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Fri Jan 18, 2013 at 09:30 AM CST
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| The wheels of the 2014 primaries are already in motion in case you missed it. The annual parade of political prognosticating always kicks up an order of magnitude once the January Semi-Annual report deadline passes and political players officially lay their dollars on the table. This, being Texas, amounts to a "whose bank account is bigger" contest among Republican officeholders.
(Democrats cheer on a handful of incumbent Congressman, state senators, & reps who have managed to hoard a few million dollars- dollars that their colleagues and activists down the chain are constantly pecking at. Ultimately this pales in comparison to the GOP posturing.)
Below the jump, Burka has the numbers; I've expanded on his shorthand for clarity. |
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Gov. Rick Perry
$3.554 million raised
$6.028 million COH
Atty Gen. Greg Abbott
$4.1 million raised
$18 million COH
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst
$3.3 million raised
just under $2 million COH
Comp. Susan Combs
$1 million raised
$7.3 million COH
Speaker Joe Straus
$1 million raised
$5.279 million COH
Sen. Dan Branch
$765k raised
$2.5 million COH
Ag Comm Todd Staples
$639k raised
more than $2 million COH
Land Comm Jerry Patterson
$483k raised
more than $1 million COH Greg Abbott is the top dog in that hunt. He's so confident that he's telling donors openly about his gubernatorial ambitions and running ads in... New York to generate media nonsense and fan the flames needed to finally melt the goor hair that protects Gov. Rick Perry. A friend of BOR pointed out that Greg Abbott has another opportunity to grandstand on his conservative principals (at the expense of same-sex partners and local control).
Sen. Dan Patrick (R-Dan Patrick) sent a little 2-page request over to the Attorney General's office last November, right before the election, to ask for the following opinion. See it in full here.
Accordingly, I submit to your office the following Attorney General Opinion request:
Does Art. 1, ยง 32 of the Texas Constitution that defines marriage as one man and one woman and prohibits government recognition of any legal status identical or similar to marriage preclude political subdivisions of Texas from providing so-called domestic partnership benefits to their employees?
Sen. Branch specifically cites the following transgressors- EI Paso County, Travis County, City of Fort Worth, City of Austin, City of San Antonio, the City of EI Paso, and Pflugerville ISD. Now, an AG opinion isn't the rule of law, it's an opinion.
But now it's an opinion that has political megaphone attached to it.
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