Attempting to further unpack screwy election results....

"Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!"
Psalms 46:10

[Author's Note: This report incorrectly lists the date of the runoff as May 7th.  May 7th is the date LOCAL elections are held. The correct date for the primary runoff  is May 24th.]

KVUE had a excellent report Wednesday night detailing some of the strange results from this latest primary:



Highlights:

• TCRP denounces Morrow.

• Brent Webster came in second to Richard Walker, who was listed on the ballot as "Scott Walker."

• "Statistics favor the first name on a list of two unknowns."
• Can be worth as much as four points.

Paxton and Cruz's MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL staff shakeup!!!

"When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice;
But when a wicked man rules, the people groan."
Proverbs 29:2

[Author's Note: Enjoy the Texas Observer's conniption fit over Jeff Mateer here.]

Wasn't expecting this:

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton today announced the appointment of Jeff Mateer as First Assistant Attorney General. Mateer replaces Chip Roy, who resigned to pursue other endeavors.

“The addition of Jeff Mateer as First Assistant Attorney General will have immediate impact on the agency with positive long-term effects that will strengthen our work for Texas for generations,” stated Ken Paxton. “Jeff brings a wealth of real-world experience as a seasoned trial and appellate attorney with broad and varied litigation experience spanning over 25 years of legal practice.”

“I am honored that General Paxton has chosen me to lead in the Attorney General’s office at this critical time in Texas,” Jeff Mateer said. “I look forward to working with General Paxton in defending Texas and protecting our state from a far too often overreaching federal government.”

For the past six years, Mateer served as General Counsel of First Liberty Institute, a national religious liberty law firm, where he oversaw and directed its legal team. Prior to joining First Liberty Institute, Mateer was in private litigation practice with the Dallas law firm of Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal, LLP and subsequently small litigation boutique firms for nearly two decades.

....

During his career, Mateer has represented clients ranging from large international organizations to local businesses, schools, ministries, churches and individuals in complex federal and state court actions involving religious liberty, civil rights, employment, intellectual property and business matters. He has tried numerous jury and bench trials in both federal and state courts, and has successfully argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Texas appellate courts.

Mateer received his undergraduate education at Dickinson College, where he graduated with honors in 1987, and his legal education at Southern Methodist University, where he graduated with honors in 1990. He is licensed to practice law by the state of Texas and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 9th and 11th U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal, and all Texas state and federal district courts.

Chip Roy served the Attorney General’s office for the past 15 months. Under his leadership, Mr. Roy oversaw nine lawsuits against the Obama administration, championed the work of the attorney general for Texas House Bill 2, and helped lead the fight against human trafficking in Texas.

Which begs the next question: What exactly is Chip Roy going to do?!?

The Trusted Leadership PAC, a super PAC created to consolidate support for the candidacy of Senator Ted Cruz for President, today announced that Chip Roy is joining the team as its Executive Director.

Roy served as Chief of Staff to Senator Cruz during Cruz’s first two years as Senator, from 2013-2014. During that time, Roy worked side-by-side with the Senator in the fight against Obamacare, the fight to stop the Gang-of-Eight amnesty bill and the fight to stop a gun registry bill.

....

“Trusted Leadership PAC is a great team dedicated to electing Senator Cruz to the White House at a time when his leadership, integrity and willingness to stand up for the people against the Washington power-brokers is sorely needed to restore the great promise of America,” Roy said. “It was an honor to fight alongside him in the Senate and I am excited to work in support of his candidacy when so much is at stake for the future of our country.”

Most recently, Roy served as First Assistant Attorney General of Texas where he managed a 4100 person agency that sued the Obama administration nine times, including the successful halt to both the President’s so-called clean power plan and his unconstitutional executive amnesty.

Bottom Line: While we've met both Jeff Mateer and Chip Roy, we don't know either gentleman well.   We do know, however, that many people we respect hold these two in VERY high regard.  They will serve state of Texas and the Cruz for President effort very well.

Anti-Innovation Council Members attempting to sneak DISHONEST BALLOT LANGUAGE

"Arise, O Lord;
Save me, O my God!
For You have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone;
You have broken the teeth of the ungodly."
Psalm 3:7

Interesting:

An Austin music manager, working in conjunction with Uber, has asked the Texas Supreme Court to quickly intervene in the city’s May 7 initiative election and force the Austin City Council to rewrite ballot language on a proposed ride-hailing ordinance, words she says are designed to “mislead Austin voters” into rejecting the measure.

“The council falsely portrayed the proposed ordinance as something that only takes away and does not give,” says the “writ of mandamus” filed late Wednesday by Samantha Phelps, a talent buyer and marketing manager for an East Austin bar and music venue. “That portrayal could not be further from the truth.”

Because the Travis County clerk’s office, which will run the election on the city’s behalf, will “lock down” the ballot language on Monday, Phelps and her lawyers decided to file the writ, a 21-page document plus lengthy backup materials, directly with the Supreme Court rather than a lower court of appeals. Uber and Phelps are hoping that the high court will act on their writ by the end of the week, an Uber spokeswoman said.

Read the whole thing here.

Abbott joins College AFFORDABILITY Discussion

"The rich rules over the poor,
And the borrower is servant to the lender."
Proverbs 22:7

Obviously, Higher ed. has been the issue on which we've differed most strongly with Governor Abbott (*), but this announcement leaves us cautiously optimistic:

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott jumped into the college affordability debate Monday, announcing the formation of a new tri-agency task force that will examine this issue. The task force will also review job creation concerns to best address the state’s workforce needs and goals.

“Understanding the needs of job creators is paramount to ensuring that Texas remains the top state for business expansion and relocation,” Abbott said in a statement obtained by Breitbart Texas. “This past session, we made economic strides by investing in our workforce and further reducing taxes and regulations. By establishing this initiative, the State of Texas now seeks to ensure that the needs of both its growing workforce as well as new and existing businesses are met and each are prepared to successfully operate in an ever-changing 21st century economy.”

Led by Texas Education Agency (TEA) Commissioner Mike Morath, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) Commissioner Raymund Paredes, and Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) Commissioner Andres Alcantar, the task force aims to identify ways to make college more affordable, among other charges in the initiative.

The issue of college affordablity remains a high priority to state lawmakers. Recently, the University of Texas System Board of Regents voted to raise tuition system wide at 13 of the 14 universities they control. In response, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) and State Senator Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo), chair of the Senate Higher Education Committee, critical of the increase, authored a letter to university presidents and chancellors. The lawmakers pointed out that the state passed a budget which dramatically increased higher education funding during the 84th legislative session.

“It is discouraging to see Texas higher education institutions seek to increase the financial burden faced by students and their families rather than developing methods to cut institutional costs. Student debt is already at an all-time high, with students taking lnger to complete their degrees and incurring a greater amount of debt each year,” Patrick and Seliger wrote.

In 2003, the Texas Legislature gave state universities the ability to set their own tuition fees and rate increases. The jointly authored letter requests that these top university officials submit a host of data to Patrick and Seliger, including tuition rates and fee increases plus college completion rates as far back as 2002-03 for review.

In addition to exploring ways to make college more affordable for families and help students enter the workforce more quickly with marketable skills, the Governor’s initiative assigns the three commissioners with tasks that include identifying local workforce needs and developing models that support those workforce needs, with an emphasis on career and technical education (CTE) and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Read the whole thing here.

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* -- And don't forget we called this tuition hike.

Grading Marc Ott (the Austin City Manager)

"Do they not go astray who devise evil?
But mercy and truth belong to those who devise good."
Proverbs 14:22

[Author's Note: For background on the City Manager's review process, click here.]

ManageATXBetter is a new non-partisan group dedicated to cleaning out the city bureaucracy; as they explain:

City management has demonstrated repeatedly that they do not understand good management practices. They have shown that they do not understand that they serve Austinites and the Council, and not the other way around. They have made clear that they cannot be trusted to initiate innovative ideas, implement Council decisions, wisely spend tax dollars, enforce city laws, or be transparent and accountable.

While having a couple of conservatives on council is a VALUABLE improvement over where we were two years ago, we need to get rid of the entrenched bureaucracy if we're going to produce lasting change.

Unfortunately, council (with the notable exception of Don Zimmerman) has given this effort the Bronx cheer.

As ManageATXBetter explains:

In the next few weeks, the Austin City Council will formally evaluate the City Manager’s performance. Unfortunately, council members recently decided to not allow Austinites a public hearing to provide our perspective. However since you pay the city manager’s – and all city employees’ – salaries, we have created a way for YOU to evaluate the manager’s performance in addressing the City’s major issues and managing city staff.

It took us less than two minutes to fill out their survey. we recommend you do so as well.

The survey is posted here.

Team Straus to School Choice: DROP DEAD

"Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap."
Galatians 6:7

Not surprising considering the election results, still:

A House Republican who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of those issues, said it doesn’t look there is support for school vouchers in the House[.]

Read the whole thing here.

Empower Texans endorses Wayne Christian!!!

"When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice;
But when a wicked man rules, the people groan."
Proverbs 29:2

Not surprising, but interesting nonetheless:

“Wayne Christian has an established record as a conservative leader and government reformer,” said TFR’s president, Michael Quinn Sullivan. “More importantly, Wayne Christian has practical, hands-on experience dealing directly with energy policy and the issues that the Railroad Commission handles every day.”

....

While serving in the Texas House, Christian earned accolades from many conservative organizations for his leadership on policy matters. He had an A+ rating on the Fiscal Responsibility Index, and earned TFR’s “Taxpayer Champion” award.

“Wayne Christian has worked tirelessly for conservative principles and government reform long before it was fashionable,” added Sullivan. “Texans understand that we need a competent policymaker heading the agency charged with regulating the oil and gas industry. Wayne Christian has proven time and again that he puts protecting taxpayers, and the good of the Texas, as his highest priority.”

Read the whole thing here.