Attacking Ken Paxton: Pay to Play from Straus to Smitherman

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not."

Galatians 6:7-9

This morning, we came across an obnoxious attack site against Ken Paxton.  Titled 'Dishonest Ken,' we saw it on several places.  It's obviously got some money behind it.

We don't want to help its search engine traffic, so we're not going to link to the attack, but this screenshot from Dishonest Ken reveals it comes from a Houston-based PAC called Conservative Republicans of Texas:

Looking at the box near the bottom a little closer:

Now who, pray tell, are 'Conservative' Republicans of Texas?!?

According to Big Jolly Politics:

If you live in Harris County and are active in the Harris County Republican Party, you know that “slates” have a huge influence of the party’s primary. “Slates” are a form of advertising a specific group’s or individual’s endorsements. They are often referred to as “paid slates” and there is often an appearance of endorsements that are bought and paid for by the candidates they endorse.

This year at BJP we will be providing you a matrix of all of the major slates and their endorsements in contested races. By “major”, we mostly mean that we’ve heard of it. So if you or your group has a slate of endorsements that you want to see added to the matrix, by all means make sure you tell us about it because we aren’t perfect!

Kicking off the primary season is Dr. Steve Hotze’s Conservative Republicans of Texas slate. I received a copy of his slate today and it does contain a couple of surprises that I’ll note below. Dr. Hotze is one of the “big 3″ that have dominated Harris County Republican Primaries since the late 90′s. His “specialty” is the mail-in ballots from senior citizens.

This, of course, is the same Steve Hotze who endorsed Joe Straus in 2012:

And yes, he IS supporting Smitherman this time around:

Steve Hotze Smitherman Endorement

The attack on Ken Paxton is lame, but Cahnman's Musings finds it very interesting that Team Straus and Team Smitherman use the same political operatives.