Dan Patrick's Victory in Texas (vanity)

(none) | Nov 9, 2014 | (self)

[BobL]

The majority of people on this site don't live in Texas and don't follow our politics closely, so this is for them:

Dan Patrick has been a conservative talk show host for at least 20 years in Houston. He recently branched out and has a number of radio stations in other major Texas cities too. He was happy to be like Rush, an outsider, trying to hold Republicans accountable.

But then he got a TASTE of just how corrupt the Republican Party in Texas was (and is, although not nearly as bad after this election). Back maybe 15 or so years ago, he was getting tons of phone calls from listeners seeing their property taxes going through the roof. Our corrupt system had been rigged very effectively - people that work for the county "assess" your property at higher and higher values, and you pay your taxes on that assessment. Now the assessments were probably accurate, as property values, particularly west of Houston were going through the roof, but it was literally driving people broke and driving some from their homes. If it was a homestead, the year-to-year increase of your tax basis was (and still is) limited to 10%, but if the assessment, say doubles in one year, you will get hit with those 10% increases every year, until your tax basis matches the assessment. In other words, your property taxes will have doubled in 7 years without even a vote being cast (i.e., the property tax rate would stay the say and the politicians would just throw up their arms and say there's nothing that they can do about the assessments). A very sweet system for politicians.

So Patrick says that is unfair and people should not be driven from their homes for reasons they cannot control. So he calls for limiting the tax basis to a much more reasonable amount, maybe 3%, or at most 5%. He then organizes two bus loads of listeners (I believe two buses) to travel to Austin to speak to the legislature on the issue. They are PROMISED by the Republican State Senator (don't remember his name, I'll call him Smith) that they will get to speak, at least some of them. Well they sit quietly and politely all day through the hearings and the ONLY PEOPLE that got to speak were lobbyists explaining why we should never change the tax law, and then the hearing concluded. PATRICK WAS LIVID and nearly got himself arrested for screaming from the gallery.

Well, Senator Smith, within a few years, decided to cash-in the favors he handed out and retire, and Senator Smith was from Patrick's district. So Patrick ran for the open seat. Patrick was considered a joke, of course, and there was a well-established State House member that the party establishment was backing (in the Primary). It was a four-way (maybe five-way) race, and Patrick won 70% of the vote (no typo there). He coasted to victory in November 2006, and then easily won re-election in 2010. Lots of people didn't like him in the State Senate, because he simply wasn't a big-government guy - they tried to undercut him. Unfortunately for them, he took names.

In the 2013 session (we only have a single 5 month session every 2 years) the Republican Lt. Governor, David Dewhurst (about as big-government liberal as they come) screwed things up procedurally and set up Wendy Davis for her abortion filibuster, which instantly made her a national star. Patrick was livid about that and decided on the spot that he would run for Dewhurst's job (at the time we didn't know just how much of a drag the national Democrat Party would be for Texas Democrats last week, so we were worried about the state going blue). Patrick then beat Dewhurst earlier this year in Primary, and then in a run-off. So it was Patrick on the ballot for 2014, for Lt. Governor. The Dems were happy, as they considered him so "extreme" he would have trouble winning.

As you guys may know, the Lt. Governor position in Texas is very powerful, possibly equaling that of the governor himself - he runs the State Senate. The Dems had to know that they didn't have a chance in hell of winning the governor race (Abbott is a class guy), but they really, really, needed to stop Patrick from the Lt. Governor. So they figured they'd hit him in his weak spot, with Hispanics, and they ran a well-respected Hispanic State Senator against him. As this article notes, Patrick got nearly 50% of the Hispanic vote anyway, and TROUNCED her. (she's actually not a bad lady, and Patrick and her get along quite well)

So this was the big race that we were watching here in Texas (and the one that worried me the most)...and the Dems got clobbered in it. Patrick has left a string of political bodies in this state getting to the position he's at, so it will be very interesting to see if some of the liberal Republicans again try to take him on.

Next year, our next legislative session, will be a lot of fun to watch, and not just because of Patrick, but because Governor-elect Abbott is also far more conservative than Perry ever was. Can't wait.

[stevie_d_64]

http://www.ktrh.com/articles/houston-news-121300/dan-patrick-backs-off-open-carry-13194981/

You stupid gun owners need to shut up...

“Don’t you know who I am!”

Funny how the first major campaign promise (lie) to give ALL issues and bills there fair day in the process was a conservative issue...

Oh well... Let the love-fest begin...

And before anyone gets their ruffles in a feather...

I vote for one, and supported both of the two guys that would not have done this...

Patterson and Staples...