. If it was just the CLTP Board who reconsidered their opinion of David Dewhurst and ended up supporting him, it could be looked at as an atypical outcome in a turbulent political season. But the story doesn’t just end there. Immediately upon the announcement that the Clear Lake Tea Party had formally endorsed Dewhurst for Lt. Governor, all the leadership of the surrounding area tea parties began to question the wisdom and sanity of backing the Dewhurst. In order to answer this question, the CLTP organized another meeting with Dewhurst and the leadership of six area tea parties all mainly hostile to the Lt. Governor last week.

Folks, lightning struck twice. After the meeting, what were once critics of David Dewhurst came out with a new understanding and perspective of the man and his efforts for Texas. Within a day, two tea parties that were represented by their boards immediately endorsed David Dewhurst for Lt. Governor and representatives of the others went back to advocate an endorsement from their respective boards. Their decisions are pending. What all this demonstrates is that if the tea parties of Texas temper their initial opposition and take a hard long second look at both candidates, they just might come to a different conclusion regarding the candidates.

Finally, do a grassroots activist’s due diligence by throwing out conventional wisdom and judge the situation on the entirety of the facts present. Get your facts first-hand by doing your own research, picking up the phone or setting up a meeting. Oh, by the way, how did the CLTP meeting with Dan Patrick go you may ask? After several canceled meetings by the Patrick team, we were never able to get him to sit down with our board. Who knows, what would have happened if he had thought it important to keep his appointments with the Clear Lake Tea Party.

Dale Huls is a founding member of the Clear Lake Tea Party.  

Dewhurst to apologize to charity but continue aggressive contrast advertising

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Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst at the RRRW forum 9-16-13.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst at the RRRW forum 9-16-13.

I like Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for his successful leadership of the Texas economy and for his willingness to admit mistakes, take responsibility for them, and continue to move forward. An example of that occurred today.

One of Sen.Dan Patrick’s staffers, Elliot Griffin, included me in a Tweet today about a Dewhurst campaign ad that was completely outrageous. Here is the Tweet:

This is where Dewhurst is at in this race:

If you click those links, you’ll find a statement from Dan regarding the Dewhurst campaign’s use of a photo of a shirtless Dan Patrick in a demeaning way.

The problem is that the photo was taken from a fundraising event for one of the organizations that Patrick has supported for many years, the Be an Angel foundation. Dan has raised millions of dollars for the foundation, which was created to provide benefits to extremely handicapped children at T.H. Rogers school for the handicapped in Houston and has, with Dan’s help, expanded throughout Texas. It is an awesome charity. In the photo, Dan literally “sold the shirt off his back” for $1,500 to Glenda Kubosh, wife of Houston City Councilman Michael Kubosh. Anyone in Harris County knows that the Kubosh brothers are major donors to both the Republican party, Republican candidates, and many charitable causes.

I was so upset by the use of this photo to attack Dan that I reached out to David and let him know. I’ve supported David through thick and thin and think that no one is better qualified to be Lt. Gov. of Texas.

David agreed with my condemnation of the ad and told me that he was ordering his staff to remove the photos from the ad and that he would personally issue an apology to the Be an Angel foundation. He told me that before the ad aired, he asked his staff multiple times to make certain that the photo was not from a charitable event and they assured him that it wasn’t. However, he understands that the buck stops at his desk and he took full responsibility for the use of the photo.

That is what I expected of David and that is what he delivered. No passing the buck, no ducking the issue, simply doing the right thing.

And that is why I hope that the voters in the Republican primary return David to the Lt. Gov. position. We need strong leadership if we are going to continue to thrive as a state. David’s record of leadership is simply unmatched if you take the time to look at his accomplishments objectively. We need his leadership and we need someone in the position of Lt. Gov. that isn’t afraid to say that the buck stops here. Nor is he afraid to continue the aggressive contrast ads that he has been airing to educate voters on the differences between he and Dan.

I encourage all voters in the Republican primary to compare the record of Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst with that of Sen. Dan Patrick. This mistake notwithstanding, if you do that, I know that you will join me in voting to re-elect David as Lt. Gov. and keep Texas the number one economy in the U.S.A.

Ed Hubbard: My Run-Off Endorsements, and My Post-Mortem on the Chair’s Race

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Ed Hubbard
Ed Hubbard

Well, I guess this relatively quiet time since the polls closed on the March primary had to end sometime.  With the coming of the absentee ballots, the slate mailers, and the final push from the candidates, I feel that I need to close the loop on some of my feelings on a few of the remaining races—a few of which I did not take a public position on during the first round.  I am not going to discuss every race, just the ones that I feel I need to address (and, though it should go without saying, the following endorsements are personal and do not reflect the views or positions of any organization of which I am a member).  I also want to end this post with some final thoughts about the outcome of the Chair’s race and the future of our local party.

Congressional District 36

I live in both CD 36 and HD 129, so these races are especially important to me.  Because I know, like, respect, and work with many of the candidates who were in the first round of both races, I decided not to inject myself into either race with a public endorsement.  Although I wish I could do the same this time around, I have been asked by too many people how I evaluate these races, and my views have evolved so much over the course of this primary season, that I doubt that I can avoid having some version of my comments become public eventually.  So, to avoid any misinterpretation or misunderstanding, I will give you my thoughts now—starting with CD 36.

As I have noted on this website before, CD 36 was drawn without regard to the peculiar interests of either the counties to the east of Harris County, or to the peculiar interests of the communities that comprise the east and southeast portions of Harris County included in the district—apparently, somebody just took a pencil and tried to draw a “Republican” district out of this hodge-podge.  As a result, there quickly (and inevitably) developed a type of “us v. them” concern between voters in the two geographic areas, which has played out during the last two “open” primaries.

Having noted that development, though, this primary resulted in a rare situation for me:  a choice between the better of two good candidates.  And, for several reasons, I was prepared to support the candidate who currently resides in the district—in Woodville—in this run-off.  But this agonizing process of choosing between two good candidates has now led me to a final decision as to the candidate for whom I will vote:  Ben Streusand.

Again, this has been an uncharacteristically difficult choice for me, because I started this process overwhelmingly leaning toward Dr. Brian Babin, and against Ben—and I still believe Dr. Babin will make a good Congressman for this District if he wins.  His long-time involvement in his community as a Mayor and holder of other offices, as an early Reagan campaign volunteer, as a Republican County Chair, through his two previous campaigns for Congress, as well as the success of his children in their chosen walks of life, tells me that this is a man who has lived and learned from a lifetime of experiences, and could represent the District well.  So, my views of Dr. Babin have not changed.  It’s just that I’ve walked a “Damascus Road” over this race since mid-March, and I now am convinced that Ben Streusand is the best of our two good choices.

I think most of us in Harris County political circles know, or know of, Ben through his work for Americans for Prosperity, his grass-roots involvement in many conservative causes, his previous campaign for Congress, and his consistent advocacy for conservative economic principles on KSEV radio.  And, for a long time, that last experience was a problem for me, because of my disagreements over the years with Dan Patrick over what I believe has been his heavy-handed involvement in maintaining a failed status quo of discord within our local party with his infamous “RINO hunts.”  Admittedly, I just associated Ben with Dan; and when I saw that Ben did not even live in the district, I simply refused to look at him more seriously.  In fact, I publicly said that Ben was the one candidate in the original field whom I could never support.

But, after the primary I had a couple of opportunities to talk with and interview both men, and I began to question the wisdom of my closed-mindedness.  Frankly, Ben impressed me very much; and I found that I agreed more with his positions on and approach to the broad range of issues that our next Congressman will face, than I did with Dr. Babin.  Most importantly, I saw and heard a man who will balance an aggressive advocacy of conservative economic, limited-government, national defense and social conservative principles with a prudent advocacy for the legitimate federal interests in our District, including the Ports of Houston and Orange, NASA, Ellington Field, vocational education for jobs related to those facilities, the coastal flood plain and property insurance, and proper development and maintenance of natural resources.  This balanced advocacy is crucial, because CD 36 is arguably the most interdependent district in Texas with the proper and legitimate exercise of federal responsibilities—we need someone who understands those interests and will balance them with the need for implementing conservative priorities in Washington.

The difficulty for me is that I believe Dr. Babin will strive to represent this district and its diverse interests well.  I just believe Ben has the energy and the experience (in the private sector and in politics) to be the new advocate we need in Washington.  That is why I finally have decided to vote for Ben Streusand for CD 36.

State House District 129

If the last decision was agonizing, double that feeling and you have a good picture at the knots I’ve been tied in since the polls closed in March.  And these knots only grew tighter with the March vote being so close, and with the campaigns both have run.  I’ve gotten to know both Sheryl Berg and Dennis Paul so well over the last few years, and I respect so much the work they both have done for our party as precinct chairs, SD 11 representatives, and SREC representatives from SD 11, that I really wish I could just jump on a plane and miss this whole process rather than choose between them.

But choose I must—and we must.  So, I’ll try to explain my thinking and my choice as best I can.

When this race started, I told all the candidates that I was staying neutral, but there were a handful who I thought would make excellent representatives for our district, and a handful who I thought actually had the support needed to make the inevitable run-off—and, frankly, I saw very little overlap between the two categories.  In my mind, Sheryl Berg fell into both categories, but Dennis Paul only fell into one of them.  Moreover, though I’ve gotten to know both of them well, their respective strengths and weaknesses are so different, that I had a real hard time making an apples-to-apples evaluation of them for this race.

But my thoughts along my recent “Damascus Road” were not solely focused on the Streusand-Babin race; Dennis Paul’s excellent campaign was on my mind, too.  I believe Dennis has run one of the best campaigns I’ve witnessed in a long time, and he has become not just a good candidate, but also a strong potential representative for our district.  I expected Sheryl to be a good and competent candidate and eventual representative (and I still have no doubt she would be if she wins this race), but I now believe Dennis has shown himself to be better and has given me another choice between the better of two good people and candidates.

Believing that what I’ve now witnessed is indicative of how he will represent us in Austin, I have decided to vote for Dennis Paul for HD 129.

State House District 132

I don’t live in District 132, but I had a chance to interview each of the candidates in the original field, as well as watch this race unfold.  Here are my thoughts about the two remaining candidates.

If you want a candidate who knows the current political environment and litany of current Republican orthodoxies in Austin like the back of his hand, and who can maneuver the halls of the Capitol with the ease of someone who is coming back to an old familiar home, than Mike Schofield is your candidate in this race.  He has spent over a decade in Governor Perry’s inner circle and has spent even longer trying to find an open House seat to run for and win.  There is no doubt in my mind that he could enter the House chamber on day one of the next session and represent the generic, status quo conservatism that he espouses on the campaign trail—positions that are as comfortably discussed in Midland as they are in Katy, and all points in between.

But, if the voters in HD 132 are looking for a conservative person whose life experiences in the business and civic affairs has provided her with a unique knowledge of this growing Katy-based district—its strengths, its weaknesses, its interests in Austin, and its needs from Austin—and who will advocate for the greater Katy community consistent with her conservative principles, then Ann Hodge is your candidate.

For me the choice would be clear:  Ann Hodge for HD 132.  I got to meet Ms. Hodge for the first time during this campaign, and it is not an over-statement to say that she was the most impressive candidate I met during this campaign cycle.  She would make a great representative for this Katy-based district, and she would give our party a fresh, yet experienced, voice in Austin to help address all of the major issues facing this state in the near future, including education and tax reform, and highway funding reform.

Again, I endorse Ann Hodge for HD 132.

Family District Court 311

I know, you’re thinking what more is there to say here, now that Judge Pratt resigned.

First, I want to thank Judge Pratt for taking the step she did to allow Judge Farr and the Governor to begin fixing the problem with this court, and to protect the Republican Party from being tarnished by this issue in the fall election.  I hope that she and her family find peace in this decision, and that she does well in all of her future endeavors; just as I hope that the families who find themselves before this court now find justice.

Second, we have to make sure that Alicia Franklin wins this race by finishing the job and voting for her.  Because of the lateness of her resignation, Judge Pratt’s name will still be on the ballot, and some people—for whatever reason—will still vote for her.  We need to make sure that more people vote for Alicia, and then we need to support her in what will probably be a tough fall campaign.  So, to make it clear, I endorse Alicia Franklin for Judge of the 311th District Court.

Finally, though, let this episode be a reminder that if we truly want to continue to elect our judiciary in partisan elections, we (of all or any political party) need to take greater responsibility for the candidates we elect.  We need to understand the office they are running for, and to properly vet them for that office, rather than rely on the pay-for-play slate mailer system that gave us Judge Pratt.  Then, once we elect them, we need to keep in contact with them to support them in their work, to make sure that they have the support they need to perform their job well, and that they are performing well.  Maybe, if we had exercised this diligence—which is not just our right, but our obligation as voters—we could have learned of Judge Pratt’s issues and maybe provided support and help to see her through them, before it became a crisis and a basis for resignation.

We need to do better.  Let’s start with voting for Alicia Franklin for Judge of the 311th District Court.

Lieutenant Governor

I saved this race for now because I am very concerned about the outcome of this race.  Needless to say, I publicly supported Jerry Patterson and publicly opposed Dan Patrick; so, the result of this race was not what I was hoping for.

But let me make one point clear:  I will support the Republican ticket from top to bottom this fall, regardless of who wins this run-off.  Just because Dan Patrick may win this race, doesn’t mean that I will support his Democratic opponent—I won’t.  It just means that my efforts probably will be focused on other races and candidates, as well as the ticket as a whole.

So, I guess you know where I am going here.  I only have track records by which to judge the two remaining candidates in this race.  One, David Dewhurst, has been a strong Lieutenant Governor and presided over the Senate during a great era of economic growth for our state and of implementation of many Republican policies.  As I said when I announced my support for Jerry Patterson, if I didn’t feel that this year provided us with a great opportunity for bringing in fresh thinking throughout state government, I would have supported Dewhurst.

The consistency and institutional memory that Dewhurst will provide our new statewide leadership team is simply miles apart from the discord Senator Patrick has sown as he has blown like an ill-wind through Republican Party politics in this county.  From his abuse of his radio station to attack fellow Republican officeholders and candidates as they have had to pay him for advertising, to his declaration of “RINO hunts” against anyone he deems unworthy within the party, to his support for the failed status quo in our party administration in order to try to obtain and maintain political control over its apparatus, to his abusive demagoguery of the immigration issue in his latest campaign to savage his fellow Republican candidates without regard to how such vitriol will impact our party’s relationship to the Latino community for years to come, he has shown me, once again, that while he may have the political skills to win elections, he does not yet have the temperament to be Lieutenant Governor.

I know that what I just wrote probably will freeze me out of any opportunity to help address education reform in Austin over the next few years if Dan Patrick wins this race, but I could not look myself in the mirror without having gotten these thoughts off my chest.  Now, it’s up to my friends in this party to make the final decision, which I will honor and respect.

But, because David Dewhurst has shown himself to be a competent, honorable, and effective leader, I am voting for David Dewhurst for Lieutenant Governor.

Final Thoughts on the Chair’s Race and the Future of the HCRP

I want to congratulate both Jared Woodfill and Paul Simpson.

First, to Jared, I want to extend to you my sincerest congratulations and thanks for the last 12 years of your leadership.  Although you and I have not always seen eye-to-eye on the how the party should be organized and managed, I always have respected your tireless advocacy and leadership for the conservative values we share.  I wish you nothing but success in your future endeavors.

Second, to Paul, congratulations on a long and persistent fight—it paid off.  You now have an opportunity to accomplish for the HCRP organization what Steve Munisteri has done at the state level, and to make the HCRP a model for other urban GOP parties across Texas and the nation.  You have both the burden and the opportunity to forge new and better relationships across all of the factions of our party, as well as to expand our party into every precinct in the county.

I know this will not be easy, and that you will enter this office in mid-June with a lot of parts already in motion toward the fall election.  Please know that you have friends willing to help from throughout the party, including me.

And that’s where I’ll end this post—we Republicans need to work together to win elections, and to support our elected officials once they are elected, for the good of our community, state and nation.  To that end we need to bury old hatchets and build new bridges.  I even pledge to work with Dan Patrick if he is our candidate for Lieutenant Governor, if he, too, is open to put aside all the discord of the past so we can tackle the issues that confront us with positive conservative ideas.  In the end, that is the challenge we all face now.