Texas Republican Primary Runoff Recommendations‏

An interesting article from http://www.PeterMorrisonReport.com about the Texas Primary Runoffs. This follows this post about the Kansas City shooting.  You can follow me at blogspot here and at twitter here https://twitter.com/brianleesblog. Please consider following both in case one goes down!








Texas Republican Primary Runoff Recommendations ‏

The Texas runoff elections will occur on May 27th, with early
voting taking place from May 19th through May 23rd. There are three
Republican contests that are particularly important. In this
report, I'm going to share my endorsements in these three
races.  First, however, it's important to note that no
candidate is perfect. All three of the men I'm endorsing are
only human, and there are elements in each of their records that
some of us could quibble with. However, none of the three have
anything in their past that could be considered a deal breaker,
while the same cannot be said of some of their opponents.  All
three are excellent candidates who deserve our wholehearted support
in the May 27th runoff.

In the GOP runoff for Lt. Governor, the three-term incumbent, David
Dewhurst, is running against Dan Patrick, the well-known state
Senator from Houston.  Dan Patrick is the clear choice in this
race.  While David Dewhurst is no wild-eyed liberal, in his dozen
years as Lt. Governor he hasn't exactly compiled a track record
that demonstrates a strong commitment to conservative principles.
On the contrary, he has been repeatedly praised by liberal media
outlets for his "moderation" and "bipartisanship", and his
willingness to "reach across party lines." Of course, those are
exactly the same kinds of things the mainstream media said about
John McCain when he was running for the GOP presidential nomination
back in 2008. When mainstream media types talk this way about a
Republican, they're saying that the candidate is their kind of
conservative - one who might talk a good game, but can be counted
on not to put up much of a fight against the liberal agenda.

In contrast, we never hear any liberals praising Dan Patrick for
bipartisanship, moderation, or his willingness to play footsie with
the Democrats.  Instead, they attack him for being too
conservative, not willing to compromise at the drop of a hat, and
generally just being too "far right." He has been
consistently pro-life throughout his career, and he's also a
strong fiscal conservative who can be counted on to lead the fight
to curtail government spending in Austin. He also understands what
a grave threat illegal immigration is to our traditional way of
life in Texas, and has voted accordingly. He opposes in-state
reduced tuition for illegal aliens, and he has been calling for a
crackdown on border security for years, while David Dewhurst has
been missing in action in this area. Dan Patrick is the far better
choice for Lt. Governor.

Another runoff is for the Republican nomination for Agriculture
Commissioner, pitting Tommy Merritt against Sid Miller. Tommy
Merritt is a politician with a history of big spending and working
against conservative causes, while Sid Miller has a better track
record.  Sid Miller authored the law that requires abortionists to
perform a sonogram on the unborn baby at least 24 hours before
performing an abortion, which has no doubt led to countless women
changing their minds and letting their babies live. Liberals
despise this law, and they have never forgiven Sid Miller for
writing and introducing it.  That's one reason there are a lot
of attacks being made against him, even though the office of
Agriculture Commissioner has nothing to do with abortion. Left-
wingers believe that a man who believes strongly in the sanctity of
human life is unfit for any office, period.

Sid Miller's opponent in the runoff, Tommy Merritt, is a
completely different story. A former member of the Texas House,
Merritt was declared the most liberal of all Republican House
members in 2010.  This isn't simply a nickname he was given by
a few conservative groups on the basis of some minor disagreements,
as some of his supporters like to spin it.  On the contrary, Mark
P. Jones, head of the Rice University Political Science department,
made the statement.  He studied the voting records of all House
members in 2010, and in an article published in the Houston
Chronicle he wrote that Tommy Merritt was "the most liberal
Republican" in the House. That pretty well tells us all we
need to know about Tommy Merritt. We need to support Sid Miller for
Ag Commissioner.

In the GOP runoff for Attorney General, Ken Paxton is facing Dan
Branch. This could well be the most important of the three
contests. Greg Abbott, the sitting AG, often says this about his
job description:

"I go to the office, I sue the federal government, and then I
go home."

While he's obviously exaggerating, there's a lot of truth
in his quip, as he has sued the feds over two dozen times while in
office. Burdensome federal regulations and other unconstitutional
violations of states' rights by Washington, D.C. are bad enough
now; in the future, they're likely to become even more numerous
and more intrusive. We're going to need an Attorney General who
will fight for our rights as Texans against the federal regime that
is constantly seeking to trample those rights.

Dan Branch is not the man for the job. Far from being a reliable
conservative, he's one of Joe Straus's cronies. Dan Branch
is also a big spender - in  2007 he earned a D- on the Texans for
Fiscal Responsibility Index. In 2013, they gave him an F. In the
past, NARAL Pro Choice-America, the most rabidly pro-abortion
advocacy group in the country, commended Branch for authoring a
legislative amendment that would have increased the number of
third-trimester abortions in Texas. Naturally, the media loves a
RINO like Dan Branch; the Houston Chronicle recently described him
as "respected", "moderate", and
"pragmatic", and took him to task for trying to falsely
portray himself as a staunch conservative.

Ken Paxton is the man we need in the office of Attorney General.
His record in the Legislature makes it clear he won't back down
from a fight.  While Dan Branch was content to be Joe Straus's
lackey, Ken Paxton actually challenged Straus for the position of
the Speaker of the House.  Make no mistake - it takes a lot of
courage to mount a challenge to an incumbent House Speaker. Ken
Paxton knew he would pay a price for his challenge, but he did it
because of his commitment to conservative principles. That's
exactly the kind of Attorney General Texas needs. Here's what
Senator Ted Cruz said about the candidate:

"Ken Paxton is a tireless conservative warrior. Ken Paxton
stands and fights, whether it's against Obamacare, whether
it's fighting for voter ID, or whether it's fighting to
defend our religious liberty. And I'm proud to say Ken Paxton
is my friend who fights hard in the state of Texas."

Like Sid Miller and Dan Patrick, Ken also has the support of many
conservative advocacy groups across the state. He's the hands
down choice for Attorney General.

Runoffs tend to have low turnouts compared to general elections and
primaries.  Conservatives can't afford to neglect this one, as
the stakes at the ballot box are higher than they've ever been.
I urge everyone to vote for Dan Patrick for Lt. Governor, Sid
Miller for Ag Commissioner, and Ken Paxton for Attorney General.

Remember that politics is often choosing between the lesser of two
evils, especially in runoff elections where you only have two
candidates.  These are my recommendations, but the choice of a
candidate does not entail a blanket endorsement of the individual,
just my view that they are the least worst choice from the two we
have.

Early voting for runoff: May 19th - May 23rd.
Runoff election date: May 27th

Please forward this report on to other conservatives who are likely
to go vote! Also, please like the report on facebook to help spread
the word!

The Peter Morrison Report

http://www.PeterMorrisonReport.com
http://www.facebook.com/morrisonreport

Sources:
http://blog.chron.com/bakerblog/2010/07/how-liberal-or-conservative-is-your-texas-state-representative/
http://www.texasobserver.org/the-great-spectacle-returns/
http://www.redstate.com/diary/wosg/2014/03/04/texas-gop-primary-good-night-conservatives/
http://www.empowertexans.com/features/profile-of-lackey-ism-tommy-merritt/
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/21/us/texas-attorney-general-invites-new-yorkers-to-bring-their-guns.html
http://www.empowertexans.com/representative/branch-dan/
http://www.danpatrick.org/dan-patrick-candidate-lt-governor-oppose-state-tuition-illegal-aliens/
http://www.redstate.com/diary/erick/2012/07/26/is-david-dewhurst-a-conservative-of-course-not/
http://www.empowertexans.com/features/dan-patrick-for-lt-gov/
http://www.prochoicetexas.org/in-our-state/2005legislativeguide_rep07-12.shtml
http://www.chron.com/default/article/Fight-for-the-right-5059787.php
http://www.redstate.com/2014/02/18/ken-paxton-for-texas-attorney-general/

PO Box 8742, Lumberton, TX 77657, USA