Dan Patrick for LT Governor has MOST Tea Party Support and Minority Community Support

Dan Patrick is the best conservative candidate in the race for Texas Lieutenant Governor.

It seems as though I am not the only person with that opinion.

Dan Patrick has easily gained the most Tea Party support of any candidate in the race.

Did you know that Dan Patrick has also gained an enormous amount of support from the Minority Community?

Minorities are actually very conservative in their beliefs. The problem is that the liberal Democrats have brainwashed them into believing that Republicans are bad.

The amount of support from the minority community that Dan Patrick has gained is very good and very important.

The following press release is from Dan Patrick and it goes into more detail about the support that Patrick is getting from the minority community:

Dan Patrick Expands Support in Minority Community

Wins Hispanic straw poll and endorsed by African American outreach leader

HOUSTON – Dan Patrick, the authentic conservative candidate for Lt. Governor, has received 24 TEA party endorsements because of his strong fiscal and socially conservative record.  His message of prioritizing border security, cutting property taxes and reforming our public schools has resonated with the conservative voters.  This message has also produced support from the minority community.

Today Dan Patrick received the endorsement of Bill Calhoun, Chairman, Texas Federation for Republican Outreach*.  Mr. Calhoun is a long serving leader in the Texas Republican Party and has been appointed as a delegate to the White House Conference on Small Business by both President Reagan and President Clinton.  He was also appointed to the Texas Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights by President George W. Bush.  His endorsement of Dan Patrick is largely based on their mutual desire to improve public education and provide more choice options.

“Everything that's wrong with public school education in Texas is a result of the Democrat's social policies.  For African American and Hispanic students, it has become a social atrocity that must be stopped!  School choice is a very important tool to give parents who are struggling with trying to get their children out of a low-performing school and put them on a pathway to prosperity.  Now is the time to give it to them.  Dan Patrick has been the undisputed champion of School Choice and he will get a bill passed in the senate.  That is why I'm supporting him.”

Last week, Republican Hispanic Citizens in Action met and heard from the candidates for Lt. Governor.  At the end of the meeting, the attendees voted in a straw poll and supported Dan Patrick over the other candidates.  The Republican Hispanic Citizens In Action (RHCIA) is Houston’s most active and fastest growing Republican Hispanic organization.  For more than four years RHCIA has been building a foundation of committed individuals interested in conservative government and promoting Republican candidates.

*Organization listed for informational purposes only.

IRS Targeted Conservative Hispanic Group in Texas - Voces Action Adryana Boyne

Adryana Boyne is a great Hispanic Republican who has a group (Voces Action) that draws Hispanic to the Republican Party by showing Hispanics that their conervative values are in line with Republicans, NOT Democrats.

I am sure Obama and the Democrats hate this because they want minorities to think that the Democrt Party is the only party for minorities.

Well surprie surprise, look who got targeted by the IRS!


The following article is from Brandon Darby of Beritbart.com: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/05/15/IRS-Targeted-Conservative-Hispanic-Outreach-Group

IRS Targeted Conservative Hispanic Outreach Group

The IRS’s targeting of Tea Party groups went even further than has been revealed. A conservative Hispanic outreach group that educates Spanish-speaking and English-speaking Hispanic communities on the US Constitution was also targeted after applying for 501(c3) status, according to the group’s founder and president, Adryana Boyne.

Boyne's organization, named Voces Action, also applied for 501(c4) status. Boyne said she abandoned her 501(c3) efforts due to the IRS’s treatment of her. “I spent thousands of dollars on attorneys and hundreds of hours dealing with the IRS on this. Our groups had separate boards and followed all of the laws,” said Boyne.
“We applied for nonprofit status in June of 2009 and we did not hear back from them until late 2010, even though we began calling them after six months had passed,” said Boyne. “We received the same kind of intrusive questions that Tea Party groups received. We are not a Tea Party group, but I have spoken at some Tea Parties.”
Though Boyne’s group only focused on educating Hispanic communities on the US Constitution and on conservative social and economic values, she said her group was treated unfairly.

The IRS sent us 27 pages of questions, they demanded recordings of every speech I’ve ever given and details about every person I know who is a politician in my life. They demanded to know how many times I had met with them and details of my personal relationships with them. Many of my closest friends are politicians and they wanted private information about my friendships.

The questions Boyne and her Voces Action group received were not only exhaustive and intrusive, but the IRS also demanded the 27 pages be answered in full within two weeks, according to Boyne. “They would say, ‘If you do not answer in the next two weeks, your application will be terminated and you will need to reapply.’”
“We did everything according to the law but we were treated like criminals,” Boyne concluded.

IRS official who oversaw unit targeting Tea Party now heads ObamaCare office

from Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/16/second-irs-official-to-leave-amid-tea-party-scandal/

IRS official who oversaw unit targeting Tea Party now heads ObamaCare office

WASHINGTON –  The IRS official who led the tax-exempt organizations unit when Tea Party groups were targeted is now in charge of the IRS office responsible for ObamaCare, two Capitol Hill sources told Fox News.
The acknowledgement comes after the administration announced that the official’s successor -- who had only been on the job a few days -- would be retiring. And it fueled criticism of the agency, as the outgoing IRS commissioner prepared to face lawmakers’ questions at a hearing Friday morning.
“Stunning. Just stunning,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said in reaction to the latest development.
President Obama, meanwhile, maintained Thursday that he didn’t know about the investigation into the IRS program until it was made public.
The ObamaCare official in question, Sarah Hall Ingram, had been serving as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations from 2009 to 2012 -- the division included the group that targeted Tea Partiers -- and has since left to serve as director of the IRS' Affordable Care Act division. That unit is responsible for enforcing parts of the health care law, including the fines associated with the so-called individual mandate -- the requirement to buy health insurance.
Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn, citing her current position and history with the scandal-marred unit, reinforced his call Thursday for the IRS to be blocked from implementing the health care law. "Now more than ever, we need to prevent the IRS from having any role in Americans’ health care," he said.
While still the commissioner of the Tax-Exempt and Government Entities Division, Ingram was assigned to head the implementation of ObamaCare at the IRS in 2010 after the law was enacted. It is not clear when she stopped being the head of the tax-exempt office or how active her role was there while she was implementing ObamaCare.
But the official who succeeded her, Joseph Grant, is now leaving the agency in the wake of the scandal. His retirement was announced Thursday, even though he only took the job May 8.
Meanwhile, President Obama appointed a new acting commissioner after the prior IRS chief announced his resignation.
That official, Steven Miller, will be in the hot seat Friday when he is scheduled to testify before the House Ways and Means Committee in the first congressional hearing on the IRS scandal.
Also scheduled to testify is J. Russell George -- the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration -- and the man whose report released this week exposed the IRS practice that led to Miller's ouster (though Miller was apparently planning to leave the agency anyway).
The revelations at the Friday hearing could add more headaches for the Obama administration, as it tries to juggle its response to several scandals at once.
It's unclear whether more officials will resign at the IRS in the days to come.
An internal memo Thursday stated that Grant -- at the tax-exempt unit -- will retire on June 3. Grant oversaw the IRS division being called out for holding up applications from Tea Party groups applying for tax-exempt status. He was appointed to his position on May 8 by Miller.
The Senate side holds its first IRS-related hearing on May 21.
This week's clean-up at the agency is part of the Obama administration's mad dash to save face and regain footing after being hammered by a series of scandals this week, including new questions over the Benghazi terror attack and the Justice Department's seizing of journalists' phone records.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/16/second-irs-official-to-leave-amid-tea-party-scandal/#ixzz2TXymYo4J

NAACP's Julian Bond Says Tea Party is American Taliban, Racist and Deserve IRS Audits

from Washington Times:

Julian Bond, with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said during a Tuesday interview on MSNBC that it’s only right and just that the federal government and the IRS target tea party groups.

“I don’t think there’s a double standard at all,” he said, in the MSNBC report. “I think it’s entirely legitimate to look at the tea party. I mean, here are a group of people who are admittedly racist, who are overtly political, who tried as best they can to harm President Obama … They are the Taliban wing of American politics and we all ought to be a little worried about them.”

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/14/naacps-julien-bond-its-ok-irs-target-racist-tea-pa/#ixzz2TMY2nhAb

 

IRS Admits Unconstitutionally Targeting Conservative Tea Party Groups during Obama Election

the following is from Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/10/irs-apologizes-for-targeting-conservative-groups/

Tea Party groups, Republicans slam IRS for flagging conservative groups

 

Tea Party leaders refused to accept an apology from the IRS Friday in which the agency acknowledged that it inappropriately flagged conservative groups for additional review during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status.
Jenny Beth Martin, national coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, said she wants to see resignations over what she called the "disturbing, illegal and outrageous abuse of government power."
Republican lawmakers also seized on the acknowledgment, after having complained about the suspected harassment more than a year ago. Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell called for a "government-wide review" to assure "these thuggish practices" are not in use elsewhere. House Republican Leader Eric Cantor later said the House would investigate.
Reaction was swift and harsh after Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups, acknowledged the issue at a conference Friday sponsored by the American Bar Association.
She confirmed that organizations were singled out because they included the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their applications for tax-exempt status.
In some cases, groups were asked for their list of donors, she said.
"That was wrong. That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive and it was inappropriate," Lerner said. "The IRS would like to apologize for that."
Lerner said the practice was initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati and was not motivated by political bias. After her talk, she told The Associated Press that no high-level IRS officials knew about the practice. She did not say when they found out.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney later said the agency's inspector general was investigating, calling the agents' actions "inappropriate" and saying "there needs to be action taken" if wrongdoing is found.
As conservatives condemned the IRS for the additional scrutiny, IRS officials after the conference tried to offer a fuller explanation of what happened.
The IRS put out a written statement saying protocol was changed at the Cincinnati office in response to the rising number of applications for 501(c)(4) groups. This classification grants tax-exempt status to social welfare groups. Unlike other charitable groups, these organizations are allowed to participate in political activities but their primary activity must be social welfare.
The agents tried to "centralize work" in response to the applications, the IRS said, leading to problems the agency claims have since been fixed.
"Mistakes were made initially, but they were in no way due to any political or partisan rationale. We fixed the situation last year and have made significant progress in moving the centralized cases through our system," the IRS said.
On a hastily arranged conference call Friday, Lerner said that the staffers who flagged those groups did so as "short-hand" to deal with the "great number" of cases in the system.
She acknowledged that some of the letters sent were "far too broad" and that asking for donors is "generally not what we do."
"We made some mistakes, some people didn't use good judgment," she said, while claiming the reviews were not partisan.
During the conference earlier Friday, Lerner said the number of groups filing for the tax-exempt status more than doubled from 2010 to 2012, to more than 3,400. To handle the influx, the IRS centralized its review of these applications in the office in Cincinnati. As part of the review, staffers look for signs that groups are participating in political activity. If so, IRS agents take a closer look to make sure that politics isn't the group's primary activity, Lerner said.
In all, about 300 groups were singled out for additional review, Lerner said. Of those, about a quarter were singled out because they had "tea party" or "patriot" somewhere in their applications. Lerner said 150 of the cases have been closed and no group had its tax-exempt status revoked, though some withdrew their applications.
Many conservative groups complained during the election that they were being harassed by the IRS. They accused the agency of frustrating their attempts to become tax exempt by sending them lengthy, intrusive questionnaires.
The forms, which the groups made available at the time, sought information about group members' political activities, including details of their postings on social networking websites and about family members.
Groups shared some of those forms with FoxNews.com back in February 2012, when the complaints first surfaced. In letters sent from IRS offices in Cincinnati, chapters including the Waco (Texas) Tea Party and the Ohio Liberty Council were asked to provide a list of donors, identify volunteers, financial support for and relationships with political candidates and parties, and even printed copies of their Facebook pages.
"Some of what they (the IRS) asked was reasonable, but there were some requests on there that were strange," Toby Marie Walker, president of the Waco Tea Party, told FoxNews.com last year.
A dozen Republican senators wrote to the IRS in March 2012 expressing concerns about various accounts that the IRS inquiries were "perceived to be excessive."
IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman told Congress in March 2012 that the IRS was not targeting groups based on their political views.
"There's absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back and forth that happens to people" who apply for tax-exempt status, Shulman told a House Ways and Means subcommittee.
On Friday, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said he's "glad" to see the IRS apologize but said it's not good enough.
"We need to have ironclad guarantees from the IRS that it will adopt significant protocols to ensure this kind of harassment of groups that have a constitutional right to express their own views never happens again," he said, adding that he would be discussing the matter with the IRS commissioner.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said "the fact that Americans were targeted by the IRS because of their political beliefs is unconscionable."  
The Associated Press contributed to this report.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/10/irs-apologizes-for-targeting-conservative-groups/#ixzz2SysT21Rm

Not All SNL Actors Are Liberal! Victoria Jackson, Conservative Actor, likes my Texas Sovereignty Article

Not too long ago, I wrote an article about Texas State Representative James White introducing a bill that will require the leaders of Texas to start crunching the numbers and figure out what Texas would look like if it had to be self sufficient... limited or no federal support... you know, for if the Federal Government collapses under all the debt it has and Texas has to do things all on our own.

Several other websites picked up my article, including the website of Victoria Jackson.

Victoria Jackson was an actor on Saturday Night Live (and here I thought that there were no conservatives on SNL). Anyways, Victoria Jackson posted a link to my James White Texas Sovereignty article on her website and talked about moving to Texas. http://victoriajacksonshow.com/7732/moving-to-texas

Hey, kudos to you for being a conservative in a liberal working environment! You are welcome to come to Texas anytime!

She has even written a book about how she went from SNL to the Tea Party.

She now has her own gig, the Victoria Jackson Show.


Awesome!

Categories

Articles

Moving to Texas

 

Posted by Victoria Jackson on February 11, 2013 at 11:51 pm

It is a very real possibility that one day the massive U.S. debt will become so large and unsustainable that it causes a financial meltdown. State Rep. James White has proposed a bill that will require the leaders of Texas to start crunching the numbers and figure out what Texas would look like if it had to be self sufficient… limited or no federal support…. OUR OWN COUNTRY….Hey, I didn’t say secession but that certainly comes to mind when thinking about the federal government having a financial meltdown and cutting off most or all support to the States.

- See more at: http://victoriajacksonshow.com/7732/moving-to-texas#sthash.gIhxi7hO.dpuf

Categories

Articles

Moving to Texas

 

Posted by Victoria Jackson on February 11, 2013 at 11:51 pm

It is a very real possibility that one day the massive U.S. debt will become so large and unsustainable that it causes a financial meltdown. State Rep. James White has proposed a bill that will require the leaders of Texas to start crunching the numbers and figure out what Texas would look like if it had to be self sufficient… limited or no federal support…. OUR OWN COUNTRY….Hey, I didn’t say secession but that certainly comes to mind when thinking about the federal government having a financial meltdown and cutting off most or all support to the States.

- See more at: http://victoriajacksonshow.com/7732/moving-to-texas#sthash.gIhxi7hO.dpuf

Moderates, Romney Wreak Havoc at National Convention - Will They Destroy the Republican Party?

Update: Morton Blackwell sent out an urgent message late last night stating that the compromise we have been hearing about regarding these issues is fake and is an attempt to get conservatives to back down! The compromise only deals with the issue of the presidential candidate selecting state delegates and the compromise does not even cover the proposed rule change that will allow the RNC to change the rules between conventions without delegate approval. We MUST not back down!

WARNING! Romney and Moderate Republicans want Control over who the national delegates are and what is in the Republican Party Platform and Rules! They want to take this power away from the states. This is an attempt to mold the Republican platform to his moderate values and also to force state delegates to be completely loyal to him and his moderate beliefs instead of standing for their own beliefs and the beliefs of the people who voted for them from each state and congressional district.

Call All National Delegates you know and tell them This MUST be defeated!

Let me first say that I am of course voting for Romney because Obama MUST go. Romney was not my first choice but he has won and he will be better that Obama.

That being said.....

Mitt Romney Better Check Himself Before He Wrecks Himself (and the GOP)

Romney's Team (his top campaign lawyer Ben Ginsburg and other operatives) and many other moderates in the RNC have introduced rule changes at the Republican National Convention that, if passed by the convention this week, would destroy the GOP and disenfranchise Republicans all over the nation. These attacks are not just aimed at one group (like Ron Paul Delegates). These attacks are aimed at all conservatives who will not compromise or go with the flow.


Romney can court the moderates, but he will not win if the loses the base of the party (the conservatives). He needs the Tea Party. He needs Social Conservative. He Also Needs Ron Paul Supporters.

Fellow Conservative Texan Jeremy Blosser is at the National Convention and he sent me a report about these issues. I was also sent articles about these subjects from other fellow Conservatives like Cathie Adams and Debbie Georgatos.

First, one proposed change from Romney would allow  Presidential Nominee (right now that would be him) to pick the state delegates to the National Convention. SAY WHAT? Individual states get delegates for a reason. It is so each STATE gets represented. the people of each state select THEIR delegates to the National Convention, NOT HIS. These delegates do everything from voting on the Republican values in the GOP platform to voting for the Republican Presidential Nominee. Each state assigns their national delegates a presidential candidate to vote for based on things like caucus votes and statewide primary election results. Romney has won the nomination. He has the votes. Apparently that is not good enough for him. Now he wants to be able to pick the delegates to the national convention. He wants to take that right away form the states.

THIS WOULD ALLOW ROMNEY AND HIS MODERATES TO CRAFT THE GOP PARTY PLATFORM AND VALUES! That is why this is such a bad idea. This change would not just allow Romney to pick delegates to vote for him for the nomination. These delegates ALSO VOTE ON THE PLATFORM. So in effect, allowing Romney to pick his delegates instead of the states picking them will mean that Romney can pick people to represent HIS values in the platform instead of the States and Congressional Districts picking delegates to represent THEIR values in the platform.

The RNC had already betrayed the states last year, especially Texas, by forcing us to change our rules and how we select our National Convention delegates. Last year I declared that the RPT MUST STAND UP TO THE RNC. Unfortunately we did not. Well, now we see what happens when we try to play nice and go along. When we do not stand up for what we believe, we lose and then we lose more in the future because now the other side has a foot in the door to be able to force more changes on us.

Texas is Leading the Way to Defeat this Change! I am thankful to say that most of the Texas Delegation are strongly opposed to this, including our State Republican Party Chairman Steve Munisteri and our two RNC Rules Committee Members Butch Davis and Melinda Fredericks. They are leading the charge for the Texas Delegation against this proposed change and are standing for Texas and Grassroots Republicans everywhere!

Second, another rule change would allow the RNC to make rule changes between conventions, without approval from the delegates and with no checks or balances. The delegates to the national convention are from all corners of America and at the convention they are responsible for voting on the National Platform (out values) and our party rules. This change would allow the handful of RNC members to take that power away from the delegates. This change would allow the Republican National Committee members to have the ability to change this important documents between conventions and without approval of the delegates. The original threshold proposed was 2/3 of the entire RNC in order to be able to change the rules between conventions.  Melinda Fredericks, the Vice Chairman of Texas GOP and a Rules Committee Member, got this changed to 3/4. Mrs. Fredericks meant well, but it was a compromise that really does not safeguard us much. We need to stop compromising and just start standing for what is right. I urge Mrs. Fredericks and the Texas Delegation to also oppose this change just as strongly as they oppose Romney wanting to pick Delegates instead of the states.

The RNC should not be able to change our rules between conventions, even with a 3/4 threshold, because as Morton Blackwell (long-time Conservative RNC member) noted, in his many years on the RNC he has never seen a situation where the chairman did not get what he wanted on a vote, regardless of threshold.

Call All National Delegates you know and tell them This MUST be defeated!

Romney and Moderate Republicans MUST realize that they NEED conservatives in order to beat Obama and the Democrats. Groups like the Tea Party and Ron Paul supporters bring energy and passion to election. There is a belief that a candidate must go moderate to win but that is no longer true. The nation is becoming so polarized that conservatives are getting fed up and joining together. They are NOT just going along with the Republican Party anymore. They can change elections. Look what the Tea Party and conservative groups did right here in Texas when they helped Ted Cruz win the Texas US Senate Nomination against the sitting LT Governor who had limitless campaign funds. The Republican Party needs to embrace these conservative groups instead of tossing them to the side. They need us for our passion and energy to get people to the polls, but they also need our votes! They cannot just assume that conservatives will keep supporting the GOP because many conservatives are bailing the GOP because the moderates are so drastically trying to take over the party and move it more to the left. I am voting for Romney because I want Obama out and Romney is the better of the two, but I have friends who have told me that they are just so fed up with the moderates in the Party, like Romney, that they just might not even vote in the Presidential election because they can not in good concise vote for either candidate based on their values.

Mitt Romney Has Chosen Paul Ryan as Vice President on Republican Side of 2012 U.S. Presidential Race

According to Fox News, the Associated Press has confirmed that Paul Ryan has been picked as Mitt Romney's running mate against Barack Obama in the 2012 United States Presidential Election this November. Mitt Romney will officially make the announcement later this morning in Virginia.

Paul Ryan has been a Tea Party fiscal hero in recent years because, as the House Budget Chairman, he has openly stood up for drastic economic and fiscal reforms aimed at cutting back government spending and balancing the budget.

Paul Ryan was a guest speaker at the 2012 Texas Republican Party State Convention. Paul Ryan also endorsed Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate in a very heated 2012 Texas GOP Primary Runoff. Ted Cruz won against a well funded, and well known, LT Governor David Dewhurst. This Ted Cruz win sent ripples across America because it showed that the Tea Party can still be a force to reckon with and has not fizzled out.

Mitt Romney likely chose Paul Ryan to secure the backing of the conservative tea party side of the Republican Party. Some conservatives, although they want to see Obama defeated and will support Romney over Obama, have not gotten excited about a moderate Mitt Romney being the Republican nominee. By picking tea party conservative Paul Ryan, Romney likely wishes get the conservative tea party members excited and energized about the upcoming election.

Ex Rep. Mike Hamilton Backdoor Deal to be Appointed Commissioner? Hardin County, Lumberton, TX

 Former State Rep Mike "Tuffy" Hamilton Backdoor Deal with Hardin County Judge?

(It was correctly pointed out to me that Mike Hamilton is not technically a former State Rep yet until after the November election when it becomes official so I wanted to make sure I let everyone know that my original article that said former state rep should really have said soon to be former state rep)


Multiple independent sources have informed me that Bobby Franklin, the Precinct 4 Hardin County Commissioner serving over Lumberton, TX, is planning to step down soon so that former State Representative Mike "Tuffy" Hamilton can be given the job. The Commissioner’s position will give Hamilton a political platform and a guaranteed source of income to set Hamilton up to run (again) against James White for State Rep in two years. The Hardin County Judge, Billy Caraway, is the person who would appoint someone to a vacant County Commissioner's seat. Billy Caraway and Mike Hamilton just so happen to be best buddies.

Mike Hamilton (a former Committee Chairman for RINO Joe Straus) recently lost his State Representative re-election after Hamilton moved to Hardin County earlier this year to run against Super Conservative, Black Republican State Rep. James White as part of a plan to hurt Republicans in redistricting who voted against Straus for Speaker. Hardin County is the most one of the most populated counties (most Republicans for sure) in House District 19 and Hamilton is very good friends with many of the leaders in Hardin County. Hamilton assumed that the support from Hardin County Politicians would help him win Hardin County with enough votes to win the State Rep. election even if he did not win any of the other less populated counties in the district.

Hamilton was wrong about the support he had and he lost the election to the Conservative Tea Party favorite James White. Hamilton's campaign had been plagued with information coming out about some of Hamilton's not so conservative votes (like voting with Trial Lawyers and trying to bring Casino Gambling to Texas for Chairman Straus), and also information about Mike Hamilton's ethic's problems (like alleged sexual harassment, ethics violation fines and tax liens.

During the election, James White was endorsed by all top conservatives and conservative organizations, but most of the elected officials in Hardin County put politics over principle and got together to hold a press conference where they endorsed Hamilton. They wanted him to beat James White and they were not happy when Hamilton lost. I am certainly not speaking about all county leaders in Hardin County because some of them are good people who are not involved in this, but it appears that at least some of the leaders in Hardin County are desiring to get around a vote of the people that is normally required for elected positions and reward their friend Mike Hamilton with an extra income and good political position as an appointed County Commissioner.

It was not even a year ago that Mike Hamilton did not even live in Lumberton or Hardin County and yet he is to be given the position of a Hardin County Commissioner? He probably isn’t even eligible yet to even run for Hardin County Commissioner because of the time living in Lumberton that is required to run. How about an actual resident of Hardin County and Lumberton who is deserving of the temporary position getting picked to fill in until a special election? (And no I am not talking about me) Or how about Bobby Franklin finishing out his 4 year term? He just ran 2 years ago for re-election and told the people that he could and wanted to do another 4 year term, and it would be a disservice to the political process if he stepped down before the next election just so someone else could be put in without having to get elected. He could at least have the decency to step down now so that there is enough time for a special election this November instead of waiting to step down when it is too late to have a special election.

East Texas Corrupt Politics

What happens in East Texas when one of the people of the group in power is getting too old to keep doing the job but they don't want an open election because the group that has been in power for decades wants to keep the power? They get him/her to retire before the term is up so that there is not an election and instead one of their buddies gets appointed who then has the advantage in the upcoming election to fill the seat. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes appointing someone to fill a vacancy is necessary, cannot be avoided, or is not done as a dirty backdoor deal. This situation is not one of those exemptions. In this case, an early retirement serves two purposes. It keeps control of the power within their group of friends, and it also rewards their friend who they want to prop up until he can run for State Rep. again (or maybe it is possible that Hamilton wants to just try to stay Commissioner).

Hopefully this article will generate enough bad publicity to stop this dirty backdoor deal from happening...

I am not holding my breath though. This is the same group of good old boy county politicians who rigged the Justice of the Peace election when Judge Butch Cummings illegally coercing the new candidate to drop out or get fired from his job. This is also the same group of county good old boys who could only narrowly beat me when I ran for County Commissioner against the machine by telling people that I was a bad soldier even though I was the back to back soldier of the year for my Battalion. I did not expect to win. I was only 25 and ran because no one would ever run against these old Democrats, so I did. They had to play dirty to beat me though and I still nearly beat the good old boys and ended up going on to bigger and better things, like fighting bad politicians on a statewide level instead of just sticking with local issues. The good old boys have seen that they are becoming weak and they cannot afford to lose any more of their friends. If the decide not to give Mike Hamilton the job, the other name I have heard as a second choice would be Constable Wayne McDaniel. This would be just as shady of a pick because the constable just retired and the county appointed his replacement before an election for constable (Wayne McDaniel was also appointed when he first became constable a decade ago). Why can't people just finish their term so that there is a fair election to replace them when they do not run again? Does anyone new get elected anymore or does everyone just retire and appoint one of their friends to take the place? My word.... (Wayne McDaniel has responded that he thought about being commissioner but has decided not to because he wants to run for Sheriff when Ed Cain retires)

I sure do hope that Bobby Franklin and Hardin County do the right thing. This good old boy, East Texas, backdoor political network has to be broken. Hopefully people will continue to open their eyes in Hardin County and East Texas.