Trouble for TX Speaker Straus

[Jbrase]

In race after race, Texas primary voters embraced conservative candidates over the team led by moderate House Speaker Joe Straus. Even as he won re-election at home, Joe Straus lost three of his closest committee chairs and two others are in precarious run-offs. Overall, it was a very good night for conservatives!

Across Texas, grassroots activists were more than a match for the monied Austin special interests, and the tea party proved themselves more than capable of brewing a much-needed cup of electoral victory for a bumper-crop of strongly conservative candidates.

Straus’ Public Education Committee chairman, State Rep. Rob Eissler, was defeated by tea party favorite Steve Toth in HD15. You might recall that back in 2008 Mr. Eissler was one of the 11 moderates who joined with 65 Democrats in selecting Straus as the speaker – overthrowing the conservatives.

In Tarrant County, State Rep. Vicki Truitt lost big to conservative leader Giovanni Capriglione. As a Straus committee chair, she was an ardent proponent of raising gasoline taxes and burdensome regulations, while generally opposing conservative fiscal reforms. Truitt had also come under scrutiny in the press for getting no-bid contracts from a local taxing entity.

One of the biggest personal losses to Straus was committee chairman Mike “Tuffy” Hamilton to State Rep. James White. (Mr. White had defeated a Straus Democratic chairman in November 2010.) This 2012 election was a wild race by design, starting with Rep. White’s district being radically altered in redistricting. Then, Hamilton specifically moved into the new district to challenge the strongly conservative White.

http://www.empowertexans.com/features/texas-voters-repudiate-team-straus/

[BigSkyBob]

In race after race, Texas primary voters embraced conservative candidates over the team led by moderate House Speaker Joe Straus. Even as he won re-election at home, Joe Straus lost three of his closest committee chairs and two others are in precarious run-offs. Overall, it was a very good night for conservatives!

Across Texas, grassroots activists were more than a match for the monied Austin special interests, and the tea party proved themselves more than capable of brewing a much-needed cup of electoral victory for a bumper-crop of strongly conservative candidates.

Straus’ Public Education Committee chairman, State Rep. Rob Eissler, was defeated by tea party favorite Steve Toth in HD15. You might recall that back in 2008 Mr. Eissler was one of the 11 moderates who joined with 65 Democrats in selecting Straus as the speaker – overthrowing the conservatives.

In Tarrant County, State Rep. Vicki Truitt lost big to conservative leader Giovanni Capriglione. As a Straus committee chair, she was an ardent proponent of raising gasoline taxes and burdensome regulations, while generally opposing conservative fiscal reforms. Truitt had also come under scrutiny in the press for getting no-bid contracts from a local taxing entity.

One of the biggest personal losses to Straus was committee chairman Mike “Tuffy” Hamilton to State Rep. James White. (Mr. White had defeated a Straus Democratic chairman in November 2010.) This 2012 election was a wild race by design, starting with Rep. White’s district being radically altered in redistricting. Then, Hamilton specifically moved into the new district to challenge the strongly conservative White.

http://www.empowertexans.com/features/texas-voters-repudiate-team-straus/

An interesting note is to ask if Straus will again have the ability to hold redistricting over the heads of the Republican members if the courts through it back to the legislature? Otherwise, he has fired his bullets, and they were mostly blanks.

[Lloyd Bentsen's Ghost]

Please don't quote an Empower Texans press release and expect it to be taken seriously. Michael Quinn Sullivan (Texas' own Grover Norquist wannabe in a cheap suit) had middling success. Rob Eissler would have won had he actually bothered to campaign. Vicki Truitt had a number of local issues working against her and her redrawn district is more conservative.

No GOP incumbents in Congress came remotely close to losing. Dewhurst is in a runoff, but when you take Leppert into account Texans picked a non-TP candidate over the TP candidate by nearly 2-to-1.

[BigSkyBob]

Rob Eissler would have won had he actually bothered to campaign.

This is a denial position.