Craddick Holdovers
I use Craddick’s name because most of the money in this group flows through Empower Texans and they are funded by Tim Dunn out of Midland. There is nothing at all grassroots about their efforts, they simply want the old guard to get back some of the power they lost when Republicans refused to re-elect Craddick as Speaker in 2009. Sure, Mr. Sullivan of Empower Texans was able to get a few “tea party leaders” to get out in front of his efforts but many of those “leaders” were past beneficiaries of free lunches, free conferences, free trips to conferences, etc. Others no doubt believed that Dems had pulled a fast one in 2009, disregarding the fact that Craddick could not get more than about 42 of the 76 Republicans to support him.
Just follow the money, as always. Empower Texans consists of three legal entities: Empower Texans Foundation, Empower Texans (aka Texans for Fiscal Responsibility), and Empower Texans PAC. They were formed in 2006 and their first IRS 990 is for 2007. I do not have access to their IRS reports for the foundation, that one is tax deductable. I did find the reports for their advocacy group and uploaded their 990’s for 2007, 2008, and 2009 to Scribd for you to review. As you can see, they have received $1,203,896, roughly $400,000 a year. Donors aren’t listed; presumably the bulk of the funding comes from Mr. Dunn of CrownQuest Operating.
I also created a spreadsheet of all of the contributions and expenditures for Empower Texans PAC, click here to download. You will see that 88.7{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of their funding comes from four people: Mr. Dunn (38{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}), James Leininger (34{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}), Bob Perry (11{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}), and Jeff Sandefer (6{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}).
There is nothing wrong with millionaires advocating for their interests – just don’t confuse their efforts with those of grassroots activists. Mr. Sullivan is paid to push the interests of his clients and he does it well. I only wish that he had chosen a positive campaign to do it because the way this campaign has been run sullies the reputation of all fiscal conservatives, not just Mr. Sullivan.
“Social Conservatives” and “True” Christians
Lots of crossover here but for the most part these are the professional nanny-staters. Guys like David Barton, Rick Scarborough, Dave Welch – people that want to control certain behaviors. I don’t think that the attacks on Speaker Straus were anti-Semitic so much as they were of the “if you don’t believe exactly like me, you don’t have a place at my table” variety. This is how they arrived at the despicable “pro-abortion” label for Speaker Straus – he believes, along with the majority of Americans, that abortion should be legal in certain, limited circumstances. Suddenly he is the anti-Christ – but only when they oppose him. Funny how every single one of his opponents that are in the legislature actually voted FOR him for speaker – he was elected by acclimation, 100{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}. Either those guys didn’t have principles then or they are lying about him now. Or both.
This group blames Speaker Straus for the failure of Sen. Dan Patrick’s attempt in 2009 to require women to view an ultrasound image of their fetus prior to consenting to an abortion. They don’t seem to care that the same bill failed in the House under Speaker Craddick in 2007.
They also make a big deal out of some homosexual advocacy groups saying that they would prefer Speaker Straus over either of the two candidates that are vying for his position. Well…duh. That doesn’t mean that Speaker Straus is going to help them push that nebulous “gay agenda”, whatever that is. It just means that they would rather deal with someone that hasn’t publicly stated that they are evil.
This is the group that sits in their decaying church buildings sipping coffee while bitching about “them illegals”, lamenting the “secularization” of “their” country, while “untrue” Christians are out adopting orphans, feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, and taking care of the sick.
And they aren’t grassroots, although to be completely truthful, they are closer to grassroots than the first group. Look up Vision America, Eagle Forum, Houston Pastor Council, and many others. Paid political operatives are leading this charge.
Grassroots Activists
This group is much smaller than you think. Lots of people attended tea parties. Very few people went down to their Republican club and worked phone banks, block walked, or stuffed envelopes. They don’t get the publicity that the “tea party leaders” get with their hollerin’, but they get the job done.
Two of them have posted here on BJP about the need for a caucus of Republicans to choose the Speaker, Paul Simpson and Ed Hubbard. Their arguments are reasoned, measured, and logical. They want what is best for Texas and they believe that Republicans should be the sole deciders because of the overwhelming victory in November.
While I respect their opinions, I do hope that they lose. Texas is unique – why turn it into a miniature version of Washington DC, full of fake grassroots groups controlling the agenda? It seems to me that our state constitution has worked very well for us and it calls for the Speaker to be elected by the members of the House. The victories in November were not a resounding call for Republicans to imitate the Washington DC Democrats – it was a rejection of operating that way.
If Paul’s call for a caucus is successful, and we apply it to the last session, Tom Craddick would have been speaker with about 29{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the House voting for him. Ed proposes upgrading that to 2/3 of the Republicans, which would have been 51 members or 34{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986}. That doesn’t make sense to me.
But even if Ed and Paul win this one and Republicans choose the speaker via caucus, and they have either an open or a secret ballot, my money would be on Joe Straus. You know why?
Because hands down, he is the right leader for the Texas House at this time. Fiscally conservative, pro-life, not a backroom arm twister, a guy that lets our representatives actually represent us versus telling our reps how to vote – I’m looking forward to a successful session under his leadership. Will the naysayers attack, even after a successful session? Of course they will – they are paid to. Who cares? Click here to tell your rep that you support Speaker Straus and that you won’t be fooled by Astroturf campaigns against him.
How about a couple of videos to close:
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