Tomorrow is the Texas primary runoff, so now would be a good time to find your voting card and confirm your polling place.
A final roundup of runoff tidbits:
Here is who I will be voting for tomorrow (all of whom I expect to win):
Posts Tagged ‘Michael Quinn Sullivan’
Final Statewide Race Runoff Update
Monday, May 26th, 2014Texas House Transparency Committee Votes in Secret to Impeach Wallace Hall
Monday, May 12th, 2014The Texas House Transparency Committee voted to impeach University of Texas regent Wallace Hall.
Hall’s case will go to the full Texas House of Representatives. If a majority of the members of the House approve of the case’s merits, it will go to the Senate, where members will convene as a court to make a final decision. If the Senate concurs with the committee’s recommendation, Hall will be the first non-elected official to be impeached in Texas history.
His crime? “Hall’s unreasonable and burdensome requests from records and information from UT Austin violated, and continue to violate, the Texas Education Code, the Texas Penal Code, the Board of Regents Rules and Regulations, and the best interests of the [UT System].”
Translation: Hall found evidence of our sacred system of kickbacks and cronyism, and we’ll never forgive him for that.
The Wall Street Journal: Hall “asked uncomfortable questions about lawmakers getting special favors at the state-funded school and has become a political target…Hall’s real offense has been to expose a cozy and possibly corrupt relationship between politicians and the university.”
That targeting, of course, has been handled by Speaker Joe Straus’ falsely named “transparency” committee co-chaired by Dan Flynn and Carol Alvarado. The committee has operated like a witch hunt, denying UT Regent Wallace Hall the ability to defend himself while impeaching his character.
Recent revelations that the committee’s “report” (created by an outside counsel chummy with the corrupt university administration) contained out-right lies should be enough to cause lawmakers to impeach not Wallace Hall but the members of the committee!
As Tony McDonald wrote several days agoo, Dan Flynn is trying to weasel out of his responsibility for the cover-up only after his committee’s work product was shown to be a fraud.
Sullivan also fingers the politicians most responsible for the with hunt as David Dewhurst, Dan Branch and Joe Straus.
For exercising his right and duty to request information of one of the universities he is entrusted with overseeing, Wallace Hall now faces impeachment and possibly jail. The biggest losers in all this are Texas college students, their parents, and taxpayers. This vote is a powerful deterrent to future efforts to ensure transparency in government, and therefore directly contrary to the best interest of our public higher-education system.”
The cockroaches and worms hate it when you pick up the rock they’re hiding under…
Reports of the Tea Party’s Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated
Tuesday, March 11th, 2014There have been a lot of wishful thinking thumbsucker pieces from liberal media outlets proclaiming that the Tea Party is done, finished, a spent force. (Here’s an example.)
And indeed, those looking only at some top-line races in Texas (like Katrina Pierson’s failed attempt to take down Pete Sessions) might find tend to agree.
However, a look at all the races (including many down-ballot) shows that the Tea Party is alive and well.
Start at Lt. Governor. Dan Patrick says he followed the Ted Cruz blueprint and leaned heavily on the Tea Party. “If you have a candidate who will work and at least enough resources to fund a statewide race then and you have the credentials, the tea party will bring you to victory.”
Texans for Fiscal Responsibility’s Michael Quinn Sullivan sees conservative victories up and down the ballot:
The most liberal Republican in the Texas Senate lost. Conservative ranks in the Senate are swelling. Every House conservative won re-election (with re-enforcements coming from the open-seat races). House incumbents affiliated with Speaker Joe Straus lost big. Statewide races saw the TFR-backed candidates earning commanding leads going into run-offs.
Sullivan goes on to cite Don Huffines defeating John Carona, Brooks Landgraf defeating Austin Keith, and the defeats of Straus allies Bennett Ratliff, Ralph Sheffield, Linda Harper-Brown, Diane Patrick and Lance Gooden.
This AP piece touts Tea Party success in Texas, but is lamentably short on details.
Even liberal fossil Paul Burka says that “If there was a clear winner in last night’s election, it was the tea party,” noting the defeats of Joe Straus allies Harper-Brown and Ratliff.
So too at the national level. The enthusiastic response to Sarah Palin’s speech and other Tea Party favorites shows that the movement is far from dead.
Which is not to say huge obstacles don’t remain. The Tea Party still hasn’t built up their financial networks enough to reliably take on big-money incumbents, and even in Texas, previous Tea Party gains were insufficient to wrest the Speakership from Straus (who just spent $2,578,942.72 to retain a job that pays $7,200 a year). But the Tea Party movement is still very much alive and kicking, much to the chagrin of RINOS, democrats and the media…
Statewide Race Update for December 31, 2013
Tuesday, December 31st, 2013I thought I would do a better job of keeping tabs on Texas statewide races, but there are just too many for me to do a good job tracking all of them. Going into next year, I’ll try to do a decent job of keeping track of the Governor’s Race (Spoiler: Greg Abbot wallops Wendy Davis), the Lt. Governor’s race, and the Attorney General’s race, and tidbits on any other races will just be a bonus. (If you know of any sites doing extensive coverage of the Ag Commissioner or Comptroller races, let me know.)
Here’s a roundup that will include some oldish news.
Ken Paxton Makes It Official
Monday, August 5th, 2013In the better-late-than-never-reporting department, last week State Senator Ken Paxton made his run for attorney general official. Paxton is probably most famous for running against Rep. Joe Straus for Speaker of the House back when he was a state Rep.
Paxton also touted numerous endorsements of Kelly Shackelford of the Liberty Institute, Cathie Adams of the Texas Eagle Forum, Peggy Venable of Americans for Prosperity, state Reps. Tony Dale, Bryan Hughes, Jodie Laubenberg, Scott Turner, Giovanni Capriglione, Jeff Leach of Plano, Scott Sanford, Van Taylor (who’s already announced a bid to replace Paxton in the Senate) and Bill Zedler.
One tiny snag: Paxton initially touted the endorsement of Empower Texans’ Michael Quinn Sullivan. Only problem: Sullivan hadn’t endorsed him. Oops.
Rep. Dan Branch and Railroad Commissioner Barry Smitherman are already in the race.