Nathan Macias was recruited by Tom Craddick and his allies to run take out Carter Casteel in 2006. Those are the facts.
Not surprising then that Nathan Macias is a little miffed that he lost his seat after one session to Doug Miller and his buddy Tom lost the dias.
On January 12, Macias opined via e-mail to an undisclosed list about Straus' conservative credentials (the same conservative credentials Dewhurst is trying to solidify in the Senate).
From: Nathan Macias
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 4:57 PM
Subject: My Perspective on The Apparent New Texas House Speaker
Friends:
As your outgoing State Representative I feel compelled to let you know my perspective and some facts about the apparent Speaker of the Texas House.
It appears Representative Joe Straus will be the next Speaker of the Texas House. I served with Joe Straus and have some true concerns. He is not conservative. Therefore, I don't think he will be the best representative of leadership for conservative Republicans or our great state. Below are just some of those concerns:
Rep Straus made his initial move by garnering the support of 70 Democrats and 15 Republicans. This alone will require his strong allegiance to the liberal Democratic Party and moderate Republicans. Shouldn't the Republican Speaker be elected by Republicans and not by a predominance of Democrats along with a few moderate Republicans? Now that would be best for our district and state.
Rep Straus has very limited experience, having served only one and a half sessions in the Texas Legislature. What organization would elect a Chairman of the Board with four years of experience? The Texas House needs an experienced, proven leader at the helm. That would be best for Texas.
The Heritage Alliance, a prominent conservative values organization, gave Rep Straus a 52% conservative score (the second to the lowest score earned by a "Republican"). That's not conservative. To give you a gauge this same organization gave me a 91% conservative score.
Texans for Fiscal Responsibility (limited government/lower tax group) rated Rep Straus at 71%, roughly 4% below the Republican average score. That's not conservative. As a gauge I earned a 93% rating from TFR.
Not a single pro-life or pro-family group endorses Rep Straus. As reported in the news, he was one of 23 lawmakers who opposed a bill to block the government order requiring the HPV vaccine for all sixth-grade schoolgirls. He also opposed a bill to ban gay foster parenting.
Let me also note that Straus supports statewide gambling and opposes school choice for parents. Both of these positions are in opposition to our State and National Republican Party Platforms. Joe Straus will not advance our conservative cause.
I strongly encourage each of you to contact our Rep-elect, Doug Miller, who at first opportunity chose to align himself with the 70 Democrats and 15 moderate Republicans. Let him know that the people of our district (his constituents) are overwhelmingly aligned with the conservative values and principles of the Republican Party of Texas that have made our state so grand, and that we expect him to represent our district in that manner.
Finally, please forward this message to others you believe are conservative and may not be aware of this recent development.
Serving You,
Nathan Macias
State Rep, District 73
Bandera, Comal, Gillespie, Kendall Counties
This seems to be a sign of things to come for Straus and a possible rematch between ultra-conservative Macias and the reasonable Republican Miller.
Also, it might be important to Mr. Macias, he isn't serving anyone and he is no longer the State Representative from District 73. That job has been filled but the people of District 73 are taking applications and interviewing again around 2010.
Over two and a half months later, one-term Republican representative Nathan Macias, who defeated 2005 Texan of the Year Carter Casteel, has finally given up his endless series of pointless court challenges. Republican Doug Miller has won by 17 votes.
Herald-Zeitung: The close Dist. 73 Republican primary drew recounts and double checks as the original 38-vote margin for challenger Doug Miller dwindled to 17 votes. Accusations of double voting and voter fraud emerged as Macias sought to overturn Miller's victory margin. And Macias' attempt to get the lawsuit judge replaced - just because, rather than for a specified reason - was rejected by the Texas Supreme Court last week.
The incumbent's decision to drop the lawsuit is the best decision for the Republican Party, which stands divided in the four counties of District 73, where more than 29,000 voters split their allegiances between Miller and Macias. This process already has been expensive and stopping the lawsuit halts that expenditure, particularly for Comal County taxpayers where the case was to be heard.
And this post would not be complete without reminding you to read this from Karen Brooks over on the Trail Blazers Blog..
At any rate, Macias is not giving it up without one last dig at, well, everybody. And I mean, everybody. In a long concession statement sent to us this afternoon, he blasts:
The courts: "With the Supreme Court denying our request for a new judge and understanding the potential for this litigation to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, only to have a judge rule against the facts, is not my idea of a good investment."
Doug Miller: "Let's not forget the extremely suspicious irregularities that occurred with Doug Miller's sister-in-law counting the ballot box ...."
The media: "It is a shame that most, not all, of the local/regional media appear incapable of reporting the news in an unbiased manner to allow the voters to decide an election."
The "cross-over" Republicans: "For all the conservatives who crossed over and voted in the Democratic primary, the reality is that it had a profound impact on our State Representative race."
He even managed to take a shot at Rep. Carter Casteel, whom he beat in the 2006 primary: "Unlike your previous State Rep, I will contact Mr. Miller and make myself available to him."
And as Brooks points out, $5 million later... "this makes Rep. Wayne Christian the last Leininger man standing."
Poor Nathan Macias. A couple weeks ago, he went all Jack Stick on us, contesting the results of the HD-73 Republican Primary where Doug Miller defeated him by a mere 17 votes.
His charge? According to Macias, 253 people double-voted, casting both a Republican and Democratic primary ballot. Problem for Macias- they didn't!
Bandera County Elections Administrator Toba Perez said clerical errors made it appear that about 130 people voted twice, but those have been corrected and there is no evidence anyone voted in both primaries.
Comal County Elections Coordinator Linell Hinojosa said 38 voters were stamped as having voted twice, but after a review of the sign-in sheets, each person was found to have only voted once.
According to Hinojosa, mistakes included husbands and wives who voted in different party primaries, but one spouse's name was mistakenly stamped twice; Or someone who signed in on one sheet, then realized they were in the wrong party's line and signed in on the other one without taking their name off the first one.
With Gillespie County wrapping up their count this afternoon, Republican challenger Doug Miller has officially defeated incumbent Nathan Macias in HD-73 according to Quorum Report.
My hometown state house district (as long time readers are painfully aware) was once represented by 2005 Texan of the Year Rep. Carter Casteel. In 2006, she was defeated by James Leininger Nathan Macias in a very close race (around 50 votes).
Back on March 4th, Macias got a little taste of that in the other direction, when Republican challenger Doug Miller defeated him by 29 votes. Because of the closeness of the race, Macias is asking for a recount. Sound familiar?
Update The end result was no change. (Macias had won Bandera by 28 votes.) Comal and Kendall counties tallies votes yesterday, where it appears Macias picked up 2 votes in Kendall shrinking Miller's margin to 27 with no report out of Comal as of yet. Gillespie County recounts today.
Gillespie County (site of my hometown of Fredericksburg) is key- it's the only county Miller won providing him with a 1,131 vote margin of victory there. It also happens to be the only non-Comal outlying county Casteel won against Macias in 2006. I'm still a little amazed by the margin Miller was able to pile up back home; I guess I can be proud of the hometown Republicans once in a while!
While Matt works on a post that rounds up many of the candidates who have filed for office, I'd like to highlight one district since it is my home district. Many will remember HD-73 as the site of the infamous Carter Casteel (2005 Texan of the Year) vs. James Leininger Nathan Macias primary. Macias, after spending over $1 million of Leininger's money defeated Casteel by just 53 votes.
I've never really let go of that one. When my relatives were in Austin visiting from Germany, I asked Rep. Bolton to introduce them from the House floor instead. Rep. Macias came up to the gallery afterwards to say hello (in truth, I did go by his office but no one was there at the time) but still, I didn't go our of my way to make nice.
ANYWAYS... I'm happy to see the first of what may be a couple of Republican primary challengers step up- Doug Miller.
Edwards Aquifer Authority Chairman Doug Miller filed papers Monday to run in the Republican primary for District 73 in the Texas House against first-term incumbent Nathan Macias.
"Texas can accomplish great things if we work hard and work together," Miller said. "I am willing to do that hard work. Conservatives have been let down. There is too much spending and there are too many loopholes being left open for criminals to walk through. Those are the problems I intend to focus my attention upon."
Miller represents Comal and Guadalupe counties on the EAA board, which he has served on since it was created in 1993. He has also served as a police officer and as mayor of New Braunfels. He owns an insurance agency.
The district will also see a Democrat running, Daniel Boone, who filed to run as a write-in last year when no Democrat filed in this highly Republican district. (Yes, he's actually a direct descendant of pioneer Daniel Boone.) Still, he got 5.6% as a write-in (nearly 8% in Gillespie County) which is pretty impressive for a write-in of any sort. He should have the Democratic ballot line this year which will be interesting to see what kind of support is out there next year.
I heard some rumor earlier in the year that Fredericksburg School Board member (and past president) Wayne Harrell had been testing the waters as well. While still a conservative, he would be a great pro-education candidate and is a Republican that I respect.
Even though I've lived in Austin non-stop for the last 3 and a half years, Fredericksburg out in the Hill Country's Gillespie County will always be home. And since it's been months since I've entertained you with my obsession of political reports on things in Fredericksburg, here's an update.
Early voting as of Tuesday was 2,369 out of 16,816 registered voters (14% turnout). Total Early voters in 2002 was 2,735.
Gillespie traditionally has had about 35% vote early in federal elections (50% in my dad's city council election which was an oddity but the first time we pushed for early vote). I'd expect 40% cast early there this year at best which would mean a total vote of 10,075 with 60% turnout if I use the same scaled factor for Gillespie turnout on W-Th-F that Travis has.
That's higher than normal. There were 7,918 votes cast in 2002 in Gillespie total. That would be a 27% increase in raw votes.
So what would be driving it? A small part of it is population growth. In that county, I'm sure there is a higher than average Kinky effect simply because it's right next door to Kerr (his home turf if you can say he has any left). There is a proposed TTC corridor but it barely nicks the southwestern edge of the county. There are no contested county races and it is one of the few counties in Texas that has no major party challenge on the Congressional, State Senate, and State House level (though write-in candidate Daniel Boone to whom I have donated is gunning against James LeiningerNathan Macias).
Either I'm greatly undercounting Friedman activity in Gillespie County (possible) or people are very motivated to vote there for other reasons. The only thing I can think of, and my best gut feeling, is Republican leaning traditional and drop-off voters are coming out to the polls to send a message. I'm just not sure what that message is yet. Hopefully, it's a rural revolt.
After the recount, Carter Casteel slipped a few more votes behind James Leininger funded Nathan Macias. I will take solace in the fact that Rep. Casteel will still be there to fight in the special session. Her official statement is included below the fold.
If you'd like to see some of the attack mailers from the Macias campaign, we have them online here. You have to right click and 'save as' to your computer to view them.
Two of four counties have finished their recounts and Macias has grown his lead by 5 votes to 51.
SAEN: Two of the four counties recounted their ballots Wednesday, and Macias' margin increased by five votes, from 46 to 51. Casteel picked up two more votes in Comal County and Macias picked up seven additional votes. The totals in Bandera County remained the same.
Gillespie County began the recount process but did not finish. The results are expected to be ready today, Gillespie County Republican Chairwoman Pauline Cusack said. She said the county's five largest boxes remain to be counted.
Kendall County is to recount its ballots Friday.
Gillespie County Chairwoman Pauline Cusack was a supporter of Casteel, but unless someone is willing to risk some Duval County type ballot stuffing, I don't expect the 52-48 Gillespie County to yield dozens of extra votes.
"I've dealt with it already and moved on down the line," Casteel said. "I only asked for the recount because my supporters were having a fit."
Macias said he was "delighted" by the recount results so far.
"We're definitely excited about the system and the quality of the system and the integrity of the system we vote under," he said. "We hope that will continue to play out and hopefully Friday we will have the final results."
My only question is, when they contact Macias for quotes, does the phone call get routed through San Antonio first? I just want to be sure that James Leininger approves of his message. Oh wait, he does to the tune of nearly one million dollars.
The HD 73 race between Rep. Carter Casteel and James Leininger Nathan Macias has been officially canvassed and Macias has increased his lead by 2 votes to 47.
MySA.com: "That's a large number to overcome and it's probably not going to happen, but we're doing it and that will put it to bed. And then we can move on down the line, and that will be good for the district," said Casteel, who cited encouragement by backers as the main reason she will seek the recount for the District 73 seat.
Casteel gained five votes in the canvass, pushing her total to 10,136, while Macias picked up seven votes, bringing his total to 10,183, with the additional ballots mailed by members of the military and received by Monday.
It is unlikely that the recount will overturn the victor here, but keep in mind that regardless, Rep. Casteel will serve in the special session starting April 17th, and considering she is exiting politics for the short term, she may now be freer to work for solutions and be more independent than she already was.
