Posted on 05/19/2014 6:12:24 PM PDT by cotton1706
The Texas Tribune’s Reeve Hamilton broke word this morning that state Sen. Robert Duncan (R-Lubbock) is stepping down to become the next chancellor of the Texas Tech University System. A special election will be called to fill out Duncan’s term, which ends in 2016.
Duncan, a veteran of the Texas Senate, was no liberal. But he was more moderate than many of his colleagues in the Senate GOP caucus, and he was seen as a force for stability by Senate watchers. In 2013, Texas Monthly named him one of the session’s best legislators—the sixth time it had done so. The magazine raved about his “credibility, calm, and collegiality.” In 2009, it stipulated that “there was hardly an issue—the budget, eminent domain, health care reform, college tuition—that wasn’t improved by his intellectual rigor and deft touch as a mediator.”
Now he’s leaving—and if current trends hold, he may well be replaced by a tea party fire-breather for a 2015 session that will be seriously deficient in “credibility, calm, and collegiality.” Here’s another way to think about that: The Rice University political scientist Mark P. Jones created an ideological pecking order of the Texas Senate after last session. He compared votes and identified the most liberal (relatively speaking) and conservative senators.
There were 19 GOP senators last session. Of the six most moderate, only three will be left next session. It’s possible that there will be only two. Duncan is leaving, and state Sen. Tommy Williams (R-The Woodlands) already left, each to take a university job. State Sen. John Carona, the most moderate according to Jones’ standard, lost a re-election bid.
(Excerpt) Read more at texasobserver.org ...
The written media in Texas are all as liberal as their bretheren.
They know they can’t get their pink tennis shoe baby-killer in so they root for the eGOP in the hopes the liberal agenda will still be carried forward.
And it works more often that we would like.
Yes, yes he was.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
/johnny
The Texas legislature has been held hostage by Dewhurst and his liberal republicans for too long.
/johnny
Good riddance.
Isn't moderate just another word for RINO?
“Now he’s leaving—and if current trends hold, he may well be replaced by a tea party fire-breather for a 2015 session that will be seriously deficient in “credibility, calm, and collegiality.”
Wahhhhhhhhhhh.
Did you see this paragraph?? I don’t know what’s the deal with this two-thirds rule but no democrats should have committee chairs in a body controlled by republicans.
“If he wins next week’s lieutenant governor runoff, Dan Patrick has talked about ending the senate’s two-thirds rule and stripping all committee chairmanships from Democrats, which would turn the chamber, effectively, into his own private club. As if that weren’t enough, the bottom third of Jones’ chart—the small group of plugged-in, moderate Republicans—is fading away. In 2011, Texas Monthly wrote that “legislatures can’t function without members like Robert Duncan.” It looks like we’ll soon find out if that’s true.”
Bite me, you whiny b1tch.
Libs are such sore losers. Especially when they are forced into a fair fight.
Its not a new source its pure Tx media matters propaganda
“Isn’t moderate just another word for RINO?”
Yes, there are any number of iterations: moderate republican, responsible republican, common-sense republican, pragmatic republican, reasonable republican, etc.
Basically, a republican that gives the democrats a vote when they need one, or just for the hell of it.
Translation: He just got a HUGE pay raise.
We need more moderates. That’s the only way that the looney lefties like Obama and Reid can advance their agendas. No one likes lefties, but they love moderates. Moderates give lefties the victories that they can’t get any other way. Go moderates!
“Its not a new source its pure Tx media matters propaganda”
I live in MA. I don’t know these things. As long as he’s really retiring!
Boo hoo, someone’s gravy train might go away!
Dewhurst requires the dems and his liberal republicans to run the legislature.
Lt. Governor is the most powerful elected office in the State of Texas. We need someone besides Dewhurst there.
/johnny
“Lt. Governor is the most powerful elected office in the State of Texas. We need someone besides Dewhurst there.”
That’s a very odd system. But I live in the oldest commonwealth in the country.
Governor can't do much but repel invasions, actually...
/johnny
That’s odd. I have no problem with checks to power, but the pardoning power is intended to check the judiciary. But as we saw with Clinton, it can be abused as well.
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