Voters beware! It appears some campaign consultants — tied to the anti-conservative agenda of House Speaker Joe Straus — are attempting to deceive Texans by playing off our name. It’s a sign of conservative ascendancy, and the establishment’s weakness, that they stooping to such levels. Continue reading
State Rep. Lance Gooden
Many of you received yet another mailer from Lance Gooden in the last 24 hours. While most of what he sends out is deceptive, this latest one goes way beyond RINO doublespeak. On the addressed side is a picture of an open Bible with, “Thou shall not bear false witness,” and “Exodus 20:16” across it. In the lower left-hand corner it asks, “Why is liberal Stuart Spitzer lying about Lance Gooden?” Where to begin?
Anyone who accuses Stuart Spitzer of being a liberal is either speaking with a forked tongue, insane, or under the influence of something. It is absurd on its face and difficult to take seriously. Apparently, Lance is willing to make himself a laughingstock in order to fool voters. It’s not nice to tell lies, Lance, even if you do it piously. Whatever my readers think of Stuart Spitzer, to call him a liberal is the height of folly. If anyone had any questions about the credibility of Lance Gooden, this should answer all of them. He has none. He currently represents a district in which he neither lives nor works, and now Stuart Spitzer is a “liberal”? Dr. Spitzer is one of us, and we aren’t liberal.
Side 2 prattles on about the Texas Ethics Commission complaint which was initiated by Lance himself through one of his operatives. It accuses “liberal Stuart Spitzer” of hiding the ethics complaint that the Gooden camp filed against him. It goes on to say that Dr. Spitzer was “under investigation for breaking the law” by “illegally using state property to spread lies” about poor Lance. The truth: In the last session, Gooden’s first and last, there is a video of him on the House floor requesting a $2.5 million earmark for the University of Texas Tyler campus, which by the way, is not in his district. Spitzer’s campaign manager posted the video on Dr. Spitzer’s website. Soon after, he realized that what he had done was against ethics rules and removed it. It was online for a grand total of 2 HOURS. It was gone before Gooden’s lackey could file the complaint. No matter, he filed it anyway, and then ran to the press and told them he did it because he was concerned about the rule of law. This statement strains credulity. If he was really concerned about the rule of law, he would have contacted the Spitzer campaign, informed them of their oversight, and given them oh say 12 hours to remove it. This was not done because following the rule of law had nothing to do with it. Lance saw an opportunity to unfairly sling mud on Dr. Spitzer and he took it. Dr. Spitzer has been open and honest about this from day one. He has hidden nothing, nor have any of his supporters. While the Ethics Commission has yet to rule on the complaint against Dr. Spitzer, it has actually fined Gooden for failing to report donations on time. Spitzer also can prove that he lives and works in our district. He has done so by releasing the last 3 years of his tax returns, something Lance refuses to do, because . . . well . . . let’s just say it wouldn’t help him get reelected.
The next thing on side 2 says, “No support from the pro-life, pro-gun, or business communities.” It is true that Dr. Spitzer has not been endorsed by the following single-issue, conservative groups: Texas Right to Life, Texas Alliance for Life, the National Rifle Association, Texas Rifle Association, and the Texas Association of Business. Each of them have chosen to endorse Gooden over Spitzer because they are attempting to curry favor with the candidate that usually wins: The incumbent. This is business-as-usual politics and it’s just plain wrong. These otherwise fine groups have misjudged the political landscape in District 4, because Lance Gooden is about to be retired by his fed up constituents.
Dr. Spitzer has been endorsed by Concerned Women for America, Young Conservatives of Texas, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, Cathie Adams, president of Texas Eagle Forum, Kaufman County Medical Society, and The American Association of Physicians and Surgeons. It should be noted that the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons is the only group of physicians in the United States that has filed a lawsuit against Obamacare. The Texas Medical Association has not, but they did oppose the recently passed sonogram bill—–oh, and they endorsed Lance. Stuart is A-rated by Texas Right to Life, the National Rifle Association and the Texas Rifle Association.
Conservative Challenger Stuart Spitzer
It gets better. The next paragraph says that “liberal Stuart Spitzer lied about not taking special interest money. He said he wouldn’t take a dime from the Austin lobby, but his campaign finance reports clearly show that he is taking their money in order to finance his campaign of lies and deceit.” If you go to the Texas Ethics Commission, and look at all of Dr. Spitzer’s contributors, you will see that he received a grand total of $148.80 from Empower Texans. Empower Texans is an exemplary organization that fearlessly advocates for conservatism in Texas. They only endorse the cream of the crop. Meanwhile, Lance has received hundred$ of thousand$ from gambling interests, Democrats, and RINOs like himself. I ask you, who’s bearing false witness??
It winds down with “There are too many dishonest liberals in politics already.” I fully concur. The choice couldn’t be more clear. Vote for Dr. Stuart Spitzer. He’s a real conservative. We know where he lives, where he works, what he does for a living, and most important of all, who he is.
Jan Shedd
Kaufman County Tea Party
Note: You can read more about Lance Gooden’s failed record of conservatism at www.stoplancegooden.com.
When Keller’s city manager eliminated his own position this spring, saying the city didn’t need so many administrators, conservatives and taxpayers cheered someone watching out for the people. Apparently we all cheered too fast. Continue reading
Freshman State Rep. Marva Beck is in a pitched battle to retain her seat in HD57, being challenged in the GOP primary by Lufkin ISD school board president Trent Ashby. Both have their weaknesses. (TFR has not endorsed in the race.)
Rep. Beck of Centerville rode the 2010 anti-Obama wave into the legislature to defeat arch-Democrat Jim Dunnam.
State Rep. Marva Beck
She did so by heavily courting the grassroots help of tea party leaders. In response, she was the first of freshmen to endorse embattled Speaker Joe Straus for re-election — less than a day after the polls closed — and over the objections of her supporters.
Right or wrong, many of the hometown, grassroots activists who carried her over the finish-line took the Straus-endorsement rather personally. This cycle, they are staying home, leaving Beck to fend for herself. Is her loyalty to Team Straus being repaid in this election?
Her GOP opponent is Trent Ashby, who has spent several years on the Lufkin school board. He has developed a predictable record of hiking spending, bonded indebtedness and the corresponding tax hikes. In 2010, the district was spending $11,510 per child — up from the $7,605 per child when he went on the board in 2007.
In a dust-up this week, Beck accused Ashby of raising taxes.
Trent Ashby
Ashby once worked for Democratic US Rep. Jim Turner, and has been endorsed by the liberal Parent PAC.
Rep. Beck scored a “B” on the Fiscal Responsibility Index — putting her only in the category of ‘average’ among Republicans. Nothing bad, but nothing to stand out in a crowd.
With her “B” rating, Rep. Beck was one of the lowest-performing freshmen on the Index. She found herself straddling the fence between being the conservative she campaigned as, and being in league with the moderate leadership she signed up with.
In the remaining days of the campaign, maybe Marva is hoping Joe Straus will ride in on a white horse and save the day. Better — and maybe just as likely — would be for Beck to quickly make-up with her local conservatives and give them a reason to push her over the finish-line once again.
Texans have plenty of reasons to oust Speaker Joe Straus. We’ve highlighted the Top 12 reasons leading up to the election. Continue reading
Susan Todd is lying about her record. Once an activist for the gubernatorial campaign of liberal Democrat Tony Sanchez, Todd is now trying to hide her past support of him in order to win her race for state representative district 97 in the GOP Primary. Continue reading
There’s no hiding the fact that Congressman Randy Neugebauer, of Texas’ 19th District, was a Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac enabler who actively opposed the Bush White House’s attempts to reform the Government Sponsored Entities, or GSE’s, just before all financial-hell broke loose and put the nation in peril.
In 2007, Neugebauer wrote a letter to the Treasury Secretary criticizing him for not opening Fannie & Freddie up so that more of Wall Street’s toxic assets could be dumped onto taxpayers. Neugebauer wrote: “By refusing to lift the portfolio caps on the two GSEs, the [Bush] Administration continues to remain overly rigid…” Neugebauer continued with “Now is not the time to tie the hands of GSEs with insufficient portfolio cap flexibility or to micro-manage their portfolio activities…” History tells us that such is exactly what was needed.
The Bush White House had been trying to answer alarm bells about impending doom in the housing credit markets with reforms of the GSEs and Randy Neugebauer opposed those reforms.
The Wall Street Journal pointed out in 2010 that “These days, everyone—even Barney Frank—claims to want to reform Fannie and Freddie. Most Republicans now sound like these columns did for more than a decade, assailing the companies for their systemic risk to the financial system after taxpayers have had to put up $150 billion, and counting, to maintain them as the walking dead.”
“But as the debate over the mortgage giants resumes, the real threshold for GOP leadership ought to be who was right when it counted—that is, who was willing to take on the companies, their Wall Street allies and the housing lobby before the meltdown. The destructive duo [Fannie and Freddie] were long protected by a bipartisan phalanx of Members, and a core group of Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee were among the guardians. They include Gary Miller of California, Randy Neugebauer of Texas and Spencer Bachus of Alabama,” reported the Journal.
In the Neugebauer letters I’ve posted you see this two-faced position clearly. Before the crisis Neugebauer was pushing for allowing portfolio caps to be increased so that more junk debt could be piled into the GSEs by Wall Street’s bad actors. And then after the implosion became public a year later, Neugebauer writes a letter from an opposite position all worried about taxpayers’ exposure to the bad investments and demanding information – a pivot worthy of an Olympic gymnast.
I do not say this lightly as few worked harder to elect Neugebauer than did I but, send Randy Neugebauer and all of Congress a message: Vote for Chris Winn now in the GOP primary.
Arlington ISD, another school district suing the state for more money, seems to have enough cash laying around to pay for better public relations. Who can blame them? They’re going to need it to help explain such a wasteful decision. Continue reading
In addition to the battles for elected offices on the primary ballots, voters from both the Republican and Democratic parties will find several ballot propositions to vote on. The parties decide on these separately, and put them forward to give voters a chance to weigh in on what may be legislative priorities for the parties after the November election. This year, both parties put forward propositions dealing with education that really speak to their priorities.
Republican: SCHOOL CHOICE: The state should fund education by allowing dollars to follow the child instead of the bureaucracy, through a program which allows parents the freedom to choose their child’s school, public or private, while also saving significant taxpayer dollars. Yes or No.
Democratic: Referendum 3: Should the Texas Legislature allow the people of Texas to vote to legalize casino gambling with all funds generated being used only for education? For or Against.
So, Republicans have a chance to send a message that they want parents to have control over their children’s education. Meanwhile, Democrats are being asked whether they want to approve gambling to pay for education in Texas. There has rarely been a clearer line of distinction in the education goals and policies of the major parties. School choice that can empower parents and save the state (read: you, the taxpayer) money could be a vital component to fixing our state’s overall problem with education funding. Meanwhile, legalizing casino gambling would increase the state’s financial burden, creating or expanding regulatory agencies and necessarily increasing local and state law enforcement. One is about loosening government’s monopoly and the other is about spending more with a diminishing return.
These are hardly issues that fit into the neat box of political affiliation; there are Democrats in favor of school choice, especially in inner cities, and there are Republicans who have filed gambling expansion legislation as late as the last session in Austin. That being said, the priorities of the parties have become crystal clear, and we don’t need to wait for election results on May 29 to see this.
After making it clear they support tax-raisers in the GOP Primary, the Dallas Morning News is again shilling against conservatives – expressing their approval of Straus-friendly business interests preparing to keep the TEA Party from “running the show” during the 2013 legislative session. Continue reading