Texas Politics

Two stories today on illegal immigration. First, the Statesman has a report about state Sen. Dan Patrick and Rep. Frank Corte, Jr.'s request to the Attorney General to issue an opinion on the policies of "sanctuary cities" (like Austin) that restrict the ability of local police to enforce immigration laws. Cities like Austin argue that police should be focused on crime, not immigration. Entering the country illegally is a crime.

Also, the Travis Monitor reports on the upcoming state house district 50 race between Democrat incumbent Mark Strama and Republican challenger Jerry Mikus. North Austin conservatives will be interested to know that their representative voted in favor of giving illegal immigrants welfare.

District 50 state rep. and uber-liberal Mark Strama extolled the virtues of the Democrats' "Drill nowhere. Drill never. Pay more" energy plan last at the Travis County Democratic Issues Policy Forum.

Sticking to the party talking points, Strama repeated the asinine "we can't drill our way out" meme (maybe not, but more drilling would certainly move us further toward energy independence than sitting on our hands) and claimed that even Republican T. Boone Pickens agrees. Blue Dot Blues has the real story on T. Boone's plan and it ain't altruism.

Predictably, Strama blamed Republicans for "making families suffer" because of their energy policy, but neglected to point out the fact that gas prices have risen 74% since the Democrats took control of congress.

TAB wants tougher accountability system:

The Texas school accountability system is not doing a very good job holding schools accountable, Texas Association of Business president Bill Hammond said at a news conference Thursday.

“We can’t have a first-rate education system in Texas with a second-rate accountability system,” Hammond said.

He took issue with the recent decision by Education Commissioner Robert Scott to give school districts another one-year reprieve on tougher dropout rules. That decision kept some districts being labeled academically unacceptable.

And the standards are too low, said Hammond, adding that schools can be deemed “academically acceptable” if only 50 percent of their students pass math.

Texas businesses — Hammond’s membership — are the ultimate consumers of the Texas education system’s product and they are finding the product lacking, he said.

Texas' school accountability system is abysmal. But of course, it's the same tired reprieve from school bureaucrats:

At a school finance summit organized by Scott, superintendents complained that the state is ratcheting up the performance standards but not given the districts the resources to improve the schools.

We've been going through this song and dance with school districts for decades. The people demand better performance, the school whine about money. We give them more money and they continue to perform poorly (or in many cases, perform worse) and whine for more money.

Per student spending in Texas has nearly doubled in the last ten years. The message is clear: more money is not the answer.

Texas Libertarian Party Executive Director Wes Benedict wants Republicans to hand over participant list for the 2008 precinct conventions, but it seems nobody's home at the Travis County Republican Party headquarters.

Libertarians' emails and phone calls requesting the lists have gone unanswered since April. Benedict plans to visit the TCRP office again on Monday to repeat the request in person.

Benedict says the precinct documents are public record, "The Texas Election Code specifies that all documents filed with and retained by political parties are public information, with several exceptions. An attorney with the Texas Secretary of State's office has told us that the copies of the precinct convention lists are public information, and that members of the public are entitled to make copies of that information."

Why do the Libertarians want the Republican's precinct lists?

"We know that many of the people who attended the Travis County Republican precinct conventions are Ron Paul supporters. We would like to contact them and invite them to join and support the Libertarian Party. The Republican Party has repeatedly shown them nothing but disrespect and hostility," Benedict said.

My advice? Give them the lists and pronto.

Blue Dot Blues alerts us of a MoveOn.org stunt to deliver a "petition" to Congressman Michael McCaul's office today at noon opposing off-shore drilling. Liberals are watching what's happening with the Don't Go revolt and they're getting worried. Not only are conservatives beginning to embrace and make effective use of social networking technologies once the exclusive domain of the left, domestic drilling has real traction with voters.

Update: Voice in the Wilderness is on it.

Close races and Republican dissatisfaction are lending Libertarians new-found clout.

Libertarians meet with speaker's staff:

Libertarians continue to enjoy overtures from Republicans who, at least in some circles, worry that third-party candidates could be a factor in close races this fall.

Just days after ex-state Rep. Suzanna Hupp, R-Lampasas, urged Libertarians to quit key races, three members of Speaker Tom Craddick’s staff met Monday afternoon with Libertarian leaders.

In the past, Libertarian candidates might only get 5 percent of the vote, but that’s enough to determine the winner in a close legislative contest.

With the House closely split between Republicans and Democrats, a handful of legislative races could affect the partisan outcome and perhaps Craddick’s chances to remain speaker.

No doubt a glimpse of things to come for Austin drivers, North Texas officials will ask the legislature to approve a huge hike in vehicle registration fees to pay for expansion of light rail. And to rub a little salt in the wound, they're calling it a "user" tax:

While it is being billed as a "user tax," it is nothing of the kind, because it would fund a rail system, not roads. A user tax would be if rail riders paid the cost of the system, but because the costs of rail almost always exceed the benefits, proponents seek to shift the cost to non-users. While it is true that constructing rail requires an enormous initial outlay, that also applies to toll roads, but whether or not one agrees with the policy, the private sector is willing to invest in them because the benefits are proven to exceed the costs over the long haul.

Currently, the only cities in the world where a rail system operates profitably are Tokyo and Hong Kong, and they each have at least 10 times the population density of the Metroplex.

In the article, rail advocates also describe the possibly triple-digit increase in the vehicle registration as a "sin tax," but even someone who purchases a hybrid car would pay and many people are trading in their cars for more fuel efficient vehicles, but they would be punished by this tax.

Wendell Cox, a leading expert on transportation policy, has noted, "The annual cost per new rider of virtually every light rail line built here in the past 20 years has been more than the annual cost of leasing each new commuter a new car. Light rail has no part to play in a transport system, because of its expense. Rapid transit busways virtually equal light rail capacity, at a fraction of the cost."

Suzanna Hupp, formerly state rep for District 54, made calls to three Libertarian candidates in close House races asking them to drop out. Texas Libertarian Party Executive Director Wes Benedict encouraged the candidates to stand their ground and make the Republicans "earn those votes". Good advice.

I don't want to see Democrats win in these districts any more than Hupp does, but her stunt was ill-advised, unhelpful and downright lame. Republicans are in trouble all over the country for good reason: they've stopped governing as conservatives. You can't turn your back on the people who elected you and not expect there to be fallout.

After flip-flopping on ANWR...

... Noriega just can't seem to figure this whole energy policy thing out. From the Austin Chronicle:

You know those kids' puzzles where you have to find the four or five differences between two nearly identical cartoons? That's how Texas voters might feel as they try to distinguish between the energy plans of our incumbent junior U.S. senator, Republican John Cornyn, and his Democratic challenger, state Rep. Rick Noriega of Houston.

Noriega seems to be going for the "me too" plan. Take Cornyn's energy plan and throw in a silly threat to sue OPEC. Yeah, that'll show 'em.

Well, I just got home from the second day of the Defending the American Dream Summit (see previous post).

Yesterday's session wrapped up with up with a speech from Barry Goldwater, Jr. and a keynote address from Robert "The Prince of Darkness" Novak. Novak was hilarious. He had a few clear messages for disillusioned Republicans and Ron Paul holdouts:

First, to those worried about the 2008 election or resigned to an Obama win - don't be so sure - and you should really be worried about 2010 anyway. That's when Democrats will get a big chance to change the rules of the game through redistricting. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

To those still holding out for a dark horse candidate to come in at the convention to replace McCain: forget it. The convention is just an "informercial" and holding on to your McCain hate is just helping the left.

And for the Ron Paul fans in attendence, "Now don't applause -- I really like Ron Paul..." (prompting wild applause of course from a few tables) "...where he is." Heh.

Day 2 of the conference featured a general session with speakers including former Maryland Lt. Governor and GOPAC Chairman Michael Steele, author and economist Grover Norquist, John Fund and Steve Moore of The Wall Street Journal, Congressman John Carter, RedState's Erick Erickson, Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Michael Williams (who was awesome by the way -- look for this guy running for congress or senate some day), author/blogger Michelle Malkin of HotAir.com and others.

The breakout sessions turned the focus of the conference to specific issues and actions attendees can take online to make a difference. Panel sessions included topics such taxes and government funding, government spending, education reform, global warming hysteria, taxpayer rights, new media vs. old media and more.

I had to duck out a little early, but I was able to attend a panel session with Steve Moore, Galveston Tax-Assessor Collector Cheryl Johnson, David Hartman of the Lone Star Foundation and Scott Hodge of the Tax Foundation on taxes, government funding and monetary policy. The session was only an hour long, but information dense. Some of the highlights:

• Texas is now the #1 state for corporate headquarters in the nation. This is due to our favorable business taxation and regulation climate (although we still have work to do - i.e. the business margins tax).
• Switching to an acquisition-value based property tax appraisal system as advocated by Cheryl Johnson could save millions and keep property taxes low at the same time.
• Countries all over the world are lowering their corporate taxes to be more competitive while politicians in the US call for raisign them (Barack Obama being one prominent).
• The US has the 2nd highest corporate tax rate in the world amng industrialized nations just behind Japana - which, along with most others, is considering lowering theirs.
• All 50 US states impose higher corporate taxes than France.
• Ireland's economic success (the "Celtic Tiger") is directly tied to lowering their corporate tax rate.

I took about three pages of notes in this session alone. By the time it was over, I think I was getting a little information overload, but overall I learned a lot at the conference, met quite a few great people and fellow center/right bloggers, but most important, I got inspired to take action. Significant developments are already in progress that I'm really excited to be a part of.

The next Defending the Dream summit will be held in Washington, DC on October 10-11. Daphne and I had such a great time last night and today, we're considering a trip to DC.

Update: Travis at Voice in the Wilderness has been liveblogging the whole conference with pretty detailed notes from the sessions.