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| Ken Paxton |
Dan Branch is even worse than Paxton when it comes to missing votes. According to preliminary numbers, in his six sessions, Dan Branch has missed a total of 570 floor votes. In committees during his six sessions, he has missed 292 votes.
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| Dan Branch |
When Paxton entered the race, a couple of conservative State
Representatives contacted me and let me know that, as much as they think, like
I do, that Paxton is a great guy, they do not believe he has the dedication and
leadership required to run a statewide agency. They told me about the many
votes he missed. They even told me that this past year in one of the special
sessions, they recall that the Senate had to wait for him to show up before
they could vote on an important bill. The Senate had a hard enough time
fighting Wendy Davis and the Democrats, they shouldn’t have to also battle with
their fellow Republicans not showing up on time to vote.
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| Barry Smitherman |
Not only is Smitherman conservative, but he actually shows up and gets involved at a high level that is rarely seen. Anyone who has ever met Barry Smitherman will tell you that he is one of the most dedicated leaders they have ever met. Smitherman gets involved and stands up for conservative, Republican values in just about everything, from big things to small things, all while running a statewide agency, the Texas Railroad Commission. From suing Obama 7 times to supporting the Kountze Cheerleaders who held signs with Bible Verses, Smitherman has proven himself to be a reliable, conservative statewide leader.
All opinions aside, the facts are the facts. There is no
denying that Paxton and Branch missed HUNDREDS of votes when they thought no
one was watching. This is inexcusable and displays a long history of a lack of
leadership and commitment. They missed the votes that were not being graded by
the conservative groups. They missed the votes that they thought were not
important. Well the truth is that, even if the votes were not important to
them, they were important to someone. Every bill impacts someone’s life or
business and if someone runs for office they are expected to show up to vote.
What happens if Branch or Paxton become the next Texas Attorney General? Will
they ignore the cases that they think are small and unimportant? Sometimes the
small cases are the ones that end up in the Supreme Court and end up taking
away our Constitutional rights.
When I was on the Texas State Republican Executive
Committee, I would always get frustrated when some of the members would try to
end debate of important issues, or leave early because they did not want to
have to be in the meeting past dinner time. I never understood it. We only meet
4 times a year and we vote on important issues that impact the Republican Party
for the entire State of Texas. That is what we were elected to do and the least
we should be expected to do is to commit to sitting through the full meeting
and debate the issues before voting on them. We were certainly not elected to
leave the meetings early to go watch the big Saturday Night College Football
games. I had a long drive home to and on the days that the meetings went long,
if I did not have money for a hotel room, I would stop into one of our great Texas State Parks and sleep in my car.
Everyone has something important come up every once in a
while that might make them miss a meeting or a vote, whether or not they are on
the SREC or in the Texas Legislature. But missing several hundred votes is a
pattern of bad leadership and a low level of commitment that should be
unacceptable for anyone on in the Legislature, and especially unacceptable for
someone wanting to run the Office of the Texas Attorney General.
related article:
Smitherman REJECTS Budget Increase - Paxton, Branch APPROVE Increases - Texas Attorney General Race
