Posted on 11/09/2014 6:31:55 AM PST by BobL
The majority of people on this site don't live in Texas and don't follow our politics closely, so this is for them:
Dan Patrick has been a conservative talk show host for at least 20 years in Houston. He recently branched out and has a number of radio stations in other major Texas cities too. He was happy to be like Rush, an outsider, trying to hold Republicans accountable.
But then he got a TASTE of just how corrupt the Republican Party in Texas was (and is, although not nearly as bad after this election). Back maybe 15 or so years ago, he was getting tons of phone calls from listeners seeing their property taxes going through the roof. Our corrupt system had been rigged very effectively - people that work for the county "assess" your property at higher and higher values, and you pay your taxes on that assessment. Now the assessments were probably accurate, as property values, particularly west of Houston were going through the roof, but it was literally driving people broke and driving some from their homes. If it was a homestead, the year-to-year increase of your tax basis was (and still is) limited to 10%, but if the assessment, say doubles in one year, you will get hit with those 10% increases every year, until your tax basis matches the assessment. In other words, your property taxes will have doubled in 7 years without even a vote being cast (i.e., the property tax rate would stay the say and the politicians would just throw up their arms and say there's nothing that they can do about the assessments). A very sweet system for politicians.
So Patrick says that is unfair and people should not be driven from their homes for reasons they cannot control. So he calls for limiting the tax basis to a much more reasonable amount, maybe 3%, or at most 5%. He then organizes two bus loads of listeners (I believe two buses) to travel to Austin to speak to the legislature on the issue. They are PROMISED by the Republican State Senator (don't remember his name, I'll call him Smith) that they will get to speak, at least some of them. Well they sit quietly and politely all day through the hearings and the ONLY PEOPLE that got to speak were lobbyists explaining why we should never change the tax law, and then the hearing concluded. PATRICK WAS LIVID and nearly got himself arrested for screaming from the gallery.
Well, Senator Smith, within a few years, decided to cash-in the favors he handed out and retire, and Senator Smith was from Patrick's district. So Patrick ran for the open seat. Patrick was considered a joke, of course, and there was a well-established State House member that the party establishment was backing (in the Primary). It was a four-way (maybe five-way) race, and Patrick won 70% of the vote (no typo there). He coasted to victory in November 2006, and then easily won re-election in 2010. Lots of people didn't like him in the State Senate, because he simply wasn't a big-government guy - they tried to undercut him. Unfortunately for them, he took names.
In the 2013 session (we only have a single 5 month session every 2 years) the Republican Lt. Governor, David Dewhurst (about as big-government liberal as they come) screwed things up procedurally and set up Wendy Davis for her abortion filibuster, which instantly made her a national star. Patrick was livid about that and decided on the spot that he would run for Dewhurst's job (at the time we didn't know just how much of a drag the national Democrat Party would be for Texas Democrats last week, so we were worried about the state going blue). Patrick then beat Dewhurst earlier this year in Primary, and then in a run-off. So it was Patrick on the ballot for 2014, for Lt. Governor. The Dems were happy, as they considered him so "extreme" he would have trouble winning.
As you guys may know, the Lt. Governor position in Texas is very powerful, possibly equaling that of the governor himself - he runs the State Senate. The Dems had to know that they didn't have a chance in hell of winning the governor race (Abbott is a class guy), but they really, really, needed to stop Patrick from the Lt. Governor. So they figured they'd hit him in his weak spot, with Hispanics, and they ran a well-respected Hispanic State Senator against him. As this article notes, Patrick got nearly 50% of the Hispanic vote anyway, and TROUNCED her. (she's actually not a bad lady, and Patrick and her get along quite well)
So this was the big race that we were watching here in Texas (and the one that worried me the most)...and the Dems got clobbered in it. Patrick has left a string of political bodies in this state getting to the position he's at, so it will be very interesting to see if some of the liberal Republicans again try to take him on.
Next year, our next legislative session, will be a lot of fun to watch, and not just because of Patrick, but because Governor-elect Abbott is also far more conservative than Perry ever was. Can't wait.
Others may want to add to this. My knowledge is somewhat limited as the local papers here don't think that state government is worth reporting on, unless it's some up-and-coming young Democrat politician from San Antonio (i.e., they ran a story on Henry Cisneros virtually every day, until he melted down).
I know the GOP will control both the House and Senate chambers but do you
know the actual numbers GOP/DEM for each chanber? I’ve looked but no results.
Thanks for the post Bob, it was very informative. I made a couple of small donations to the Patrick campaign earlier this year in both the primary and its runoff. I made those donations not knowing that much about Patrick (I’m residing in the freak state of Maryland) other than the fact that RINOs apparently hated him. My support for Patrick was mainly motivated by my disgust at David Dewhurst. It’s good to see what a great patriot Patrick is.
By the way, it is SO sweet to see Dewhurst suffer back to back humiliations at the hands of conservatives — — first by Ted Cruz and this year by Dan Patrick. Texas can look for some good news in the future with the new conservatives elected this year.
“but do you know the actual numbers GOP/DEM for each chamber? I’ve looked but no results.”
Join the club. I’ll try looking, but as I’ve said before, it took less time for Lincoln to find out he’d been elected president than it takes for Texas to figure out the makeup of its legislature.
Bob, thanks for posting this. Very easy to understand and puts a great big smile on this face.
“By the way, it is SO sweet to see Dewhurst suffer back to back humiliations at the hands of conservatives — — first by Ted Cruz and this year by Dan Patrick. Texas can look for some good news in the future with the new conservatives elected this year.”
For sure. I think, but not sure, that Dewhurst was trying to undercut the conservatives in the Senate when he accidentally launched Davis’s filibuster (i.e., Dewhurst was trying to run the clock out on something we wanted). Gotta suck to be him, but on the other hand, no person, not even Cruz, could have done more to help conservatives in this election than Dewhurst did by accident. Love it.
“Bob, thanks for posting this. Very easy to understand and puts a great big smile on this face.”
Happy to do so...it’s a really big deal here and the media is just catching on now.
Does this help?
“After the winners of Tuesday’s elections are sworn in, 63 of the 181 seats — 31 senators and 150 representatives — will be held by Democrats. Seven will be white. In contrast, Republicans will hold 118 seats. Only eight of them are minorities.”
http://www.texastribune.org/2014/11/09/white-democrats-continue-fall-texas-legislature/
LOL, I was thinking of him too. The Houston Chronicle was SICKENING with their fawning coverage when Cisneros became Housing Secretary (under Clinton) - they really wanted to prop him up, to the top. It was as bad as I’ve ever seen journalism, and that is saying A LOT.
Thanks, you led me to a source.
Looks like 98/52 for the Texas House
http://ballotpedia.org/Texas_House_of_Representatives_elections,_2014
...and 20/11 for the State Senate
http://ballotpedia.org/Texas_State_Senate_elections,_2014
A few more seats in each would have been nice, but Patrick is not about to let the 11 Dems in the Senate bottle up legislation. The big variable will be Strauss in the House (assuming the Republicans are stupid enough to re-elect him as leader).
Don’t spend the time. I just thought you may know the numbers.
I’ve looked but can’t details of the 84th Legislature.
I've also heard that the Texas Speaker of the House - Joe Straus is a major RINO. He was elected to office by the Democrats and a couple of gutless Republicans.
What are the chances of Straus getting the boot?
I’ve known Dan for better than 30 years, and no shrinking violet he.. Although he isn’t what I would call a personal friend, that talks daily, but a friend enough that I sponsored his radio show for several years, and entertained him in my home..
I supported his primary election, enthusiastically, against the backroom advise of some high level GOP friends, which pleased the hell out of me.. LOL
“If I am not mistaken, the Lt. Gov. of Texas has a lot of power...maybe more so than the Governor. Is that true? I’ve also heard that the Texas Speaker of the House - Joe Straus is a major RINO. He was elected to office by the Democrats and a couple of gutless Republicans. What are the chances of Straus getting the boot?”
Correct on all counts, the Lt. Governor is very, very powerful in Texas. Republicans wanting to cross swords with Patrick may not like the results. Straus is a FLAMING RINO and needs to be sent packing - he somehow keeps getting that post. I believe at least once he got it by taking 2 dozen Republicans (out of nearly 90) and all 60 Democrats...he has to be stopped, and I suspect that one of Patrick’s first orders of business will be to get the House to STEP UP and remove him...and for those Reps that chose to not follow Patrick on this...watch out.
Nice to hear...the establishment doesn’t like Patrick because they fear he will make them do ‘uncomfortable’ things, and now he has the power to do just that.
Look for Appraisal Caps (i.e., limits on property tax increases) to be among the first things the Senate takes up...and this time the Senators, INCLUDING REPUBLICANS, will have to actually vote on it, finally. Do they stand with homeowners (i.e., voters) to limit tax increases, or do do they stand with school administrators and city councilmen (i.e., their friends) to keep the gravy train rolling?
Patrick with force them to TAKE A STAND...it will be fun.
The implication is that republicans are racist, but they carve out those districts so that minorities can get elected, and it’s almost impossible to change them.
Yep. Same drill everywhere. Another variation of affirmative action.
Your quick vignette provides all I need to know about Dan Patrick, and I will support him whenever possible.
The only industry that has grown faster than oil & gas in Texas under Perry was the Austin state government.
Time to see that change.
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