Why I believe in David Dewhurst

Because Cruz is a master debater and David a stutterer, debates are not the best format for David to shine. But frankly, I don’t believe that should be the test anyway.  The question is who will be the best Senator for Texas and I think the clear answer is David Dewhurst.   Texas is the envy of the nation and David Dewhurst’s fingerprints are all over that success. As Lieutenant Governor of Texas, David holds what is considered to be the most powerful position in the state.  Under his leadership, Texas has been consistently ranked as the #1 business climate in the country. (Texas Is America’s Top State for Business 2012).  While the rest of the nation has floundered under the misguided policies of Barack Obama, Texas has remained a job-creating powerhouse. There’s a reason they call it the Texas Miracle (Gov. Rick Perry: Success for Texas).

As we all know, Washington is a mess and on the verge of bankrupting our children’s future.  David is uniquely qualified to serve Texas in the US Senate in this great hour of need. Not only has he served our country in uniform by volunteering for the USAF during war, he volunteered to serve abroad in the CIA during the Cold War.  David’s dad flew 85 missions during WWII and that spirit of service is the legacy that lives in David today. He is a man of courage and principle and great faith.  David is also a lifelong businessman. He is a self made man — he started out with nothing and worked hard to achieve his success. He knows how to balance a budget and make tough decisions.  After achieving personal success, David volunteered to serve Texans again by entering into public office because it truly is a personal calling for him.  As Lt Gov, he has cut taxes 51 times, cut spending ($14 billion from the last budget) and balanced the budget each year without raising taxes.  He has an impressive and accomplished record getting legislation passed.  He’s passed tort reform, Loser Pays, Voter ID, the sonogram bill to protect the unborn, defunded planned parenthood, passed the defense of marriage, legislation to protect the right to pray in schools, and Jessica’s Law to name a few of his incredible conservative accomplishments. He has been endorsed by all of the prolife leaders and organizations because before he came to the Senate, no pro-life legislation could be passed.  Because he is a businessman, he understands that you must get government out of the way to let the citizens create jobs and our economy prosper.  David has lived the American dream and he wants our children to have that same opportunity. (David Dewhurst: creating opportunity for everyone).  Both the Houston Chronicle and Dallas Morning News have endorsed David.  (Dewhurst is the clear choice for Senate) and (Eloquent Cruz can’t match accomplished Dewhurst).

Cruz has repeatedly lied about David and the rest of the Texas Republican legislature.  18 of the 19 Republican Senators in Texas wrote an open letter to Texans last week, not endorsing Dewhurst, but trying to set the record straight from Cruz’s lies. (Setting the Record Straight: An Open Letter to Texans).  Notice how this letter specifically says David never supported income tax, wage tax or payroll tax? (Ted Cruz re-defends a flamed claim). Just yesterday, Senate Finance Chairman Steve Ogden spoke up to say it is clear that Cruz has no understanding of the legislative process or public finance or budgeting. (Ogden comes to Dewhurst’s defense over budget).  Recently, Cruz called in to Senator Dan Patrick’s radio show.  Patrick is unequivocally the most conservative Senator and head of the Tea Party caucus (so one would think he and Cruz would be aligned). Instead, Patrick called him out for his lies and Cruz had an epic meltdown. (Dewhurst resurrects Cruz radio interview in new ad).  (Entire version here.) Patrick also said David had supported him and his conservative legislation 98{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of the time. (Bear in mind these are not people who have endorsed David that are calling out Cruz for misleading Texans.)  If he can’t get along with even the conservative leadership in Texas, how can he hope to be effective for Texans in divisive D.C.?

Cruz background also shows him without ANY experience to qualify him to be Texas’ next Senator. He was born in Canada, grew up going to private schools, then college at Princeton followed by Harvard Law.  After that he was a government staffer in DC until he went to work for Greg Abbott in the Attorney General’s office.  After the AG’s office, Cruz went into private practice at a big national law firm. His wife is a VP at Goldman Sachs. While impressive for a government lawyer, these credentials hardly qualify someone to confront the mess that we are facing in Washington.  Cruz likes to point to his legal cases as his “record”.   The truth is, although he was arguing conservative positions, he was not the decision maker for any case at the Attorney General’s office, Greg Abbott was.  He also LOST 6 out of 8 cases he argued before the Supreme Court, including making what he called a “significant error” in the defense of the Jessica’s Law case, a law to protect children from sexual predators shepherded through the Senate by David.  He was unable to find (and the court specifically asked him for it) that the military had a similar federal law already and the court ruled that because no other such law existed, Texas’ law was unconstitutional.  A blogger with Google access found the case and Cruz’s reaction when the he heard the press was calling about his mess up was to say he was worried about looking “silly”.  Not the reaction I want from my Senator. But if Cruz’s legal work is his record, we have to look at the total picture and we are just learning the rest of the story. As a private attorney, Cruz IS making the decisions about what cases he should take on and what we learn is that he puts profit over principle and will say anything.  He is representing Robert Mericle, the dirtbag behind the Kids for Cash scandal.  Kids for Cash is a scandal where builders of for-profit jails were bribing two judges to sentence kids (even with no prior records) to lengthy jail terms so they would make more money and more facilities would be needed.  Mericle pled guilty to a felony and agreed to pay $17M to the victims (kids even committed suicide). Cruz represented Mericle (and flew to Philadelphia just this year) to argue that Mericle should keep his dirty money and made the argument that the victim of Mericle’s crime was the IRS, not the Kids.  Fortunately, the court disagreed and Cruz lost yet again.  20/20 has done a long story on it but view this for a condensed version. (It Wasn’t the Kids). As we all know, a lawyer can have sleazy clients, but not if they want to be my Senator or convince me they are principled.

Cruz is a smooth talking Harvard lawyer running a campaign of Hope & Change and it’s hard to believe anyone in the GOP in 2012 is falling for it. He is full of rhetoric not solutions.  (A perfect example is his response to the healthcare crisis question in the last debate – where he said ER care would be cheaper than Medicaid). See the Texas Medical Associations response today: (Doctors’ group scolds Cruz for saying ER care cheaper than adding uninsured Texans to Medicaid).  He’s also suggested building a fence along the entire border but had no idea how much it would cost ($7 Billion) nor any practical understanding of how unfeasible and ineffective it is.)  He has no comprehension of or experience accomplishing anything.  He is woefully unprepared for tackling the huge problems facing our country.  Although he is loud, that doesn’t mean he is effective.

Texas is not Cruz’s first priority.  Cruz is endorsed by DC SuperPacs who are looking for a puppet.  They know that if he wins, they will have bought and paid for him.  He will vote however his buddy Jim DeMint from So Carolina tells him to.  I want my Senator beholden to Texans.  He has refused to support John Cornyn for senior leadership position in the Senate although he supported an out of state Senator previously. (Ted Cruz surprises Senate analysts by hesitating to back fellow Texan John Cornyn for top post) and (TED CRUZ REFUSES TO SUPPORT TEXAS SENATOR JOHN CORNYN FOR SENATE LEADERSHIP).  If Cornyn is in the leadership position, Texans will benefit.  Cruz doesn’t care because his handlers haven’t given him permission to support someone outside their small, loud crowd. (DeMint, Toomey, Rand Paul, Palin, Hannity, etc.)  What those Senators and Talking Heads are good at is not solving any problems or moving the ball; they are good at shouting, going on talk shows and writing and selling books.  They also don’t understand or care anything about Texans.

Dewhurst, on the other hand, has the experience to accomplish the tough work ahead to turn our country around.  Dewhurst has actually done the things that Cruz talks about doing. Dewhurst is beholden to Texans and only Texans.  He cannot be bought and he believes in service.  He has a record to judge and it’s a damn good one.  Unless you can name a state doing better than Texas, I believe that David Dewhurst has earned your vote.

I will be happy to answer any questions you or anyone you know may have.  I passionately believe that David Dewhurst is the only choice for our next Senator.

Joanna Raynes
Houston, TX