Miscellaneous Thoughts On Texas Politics

I feared that this would happen, and now it is starting. DFW Metroplex officials are now coming out in favor of the Trans-Texas Corridor. Their major complaint against the TTC was that it would go east of the Metroplex, rather than coming up I-35 and making a loop around both Dallas and Fort Worth. When TxDot gave in last week and agreed to the "loop" proposal, many Metroplex officials climbed aboard the boondoggle bandwagon. Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief and Dallas Senator John Carona are thrilled that Gov. Perry has now said he supports the "loop" concept, and they are not the only Metroplex officials now supporting the TTC. Evidently, these people don't care what happens to the rest of Texas as long as they get what they want.


The race for state comptroller has been up until now, sort of a "stealth" race. I doubt if very many Texans could even tell you who the candidates are. Fred Head, the Democratic candidate, has tried to get some traction by attacking Susan Combs, the Republican candidate, for writing a trashy romance novel. He says she is a hypocrite for writing a soft-core porn novel, and then running for office as a family-values right-wing fundamentalist. Now Combs has retaliated with an attack of her own. She claims that Head was reprimanded 4 times by the Texas Bar Association for trying to collect excessive attorney's fees. Head says the complaints are more than 20 years old and the inevitable by-product of a 43 year career.

I had thought that this race would go to Combs by default, but maybe I was wrong. If things start to heat up in the race, Texans could realize they have a choice here. I hope so.


I have avoided commenting much on the District 22 race for the U.S. House of Representatives, even though I whole-heartedly support Nick Lampson. Frankly, musings, Juanita, Bay Area Houston, McBlogger, & Capitol Annex are doing a great job of covering this race, and probably doing it much better than I could. But this circus is just getting too good! The Republicans were in enough trouble having to run a write-in candidate. Write-in candidates traditionally do not do well in Texas. Now it looks like they'll be running two candidates - a Fort Bend County candidate [David Wallace] and a Harris County candidate [Shelley Sekula-Gibbs]. It's not bad enough to lose - they want to split that losing vote. Just to make it even worse, a third candidate [Don Richardson] has tossed his hat in the ring. I can't believe Democrats are having so much fun in a district drawn to be Republican. This mess the Republicans have created brings to mind the Three Stooges, and may turn out to be just as funny.


Rick Perry is now accusing Grandma of more ethical lapses in the performance of her state duties. Perry said Grandma helped her brother's law firm get a $47,000 state contract to serve as the state treasury's bond counsel. Perry's campaign said Grandma "lined her own brother's pockets" with state funds. A few days ago, Perry accused Grandma of improperly giving huge tax rebates to those represented by some of her largest contributors. It's nice to see the Republican candidates going after each other. I'm sure both of them have plenty of dirt for the other to dig up. I wish both of them much success in their efforts to tear each other down. Just less work for Kinky and Bell to do.


The Euless City Council has called for a hearing on property tax rates in the city. Since I live in Euless, this caused me some initial concern. But it turns out I had no reason for concern. The hearing is to discuss the city's lowering of taxes. The city is currently charging 49.18 cents for every $100 of a property's value. The council wants to lower it to 48.95 cents. However, there is a disagreement on the council. Three council members want to reduce the tax even further to 47.2131 cents. This is the kind of council disagreement that I don't mind. Looking around at some of the problems other cities are having, I must say it is a pleasure to live in a city where the officials are competent, honest, and get along well with each other. Thank you Mayor Saleh and the Euless City Council - keep up the good work.