Voter's Guide for Travis County * July 31, 2012 Republican Primary Election Runoff

Once again not enough people agreed with me to make it an open-and-shut case. We didn't all pick the winner during the primary, so here are the winners for the runoff election.

United States Senator

David Dewhurst - 90% of the time I like him, but he's let the True Conservative banner down enough to let it drag underfoot. Over any Democrat, he is probably a better candidate.

Ted Cruz - Please vote for Ted Cruz on May 29th. To save myself lots of typing I will direct you to this endorsement of Ted Cruz by Lawrence Person's Battleswarm blog. I agree with most of it in regards to not only Cruze but also Dewhurst, Leppert and Addison.

Railroad Commissioner - neither of these were my preference, but it was a field of good candidates. I think I am for Chisum now.

Warren Chisum has been in government for perhaps too long, but he is effective.

Christi Craddick is YOUNG to be holding power, and she has a hint of the crazyeyes.

Railroad Commissioner, Unexpired Term

Barry Smitherman - Please keep Commissioner Smitherman in his position. He was on the Public Utilities Commission and the Governor thought enough of him to put him on the Railroad Commission. He is in, and knows, the job. The experienced commissioners are leaving so there will be enough lack of experience running this show without losing someone who has been doing the job for part of a term already.

Greg Parker - I like him. I want him in public office, which he is. It seems like he wants to be in HIGHER public office, and as he is into energy issues to the RRC is a natural choice. Maybe his campaign is aimed at just being in higher office? He wants it, but does he want this, specifically?

Place 4, Justice, Supreme Court

David Medina - I like him. He's a good conservative, and his pursuits (hunting, fishing, champion martial artist, etc) speak well of him. It's already his seat. Keep Justice Medina in Place 4.

John Devine - Right there on his campaign website he has posted publicly opinions on a whole BUNCH of issues that are certain to come before the Court on which he wants to sit. Unless he's just angling for a bunch of recusals on related cases, this is a huge error of judgement . . . which, for a judge, strikes me as a problem.

District 10, Member, State Board of Education

Tom Maynard - Please vote for Tom Maynard for SBOE District 10. He puts time, time, and time into children to train them in more than just the core subjects. A country boy with good sense who made it big in the national FFA leadership, he has a breadth of experience that goes beyond the classroom. A teacher AND a leader and then some is the impression I get.

Rebecca Osborne - She has a doctoral degree in education administration. You can look for yourself and see where we have gotten with other people "educated" in education. She wants to make a difference and that's great. Let's allow her to continue making a difference in her current classroom. I endorsed her last time (2010) but this time Maynard is my top pick by a slim margin.

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These notes are mostly the same as my Primary Election voter's guide. As before, these notes are for me. I did a LOT of research to get these opinions, I figured I might as well make them available in case they are some use to someone else.