Posts Tagged ‘Joe Straus’
Friday, August 9th, 2013
Time for another quick roundup of statewide race news:
Even left-wing PolitiFact admits that Democrats are lying about Greg Abbott improperly moving funds.
They’re a lot tougher on Lt. Governor candidate Sen. Dan Patrick’s claims that funding for border security was cut in the latest budget.
The Texas Tribune looks at Abbott’s consultant spending.
Abbott, running for a statewide office, refuses to opine on national legislative tactics to defund ObamaCare. Stop the freaking presses!
The Washington Post offers up five facts about Abbott. For a change, they’re even accurate.
Abbot takes south Texas votes seriously.
Lt. Governor David Dewhurst shakes up his re-election team with new hires, including Ryan Hecker of FreedomWorks and Eliza Vielma (AKA Twitter’s @misslizaface) will be handling social media. Given how poorly Dewhurst performed in social media in the Senate race, that’s probably a good move.
Lt. Governor candidate and Agricultural Commissioner Todd Staples takes a swing at Dewhurst’s leadership in a fundraising letter.
But Staples, like all three of Dewhurst’s challengers in the Lt. Governor’s race, endorsed Dewhurst over Ted Cruz in last year’s Senate runoff.
Patrick has a new ad out. He looks sleepy. He may need to consider ptosis surgery.
Attorney General candidate Dan Branch defends defense of marriage. Unlike Tom Leppert, Branch doesn’t seem to have played footsie with Dallas’ gay rights community, and indeed was an (unsuccessful) target for them to defeat in 2008.
Speaking of Branch, Facebook briefly yanked, then restored, one of his campaign videos. This one I think:
Which strikes me as well-produced, but pretty generic. Can’t see why any reasonable person would find it even remotely objectionable.
Sources tell me that Rep. Brandon Creighton gets into the Agricultural Commissioner’s race today.
And speaking of the Agricultural Commissioner’s race, Eric Opiela is evidently not only Joe Straus’ lawyer, but also managed (through some ill-advised emails) to hurt Republican redistricting efforts by making them easier to challenge in 2012.
On the Democratic side, Abortion Barbie inches closer to declaring her intention to lose to Abbott.
Tags:2014 Attorney General's Race, 2014 Election, 2014 Governor's Race, 2014 Lt. Governor's Race, Border Controls, Brandon Creighton, Dan Branch, Dan Patrick, David Dewhurst, Elections, Eliza Vielma, Eric Opiela, Greg Abbott, Joe Straus, Media Watch, Republicans, Ryan Hecker, Texas, Todd Staples, video, Wendy Davis
Posted in Border Control, Elections, Media Watch, Republicans, Texas, video | No Comments »
Friday, July 26th, 2013
A little bird has been telling me a few tidbits about the Attorney General’s race, namely:
Ken Paxton is indeed going to run for AG, and will announce his run next week. You might think this is deep insider knowledge, but given this Facebook posting by Paxton…eh, not so much.
By contrast, the manifest lack of enthusiasm for Dan Branch’s Attorney General run among Texas conservatives is palpable. And when the Dallas Morning News labels you “a close confidant of House Speaker Joe Straus,” you’re already starting off on the wrong foot to win over conservative activists.
Tags:2014 Attorney General's Race, 2014 Election, Dan Branch, Elections, Joe Straus, Ken Paxton, Republicans, Texas
Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »
Monday, March 11th, 2013
Some very quick and exceedingly brief impression of today’s TPPF conference call with Mario Loyola and Arlene Wohlgemuth:
The Texas legislature is considering a number of anti-gun-control bills, including one outlawing state officials from cooperating with federal authorities on unconstitutional mandates.
Texas is seeking to limit federal influence over anything not directly funded under a federal program.
There are over 600 (!) line item sources in the Texas budget as funds received from the federal government.
Despite conservative suspicion when it comes to Texas Speaker Joe Straus, reports that he’s considering caving on Obamacare may very well be overblown. Certainly the rest of the Republicans in the House are unified against ObamaCare.
I’m waiting to hear back from TPPF on state Senator Kevin Eltife’s sales tax hike proposal, supposedly to retire TxDOT bonds. At first glance it does sound an awful lot like a political death wish.
I said brief…
Tags:Budget, Guns, Joe Straus, Kevin Eltife, Republicans, Taxes, Texas, Texas Public Policy Foundation
Posted in Budget, Guns, Republicans, Texas | 1 Comment »
Monday, December 10th, 2012
This is big news. Rep. Bryan Hughes has dropped his bid to be Speaker of the Texas house of Representatives and has endorsed Rep. David Simpson in his run against incumbent speaker Joe Straus.
While conservatives wanted to see Straus replaced, they was worry that Hughes’ background as a trial lawyer could work against him, and there was also worry that Simpson would split the anti-Straus vote. With Hughes out and endorsing Simpson, conservatives now have their best chance ever to oust Straus.
Expect to hear more about the Speaker’s race in the near future.
Tags:Bryan Hughes, David Simpson, Joe Straus, Republicans, Texas, Texas House of Representatives, Texas Speaker's Race
Posted in Republicans, Texas | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, November 6th, 2012
Today’s the day! Get out there and vote!
Politician says FEMA’s response to Sandy is as incompetent as it was to Katrina. But what does Rudy Giuliani know about managing New York City in a crisis?
Texas Speaker of the House Joe Straus doesn’t seem wild about conservatives. Go figure.
Sheldon Anderson on how the Democratic Party left him. “When you look at states where Democrats have enjoyed years of one-party dominance-California, Illinois, New York-you find that their liberal policies simply don’t deliver on their promises of social justice.”
When Obama took office unemployment was 12.7% for blacks. Now it’s 14.3%.
NAACP decides that Texas election laws are for other people.
Tags:2012 Election, African-American, Black Panthers, Democrats, Elections, FEMA, Joe Straus, NAACP, Rudy Giuliani, Sheldon Anderson, Texas
Posted in Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Texas | 1 Comment »
Monday, October 15th, 2012
Doing a bunch of stuff, so here’s a more-or-less random linkSwarm:
A funny thing happened on the way to the death of conservatism.
Romney might pick up one electoral vote in Maine.
Michael Totten and Sohrab Ahmari take down Tariq Ramadan.
In the Texas House, it’s a band of conservative brothers vs. Texas Speaker Joe Straus.
Journalist shocked that all his fellow journalists are suddenly spewing vitriol at him and calling him a traitor because he’s decided to vote for Romney. Also confirms the overwhelming liberal bias in the newsroom.
Police arrest members of the Mexican Mafia prison gang across the state, including one police officer in Houston who was providing them guns.
Tags:Crime, Guns, Islam, Jihad, Joe Straus, journalism, LinkSwarm, media bias, Media Watch, Mexican Mafia, Michael Totten, Sohrab Ahmari, Tariq Ramadan, Texas
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Media Watch | No Comments »
Monday, September 24th, 2012
Well, this is very interesting:
FreedomWorks, which helped insurgent Ted Cruz snatch the GOP nod for U.S. Senate from Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, said Monday it will put its muscle behind toppling Texas House Speaker Joe Straus of San Antonio from his leadership post.
Armey’s one sharp cookie, and he plays hardball. Conservatives came up short when they challenged the moderate Straus before last session, but the incoming Texas House looks to be more conservative, and a lot of Straus’s committee chairs lost in the primary. But Straus is no pushover, and I imagine he still sits on a big pile of legislative IOUs, as well as lobbyist juice and gambling money. Will a disgruntled David Dewhurst throw his still-considerably clout behind his counterpart in the House?
This promises to be a very interesting fight…
Update: Here’s the Freedomworks press release, where Brendan Steinhauser says they’re supporting State Rep. Bryan Hughes for Speaker.
Tags:David Dewhurst, Dick Armey, Joe Straus, Republicans, Texas, Texas House of Representatives
Posted in Republicans, Texas | 1 Comment »
Friday, April 27th, 2012
Working on a major senate race post, so enjoy another Friday LinkSwarm:
Maureen Dowd has a fairly limited range of issues upon which she’s actually worth reading, but the personal scandals of sleazy corrupt politicians (in this case the John Edwards trial) is well within that range.
Obama is now as unpopular among independents as Democrats were during the 2010 election.
“This Sunday marks exactly three years since the Democratic majority in the Senate last passed a budget, on April 29, 2009.”
Hispanics overwhelmingly oppose laws against illegal aliens. And by “overwhelmingly” I mean “within the margin of error.”
What various college majors earn.
NYT notices that liberals are driving Blue Dogs out of the Democratic party. Though I don’t seem to remember them running articles on how “Redistricting has been bad for the country” back when Democrats were the one with the Gerrymandered majority…
The public employee union aristocracy is on the ballot in Wisconsin.
The Las Vegas gambling industry just invested a lot of money in Texas House speaker Joe Straus. Err, that is to say, in his family’s business.
And remember, to stay Speaker, Straus not only has to fend of his own primary challenger, he also has to help out his committee chairmen.
Texas Democratic State Representative Ron Reynolds is charged with barratry, which seems to be “a lawyer being a dick just to get business.” The fact that Reynolds himself voted in favor of the law he’s now charged with is just the cherry on top.
More skulduggery on the Round Rock ISD school board.
Tags:Blue Dog Democrats, Border Controls, education, gambling, Illegal Aliens, Joe Straus, LinkSwarm, Maureen Dowd, Mexico, Ron Reynolds, Round Rock ISD, Texas, unions, Wisconsin
Posted in Border Control, Democrats, Elections, Media Watch, unions | 1 Comment »
Monday, May 23rd, 2011
“The arrest of a mediocre international civil servant in the first-class cabin of his jet isn’t just a sex story: It’s a glimpse of the widening gulf between the government class and their subjects in a post-prosperity West. Neither Geithner nor Strauss-Kahn have ever created a dime of wealth in their lives…the Great Men of the Permanent Governing Class cannot be bound by the rules they impose on the rest of you schmucks.”
As always, Iowahawk is on the case.
This is disturbing. Remember the McMartin Preschool case, where numerous people were charged bizarre, contradictory and flat-out-impossible charges of ritual sexual abuse of children? Unfortunately, Texas has its own equivalent in the “Mineola Swingers Club” case. Unfortunately, unlike the McMartin Preschool case, people have actually been convicted.
Liberals manage to kill Texas campus carry bill. Sponsor Sen. Jeff Wentworth blames House Speaker Joe Straus.
Tags:Bernard-Henri Levy, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Iowahawk, Jeff Wentworth, Joe Straus, LinkSwarm, Mark Steyn, McMartin Preschool, Mineola Swingers Club, Timothy Geithner
Posted in Crime, Guns, Texas | No Comments »