In the last post, part I, I covered the statewide races. I don’t
think I mentioned, although it’s probably obvious, I’m only dealing with the
Republican Primary, covering races on my ballot here in Harris County (in and
around Houston). In this part II I’ll cover the Congressional District 2 race,
where nine candidates are running to replace retiring Congressman Ted Poe. I’ll
do a part III tomorrow to cover the judicial races and anything else on the ballot.
I’m doing this the long way, covering my thought process, and trying to give some respectful observations about the many candidates. I’m
saving my endorsement for last, so if that’s all you’re interested in, you can just
scroll down to the bottom. Note that, with so many running, we will probably have a runoff election.
Congressional
District 2
It was something of a surprise to me that Congressman Ted
Poe was retiring. He’s old enough to retire, and he has had to fight off
leukemia the past couple of years. But I had pictured him doing fine and
staying forever.
The good news is that we have a deep bench. There are nine
GOP candidates running to be his replacement. That means there will be a runoff
election, so the Primary will really select the top two in this list; it won’t
be over when votes are counted March 6th. In the end, I will support
whoever is the final Primary winner. But I have some definite preferences.
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| CD2 Candidate Forum February 9, 2018, at HCRP Headquarters left to right: Jonny Havens, Dr. John Spiers, Rick Walker, Malcolm Whittaker (not pictured), Kathaleen Wall, Dan Crenshaw, Justin Lurie, David Balaat |
Kevin Roberts http://www.kevinrobertsforcongress.com/
The first in the race, within 24 hours of Ted Poe’s
announcement, was Kevin Roberts. He is a first-term representative of an area
just a bit north of where I live. During legislative sessions I take a group of
people from our local Tea Party to visit local legislative offices to let them
know or opinions on the bills we’re following. We couldn’t visit his office,
because he hadn’t yet set one up. That’s not that unusual, since the first
order of business is the legislative session in Austin, where he has an office.
Valoree Swanson didn’t have an office either. But she had local staff who met
with us at a convenient location. Roberts had no staff, and we had no contact
with him. He was probably adequate as a freshman representative, but not a
standout.
I don’t feel confident that he’s the right replacement for
Poe. But he jumped in early enough to get a lot of the traditional support and
money.
Kathaleen Wall http://www.kathaleenwall.com/
Another front runner is Kathaleen Wall. Her ads are amusing
and probably effective. Except, she had a new ad come out on the Second
Amendment, in which she aims and shoots her rifle, within 24 hours of the
Parkland, Florida, shooting. The liberal media especially made hay of that. It
wasn’t a bad ad for Texas, but the timing was tone deaf.
I looked forward to hearing from her at a candidate forum
February 9th. She gave a decent, but memorized, brief introduction.
And then she excused herself for a prior engagement, and missed anything
extemporaneous.
Keven Roberts also missed that forum; he provided a video.
In his case, it was made clear the forum wasn’t planned until after he had made
this commitment. But it means, since he ran for state representative, I have
not seen him in person.
Wall missed probably the best opportunity to let people know
who she is and what she stands for. She had an additional opportunity this past
Saturday at our Tea Party; she bowed out the night before in favor of working
at the polls. That means she thought she’d do better going to one of several
dozen voting locations to meet people on their way in to vote—typically people
who have already made their decisions—rather than a roomful of active
conservatives doing their due diligence to be informed voters.
I have been sent a number of video clips of her at other
forums, where she does answer extemporaneously, and she stumbles. She
apparently needs to be scripted. It may be that she means the scripted things
she says, but she’s a weak speaker in a strong field.
She does have money, though. I think I’ve received more mail
from her, and heard/seen more ads, than all other candidates. We got so many
pieces of mail from her one day that my husband said, “Nobody who misspends
money like that deserves my vote.” So, she’s a no.
Rick Walker
http://rickwalker.com/
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| Rick Walker |
The other big spender in the race is Rick Walker. He’s a
businessman with a company in 50 countries, and has run worldwide charities.
He’s OK in person, but not stellar. He fumbled on immigration issues when he
met with our Tea Party, maybe just explaining himself wrong. Next to Wall, I’ve
seen the most campaigning from him. If he should win, like I said, I’d support
him. But I think it is only his money that is getting him as much attention as
he’s had.
He did say one thing in the forum I especially liked. He
called it the Ted rule: “If Ted Poe did something, assume it’s right until
proven otherwise.” That does sum up how we in the district feel about our
current congressman.
I like all of the other six better than these three. I want
to give them all their due, so I’ll share my choice last.
Most of the candidates are youngish. But two of them are
closer to my age: Dr. Jon Spiers and Malcolm Whittaker. Both were at the forum
at Harris County Republican Party headquarters and also the Tea Party meeting
last Saturday.
Dr. Jon Spiers (pronounced Spires) is a former heart
surgeon. He served in Desert Storm in the medical corps. An accident followed
by surgery left him unable to perform surgery again, so he went to law school
and became a healthcare attorney, because he had figured out that lawyers and
Congress make the rules about how to practice medicine.
While he seems conservative on other issues, healthcare
reform is his main interest and expertise. He favors completely repealing
Obamacare and replacing it with transparency and reconnecting the doctor and
patient concerning payment.
He thinks we should look at opioid addiction—there were
65,000 drug overdose deaths last year. There was a question at the candidate
forum about downgrading marijuana to a schedule 2 drug, which I don’t in
general approve of. He answered carefully, saying it would be useful to
reschedule the medicinal extracts, such cannabidiol. I’ve wondered why the push
for legalizing “medical marijuana” when extracts like marinol have been useful
for decades. So I appreciated this answer, rather than the libertarian push to
take this first step to legalize a harmful brain-affecting drug.
He was strong on border security. On illegal immigration, he
told a moving story about a friend who had called him the day before, a father
of a 21-year-old son. An illegal immigrant deported four times pulled up beside
him and shot him in the face. As he said, “No parent should ever have to go through
that.” Consequences of a weak border are real. And he made the point that DACA
is not a “dream”; it’s a nightmare. He separated DACA from the larger issue of everyone
brought here illegally as a child along with their parents and extended family.
Healthcare, immigration, and budget are all related, he
says. He’s careful and knowledgeable, good qualities for a congressman. He isn’t
particularly dynamic, which is probably why he’s not getting traction.
Malcolm Whittaker http://www.notagovernmentman.com/
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| Malcolm Whittaker photo from Cypress Texsa Tea Party |
Malcolm Whittaker is a patent attorney. He’s a numbers guy,
and his main issue is government debt. He has some creative ideas on bringing
down government spending. “If we don’t do something about the debt, we’ll turn
into Greece or Venezuela.” One idea relates to the rule, set back in the Bush
administration, preventing the government from ever negotiating costs for
Medicare prescriptions. He believes we’re overpaying by $40 billion a year; for
15 years so far, that’s $600 billion, which would be a win/win.
He said that he’s interested in being on the appropriations
committee and judiciary committee. He’d like to reform the way we do budgets. The
problem is, instead of saving any money left over in a budget, departments make
sure they spend it all—even if wastefully—so that they don’t get less money the
following year. There should be incentives to save money, not incentives to
spend wastefully.
He has a contest going on at his website, www.notagovernmentman.com. People
can send in ideas for reducing government spending, and the best idea wins a
gun (pending background check).
I disagreed with him on legalizing marijuana, and his total
non-involvement foreign policy. I’m guessing he’s libertarian along the lines
of Rand Paul, who is often right, but not totally, which is why I’m not quite a libertarian.
His looks and manners remind me a bit of late actor Edward
Herrmann, who played the grandfather on Gilmore Girls. He’s solid and
personable, but not exciting, which may explain why he’s not getting campaign
attention.
The rest of the list are all younger (as Rick Walker is as well), which means they could
have a longer political future.
Justin Lurie is a businessman, pro-growth and pro-business.
He is anti-regulations and points out that Washington does not create
prosperity. But it can create an environment where businesses can be
prosperous. He’s the founding and lead partner in an investment bank, dealing
mainly with oil and gas, which he says is key to Texas and Houston.
He pointed out that Alexander Hamilton designed a federal
reserve bank with individual districts. In 1933 FDR centralized it, putting way
too much power in the single federal reserve chair.
On healthcare, he says the problem is lack of competition
and lack of transparency. There are doctors who post full costs, but 99% don’t.
Concerning DACA and “dreamers,” he said, “I have dreams. My
kids have dreams.” We need to prioritize citizens and legal immigrants over
illegals. He suggests eliminating the 60-vote rule and going back to majority
rule in the Senate. Then we don’t have to have a DACA “dreamer” provision.
He was in Manhattan on September 11, 2001. He favored the
Patriot Act at that time. But technology changes, and government has gone too
far. We need to balance safety and privacy. We need better oversight of the AUMF
(authorization to use military force), which has been used 37 times since 9/11.
Obama grabbed a lot of power.
Justin Lurie appears slick. People used to say that about
Ted Cruz, and I couldn’t see it. I think Lurie is also actually sincere, but he
does have that slick vibe. He’s still quite young, so I expect he’ll have a
future in politics, or continue being a positive force in business.
Jonny Havens said in his introduction that he wants to make
character count again in Congress. He grew up in Houston, went to Texas
A&M. He was an Army Ranger, with two deployments in Iraq. He currently
works at Baker-Botts.
On healthcare, he said government needs to get out of the
way. With competition, costs would come down. You shouldn’t be dependent on
either government or your employer for insurance government interference set up
that situation. You should be able to go out and compare prices, and choose a plan
you prefer. He also wants to increase and reform health savings accounts. One
cost saving suggestion was that a physicians’ assistant can do the majority of
care at lower costs. Doctors, at higher costs, could then do their specialties
better. With transparent costs, patients could make lower cost decisions most
of the time.
On immigration he does not support DACA. He said we need three
things: a border wall, end immigration lottery, and end chain migration. He
likes President Trump’s jobs agenda, to get regulations out of the way.
David Balat is a Houstonian whose parents are from Israel.
He is a healthcare executive. He helps hospital CEOs in financially failing
institutions do a turnaround. Doing that, he has saved hundreds of jobs.
Healthcare is his primary issue. He’s against regulations.
Government must get out of the business. Repealing Obamacare is essential. It
wasn’t until the HMO Act of 1973, and a similar change in 1965, that
corporations came into play. Smaller entities can’t compete. So costs go up. He
has a plan he calls FreedomCare outlined on his website: DavidBalat.com. Transparency
is one step. The cash price of a CAT scan could be $250 and still be
profitable. But it costs $10,000, and it’s illegal to set the price lower than
medicare. Government interference is the main cause of rising healthcare costs,
and the government offers to solve that with the Obamacare disaster.
He has some perspective on immigration, because his parents
immigrated and became citizens. He and his mother learned English together with
Sesame Street. He says DACA was an illegal executive order. And it’s
unconstitutional to support amnesty. A country needs a unique rule of
naturalization; exceptions mean there is not a uniform rule. He believes in the
rule of law. He also pointed out that we send money to countries that hate us
and desecrate our flag; that shouldn’t be. Our debt is exceeding our national
economy.
I like David Balat overall. As with some of the others, in a
smaller field, he’d be better able to stand out. I hope he keeps working for
conservative principles.
Dan Crenshaw says
he’s running because we need leaders who’ve been tested. He spent 10 years as a
Navy Seal, with 5 deployments. He was hit with an IED in Afghanistan; it killed
his interpreter. He lost one eye, and was blind in the remaining eye until
after some miraculous surgeries. Afterward, he was deployed two more times. He
has spent time in Korea recently, and of course Afghanistan and Iraq. He still
has his top security clearance.
We have good military experience among some other candidates
as well, but Dan Crenshaw still stands out. He says he learned never to give up
from his mother. She died of cancer when he was 10, having never given up on
caring for him and his brother right until the end.
After being released from the military—pretty much against
his life plans—for health disabilities, he attended Harvard’s Kennedy School of
Government. Referring to congressional
powers in the Constitution, he said that freedom comes from good governance.
The greatest threat of the left is undercutting values. We have to provide a
better vision, and give a better message—and take that message to those who
will respond when they hear the truth presented to them clearly, but have just
not had that. He speaks Spanish, and is the only bilingual candidate.
As for immigration, we need those three things that everyone
else says we need. Then and only then can we talk about illegal immigrants.
There should be no cutting in line.
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| Dan Crenshaw at Cypress Tea Party |
Another attack has been about the eye patch—accusing him of
wearing it as a campaign gimmick. Not true. He has a glass right eye, which he
showed us under the eye patch. He can go without the patch, and there are
photos of him over the years both ways. But he believes it’s less distracting
to wear the patch, and gives him the option of removing the glass eye when it
gets irritated. My personal view is that, after a couple of minutes, you get
used to the eye patch; the glass eye, which doesn’t follow or look very
natural, would take more getting used to. Either way, once he starts talking,
Dan Crenshaw the person is who you see.
There was something he said at the candidate forum that got
my attention. He said he took an oath to defend the country, and that never
ends. And he would never quit on Texas. He also said that, while every one of
the candidates say the right things about what they’d do in office—all conservatives,
all good ideas—you need someone who can inspire and lead.
I was leaning toward him after the forum, but I waited until
the additional visit to the Cypress Texas Tea Party last Saturday to make my
decision. There’s a lot to like in the other candidates. But I really do want
someone who not only knows the details of policies, but can speak in a way that
inspires others to follow the conservative way. So I got a yard sign. And I’m
voting for Dan Crenshaw.
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