William Tell
Member
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2014
- Messages
- 12,146
One of the reasons I am posting these names is because I am already rooting for them, I can keep better track of them if I have a list of their names and races someplace. On election day I will see how they did.
Campaign websites don't mean as much in Texas anymore, unfortunately. I don't know how you decide when someone becomes a fellow traveler. But I have been following these races, following their social media, and listening to radio interviews with these people, looking at who they donate to, looking at endorsements, hearing what other activists who know them say, etc. It's not always the kind of information I can just link to, but they are all aligned with the limited government wing of Texas politics, what I would label fellow travelers.
I am not asking you or any group to support any candidates you are not convinced on, but if I lived in these districts I would get behind them. So would/do other people in the liberty movement.
Right now the biggest problem we have in Texas that stops liberty legislation is Speaker Straus. He has been in office for several years, starting with support from an unholy alliance of all the Democrats and a handful of RINO's. He has a stranglehold on the state house. His committee chairs kill the bills of any who oppose him as speaker. They have to pass their bills of to other legislators to get them passed.
He gave $150,000 each last cycle to the candidates who beat Eby and Fabby. He bought those seats.
I know you still send out supportive messages about Giovanni Capriglione, who I used to be very supportive of. But he ran promising to oppose Straus. This session he flipped, and supported him. And yes, he got the Gold bill passed, although David Simpson originally introduced something like it years ago but went nowhere. Last session Gio had one of the top 5 most conservative voting records on the scorecards and different measurements, this year he fell down out of the top 20-40.
http://tribtalk.org/2015/07/07/the-2015-texas-house-from-left-to-right/
http://index.empowertexans.com/
Obviously the indexes above are not perfect from a liberty perspective, but they are mostly correct. Gio is below Burns and Wray, the candidates who defeated the guys I mentioned above, kind of ironically. They are probably voting a little better than they would like to because they had close races.
Gio voted for some terrible stuff, despite the fact that he passed a couple decent bills, but they likely would have passed without him.
So he can go home to his constituents and brag that he's a liberty candidate. Because he has a nice website, and a couple good bills to his name. But if you actually look close at his record he is a part of the problem now. He voted for some terrible stuff.
Stickland on the other hand, as far as I know did not succeed in passing a single bill. A lot of the best reps have learned they have to pass the bills they care about over to someone who is more in the good graces of the establishment, let them file it and take a lot of the credit.
Almost all the other people who ran as anti Straus conservatives have done a pretty good job this year, and voted with Stickland etc 90% of the time. That is the definition of a fellow traveler here.
I remember in 2014 I mentioned the tea party candidates did pretty well at the polls here, and you didn't seem convinced they would behave in office, well, almost all of them have.
The State Senate was far better than the house last session, even though Huffines may have been the only liberty senator on your list, and Konni Burton the only fellow traveler. The reality is that 8 new senators were elected last time, and most of them voted about the same on most important issues. The Senate passed a lot of good legislation, that was killed in the house by Straus committee chairs.
I actually like Burton the best right now, because of how she voted on things and because she's fundraising for Simpson. But Huffines is good.
And so is Sen. Bob Hall even though I don't think you considered him liberty having only read his website. He voted with Burton and Huffines on almost everything, like I thought he would. Because I knew a bit about him.
House Reps here have to make a choice, either they align with Straus, or the tea party/Stickland wing and the conservative/liberty groups. Stickland has become the poster boy conservative legislator, even among people who are not pure liberty. But although they may not be as good as him, they vote like him most of the time, and are worth supporting. Sometimes they sell out and flip to the other side, that happens. But I can certainly find out which side they are running on, but I have to look far deeper than their websites now.
Bottom line, the liberty movement is following a few dozen races. A liberty leaning unofficial slate if you will. We have a handful of truly excellent liberty candidates, we have a number of allies of varying degrees who look pretty good. And then there are a few I'm leery about that I did not post, people who seem great on most things, but are known drug warriors for example. If I consider someone in the lesser evil category, I do not post.
If only the excellent ones win, the true pure liberty candidates, we will of course be happy, there will be some change, but not enough. But each candidate I listed will, I'm convinced, move their district and Texas in general more towards liberty. So I hope those in their districts vote for them.
I'm just sharing my opinions on candidates, take it or leave it. It may be hard to understand TX politics if you don't live here. I know last time I had a hard time convincing you some candidates were liberty candidates. That's why I put some names in bold this time. If they are in bold I personally vouche for them as being what I consider rock solid liberty candidates, based on things besides what you read on their sites for whatever that's worth. I have met some of them personally, I have followed others work at liberty think tanks and seen them testify before the legislature. I know a lot about some of their families.
I want to especially point out Read King, he's running for HD 64, not 54 as you have him listed on your site. And he's a true liberty candidate. He practically lived in Austin this year, voluntarilly testifying for good bills in front of committees and that kind of thing. It's an open seat this time, and it will be a cold day in hell before he sells out.
Anyone not in bold on my list, makes my definition of an ally of varying degrees. I personally have no doubt you and I would consider them at least fellow travelers if they get into office. I imagine some of them are true liberty candidates, either way though, I hope they win and get a chance to prove themselves. It would be a shame if liberty minded voters sit out these races. If they lose, they will hopefully at least get the incumbent to pander to the grassroots more in the hope of keeping his/her job.
Their opponents certainly aren't doing us any favors right now.
Thanks as always for taking interest in liberty throughout the 50 states. Sorry/your welcome for the long post. Hope it was helpful.
