Bite your tongue, when speaking of Nolan Ryan!
He is supporting arguably the most conservative statewide Democrat in the state, who did us all a fat favor about nine years ago when a hardscrabble school district pitching a court suit to a Texas Supreme Court stacked with DemonRats, including Lloyd Doggett (a Daschle wannabe, now in the U.S. House), threw the state's supplementary education funding formula into a shredder.
Power DemonRats, led by the then Lite Gov (whom Dubya lists as a mentor -- urp!) used the melee to insist that it was time for Texas to roll over for a state income tax. They got a corporate income tax by overhauling the existing franchise tax, but public opposition was firmed up by John Sharp, who scrubbed the budget and proved that the DemonRat leadership was just lying like a rug about not being able to find any more budget cuts -- Sharp came up with hundreds of millions in possible cuts and trade-offs. The bigtime DemonRats hated his guts for it, but he kept the state income-tax wolf away from the door.
Now Sharp is being used as the only white guy near the top of the ticket as they roll out the "new Democratic Party" -- all black and brown at the top. The Rats are relying on Sharp to get the East Texas Piney Woods "yellow dog" Democrats to come out, but they didn't show for the primaries.......the Rats' consultants think the "yellow dogs" are toast, they're staying home for the primaries and the menfolk will break for the GOP in the fall. The 'Rats are running a slackwire act, trying to keep from losing Piney Woods white votes faster than they can machine up race-driven straight-ticket votes in the barrio and in the black community. Hence the endorsement from Ryan, which could be big. If it works.
Having a prominent, popular Republican campaign for one of the last of the Conservative Texas Democrats increases the leverage on Sharp to switch parties at a later date or to at least remain true to Conservative principles.
Sharp is of the Charles Stenholm, Zell Miller sort of mold. One wonders how long it will be before the radical Lefties (who now own the Democratic Party) begin eating their own (esp., Conservative Democrats who stand firm for principles).
The Democratic Party is now devoid of young Conservatives. The last of the line are old and gray. It is a generational problem.
Once again. Excellent analysis of the Texas-RAT problem with Anglo voters.
John Sharp would be a Republican in just about any other state in the union. He's far more conservative than our RINOs in Washington.
But I don't want him as Lt. Governor because of the power he wields over the legislature. We're going to have an all-Republican legislature for the first time since Reconstruction, and the current rules give the Lt. Gov complete power over what bills make it to the floor.
Poop on that.