Young Conservatives of Texas Issue Their Endorsements: Big Surprise There
By Vince Leibowitz
The Young Conservatives of Texas (the same folks who brought you illegal immigrant roundups) have issued their GOP Primary endorsements.
For the most part, there were no major surprises, except that YCT picked Mark Williams over Tommy Merritt (R-Longview) in State House District 7, and that YCT declined to endorse anyone in HDs 78 and 10.
YCT's endorsement of Williams isn't that much of a surprise, though, given that Merritt hasn't been a favorite of the GOP leadership for some reason. This was especially evident in 2004 when he went up against Kevin Eltife (R-Tyler) and Paul Sadler (D-Henderson) in the race to fill Bill Ratliff's senate seat in the special election. I was, however, somewhat shocked that they endorsed the opponent of a fairly popular incumbent in a fairly red area.
As for the candidates in HDs 78 (Rep. Patrick Haggerty and Lorraine O'Donnell) and 10 (Rep. Jim Pitts and Duke Burge) I am surprised they claimed that none of the candidates were in agreement with the political philosophy of Young Conservatives of Texas. After all, wasn't Jim Pitts in favor of 11-year-olds being eligible for the death penalty?
Of course, Haggerty has seemingly been targeted for replacement by his own party, along with Carter Casteel and others. Casteel, it should be noted, wasn't endorsed either. YCT picked challenger Nathan Macias. In fact, neither Geren, Jones nor Smith were endorsed by YCT, and all were targeted by the state GOP in last fall's recorded message poll, too. Interesting.
Posted by Vince Leibowitz at January 24, 2006 02:52 PM
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