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DemocRATliff is officially the biggest RINO in the Lone Star State.

On a slightly unrelated note, I went through each name on the record vote for July 8th's passage of HB3 (the redistricting bill) in the state House to get a list of the bad Republicans and not-entirely-bad Democrats there. Here it is for the record:

DEMOCRATS VOTING YEA:
Luna, Vilma (D-Corpus Christi)
Wilson, Ron (D-Houston)

RINOs VOTING NAY:
Hamilton, Mike “Tuffy” (R-Mauriceville)
Hughes, Bryan (R-Mineola)
Hunter, Bob (R-Abilene)
Jones, Delwin (R-Lubbock)
Miller, Sid (R-Stephenville)

DID NOT VOTE:
Craddick, Tom (R-Midland)(not voting, as is prerogative of Speaker)
Merritt, Tommy (R-Longview){present and not voting)
Oliveira, Rene (D-Brownsville)(absent, excused)
Solis, Jim (D-Harlingen)(absent, excused)
Wolens, Steve (D-Dallas)(absent, excused)

Thus the vote was 83 yeas (88 Republicans - the five RINOs + the two Dems - the two present and not voting = 83) and 62 nays (62 Dems + 5 - 2 - 3 excused absences = 62). I'm guessing "excused" means they weren't in Ardmore.

RINOs VOTING NAY:
Hamilton, Mike “Tuffy” (R-Mauriceville)
Hughes, Bryan (R-Mineola)
Hunter, Bob (R-Abilene)
Jones, Delwin (R-Lubbock)
Miller, Sid (R-Stephenville)

You are using RINO very liberally here. I personally know Representative Hughes and he is no RINO. Same with Sid Miller and Delwin Jones. People are not elected to represent the party, but to represent their constitutients and what is best for them. In Rep. Hughes case, the majority of his constituients in his district would have been represented by someone from Dallas. He got on the floor of the House and said he wanted to vote for redistricting but could not because it was bad for his district. The difference between Rep. Hughes and Sen. Ratliff is that Ratliff is a true RINO. He proudly says the only reason he is a Republican is because he votes Republican 51% of the time. Just because someone voted against redistricting, that doesn't make the a democrat lapdog.