While it's no secret to anyone paying attention to this blog, I feel the need to point out here that I am, in fact, a Republican. More important than this however is my self-identification as a movement conservative (a phrase I borrowed from Kevin Whited at BlogHouston.) Most of this, however, is on the fiscal side of things. When it comes to most, not all, social issues I would more rightly be considered a libertarian. (little L intentional) Because of this I'm OK with LGBT marriage, on-board with the legalization of certain drugs (although I don't use them myself, even though some of my prose might suggest that I do) and am extremely worried about the over-criminalization of America.
On the fiscal front I'm very worried about runaway spending at the local, state and federal levels and I'm not thrilled with the amount of corporate welfare that's built into our political system at all levels. And yes, I support lower taxation and reasonable, consistent, effective regulation where needed. I also understand that there are some roles that government must fill with infrastructure, education and public safety being primary. I often find that most (not all) Texans feel this way and the differences surround the costs, theories and application of fixing these problems.
This is probably more about me politically than I've ever released in a blog post, or any format for that matter, outside of my circle of friends. As I'm watching election returns come in tonight, I'm struck to do this because, here we go again, I feel the Texas Lock-Step Political Media (TLSPM) and the news-ish organizations are not, or will not be, reporting correctly on the political races to come.
That is why I've decided to take a long, hopefully fair, look at each big, statewide race to determine how each candidate will actually govern if elected. I plan to try and avoid using loaded language in this, and I will try to document this fully through links and, if necessary, additional foot-notes.
If you're a Democrat reading this I invite you to stick around. Yes, I will continue to write things about the City of Houston region that you are probably not going to like. Skip that. For once I am honestly looking forward to your feedback on my fairness here, including whether or not my attempts to delineate your candidate's intentions are accurate or no. I can only promise this. I will refrain from using my typical shoddy-humor in these posts and I will refrain from any analysis other than characterizing policy as either "progressive" or "conservative" which I believe is fair.
As it stands now (10:20 PM Tuesday May, 27th) I have the following order in mind:
1. Texas Governor: Greg Abbott (R) vs. Wendy Davis (D)
2. TX Lt. Governor: Dan Patrick (R) vs. Leticia Van de Putte (D)
3. Texas Comptroller: Mike Collier (D) vs. Glenn Hegar (R)
4. Texas RRC Commish: Steve Brown (D) vs. Ryan Sitton (R)
5. Texas Atty Gen: Sam Houston (D) vs. Ken Paxton (R)
6. Other Statewide races: Land Commish, (Bush (R) vs. Cook (D)) Ag Commish (Hogan (D) vs. Miller (R))
Note: Above candidates listed by alphabetical order of last name. Also, I will not be covering the US Senate Race between David Alameel (D) and John Cornyn (R). Politics at the federal level is way, way outside the scope of this little blog. If I find a good summary of this race I'll link to it.
Those are the State-wide races I'll be covering. If you have any other specific (competitive please) races you would like me to take a look at (provided you think what I'm doing is of any value) then please let me know in the comments or via e-mail.
My plan is to churn these out at a rate of one per week. However, by the time you read this (I'm scheduling it to publish Wednesday afternoon) I might have changed my mind. If the schedule fells too ambitious given my work schedule at the day job I'll update as needed.
Until then, you have the floor. Tell me what you want to see and why.
