TX HD-04: Betty Brown Draws A Primary Opponent Who Swerves From Right To Left
[Thanks to Keeping Terrell In The Loop for bringing this to our attention!]
The much-bally-hooed potential primary opponent for State Rep. Betty Brown (R-Terrell) has finally made it official and announced his candidacy.
The opponent, of course, is Wade Gent, who ran against Brown and lost the ‘06 primary.
The interesting thing about Gent, however, is that he’s trying to simultaneously run to the left and right of Brown.
Like some kind of hybrid zebra, Gent is running against Tom Craddick and the “far right wing” of the party while supporting the far right wing’s proposal to repeal all property taxes in favor of an expanded sales tax:
Gent said he favors abolishing the school property tax in favor of a broad sales tax on nonfood items, a concept supported by the Republican Party of Texas.
[...]
The release called Brown “one of a handful of legislators loyal to controversial Speaker Tom Craddick,” who “previously criticized what she called the Austin insider, and signed a written pledge to serve only four terms as state representative.”
[...]
In May, Craddick refused to allow a bipartisan vote that could have replaced him as speaker. The move, Gent said, alienated him from many Republicans who felt he had overstepped his authority.
“Ms. Brown is playing a game of Simon Says on our nickel and Tom Craddick is Simon,” gent said. “Whatever Simon says, Betty Brown does.”
I’m wondering if Republicans are as confused as I am about Gent. It seems pretty hard to run against Craddick but support the Texas Conservative Coalition’s John Colyandro proposal of abolishing the property tax at the same time, since Craddick is the uber-Conservative darling of Texas.
Written by Vince Leibowitz
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I read about him last week and thought the same thing. I’ve got a copy of his press release which I can’t find online, but there was some kooky stuff he said. The sales tax bit goes on even more:
Illegal immigrants and drug dealers whose children fill our schools but who pay no school tax under the current system would be included for the first time under my plan.
WTF. Ignoring the whole “illegals don’t pay taxes” bit, did he really just lump immigrants in with drug dealers? Not to defend drug dealers, but where is the study that shows drug dealers don’t pay taxes? Why is he attacking their children?
He was a strong education candidate 2 years ago, and he came really close to knocking out Betty Brown. However, in a presidential primary year you won’t be getting crossover votes from moderates, independents and Democrats in the Republican primary (the way Parent PAC succeeded so much), so I can see why he took a sharp turn to the right. It’s disappointing though, and I’m not sure it’s physically possible to beat Betty Brown in a race to the right.