It was another packed house at the Downtown Houston Pachyderm Club to hear candidate for Lt. Gov. and current Commissioner of Agriculture Todd Staples yesterday. It wasn’t a standing room only crowd as it was for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. Club treasurer Alvin Walker told me that 65 people signed in. That’s awesome for a Thursday lunch in the middle of July for a man that doesn’t have the same type of name recognition in the county as Dewhurst.
I suspect that his name recognition will grow and grow rapidly if his performance Thursday is an indication. Several people told me that they were surprised and impressed – one told me that he was going to start volunteering for the campaign. If Staples only gets that one volunteer from this trip, it would have been worth it but I think he’ll get several more.
Two things separate Staples from the other three candidates in the race. First and most noticeable is his youth. That quickly stands out in a party that is desperate for young leaders. One of the things he mentioned while chatting afterwards is that it’s a time for transition to occur, noting that Gov. Perry is not running, Susan Combs is not running, and Sen. Hutchison didn’t run again. He said that we need new faces, new ideas, and new leadership going forward.
The second thing that separates him is his ability to connect with the average Jane and Joe. Earlier I said that Staples had a bit of Rick Perry in him but one of the members yesterday said that Staples was more like Bill Clinton and I think he’s right. Perry can fire people up but Clinton had the ability to connect on a personal level with a populist message. The other three candidates in the race do not have that ability, at least as far as I’ve seen.
He started off the meeting attacking President Obama, always a good way to get Republicans listening. He mentioned the President’s speech on the economy at Knox College this week, telling us that the President used the word “growth” four times and “inequality” five times. He said that the President needs to learn that before you redistribute the wealth, the private economy has to create it.
He then referenced this line in the speech:
Then, rather than reduce our deficits with a scalpel — by cutting out programs we don’t need, fixing ones that we do need that maybe are in need of reform, making government more efficient — instead of doing that, we’ve got folks who’ve insisted on leaving in place a meat cleaver called the sequester that’s cost jobs.
In response, Staples said, “I bet 30 years ago, they said the same thing about Detroit”, referring to the recent bankruptcy filing. Government has to stop spending more than they take in.
He said that we need to remind the younger generation what it [America] is all about, freedom and opportunity, because we seem to have lost that message as a society. He said that the strength of the Texas economy wasn’t created by the people in Austin but by the voters that held people accountable. Public service is about giving back and fighting for the things you believe in.
He didn’t seem too concerned about Battleground TX other than the deception that they will spread. No one, especially Republicans, wants to see children starve but that is the message you will hear. We need people in office that can effectively counter them, letting the public know that we want to release people from a life cycle of dependency on government.
He is worried about the national party, noting that they had spent $10 million on a study about the best way to redefine the party. We don’t need to redefine ourselves, we need to recommit to conservative principles that made this nation great.
On immigration, he mentioned his book, Broken Borders, Broken Promises, and his six point solution:
- Secure our Borders
- Enforce our laws
- Document all immigrants
- Mandate country-of-origin application for citizenship
- Reform failed visa system
- Ports must be modernized
During the question/answer period, he was asked about his vote for the Texas DREAM act. Tough question but he handled it about as well as can be handled. The bill was intended to apply to children that had been here three years or longer and were currently seeking citizenship. He told us that universities stopped checking on the citizenship applications. After the meeting, we talked more about this and I asked him how frustrated he gets when people take that bill, passed twelve years ago, and try to put it in today’s discussions. The bill was not about immigration at that time but about education. It’s apples and oranges to try to compare it to today’s immigration problem. He opposes offering benefits to adults but he also opposes holding children responsible for bad decisions of their parents. He doesn’t think that HB1403 would be an issue if we fix the larger issue of immigration.
He thinks that the worst thing that can happen regarding immigration is if the Gang of Eight bill passes. The second worst thing would be for conservatives in the House to do nothing about the problems that our current immigration policy has.
He was asked a question about water. I was pleased to hear him mention desalination technology and that it is now relatively cheap thanks to our abundant supply of natural gas. He talked about the hard decisions that our leaders made in the 1950’s to insure that the state had enough water supply to accommodate growth and that we need to do the same now to ensure that we will be able to handle future growth. We cannot ration and restrict our way to growth.
He disagrees with the current transportation bills because of their funding mechanism. He would rather use vehicle sales taxes to fund roads and stop using them for general revenue. His reasoning is that you buy a car to drive on a road – shouldn’t your taxes pay for that road?
He was asked a question about Battleground TX specifically as it relates to Democrats trying to win in Harris County. In his answer, he took a couple of shots at Dewhurst. First, he said that you don’t make national heroes out of one of the most liberal members of the state senate. Second, he said that you have to do more than show up at the country club and take money from donors. Both are valid criticisms of Dewhurst. Staples said that you have to roll up your sleeves and work with the grassroots. This is an area where I think Staples can pick up a few supporters in Harris County. The party is corrupt and is going all out to support Sen. Dan Patrick. Staples has nothing to lose by trying to connect with grassroots voters and let them know that if he wins, he won’t be a stranger – he will visit often and get in the trenches to help Republicans win and stop the county from turning blue.
He also came out strongly for the blocker bill that stops legislation from being passed too easily. County Clerk Stan Stanart asked him if he would be in favor of moving it from two-thirds (21 votes) down to 60{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} (19 votes). Staples said that he would consider that but noted that if the minority blocks critical legislation in the regular session, you can apply different rules in the special session. I spoke with Stanart about this afterwards and tried to convince him that the blocker bill is good for conservatives but I don’t think I made much headway. 😉
Staples was asked what he’d like to be remembered for when he leaves the office if he wins. He told the crowd that he wanted to be known as the guy that was the same person going into the office as when he left. He wants to be remembered as someone that keeps his word. He’s not going to say one thing to the citizens in Houston and then go to El Paso and say something different.
He closed his speech with the famous quote from G.K. Chesterton:
The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.
He’s running because of what is at stake for our future.
Website: ToddStaples.com
Facebook: Todd Staples
Twitter: @Todd_Staples