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Tea Parties on Fire in Texas!

By: Drew Ryun (Diary)  |  December 16th, 2010 at 03:53 PM  | 

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From the diaries by Erick

For those of you watching the race for Speaker of the House in Texas, this week saw some fantastic events where local tea party groups gathered in front of their State Rep’s offices and asked them to vote for Ken Paxton over Joe Straus. I love it. This is what our democratic republic is built on-the freedom of assembly and the right to petition our elected officials.

The Lake Fork Tea Party Patriots have a great write-up on the events here.

Some of my favorite parts of the story: Protesters at State Representative Angie Chen-Button’s office arrived to find a note on the door that read, “Sorry we missed you, we will return at 1:30PM” (this after the tea party groups sent out a press release saying they would be at state rep’s offices on December 13th from 12-1pm). State Representative Linda Harper-Brown, elected by the hard work of many tea party members, didn’t even show up at her office on December 13th, completely avoiding what has to be an awkward situation for her-”Do I go with the folks that got me elected or do I go with Joe Straus, who had his allies send me over $200k in campaign contributions this fall?” Linked to the latter question is the timing as to when Harper-Brown’s pledge card in support of Straus was mailed.

Yet the best message delivered was the one left on the door of State Representative Burt Solomon who locked his office doors and turned the lights off: “Burt, 2012 Primaries are in 14 months!”

The tide is turning, slowly but surely, here in Texas. As Ken Paxton quietly picks up more and more support, Straus’ camp is panicking, not just at the loss of support but for the scenario Straus could be facing very soon-a secret ballot caucus to decide who Republicans will support on the floor before the full chamber votes.

Here is an updated list for those of you here in Texas of State Representatives who need a call telling them to support Ken Paxton for Speaker. The message left on Burt Solomon’s door must be delivered to them if they stick with Joe Straus: the 2012 primaries are just around the corner.

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  • fpete13527

    Way to go Texas Tea Party.

    My friends in San Antonio, Dallas, Houston and Austin are ALL in agreement that PAxton needs to be the Speaker and ABSOLUTELY NOT Straus.

    Look no further than what is happening right now in DC to be further clear about the damage that even a few RINO’s (like Straus) can do.
    LEt alone what a RINO in a leadership position can do.

    Keep fighting.

  • earlgrey

    I feel like we are at war and right now it is coming at us so fast. Thanks for posting this. I really hope tea party wins.

  • http://www.buckforcolorado.com bjwilson83

    Tea Parties tasted victory in 2010, but we’ve only just begun to fight.

  • jimbo51

    It seems that Joe Strauss was the FIRST to call her election night to congratulate her. He’s been laying on the charm ever since. See my post for more info.

  • E Pluribus Unum

    He would have been first, if it was possible to jump over the crowd beating down the door of Paxton, to support the legitimate conservative.

  • itrytobenice

    Hold their feet to the fire, Texans. Hold them there until you melt their soles if you have to, but don’t let up on them.

  • zuckey6

    The Democrats are about to pass an omibus spendingspending bill which, among other things, will complete the funding of Obamacare. This bill will make the repealling of Obamacaer nearlt imposible. Could it still be done and if so, how?

  • oneconservative

    TEA Parties, Republicans, Conservatives, it may be time to move to Texas. After all, the state will pick up another 3 or 4 congressional seats after the 2010 census.

    We live in Illinois (please, don’t hold it against me). The state is nearly bankrupt and the governor wants to raise taxes. High taxes… no growth…. what’s there to be upset about?

  • http://impudent.edublogs.org/ kyle8

    don’t tell anyone else, ok? I like to tell people that Texas is horrible, and they need to stay away. (especially yankees and californicators)

    We got nothing but rednecks, mexicans, armadillos, and rattlesnakes. Nothing to see here, move along.

  • jpintx

    What I have heard/read about Strauss I don’t care for, and I hope he is replaced.

    But in this whole affair lies a very dangerous development, that is the comments by Republican “leaders” and apparently some Tea Party folk that if not anti-semitic, at least border on it. Yes they are quick to backtrack, and claim “I have Jewish friends”, but…….

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/12/09/christian-conservative-replace-jewish-speaker-texan-pols-say/

    If there is a surer way to topple the Tea Party movement than to have religion become a litmus test for support, I surely do not know what it is. And that includes a take over by “Christian Conservatives”.

  • arnold1

    I’ll just keep moving from Southern California into South Carolina. The property tax rates and general quality of life are a tad better than Texas. Won’t be too long before Texas is Californicated. Seen the Dallas/Ft. Worth area lately? That’s why I’m getting out of this bastion of maggot-infested, dope smoking, tree-hugging, environmentalist-whacko shyster lawyers that have run this state into the pits on rails made with unfunded union labor promises. What state in their right mind keeps electing Hamlet’s witches (Pelosi, Boxer, and Feinstein), as well as re-electing a burned out hack from the 70s (Brown)?

  • edintexas

    I didn’t know, nor did I care, what religion Straus might be – other than “Politician”, “Centrist” or “Moderate”. I still don’t care what his religious religion is. If the folks in San Antone want him in the House, that’s fine, but he needs to be gone from the Speaker’s office.

    I’m trying to make that happen, along with other Texans. But I have to be honest that I’m not holding my breath it will happen. I WILL be prepared to support primary challengers to those who vote for Straus to be Speaker (I suspect Lance Gooden will be one, sadly for the Conservatives in District 4 where he ran claiming he was more conservative than Betty Brown. He might turn out to be so, but he’s starting off on the wrong foot in supporting Straus.

  • http://travismonitor.blogspot.com Freedoms Truth

    that the candidates have distanced themselves from, is not at all the main focus of discussion or campaign, and which does not really represent “anti-semitism”.

    The Straus team has played the victim card a bit too much over this. Straus was questioned on his conservative credentials, and part of the evidence touted was his being in a synagogue whose rabbi gave money to Planned Parenthood and which presided over gay ‘wedding’ ceremonies. His Jewish faith wasn’t questioned, what has been consistently questioned is the depth of his conservative credientials and convictions.

    It is true that the authors of the emails are Christian conservatives, and they admit wanting to advance Christian conservatism, but they are not connected with other candidates campaigns and everyone involved has stated that religion is not and should not be a litmus test.

    It’s interesting how the Democrats call the Republican party the racists, yet all the statewide blacks elected in Texas are Republican and we have had a number of new hispanic elected Republican State Reps etc. In DC, we have a Jewish majority leader in Eric Cantor. And Joe Straus was a Speaker without his religion being an issue. Nor is it now.

  • rubicon01

    Without a doubt, the Tea Party movement is having a seriously positive effect on politicians. I LOVE it!
    Latest word from ‘the swamp’ is Omnibus Budget Legislation is dead & a continuing funding bill has been proposed. Inclusion of the ObamaCare funding in the Omnibus was a despicable deed attempting to backdoor hobble the newly elected Congress from de-funding that legislation. This was dirty politics, in the extreme, & proves to the people their decisions to dump that many House members was right on! There should be no mention of ObamaCare in the continuing resolution. If there is, we’ve all been seriously had!
    Go for it Texas. Get a Speaker in your House that actually represents conservatives & the best interests of the people of the state!