GREG ABBOTT PJMedia Photo
Remember when Vice President Joe Biden, while introducing Missouri State Senator Chuck Graham during a 2008 campaign appearance, said “stand up, Chuck?” Unfortunately, Chuck was confined to a wheelchair. Not to be outdone in “gaffedom” … Texas Democrat gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis responding to a Dallas Morning News article reporting on several discrepancies in her life story, criticized opponent Greg Abbott, suggesting he “hasn’t walked a day in my shoes.” Of course, Texans know that Attorney General Abbott is paralyzed from the waist down and has been in a wheelchair since he was a young man. (See my Jan 21, 2014 post, Who’s out of touch, Wendy?)
San Antonio Express-News, Dec. 16, 2013
The headline says it all – This article bylined by Zeke MacCormack in the San Antonio Express-News last month caught my eye as Texas Democrats have been talking about turning our state blue. “It’s hard to get people to run if they know they’re going to lose just because you’re a Democrat,” said Brenda Harrison, Democratic Party chairwoman of Kerr County in the article. “Democratic candidates are a rarity in the Hill Country,” wrote MacCormack, “and that longstanding political fact was freshly illustrated by party primary filings of those seeking election next November to county posts there.”
“It doesn’t take a genius to realize that Republican candidates have a mighty advantage over Democratic candidates in Kendall County,” wrote Janice Shoemaker in The Boerne Star, adding “that’s the way it has been for as long as any of us can remember …”
Matt McCall – Someone who said she wasn’t going to “sit on her ass” anymore and was going to get out and support candidates she believed could change things in Washington, recently gave me a flyer from the McCall for U.S. Congress campaign. As I reviewed McCall’s positions on issues, it was apparent that he was saying the right things to pique my interest. One thing was missing from the flyer, however, that bothers me. Where was the name of his party? Where was the GOP elephant logo? I visited his website and as I perused his biography and his stance on various issues, I found only a single mention of the Republican Party in a list of calendar appearances. I went to the campaign website of his opponent, U. S. Rep. Lamar Smith, the current office holder in District 21, and found party identification missing there, too.
I’m from the old school with the belief that a candidate’s party affiliation has proven to lead voters in terms of which candidate they should support. Last summer, about the time people were saying the Republican Party needed rebranding, I wrote an op-ed in opposition. In it I pointed out that President Obama’s big government experiment was unsustainable and that by sticking to party principles we can make our brand relevant again. In an op-ed I wrote for the Northwest Weekly, Time for conservatives to stand on principles, I related the story of how New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, who was brought up as a Democrat, learned she was a Republican after reviewing GOP principles. We don’t need two liberal parties. If you are a Republican, say so and stand on its principles.
