My understanding is that, in the special session that was called by Gov Perry, David Dewhurst was the driving factor in preventing an affirmative vote on combating illegal immigration and illegal immigrant "rights" in the legislature (along the lines of the Arizona laws). Now, I will grant you that I got most of my information pertaining to this either here on FR or on other conservative websites on the net.
Can you explain to me how a self-described conservative like David Dewhurst could use his position .. and, yes, I understand that the LT GOV is probably one of the most, if not the most, powerful position in Texas government .. to prevent such anti-illegal immigration laws?
As I said, I am asking this question for any additional information that you can provide. Over the years, in the past, I have voted for David Dewhurst for various positions. In this situation, I am inclined to go with Cruz, because of the special session fiasco that David Dewhurst appeared to be responsible for and because of the endorsements that Cruz has received from other people that I do respect.
The Special Session only addresses topics that the Governor puts on the Agenda. For the 82nd SS, the Lege addressed the budget and the TSA anti groping bill. Both were passed by the Senate.
In the regular session, the Senate and the House passed voter ID, prohibited drivers licenses for illegal aliens, and doubled the funding for border control and security.
“Dewhurst says if Americans from Louisiana or Oklahoma or New Mexico aren’t eligible for the lower tuition, it’s not fair to give the break to non-citizens.”
http://www.ketknbc.com/news/lt-governor-david-dewhurst-breaks-with-perry-on-illegal-immigrant-tuition.
Dewhurst said he favored a “liberal immigration policy” that allows needed workers to flow into the United States legally. But, he added later, he does not favor offering citizenship to those who entered the country illegally.
http://www.epcounty.com/judge/StopTalking.htm
I do apologize for taking so long to respond to your post, especially because you are a voter in the Texas primary and instead I have been tied in knots for days wasting all my free time countering the bullsh** posts out-of-state Progressives who know nothing of Texas and Texas politics.
I was scrolling through the thread, which I am still using to get through to well-meaning conservative people who have bought into the Cruz campaign’s very clever attack strategy of deception and mischaracterization of David Dewhurst’s record and positions on the issues, when I came across your post and noticed your concerns on the Cruz’s attacks on Dewhurst via the immigration issue had not been answered.
I might first mention that “hocndoc” capably refuted in his Post #63 in this thread the false accusation by the Cruz campaign that Dewhurst is pro-tax increase. Please check that post out before you make up your mind who to vote for next Tuesday. And I might also mention that Dewhurst pushed through the best pro-life measure that it is possible to have pass legal muster, under the present Roe v Wade structure we operate under, and that is the new Texas sonogram law.
But as to your concern about Dewhurst’s record regarding your determining issue - immigration, and just to remind, I will quote your post, then post my response”
“Okay, I do have a question for y’all, and I would like to get your input because this pertains to a very important issue .. in fact, the deciding one .. determining where my vote will go:
My understanding is that, in the special session that was called by Gov Perry, David Dewhurst was the driving factor in preventing an affirmative vote on combating illegal immigration and illegal immigrant “rights” in the legislature (along the lines of the Arizona laws). Now, I will grant you that I got most of my information pertaining to this either here on FR or on other conservative websites on the net.
Can you explain to me how a self-described conservative like David Dewhurst could use his position .. and, yes, I understand that the LT GOV is probably one of the most, if not the most, powerful position in Texas government .. to prevent such anti-illegal immigration laws?
As I said, I am asking this question for any additional information that you can provide. Over the years, in the past, I have voted for David Dewhurst for various positions. In this situation, I am inclined to go with Cruz, because of the special session fiasco that David Dewhurst appeared to be responsible for and because of the endorsements that Cruz has received from other people that I do respect.”
Governor Rick Perry (who has sole discretion as to the agenda in a special session) called the special session last summer to address the most important issues not completed during the regular session. Obviously, the most important was passage of the budget (which of course contained several varying controversial matters including defunding planned parenthood, and several different issues related to the rainy-day fund and education, and health care), redistricting, and laws concerning Texas Windstorm Insurace Association. All three groupings of issues were dealt with well during the special session.
Here is a link to a discussion of the special session issues -
http://www.texastribune.org/texas-legislature/82nd-legislative-session/the-final-push-a-special-session-update-/
Contrary to what the Cruz campaign says, David Dewhurst has NOT used his position .. to prevent such anti-illegal immigration laws.
Regarding your concern on illegal immigration, there is no one stronger on that issue than David Dewhurst. There were two controversial issues in that special session that Dewhurst’s political opponents have been trying to use to bash him and that was what measures the State of Texas can take to control illegal immigration since the Federal Government will not do its job, and what the State of Texas can do to control the misbehavior of Federal Government gropers at Texas Airports. A good, although not perfect, discussion of those issues is in the link I provided, but they do address your concerns that David Dewhurst is somehow on the wrong side of those issues. Our State Attorney General’s office currently has its hands full fighting the Federal Government on the redistricting, voter ID, Obamacare, the EPA, education and health and unemployment funding and a host of other issues. We need to see how the Arizona Laws fare before the Supreme Court before we pass Arizona-style immigration control laws in our state. David Dewhurst meanwhile has pushed through the Senate what he could legally do right now on immigration, namely increasing funding for border security on the state level by $400 million, committing those funds to strategic regions which has resulted in a drastic reduction in crime on our side of the border in those communities; he got legislation passed creating tougher penalties for illegal alien smuggling - in short he has actively done all that it is possible to do under current Federal Law, and when the Supreme Court rules, I sure the State of Texas will be doing everything it is allowed to do by the Federal Government under the supremacy clause to protect itself.
I just hope that by then Lt. Governor Dewhurst is in a position to defend the interests of State of Texas from inside the the U.S. Senate.
Thanks for your interest, and I hope you do decide to vote for the proven conservative David Dewhurst instead of risking all on a load of campaign promises.