#TXLEGE: The Three Most Important Senate Primaries

"So teach us to number our days,
That we may gain a heart of wisdom."
Psalm 90:12

[Note: Sure as heck ain't this one.]

[Note II: Ask us about Seliger's race once we get into the runoff.]

The following three races will determine the course of the Texas Senate next session.

Conservative Incumbent being challenged by RINO:

SD 2: Bob Hall vs. Cindy Burkett

In 2014, Bob Hall knocked off a liberal Republican incumbent on a shoestring budget.  The past two sessions, Bob Hall has kept his word and supported of all aspects of the conservative agenda.  Property tax reform?!? Check.  Border issues?!?  Check.  Pro-Life?!?  Check.  Higher ed. tuition freeze?!?  Check.  The various pro-property rights issues discussed during the 85th special session?!?  Check.  We could go on.

Bob Hall has also shown tremendous leadership raising the profile of electric grid security.  He hosted a major conference on the topic in 2016, and tried to get it added to the 2017 special session agenda.  It's also worth pointing out that, if any Senator is going to be carrying a BITCOIN bill in 2019, it'll probably be Bob Hall.

There's a reason why every major conservative group in Texas has endorsed Bob Hall.

Cindy Burkett, by contrast, is a liberal spendaholic who supports throwing more money into the socialized education status quo.  She went along with house leadership killing property tax reform last session.  Burkett's endorsement list is a fine collection of crony capitalists, fake 'pro-life' organizations, and public sector unions.

Speaking of pro-life, one note: Because Cindy Burkett is in no way, shape, or form a fiscal conservative, she's greatly exaggerating her pro-life record.  While it's true that Burkett has carried some pro-life bills, those bills were toothless as Burkett originally filed them.  Those bills only became meaningful once Burkett was outmanuvered in parliamentary procedure.

OK Incumbent being challenged by Liberal:

SD 17: Joan Huffman vs. Kristin Tassin

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we get it: Joan Huffman isn't perfect.  Her record, especially on the second amendment, leaves something to be desired.  But this race is still a no-brainer.

Kristin Tassin, Huffman's opponent, is a cog in the machine of the socialized education industrial complex.  As such, Tassin supports six figure salaries for government bureaucrats all in the name of "helping the children" [Note: We have a really fun piece of oppo waiting to drop on this one].  But don't dare call her an educrat.

Huffman, meanwhile, has put together a respectable record.  She certainly isn't perfect, but she's mostly conservative on most things most of the time.  As chair of the Senate State Affairs committee, she's also played a key role in advancing any number of conservative priorities.

And yes, Kristin Tassin, you are an educrat who supports six figure salaries for government bureaucrats in the name of "helping the children."

RINO incumbent being challenged by Conservative:

SD 30: Craig Estes vs. Pat Fallon

Often referred to as "Boss Hogg" in the district (behind his back, of course), we often thought of Craig Estes as the Jobba the Hut of the Texas Senate.  Long before the current wave of reports about chronic sexual abuse in the Texas Legislature, Craig Estes was the subject of press reports on this topic.  Estes has also been documented "living large" off of campaign contributions [Note: Isn't it amazing how frequently acts of financial corruption and acts of sexual c orruption are committed by the same people].

But Estes record on the issues isn't much better.  The 17 year incumbent consistently finds himself among the most liberal Republicans in the Texas senate.  Specifically, Estes supports big spending and he's soft on the border.  While Estes did support property tax reform this past session, that's a fairly new development and it's an open question whether a re-elected Estes would continue to do so.

Finally, as it relates to Estes, we have to mention a personal pet peeve: During this past legislative session, Estes took it upon himself to butt into an obscure land dispute in West Austin.  But, to make matters worse, he took the side of the local Austin NIMBY crowd over the side of property rights and the rule of law.  From this author's perspective, the MUNY golf course bill is the #1 reason Craig Estes is a priority.

Pat Fallon, by contrast, is a conservative workhorse.  He doesn't necessarily seek the spotlight, but Pat Fallon shows up when you need him.  As a textbook example: Pat Fallon voted for Scott Turner for speaker in 2015.

Pat Fallon also provided this website with some of the earliest video documentation of left wing protestors admitting they were in the country illegally during the mayhem of last session.

Finally, Pat Fallon played football at Notre Dame; we only bring this up because Texas beat Notre Dame the last time they played.

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Bottom Line: Priorities people....

Hensarling leaves open seat without Obvious Successor....

"Then I turned myself to consider wisdom and madness and folly;
For what can the man do who succeeds the king?—
Only what he has already done."
Ecclesiastes 2:12

At this point, we assume you've heard:

My full statement on not seeking re-election in 2018: pic.twitter.com/2mkUIxtAED

— Jeb Hensarling (@RepHensarling) October 31, 2017

This is...unfortunate, at least right now.

We've never been under any illusions about Jeb Hensarling, but historically he's tended to be less loathsome than the average Texas Congressman.  He's usually been pretty good against corporate welfare.  We retain fond memories of the conniption fit he gave to friends of the Texas Association of Business in 2015.

Which is our longwinded way of saying that we wish he'd waited two more years to make this decision.

To understand why, consider Jeb Hensarling's district:

Compare Hensarling's district to the obvious successor:

While Bob Hall is the most obvious person to run for Hensarling's seat (and, given Hall's military background, he'd be a good fit for a federal position), there's an obvious problem: We need Bob Hall to stay put in the Texas Senate.  If Bob Hall were to jump into a Congressional race, it would leave his Texas Senate seat in peril of being scooped up by Cindy Burkett.  At this time, a Texas Senate seat is more valuable than a congressional seat.

Moving from the Texas Senate to the house, Hensarling's congressional district overlaps the following Texas house districts:

Note: Redline boundaries were done by hand and are thus APPROXIMATE.

Hensarling's Congressional district overlaps the following state reps:

• Lance Gooden.

• Travis Clardy.

• Jason Villalba

• Morgan Meyer.

• Cindy Burkett (open seat).

• Dan Flynn.

• Byron Cook (open seat!!!)

• Cole Hefner.
• Note: We didn't actually realize that Hefner overlapped until we looked it up.  That being said, it's only a tiny sliver.  While Hefner might be a possibility ( *ONLY* if he can cover his state rep seat), it still seems like a stretch.

With the exception of Hefner, none of those names are particularly exciting.  The biggest shame is that a number of those incumbent state reps are facing strong challengers (or, in Cook's case, have already been chased out of the race by a strong challenger.  Which, once again, brings our lament: Our bench in this part of the state is going to be a lot stronger in 2020.

Unfortunately, it's 2018; while we'd love to upgrade this seat, right now almost all of the obvious candidates would be downgrades.

Bottom Line: If you're an ambitious county commissioner with a strong record anywhere in this district, now might be a good time to swing for the fences.

#TXLEGE: Burkett secures endorsement from anti-Innovation, anti-startup, anti-taxpayer protection racket....

Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.”
1 Corinthians 15:33

LOL, of course:

AUSTIN -- A key business group in Texas politics is throwing its weight behind State Rep. Cindy Burkett in her bid to defeat State Sen. Bob Hall, a Tea Party activist elected three years ago to represent a district that stretches from Dallas to the Red River.

The Texas Association of Business PAC announced Thursday that they would back Burkett, a Republican from Sunnyvale, in the District 2 Senate race in 2018.

The race is one of a growing list of simmering GOP primaries that could put some of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's top allies in the Senate on the defensive.

Burkett, a commercial real estate agent, has been in the Texas House since 2010 and was once an aide to former State Sen. Bob Deuell, a Republican Hall defeated in 2014 to win District 2 in the Texas Senate.

Learn about all the various misdeeds of the Texas Association of Business here.

Bottom Line: If Cindy Burkett wants to run for the Texas Senate based on how much left-wing crony capitalists love her she is welcome to do so, although...has she seen what's just happened to the NFL for doing the same thing?!?

#txlege: Cindy Burkett's HILARIOUSLY TERRIBLE Campaign Announcement....

"The lips of the righteous feed many,
But fools die for lack of wisdom."
Proverbs 10:21

LOL:



Notes:

• It sometimes said that "a rich man doesn't have to tell you he's rich"; we mention this because she calls herself 'conservative' 12 times in this video and mentions her 'Christitan values' or faith 4 times.
• Maybe she's creating a new drinking game?!?

• "Fighting to improve Texas schools" = Throwing good money after bad into the socialized education status quo.
• Note: Burkett voted against expanding parental educational choice this session.

• It's not a secret that this author a) has long hair and b) has worked in a number of restaurants over the years; we only bring this up because our hair has NEVER stayed perfectly in place while mopping.

• Tries to claim credit for open carry when, except for voting for it when it came to the floor, she had nothing to do with it.

• Ditto the border and sanctuary cities stuff.

• Ditto the tax stuff.

• Claims her primary opponents the legislature are the Democrats.
• Note: LOL.
• Note II: If the Democrats are so terrible, why has she voted for the same leadership they have over the past few sessions.

• Claims to support property tax relief even though she supports house leadership that killed it in both the regular and special sessions.

• Takes credit for dismemberment abortion ban.  This is farcical.  While the dismemberment ban was adopted as an amendment on a bill she was carrying, she refused to even accept the amendment as friendly.

• We're tempted to take a closer look at the bills she's passed over the years.

Bottom Line: It's seriously worth four minutes of your time to watch the whole thing.

#TXLEGE: Stickland, Tinderholt, knock 5 bills off Local and Consent!!!

"While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage."
2 Peter 2:19

In the Texas House, the "Local and Consent" calendar is a mechanism that is supposed to be used to efficiently pass non-controversial bills.  When used properly, it's a good idea.  But, under Team Straus, it is often abused to sneak through special interest bills.

The good news is that any member can knock a bill of the L&C calendar simply by talking about it for ten minutes; Jonathan Stickland has made an art form of this.

The House heard the first local and consent calendar today and, between Stickland and Tony Tinderholt, they knocked off the following five bills:

• HB 92               Guillen
  Relating to the entitlement of spouses of certain veterans with disabilities to a veteran's employment preference.
  
  Tinderholt knocked this off because the term "disabled veteran" was so poorly defined that his own wife would have qualified for the program; Tinderholt wants this bill to come back on the regular calendar so he can offer an amendment tightening the language.

• HB 1264             Burkett / Button
  Relating to the concurrent jurisdiction of certain municipal courts in certain criminal cases punishable by fine only.
  
  Stickland knocked this bill of because it would create new mechanism for municipal police departments to perform traffic stops outside the area of their municipal jurisdiction; it doesn't take a genius to see how this practice could go horribly wrong.

• HB 1355             Wray
  Relating to the enforcement of commercial motor vehicle safety standards in certain municipalities.
  
  Stickland knocked this off because it created a special authority for one city to collect revenues "for the state."  Unfortunately, 90% of the cities that already have this authority don't remit those revenues to the state.  Larry Phillips has a bill to address the underlying issue statewide that Stickland supports.

• HB 1570             Burns
  Relating to the enforcement of commercial motor vehicle safety standards in certain municipalities.
  
  Withdrawn by author after Stickland explained it was similar to the Wray bill listed above but for a different city.

• HB 2413             Burkett
  Relating to certain identifying information regarding career school or college students.
  
  Stickland knocked this off because it was potentially a sneaky attempt to forestall future Wallace Hall-style investigations under new "privacy" protections; Stickland scores extra points for the fact that Dan Flynn was visibly having a fit on the House floor.