Posts Tagged ‘Tony Dale’

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Texas Election Results Analysis: The Warning Shot

Thursday, November 15th, 2018

This is going to be a “glass half empty” kind of post, so let’s start out enumerating all the positives for Texas Republicans from the 2018 midterms:

  • Ted Cruz, arguably the face of conservatism in Texas, won his race despite a zillion fawning national profiles of an opponent that not only outspent him 2-1, but actually raised more money for a Senate race than any candidate in the history of the United States. All that, and Cruz still won.
  • Every statewide Republican, both executive and judicial, won their races.
  • Despite long being a target in a swing seat, Congressmen Will Hurd won reelection.
  • Republicans still hold majorities in the their U.S. congressional delegation, the Texas House and the Texas Senate.

    • By objective standards, this was a good election for Republicans. But by subjective standards, this was a serious warning shot across the bow of the party. After years of false starts and dead ends, Democrats finally succeeded in turning Texas slightly purple.

    Next let’s list the objectively bad news:

  • Ted Cruz defeated Beto O’Rourke by less than three points, the worst showing of any topline Republican candidate since Republican Clayton Williams lost the Governor’s race to Democratic incumbent Ann Richards in 1990, and the worst senate result for a Texas Republican since Democratic incumbent Lloyd Bentsen beat Republican challenger Beau Boulter in 1988.
  • O’Rourke’s 4,024,777 votes was not only more than Hillary Clinton received in Texas in 2016, but was more than any Democrat has ever received in any statewide Texas race, ever. That’s also more than any Texas statewide candidate has received in a midterm election ever until this year. It’s also almost 2.5 times what 2014 Democratic senatorial candidate David Alameel picked up in 2014.
  • The O’Rourke campaign managed to crack long-held Republican strongholds in Tarrant (Ft. Worth), Williamson, and Hays counties, which had real down-ballot effects, and continue their recent success in Ft. Bend (Sugar Land) and Jefferson (Beaumont) counties.
  • Two Republican congressmen, Pete Sessions and John Culberson, lost to Democratic challengers. Part of that can be put down to sleepwalking incumbents toward the end of a redistricting cycle, but part is due to Betomania having raised the floor for Democrats across the state.
  • Two Republican incumbent state senators, Konni Burton of District 10 and Don Huffines of District 16, lost to Democratic challengers. Both were solid conservatives, and losing them is going to hurt.
  • Democrats picked up 12 seats in the Texas house, including two in Williamson County: John Bucy III beating Tony Dale (my representative) in a rematch of 2016’s race in House District 136, and James Talarico beating Cynthia Flores for Texas House District 52, the one being vacated by the retiring Larry Gonzalez.
  • Democratic State representative Ron Reynolds was reelected despite being in prison, because Republicans didn’t bother to run someone against him. This suggests the state Republican Party has really fallen down on the job when it comes to recruiting candidates.
  • In fact, by my count, that was 1 of 32 state house districts where Democrats faced no Republican challenger.
  • Down-ballot Republican judges were slaughtered in places like Harris and Dallas counties.
  • All of this happened with both the national and Texas economies humming along at the highest levels in recent memory.

    • There are multiple reasons for this, some that other commentators covered, and others they haven’t.

  • For years Republicans have feasted on the incompetence of the Texas Democratic Party and their failure to entice a topline candidate to enter any race since Bob Bullock retired. Instead they’ve run a long string of Victor Moraleses and Tony Sanchezes and seemed content to lose, shrug their shoulders and go “Oh well, it’s Texas!” Even candidates that should have been competative on paper, like Ron Kirk, weren’t. (And even those Democrats who haven’t forgotten about Bob Kreuger, who Ann Richards tapped to replace Democratic Senator Lloyd Bentsen when the latter resigned to become Bill Clinton’s Treasury Secretary, getting creamed 2-1 by Kay Baily Hutchison in the 1993 special election, would sure like to.) Fortunately for Texas Republicans, none of the non-Beto names bandied about (like the Castro brother) seem capable of putting them over the top (but see the “celebrity” caveat below).
  • Likewise, Republicans have benefited greatly from a fundraising advantage that comes from their lock on incumbency. Democrats couldn’t raise money because they weren’t competitive, and weren’t competitive in part because they couldn’t raise money. All that money the likes of Battleground Texas threw in may finally be having an effect.
  • More on how Democrats have built out their organization:

    Under the hood, the damage was significant. There are no urban counties left in the state that support Republicans, thanks to O’Rourke winning there. The down-ballot situation in neighboring Dallas County was an electoral massacre, as was the situation in Harris County.

    “This election was clearly about work and not the wave,” [Democratic donor Amber] Mostyn said. “We have been doing intense work in Harris County for five cycles and you can see the results. Texas is headed in the right direction and Beto outperformed and proved that we are on the right trajectory to flip the state.”

  • “Last night we saw the culmination of several years of concentrated effort by the left — and the impact of over $100 million spent — in their dream to turn Texas blue again. Thankfully, they failed to win a single statewide elected office,” Texas Republican Party chair James Dickey said in a statement. “While we recognize our victories, we know we have much work to do — particularly in the urban and suburban areas of the state.”
  • The idea that Trump has weakened Republican support in the suburbs seems to have some currency, based on the Sessions and Culberson losses.
  • That effect is especially magnified in Williamson and Hayes counties, given that they host bedroom communities for the ever-more-liberal Austin.
  • Rick Perry vs. The World ended a year-long hibernation to pin the closeness of the race on Cruz’s presidential race. He overstates the case, but he has a point. Other observations:

    3. What if Beto had spent his money more wisely? All that money on yard signs and on poorly targeted online ads (Beto spent lots of money on impressions that I saw and it wasn’t all remnant ads) wasn’t cheap. If I recall correctly, Cruz actually spent more on TV in the final weeks, despite Beto raising multiples of Cruz’s money. Odd.

    4. Getting crazy amounts of money from people who dislike Ted Cruz was never going to be the hard part. Getting crazy good coverage from the media who all dislike Ted Cruz was never going to be hard part.

    Getting those things and then not believing your own hype…well if you are effing Beto O’Rourke, then that is the hard part.

    5. Beto is probably the reason that some Dems won their elections. But let’s not forget that this is late in the redistricting cycle where districts are not demographically what they were when they were drawn nearly a decade ago.

  • For all the fawning profiles of O’Rourke, he was nothing special. He was younger than average, theoretically handsomer than average (not a high bar in American politics), and willing to do the hard work of statewide campaigning. He was not a bonafide superstar, the sort of personality like Jesse Ventura, Arnold Schwarzenegger or Donald Trump that can come in from the outside and completely reorder the political system. If one of those ran as a Democrat statewide in Texas, with the backing and resources O’Rourke had, they probably win.
  • A lack of Green Party candidates, due to them failing to meet the 5% vote threshold in 2016, may have also had a small positive effect on Democrat vote totals in the .5% to 1% range.
  • None of the controversies surrounding three statewide Republican candidates (Ken Paxton’s lingering securities indictment, Sid Miller’s BBQ controversy, or George P. Bush’s Alamo controversy) seemed to hurt them much. Paxton’s may have weighed him down the most, since he only won by 3.6%, while George P. Bush won with the second highest margin of victory behind Abbott. Hopefully this doesn’t set up a nightmare O’Rourke vs. Bush Senate race in 2020.

    • Texas Republicans just went through a near-death experience, but managed to survive. Is this level of voting the new norm for Democrats, or an aberration born of Beto-mania? My guess is probably somewhere in-between. It remains to be seen how it all shakes out during the sound and fury of a Presidential year. And the biggest factor is out of the Texas Republican Party’s control: a cyclical recession is inevitable at some point, the only question is when and how deep.

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    Posted in Austin, Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Texas | 1 Comment »

    A Real Texas Speaker’s Race? Don’t Count on It

    Wednesday, November 19th, 2014

    Despite a broad consensus that he’s too moderate and holding up important conservative legislation, conservatives in the Texas House failed to unseat Speaker Joe Straus in both 2010 and 2012. Since then, one Straus ally after another has fallen to more conservative challengers in the primaries. Will this session finally be the one where Straus is replaced?

    Well, conservative are certainly going to try to oust Straus from the speaker’s chair. “Scott Turner, the freshman state representative challenging Joe Straus for House speaker, affirmed on Tuesday that he will insist on a floor vote on Jan. 13, the first day of session, come what may.”

    Michael Quinn Sullivan makes the case for ousting Straus. (One would think that if Sullivan was as powerful as liberal reporters make him out to be, Straus would have been out of a job in 2011. But for all Sullivan’s considerable influence, Straus has managed to survive repeated attempts to kick him oust him.)

    And Texas Tea Party groups are threatening to hold Reps accountable if they vote for Straus as Speaker again. Indeed, the North Texas Tea Party said as much on their website. Unfortunately, they decided to do so in an overheated and poorly-formatted screed interspersed with ALL CAPITAL LETTERS FOR EMPHASIS. Guys, you’re not posting on a BBS in 1984. Things like this make it entirely too easy for the opposition (in this case Straus-backing RINOs and their media enablers) to dismiss you out of hand.

    However, as much as it pains me to report it, the more I read the tea leaves, the more I think Straus survives the challenge this time as well.

    Conservatives were less than thrilled when Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, who owes his seat in large measure to running against Straus and beating Straus ally Vicki Truitt in 2012, announced he was supporting Straus for speaker.

    Then Sarah Rumpf wrote that still more Republicans announced they were backing Straus:

    Joining Capriglione are Tan Parker (R-Flower Mound), Ron Simmons (R-Carrollton), Phil King (R-Weatherford), Myra Crownover (R-Lake Dallas), James Frank (R-Wichita Falls), and Drew Springer (R-Muenster), who emailed the release to Breitbart Texas with a short message that it was “from leading North Texas conservatives on our position on the 84th session.” Straus was first elected Speaker in 2009, largely on the votes of the Democrats and moderate Republicans in the House. Since first taking up the Speaker’s gavel, Straus has faced criticism from various conservative groups and grassroots activists who view him as more of a moderate.

    Now comes news that Straus theoretically has enough votes in the bag to stay speaker:

    The list of House Republicans who have publicly backed Straus in the past week include Trent Ashby of Lukfin, Cecil Bell of Magnolia, Giovanni Capriglione of Southlake, Travis Clardy of Nacogdoches, Myra Crownover of Denton, Tony Dale of Cedar Park, Marsha Farney of Georgetown, James Frank of Wichita Falls, Larry Gonzales of Round Rock, Jason Isaac of Dripping Springs, Kyle Kacal of Pearland, Phil King of Weatherford, Tim Kleinschmidt of Lexington, J.M. Lozano of Kingsville, Doug Miller of New Braunfels, Morrison, John Otto of Dayton, Chris Paddie of Marshall, Tan Parker of Flower Mound, John Raney of Bryan, Ron Simmons of Carrollton, Drew Springer of Muenster and Paul Workman of Austin. Three newly elected Republicans who will join the Legislature in January — Dade Phelan of Beaumont, Gary VanDeaver of Clarksville and Rick Galindo of San Antonio — have also pledged support to Straus.

    Et tu, Tony Dale? It’s disappointing that all three Williamson County Representatives (Dale, Larry Gonzalez and Marsha Farney) are backing Straus.

    At this point, it’s beginning to look like conservatives will need to knock off Straus in the 2016 Republican primary to get rid of him…

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    Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas | 1 Comment »

    Liveblogging Election Night 2014

    Tuesday, November 4th, 2014

    Davis is currently at 38.1%. Just for the record, I called Wendy Davis dropping below Tony Sanchez’s 39.96% back in September.

    Back

    In local election news, Williamson County Republicans Tony Dale and Larry Gonzalez both won decisively over their Dem challengers.

    OK, I’m heading home. This isn’t a Republican landslide, it’s a Republican tidal wave. Enjoy it now. Tomorrow the hard work begins.

    Congratulations to Greg Abbott on being elected governor of Texas!

    News media now saying Ernst wins and Republicans take control of the senate.

    Republican Joni Ernst takes lead in Iowa.

    A very solid victory speech, with lots of family thanked.

    Wendy Davis called Abbott to congratulate him.

    Nope, family members first. Daughter Cecelia Audrey Abbott.

    Lights went down and they’re about to introduce Abbott.

    Fox just called Kansas Senate race for Republican Roberts.

    Wendy Davis didn’t even win Texas women.

    Right now Wendy Davis is running behind Tony Sanchez’s 39.97% in 2002. $38%.

    Ran into Sen. John Cornyn on my way to the bathroom. Congratulated him. Now he’s being interviewed 3 feet away from me.

    Wisconsin Governor’s race called for Republican Scott Walker.

    Governor Perry speaking after a huge round of applause.

    Whoa!

    Not a shock, but someone calling it this early is.

    Abbott spokesman saying they crushed Democrats AND BattleGround Texas. “Helping them waste their money, the way Democrats always do.”

    Calling West Virginia Senate race for for Republican Capito. Not a surprise, but that’s a flip from D to R.

    Republican Rounds projected to win SD Sen. No surprise.

    Republican Ed Gillispie beating Warner in VA; not final, but if true that would indicate a truly epic Republican wave.

    GOP Sen pickups: Cotton beats Pryor in Arkansas,

    OK, now I’m in on Twitter, but on another browser…

    Hi there! I’m blogging from the Greg Abbott Victory Party at the ACL theater. Can’t seem to get Twitter to take my password, so this may just be LiveBlog rather than LiveTweet.

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    Posted in Elections | No Comments »

    John Bucy III Campaign Claims Lien Was Filed Against John Bucy II

    Wednesday, September 3rd, 2014

    The John Bucy III campaign has issued another denial stating that the tax lien issued against 8609 Camelia Ln, Austin, Texas, 78759, was not, in fact, against candidate John H. Bucy III, despite his name being on the lien. But the press release does not go any farther.

    However, I have finally received answers from Brent Grady of the John H. Bucy III campaign to questions I sent in yesterday, and he confirms that the lien was against John H. Bucy II, the candidate’s father.

    My questions are in italics, and Grady’s answers are in bold:

    1. Is it true that John Bucy III is the son of John Bucy II, and works at the latter’s law firm?
    John Bucy III is the son of John Bucy II and offices out of 6633 E. Hwy. 290, but John III owns his own company and is not employed by his father.

    2. Did John Bucy II live at 8609 Camelia Ln, Austin, Texas, 78759, and was the actual tax lien filed against him?
    — Yes.

    3. Travis County records show that 8609 Camelia Ln, Austin, Texas, 78759 was sold to John Bucy II on May 30 of this year, and then the lease assigned the same day to “The Jarrett-Simmons Irrevocable Trust,” whose address is the same building that both John Bucy II and John Bucy III show as their respective business offices (6633 Hwy 290
    East, Austin, Texas, 78723). Is that correct?
    — Unknown. This house does not (and never did) belong to John Bucy III, nor did he ever live there.

    4. Does John Bucy II still live at 8609 Camelia Ln?
    — Yes.

    5. Did the IRS accidentally put the lien as applying to John Bucy III when they meant to apply it to John Bucy II?
    The lien was properly applied to John Bucy II. There was just a typo on the form, which put “III” on it, instead of “II,” and we notified the Dale campaign a week ago that it was a typo and not John Bucy III, the candidate.

    Thanks to Brent Grady of the John H. Bucy III campaign for helping clear things up. The answers have the virtues of fitting all the facts, and government agencies committing typos are hardly unknown.

    Absent any additional information from the Tony Dale campaign that the tax lien is indeed against John H. Bucy III rather than John H. Bucy II, I would consider the matter closed.

    Update: Response from the Tony Dale campaign:

    “Mr. Bucy’s ‘shocked and appalled’ response to the revelation that the IRS filed a $163,000 tax lien against him for unpaid taxes is misdirected. Mr. Bucy is running for public office and is subject to public scrutiny. The federal government believes he has not paid his taxes. If the IRS is in error, he needs to produce proof in the form of the removal of the lien in his name, not ask the citizens of Williamson County to simply take the word of the Democratic Party Chairman or his dad.” -Corbin Casteel

    Update 2: Attached find an IRS document sent by the Bucy campaign, but I hardly find it conclusive…

    10616347_1468973480029706_6268223197445174577_n-1

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    Posted in Austin, Democrats, Elections, Texas | No Comments »

    Untangling the John Bucy Property Lien Issue

    Wednesday, September 3rd, 2014

    Given the John H. Bucy III’s campaigns strenuous denials that the $160,000 IRS tax lien was filed against their candidate, I thought I would further research the issue. It may be a case of a son being mistaken for his father, but I can’t say for sure without Bucy or his campaign answering some questions.

    Let’s look at the deed history of 8609 Camelia Ln, Austin, Texas, 78759 via the Travis County Central Appraisal District web interface:

    # Deed Date Type Description Grantor Grantee Deed Number
    1 5/30/2014 WD WARRANTY DEED BUCY JOHN H II JARRETT-SIMMONS IRREVOCABLE TRUST 2014093500TR
    2 5/30/2014 WD WARRANTY DEED REES BURKE BUCY JOHN H II 2014093499TR
    3 8/29/2008 WD WARRANTY DEED WEST GEORGE MARC REES BURKE 2008165059TR

    CameliaDee

    Some clarifications, given my modest research into the issue:

    1. Burke Rees was (is?) a real estate agent (also here, with a different company), but he shows up as the owner of the property.
    2. I confirmed over the telephone with Ress he did indeed lease the property to a John Bucy, but he didn’t know whether it was John Bucy II or John Bucy III.
    3. The house is sold to John H. Bucy II (not III) in 2014.
    4. John H. Bucy II is evidently a lawyer who “specializes in business law including formations, acquisitions, securities, employment and other contract issues.” Also: “Besides business practice, attorney John H. Bucy, II also represents clients in real estate matters, including the purchase and sale of undeveloped and commercial properties, finances related to real estate projects, and the negotiation of commercial leases.” His law office address is 6633 Hwy 290 East, Suite 208, Austin, Texas, 78723.
    5. There is only one employee listed by name at that record: “John H Bucy III” who is described as a “Principal.”
    6. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that John H. Bucy II is, in fact, the father of John H. Bucy III.
    7. Note that the same day the house is sold to John H. Bucy II, the deed is then granted to “The Jarrett-Simmons Irrevocable Trust.”
    8. There’s not a lot of information on the Jarrett-Simmons Irrevocable Trust, except that: A.) It seems to be associated somehow with Paddington Property, LLC, B.) Their address is listed as “6633 E Highway 290, Austin, Texas, 78723,” and C.) The principal is one Bryan Jarrett.
    9. 6633 Hwy 290 East, Suite 104, Austin, Texas, 78723 is listed as the address for the Texas Charter School Academic and Athletic League, which lists “John Bucy” as founder and president; presumably that’s John H. Bucy III, as per his campaign website.
    10. John H. Bucy III’s official campaign filing address is the same address: 6633 Hwy 290 East, Suite 104, Austin, Texas, 78723.
    11. A John Bucy is listed as the owner of “6633 E HIGHWAY 290 STE 104 AUSTIN , TX 78723-1157.” An appraised value of “$4,744” suggests that he does not own the entire building, which seems to be a business condo.
    12. Bryan Jarrett seems to be involved with a number of enterprises run from that same 6633 Hwy 290 East address: Brant Management, Caretech International Inc., Complete Care Centers, Inc., Incolumus Inc., Texas Matrix Group, Mission Nursing Home Inc., Windcrest Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Inc., and Plaza 290 Office Condominium Association (hmmm).
    13. In all these enterprises, he seems subordinate to an Anthony J. Langford.
    14. I note for the record that John H. Bucy III’s north Austin home he shares with his wife Molly is registered in the name of a Josh T. Brown of Santa Cruz, California.
    15. The house at 8609 Camelia Ln appears to be for sale (I say “appears” because you can never tell with real estate listings). The listed seller? Ellmaker Realty.

    What all this amounts to:

  • John Bucy III appears to be the son of John Bucy II
  • John Bucy II did own the house where the lien said John Bucy III resided.
  • Both Bucys appear to work out of the same building, which just happens to be the same building the trust which bought the house in question also operates out of.

    • I can think of a dozen different scenarios which fit the facts in this case, so I don’t want to speculate on which might be the case here.

    Yesterday I wrote the John Bucy III campaign, asking for clarification. I still haven’t heard back from them.

    But the big question remains: Why was the IRS lean against John H. Bucy III against the house lived in, and later owned, by John H. Bucy II?

    Finally, there is this set of court records for John H. Bucy II. I don’t know enough to decode the various charges listed. I merely include it for others to research.

    Update: The Bucy campaign claims that the lien is indeed against John Bucy II, not John Bucy III.

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    Posted in Austin, Democrats, Elections | No Comments »

    Democratic State House Candidate John Bucy’s $160,000 in Unpaid Taxes

    Tuesday, September 2nd, 2014

    What is it with Democrats and their recurring problems with paying their taxes? Certainly they seem more than capable of passing and raising taxes. But paying them on time? Not so much.

    Today’s example of a Democrat not paying his taxes comes from House District 136 candidate John H. Bucy, which a press release from his Republican opponent, incumbent Tony Dale‘s campaign (not yet up on his websites) identifies as owing $160,000 in back taxes to the IRS:

    John H. Bucy, III, the Democratic nominee for Texas House, District 136 in Williamson County, apparently failed to pay his taxes for at least 4 years and owes over $160,000 to the IRS. According to the IRS tax lien filed with the Travis County Clerk, Mr. Bucy owes personal income taxes dating as far back as 2008 and as recently as 2011. And there could be more.

    The Dale campaign also notes that “In addition to the IRS tax lien, Mr. Bucy has problems with the state of Texas as well. Every single business Bucy has registered with state of Texas has forfeited its existence for failure to pay the required taxes and fees, seven total businesses.” To me, this is not only several orders of magnitude less important than the taxes owed the IRS, it’s not necessarily an issue at all, as it could mean Bucy’s business entities are no longer active and he simply let the registration expire.

    I emailed the Bucy campaign for comment about an hour ago, but so far have not heard back from them.

    Note: Dale is my own state representative, and I endorsed him in 2012.

    Update: The Bucy campaign contends that Dale got the wrong John Bucy:

    Mr. Lawrence [sic],

    The accusations are false, and John has never had a lien filed against him.

    We are aware of the document that the Dale campaign claims to possess, and the “John Bucy” referenced in Tony Dale’s press release is NOT John Bucy the candidate. — Not only is John Bucy (the candidate) not the person to whom the lien attaches, he has also never even lived at the address to which the John Bucy in the lien attaches to.

    We spoke to the Dale campaign last week and made them aware of this. — The Dale campaign still chose to move forward. — They clearly do not care to be honest with the voters.

    To the other point of John’s companies, John has only been affiliated with 3 companies, and we do not know where the count of 7 comes from.

    One of the companies is his current company, which is in good standing, and the other two companies have been closed down properly.

    None of this information should be published, as it is false, and we are presently exploring all options to stop these false accusations.

    -Brent Grady.
    Campaign Manager, Bucy for Texas

    Update 1: My update on the still murky issue is here.

    Update 2: Bucy campaign claims that the lien was against his father, John Bucy II, which fits the facts in the first update above.

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    Posted in Austin, Democrats, Elections, Texas | 1 Comment »

    Texas Election News Update for August 14, 2014

    Thursday, August 14th, 2014

    With all Obama’s manifest incompetence at the national and international level, it’s easy to neglect Texas election news, so here’s a small update to tide you over.

  • Even liberal MSM fossil Paul Burka says that the governor’s race is over and Wendy Davis has already lost. (Shhhhh! Don’t tell her national liberal donors! Let them keep tossing dollars down the hole…
  • Abbott wants to reform Texas occupational licensing schemes, noting that an EMT only requires 33 days of training, but cosmetologists and barbers require 350 days of training.
  • Lt. Governor candidates Dan Patrick and Leticia Van de Putte will be having debate in September.
  • Brandon Creighton wins special election for state senate.
  • In the Texas House District 136 race (my district), Democratic challenger John Bucy claims to have raised more money than Republican incumbent Tony Dale. But that’s only true by counting Bucy’ spersonal political expenditures as contributions, contrary to state law, counting his volunteer campaign manager’s non-existent $22,018.70 “salary” as a contribution, and counting a bunch of other in-kind contributions.

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    Posted in Democrats, Elections, Regulation, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »

    LinkSwarm for December 13, 2013

    Friday, December 13th, 2013

    A lot of ObamaCare, a little on guns, and a pinch of everything else, from Ace, Instapndit, and elsewhere:

  • Man with critically ill son gives up on ObamaCare after 50 tries to buy insurance.
  • Complain about your insurance being cancelled due to ObamaCare? That’s an audit. For you, your advocate, and your insurance salesman.
  • Finally, after furiously covering for Obama when it counted, Liberal media tool Politifact is forced to admit that “If you like your health care plan, you can keep it” is the lie of the year.
  • Oregon spent $300 million on its ObamaCare exchanges only to sign up a grand total of 44 people.
  • Here’s a chance to vote for the ObamaCare launch as top Fail of 2013.
  • After 2 hours of open heart surgery, Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft is losing his insurance thanks to ObamaCare.
  • ObamaCare is already pushing low-wage workers out of jobs.
  • Charles Krauthammer: The ObamaCare enrollment figures are bunk.

  • Kathleen Sebelius is really getting tired of answering questions on why she sucks.
  • Obama earns a 62% disapproval rating among independents: Quick! He better give a speech!
  • Every time you think the ATF has sunk as low as they possibly can, they dig further.
  • After months of propaganda from the Democratic Party’s media wing and millions of Nurse Bloomberg’s dollars spent, the American public is now now more opposed to gun control than when the year began.
  • How the EU and Obama are blowing it in Ukraine.
  • Time magazine thinks Pope Francis is important because of his “rejection of church dogma.” In other news, the people running Time magazine just aren’t very bright.
  • Georgia Tea Party opposes tax giveaways for sports franchise billionaires. As well they should.
  • Problem: UT regent Wallace Hall investigates corruption and inluence peddling at the university. Solution: Impeach him.
  • Ted Cruz makes it into a question on Jeopardy.
  • Update on Wiliamson County race filings. John Carter, Tony Dale and Larry Gonzalez are all running unopposed.
  • Reminder: Dogs are awesome.

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    Posted in Austin, ObamaCare, video, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »

    Ken Paxton Makes It Official

    Monday, August 5th, 2013

    In 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.

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    Posted in Republicans, Texas | No Comments »

    Bright Spots

    Wednesday, November 7th, 2012

    Well, that could have gone better.

    As an effort at alleviating depression among the vast right wing conspiracy, here are a few glimmers of hope amidst the dismal news:

  • Republicans kept the House.
  • Ted Cruz won. And here’s his victory speech:

  • Democrats picked up senate seats, but they still don’t have a filibuster-proof majority.
  • Randy Weber won.
  • Republicans hold as many statewide offices in Texas as they did before, i.e. all of them.
  • Republicans won all four seats on the Third Court of Appeals.
  • Donna Campbell won.
  • Tony Dale won.

    • In the real-life 2012 version of Atlas Shrugged, Texas has taken the place of Colorado, i.e. the redoubt of a dynamic economy, freedom and limited government in a country grown ever-more statist. Thankfully, it’s not the only one, and red states are still outperforming blue states by a good measure. A narrow Obama victory can’t change that. We’ve got to keep on fighting the good fight.

    We lost the battle. The war goes on.

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    Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas, video | 1 Comment »

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