Before today’s post, I want to take a moment to thank our servicemen and veterans, and the families of those who have served. This is my first Memorial Day as the mother of a serviceman. Economic Sphere finished basic training two weeks ago, with graduation the day before Social Sphere’s wedding. So we missed seeing his graduation ceremony, and he missed the wedding. He is now transferred to his assignment at the Defense Language Institute. We’re so proud of him.
Mrs. Economic Sphere was able to spend a few days with us this past weekend for the hometown wedding reception. And she had received videos of Economic Sphere’s graduation and training, so we spent Saturday evening watching that. We were able to identify him on the ceremony video, but in the training video I found myself saying many times, “That could be him…. No, probably not.” He’s a tall white guy, but in a battalion there are many tall white guys with shaved heads and identical camo fatigues. Still, it was impressive to see the intense training they go through, and know that he worked hard and got himself fit for service. Each and every soldier goes through this rigorous training; just for that we thank them for their sacrifice. But, of course, that is only the beginning.
While we think about our son every day, I’m still glad there is a day set aside to honor our soldiers for their service.
Voting Day
The Texas Primary is tomorrow Tuesday, May 29th; two weeks of early voting ended Friday. Usually I like to vote on voting day, but this time I got it done early, on the single weekday when Social Sphere was in town to vote.
In my last post I gave the recommendations on judges that my son Political Sphere and I had come up with after our study. Today I thought I’d fill in a few of the other things on the ballot. Again, this is the Texas GOP Primary.
President: this is settled now, but I have been favoring Mitt Romney for a long time, and I’m glad to add my vote in support of him.
Senator: this is the place held by retiring Kay Bailey Hutchinson. There are nine names on the ballot, but the three most likely are David Dewhurst, Ted Cruz, and Tom Leppert. David Dewhurst has the most name recognition as Lieutenant Governor. He hasn’t been bad in that position, but there have been a few times I felt he was more political than principled, so I was willing to look at the others. I heard Ted Cruz speak at the first tea party rally I attended, a couple of years ago and found him very impressive. I continue to like him. Tom Leppert has a list of endorsers headed by Pastor Jeffress, who attacked Mitt Romney’s church some months back; that was a strong negative for me when the others are already more impressive. So Ted Cruz is my choice. If no candidate gets over 50% of the vote, there will be a runoff of the top two. Runoffs tend to be decided by the most passionate voters, so there is a good chance Cruz could win under those conditions. But if the candidate turns out to be Dewhurst, I will be disappointed but not bereft.
US Representative: We just got redistricted from John Culberson’s district to Ted Poe’s district. Poe is running unopposed, but I like him. He has been particularly strong on border issues.
Railroad Commissioners: This position is actually about handling resources in the state. It is a three-person commission. Two positions are on the ballot. We looked at online information in making our decisions. We are for Christi Craddick and Barry Smitherman.
That’s the end of the statewide races. The rest are local to Harris County or smaller. (Harris County, by the way, is, I believe, the third largest jurisdiction below state level in the US; I think only NYC and LA have more populous single jurisdictions.)
Even though it wasn’t a judge position, I included District Attorney in my last post, because it is important to the judiciary branch. I am for Mike Anderson; you can read reasons here.
County Attorney: this is also related to the judiciary, but I waited until today because the last post was full enough. We chose Leslie Johnson.
Sheriff: I met Carl Pittman and Louis Guthrie at tea party meetings and liked thing about both. Political Sphere and I both liked Louis Guthrie and were leaning toward him. Then there was an ethics question (conflict of interest) that came up, and we were looking into it. In the mean time we got a recommendation for Ruben Monzon from a friend we highly respect, so we looked further at him online information. And our reaction was, “Why didn’t we know about this guy before?” We found him very impressive. I’m afraid Monzon won’t have the name recognition to win, but we are nevertheless hoping he does well enough for a runoff, and we will try to get the word out.
County Tax Assessor-Collector: We are going with incumbent Don Sumners. It is expected here in Harris County that a GOP assessor will help us find the lowest legal taxes we can pay; I like that.
County School Trustee, Position 3, At Large: I heard Richard Johnson speak at a tea party meeting. I didn’t feel a philosophical connection, but some of that could be my dislike for public education in theory (we homeschooled), so I try to have an open mind. But later information about him implied he has been a liberal activist for some time and is on the GOP ballot as a stealth liberal. I don’t know how to prove that either way. His opponent, Political Sphere heard, got the position after being on city council and term-limited out, as a stepping stone to something else, and then was surprised to find out it wasn’t a paid position, and has mostly failed to attend meetings. There is a movement by the other trustees to force him off the board. We voted for neither. Wolfe may be the lesser bad of the two.
County Commissioner, Precinct 4: These are the local positions under the County Judge (not an actual judge, but an executive position). We went with appointed incumbent Jack Cagle.
Constable, Precinct 5: This is a position under County Sheriff. We were redistricted from precinct 4. Al Florido came to our door (the only candidate who has) and recognized that with five voting adults living at this residence, we were a voting bloc. So he came to get the Spherical Model Voting Bloc (actually, he used our name) on his side. It worked. I met him again just outside the voting place, and also looked at his online info. He won our vote.
Harris County Republican Party Chairman: Jared Woodfill has held this position for more than a decade. He is still fairly young. He’s a lawyer, I believe, and handles this as a volunteer position. Overall I think he’s done a good job, and the party uses online connections better all the time. So I’m willing to keep him.
Propositions
Propositions are mainly a way of putting some ideas into the party platform, so they don’t have the force of propositions on a statewide non-partisan ballot. Still, these are a way of expressing support or disapproval for ideas.
Proposition #1: School Choice. We’re in favor of having education dollars follow the child instead of bureaucracy.
Proposition #2: Repealing Obamacare. We’re absolutely in favor. I would even be in favor of nullification, with creative ways of preventing Texas money from going toward it. But I digress.
Proposition #3: Public Prayer. We are in favor of prohibiting government from restricting the content of public prayer. (This is probably related to the interference with prayers at funerals at the veterans memorial cemetery in Houston.)
Proposition #4: Balanced Budget/Controlling Government Growth. We are of course for controlling the budget. But Political Sphere points out that the way this is written, every major capital project would require exemptions. He experienced a similar law in Arizona and found this approach ineffective. So we are against this proposition.
Proposition #5: Redistricting. The proposition reads, “The Texas Legislature should redraw the court-imposed lines for Congress and State legislative districts in its upcoming session in order to remedy inequities.” This is likely to happen regardless. Political Sphere points out that the reason isn’t merely to remedy inequities; it is to remedy having court-imposed lines when it is the legislature’s job to draw the lines. He therefore disagrees with the wording, not the concept. I agree with him, but I didn’t feel so strongly about it that I was against the proposition; I wanted to vote to support the legislature redrawing the lines. So, either way is fine.
So, Happy Memorial Day today! Happy Voting Day Tuesday!
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