It appears that just maybe some people don’t think a couple hundred thousand people in Iowa and New Hampshire should control the electoral destiny of this nation.  And, while none of the candidate’s are perfect, each should be looked at clear-eyed, without the blinders the media and the political establishment in the Northeast would have us wear.  The presidential primary is only over if we want those two elite groups running things for us.

He has one individual who had the courage to run against this long-time incumbent; Bob Hall.  And there is no question of Bob Hall’s commitment to fiscal responsibility, as any conservative from the Dallas area out through East Texas.  Bob has been extremely active in the Tea Party movement, his calm and knowledgeable voice often heard at meetings, rallies and candidate forums.  A retired Air zForce veteren and aerospace engineer, the ‘Right’ Bob has the experience wisdom, and principles desperately needed in the Texas Senate.  So the North Texas Tea Party is proud to TeaApprove Bob Hall for Texas State Senate, District 2.

The North Texas Tea Party enthusiastically TeaApproves Ken Paxton for the State Senate, District 8

It will be a tough year to vet candidates for ‘TeaApproval‘; now that the Tea Parties have proven to have influence, EVERYONE will be persuasive in proclaiming they are the best champion of our 5 Principles.  But the bar will be higher this year; more emphasis will be placed on nonverbal information, on associations and actions- as well as will and determination to take on how ‘things are done’, which we realize is a major part of the inability to create REAL change. Emphasis will also be placed on an understanding of the office sought and how things function in the realm the office resides in.  Lastly , considerable consideration of candidate viability and whether a candidate has a winnable game plan in terms of strategy, organization, potential resources, and timely appplication of each.

The process is ongoing, but will be limited: there are a LOT of open seats (as the old hands run for the hills to avoid dealing with the mess they left behind) and therefore a LOT MORE candidates.  Only contested races will be considered this time around and the ones either most relevant or with the most impact.  Indeed, this year, the results of the process will not be set in stone, in many cases of non-officeholders, until all the associations (and their influence through campaign financing) are reviewed.

Naturally, additional candidates may appear or candidates may shift races or even drop out dependent on the finalized districts.  However, being more than one TeaApproval is possible in any given race (but efforts will be made to limit it this cycle), it changes nothing of the determination we will make before the districts are finalized.

A few determinations will be ‘slam-dunks’ and we’ll be announcing those quickly, with a little of the reasoning behind them.

Check back at this site for the announcements! (Or like our Facebook page to track it there)

A small group of us gathered to protest his message prior to his arrival.  And what we lacked in numbers, we made up with message:  CL Bryant was the finale but had the strongest message:

Anita Moncrief, who left Acorn in disgust, had a few words to say:

And a young lady named Adryana Boyne presented a Hispanic view:

And she also had a message for Spanish speakers:

And in a pinnacle of irony; They required IDs for anybody entering the building to hear Holder’s speech.

Mr. Fast-and-Furious, whose department is fighting Voter ID and our redistricting maps, cannot go uncontested in this unprecedented and historic misuse of power.  There will be a protest to contest this; the information is below.  We realize it is a weekday, but if you possibly can be there, please attend.  THIS IS IMPORTANT!  We need to have a strong turnout, primarily to show our state officials state that we strongly support their fight for Voter ID; if we don’t, they just might figure throwing in the towel is easier- and less politically costly.

If interested in a carpool, send an email here and we’ll try to put one together.

]]> http://northtexasteaparty.org/2011/12/10/eric-holder-coming-to-texas-to-politicize-the-office-of-ag/feed/ 1 Mike O holderrally http://northtexasteaparty.org/2011/12/10/redistricting-news-north-texas/ http://northtexasteaparty.org/2011/12/10/redistricting-news-north-texas/#comments Sat, 10 Dec 2011 03:45:03 +0000 Mike O http://northtexasteaparty.org/?p=4262 ]]> UPDATE:  The GOP and the Democrats have agreed to push ALL the Primaries back to April 3rd and, this afternoon, the courts signed off on it.  Deadline for filing is December 19th at 6pm.  That filing deadline will be re-opened IF the courts draw different districts.

This will be a placeholder for now about additional news on the legislative districts relevant to North Texas.  For now, Here’s the news.

The Supreme Court has voided the Maps drawn by two San Antonio judges (they couldn’t even get agreement from the third judge on the panel).  They have NOT restored the maps the legislature came up with because that’s under consideration in another court. So right now, no one knows what the districts for Congress, State Senate or Stare Representative look like.  But the filing deadline has not yet been advanced.  It’s a royal mess, but will likely result in a decision for less judicial interference in the future.  Most likely, it will result in a split primary: Congressional, State Senate and State Representative races put off until May 22, the presidential and other primaries would stay on their March 6th date.

More information here from Scotusblog

Here is the Texas Tribune writeup

As a side note, the Supreme Court probably felt they HAD to intervene since the Judicial maps was less involved in enhancing minority representation than in enhancing Democrat representation.  Doubling up an African-American and assuring that a Hispanic lost his potential for re-election because they belonged to the wrong Party (James White and Aaron Pena), at the same time restoring winnable district to Anglo Democrats like State Senator Davis and Congressman Lloyd Doggett, could not possibly be justified.under the Civil Rights Act.

For the third month, we have a third leader on the presidential end. Gingrich now comes out on top, supplanting Cain from last month and Perry from the month before.

On the U.S Senate side, only Cruz has significant positive support (while Dewhurst continues to have negative ranking).

For the first time, we included some state offices that have contested primaries.  In the case of the Texas House of Representatives District 66 race (Plano, East of Independence), the race itself change just hours after the survey was sent out.  Incumbent Jerry Madden announced he would be retiring and not in the running.  The other two announced candidates- Jon Cole and Jeff Leach- have not locked up significant support yet within the polled membership; the jury is still out on that race among the North Texas Tea Party membership.

That is NOT the case in the State Senate District 8 race, that pits Rep. Ken Paxton and Scott O’Grady.  There is VERY strong support for Ken, due to his historical cionservatism and courage to stand for the Speakership this last session.  Over 90% of support or leaners are in Ken’s camp.

We will continue to poll as appropriate and will add additional races as appropriate.

• Scott O’Grady – candidate State Senate, District 8
• Scott Turner – candidate, State House, District 33
• Jon Cole – candidate, State House, District 67
• Jeff Leach – candidate, State House, District 67
• Scott Sanford – candidate, State House, District 70

Plus campaign spokespeople for a couple of  candidates that had prior commitments:

• Bracy Wilson (candidate, State House, District 70)
• Ken Paxton (candidate State Senate, District 8 )

As well as several judicial candidates.

Prior to the Candidates introductions and Q&A, one of the likely issues state legislators will be dealing with was discussed:  The fact that ‘establishment’ forces (Joe Straus and his buddies) are laying the groundwork for a supposed solution to Texas budget ills- gambling!  Most likely several more racetracks (properties are geared up for it in San Antonio, Austin and Irving, owned by some of Joe’s big-money people); and they’ll have slot machines.  Casinos may not be considered initially, but one could expect them to follow shortly.

Moral considerations aside, no state has ever started up high-stakes gambling with a substantial amount of new corruption coming in right along with it.  And Joe Straus and his minions are working hard to assure the trough gets set up.  During this last session, they polled the legislators, looking ito see if they had enough votes (they asked representative who said they were opposed whether that was a ‘hard no’ or a ‘soft no’; they found they were in the low to mid 90s adding in the ‘soft nos’, they need 100.  So the push is on to eliminate enough of the ‘hard nos’:  In redistricting, they tore apart Wayne Christian’s district in East Texas and fielded a popular mayor, while in Lufkin, ‘Tuffy’ Hamilton moved into James White’s district- a ‘hard no’  freshman they hope to take out.

Locally, it appears that Jerry Madden’s decision to retire caught some be surprise.  There seems to be some sort of scramble to come up with an ‘establishment’ candidate, with neither declared candidate (Jon Cole or Jeff Leach) falling into that category- yet.  We’ll see what the race really looks like by next month.  However pops up, count on them being less anti-gambling than Jerry was.

The North Texas Tea Party Vetting committee is starting to roll and will be quite active in December.  The TeaApproved process will be rolling once again.  Also, we have a different team working on vetting some of the local judicial candidates. Look for announcements about both in the future.

The meeting will begin with a brief description of what we’ve discovered is up in Austin (Many will be surprised and shocked), followed by the candidates giving individual 3 minute introductions and fielding questions individually.  It will NOT be a candidate forum, nor will it be a game of ‘gotcha’; every candidate is to discuss what they themselves bring to the table.