The Democrats are at it again! The party that claims that asking voters for identification before voting is designed to intimidate voters is now demanding voters be given proof of how they voted. Unfortunately, many of our Republican friends have been sucked into having a discussion that is not worth having nor is it of any value to our political process.

In the past week, the Tarrant County Democratic Party filed suit in federal court because voters do not receive any proof of how they voted in an election. Here in Bexar County, State Representative Jose Menendez declared his concern with the current touch screen system because one of his supporters was not sure their vote was cast properly and assured us that he will deal with this problem in the next legislative session. Jacque Callanen gave the best answer for someone in her position to give, it costs too much. While it is true that the $600 per machine is an incredible expense, this is not the real reason we need to stay away from a “paper trail.”

I continue to hear voters say that they aren’t sure that their vote was cast properly but the question is: are you sure you cast your vote properly on a paper ballot? I was never offered a photocopy of my ballot when I left the polling place as a paper trail that I cast my vote properly. When I finished voting my 16-page ballot Thursday morning, there were six pages of review so that I could go race by race to be sure I had voted the way I intended in every race. It is our responsibility to ensure that we have voted properly and you determine when your ballot is finally cast.

The most important part of this story though lies in the secrecy of our vote as Americans. In the United States, a large part of our election system is the use of the "Australian" or "secret" ballot so that no one, but you, knows how you voted. Until the 1890s, Americans would cast their vote in a public setting with everyone knowing how they had voted. In many cases the incentive for voting was the small amount of money the voter received from one of the candidates, not a strong belief in a specific set of policies. When the voter arrived at the polling place, a “ticket peddler” from one of the parties would hand them a ballot with the names of the candidates from their party and the voter would cast that ballot without even having to mark the ballot. In most cases the ballots were colored-coded based on the party. Everybody knew how you voted!  In 1888, a new voting phenomenon started sweeping across the country in the form of the Australian ballot that allowed people to cast a ballot in secret. This was the first time that the government printed the ballot and no one knew who a particular voter voted for. In large part we moved to this system to put an end to voter intimidation and vote buying. No longer could the political bosses reward or punish a voter because of their votes.

So what does this mean to us? Journey with me into the future: it is Election Day 2008 and the Democrats have managed to force through legislation that requires a paper trail for each voter.  The Bexar County Democratic Party is, as usual, driving voters to the polls. They take a van full of elderly people to their polling place. As the voters come out to get in the van, they must show their paper receipt as proof of how they voted. Unfortunately, one lady has not voted straight Democrat because she really liked some of the Republican candidates and the Democrats then realize there is not enough room in the van to get her home and now she is going to have to find her own way home.

We also know about the Prado, Tejeda, Uresti, and Rodriguez machines on the south and west sides of town. How much more power will they be given if they now know how the people voted? Will they reward financially or otherwise those who voted for their candidates? Will they punish those who didn’t support their candidates? Some might say that we can prosecute them if they reward or punish based on voting but then the question is how do you prove that is what they did. Some will say we must be willing to take those risks in order for people to be secure in knowing their ballot was cast properly.  

In reality we need to protect the secret ballot cast by the voter and if you are unsure your vote was cast properly, it is your responsibility to review the ballot before you hit that flashing vote button at the top of the screen.
 

Schuylar Crist, (Center) Pennsylvania Gubernatorial Candidate Lynn Swann and (L) Hatboro County, PA SREC Committeeman Ron Adams

U.S. Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania Takes A "Kodak Moment" With Schuylar At Victory 2006 HQ in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania

Schuylar In The Very Room The Declaration of Independence Was Signed!

Well folks, we are coming into the home stretch of the election season! The liberal Democrats are scrambling. Chris Bell can do nothing but repeat his own commercials, Nancy Pelosi is in hiding and Senator Kerry is also hunkered down somewhere after suffering another onset of 'foot in mouth disease'.

We have sent out well over 500,000 mailers across Pennsylvania on behalf of Senator Rick Santorum, made over 4,000 calls on behalf of the entire Republican Ticket in PA just here in Blue Bell, and block walked countless homes. My good friend Ron Adams (pictured in the top photo on the right), generally makes about 300 calls a day just by himself! Just for geographical reference, we are about a half hour from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in Montgomery County.

Senator Santorum appears down a few points in the polls...but as he aptly said just outside our HQ during a press conference last Saturday, "Democrats do polls, Republicans GO VOTE!".

For Pennsylvania candidates, we have had Senator Rick Santorum, Gubernatorial Candidate Lynn Swann and Candidate for Lieutenant Governor Jim Matthews (brother of HARDBALL'S Chris Matthews on MSNBC) in our headquarters. Of course, along with them, we had swarms of media! Every state newspaper and television station came through. Just today, we also had a GERMAN news crew. This national Republican GOTV effort has garnered international attention. I myself was interviewed by U.S. News and World Report and photos of mom and I at work on the phones were taken by the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Associated Press. (We hope they got our good side!) I am just thankful I can still see after all those flashbulbs going off.

Up in Wilkes-Barre (not far from the Poconos Mountains), Senator Santorum held a rally with former NYC Mayor Rudy Guillianni. Over 700 people made there way to that event! Even more had to be turned away simply because the Fire Company building was not able to hold so many people.

MESSAGE TO BEXAR COUNTY AND SOUTH TEXAS VOTERS!

You have a TREMENDOUS opportunity and responsibility before you on Tuesday, November 7th! We must send a message to the doomsday, no-plan, socially reprobate liberals.

We have wonderful conservative Republican candidates/incumbents running for judgeships and in Congress. These men and women all deserve your vote! We need to take the county courts over in addition to the state and district courts. Candidates like Diane Rivera (45th District Court) and Marialyn Barnard (225th District Court) need our support. We need to keep judges like Rene Diaz (224th District Court), Mark Luitjen (144th District Court), Rebecca Simmons (4th Court of Appeals) and Janet Littlejohn (150th District Court). We need to keep men like Congressman Lamar Smith in federal office, and Frank Corte, Jr. in the State House. We have some superb candidates for the state legislature like Nelson Balido (125th District, Texas House of Representatives) and George Antuna (District 118, Texas House of Representatives). We need to maintain common sense law in our courtrooms and fiscal and social conservative values in our state and federal legislatures. In short, we need FAMILY VALUES in our legislature and judicial integrity in our court systems!

I have told you what we need (I know I am preaching to the choir). It is now up to YOU to make sure we get it on Tuesday, November 7th, between 7am and 8pm at the polls!! If I can get off my crippled behind, get on 2 darn airplanes (each way mind you) and fly across the country to help save Republican seats, YOU can walk or drive 10 minutes to your polling location and use your vote as your voice in 2006!
 

• Ordering the National Guard to provide border security support six months before the president requested it.
• Providing millions of dollars to help border sheriffs increase patrols.
• Authorizing the use of DPS state troopers, helicopters, SWAT teams, covert surveillance teams, canine units, game wardens and the Texas Civil Air Patrol to stop illegal activity on the border.
• Posting hidden surveillance cameras that will broadcast via the Internet so that Texans can help secure our border.
• Fighting for $100 million to fund these border security efforts until Washington meets its responsibility.
• As a result of Perry’s leadership, Texas is shutting down criminal activity on the border, and our families are safer.
   

Local Republican candidates and officials have had their political signs destroyed and stolen over the past month. The losses are staggering. One candidate has lost $6,000 worth of signs in the past two months. A very good source tells me that 90% of Republican signs are gone. 

Let me share a story of how bad it is: I had one Marialyn Barnard for Judge sign in my front yard. It was stolen recently. My neighbor who lives directly in front of me puts two Sakai signs in her front yard facing my home. Message: “Up Yours!” This stuff only happens in South Texas. 

It should come as no surprise that most Democrats are not having the same problem. Just look around town. 
 

Flinging the shhh ... 10/31/2006

Target: Judge Peter Sakai, 225 District Court challenger
The San Antonio Lightning and South Texas Republicans main squeeze Joe Solis railed against Democrat Sakai (a shoo-in) and the vacating occupant of the bench, GOP judge John Specia, after a September fundraising event in the Terrell Hills home of the Spurs’ Brent Barry. Sakai says Specia appeared, but it was not an endorsement, nor are there any ethics investigations into what the conservative Lightning called “prohibited political stumping for an SA jurist.” That’s no comfort to the GOP’s Solis, who wants to know who turned his boy Specia out and how long he’s been a Democrat?

Original Source:
 

Lunch will be $8.00 and checks should be made payable to Caterall. Members are asked to make and bring 2 to 3 dozen cookies that can be frozen. These cookies will be used at the refreshment stop for the Tour of Homes.

Please RSVP to Gayna Wommack at jwommack@satx.rr.com or 629-5922.
 

Thursday, 9 November 2006,

11:30 - 1:00 p.m.

(Networking 11:00 a.m.)

Location: San Antonio Country Club; 4100 North New Braunfels Ave

Cost:  $17.00 

(Please make check payable to RBW and mail to Ruby Marvin, RBW Treasurer, 1627 Hawks Ridge, San Antonio, TX, 78248-1705)

Guest Speaker: Robert Blake, San Antonio Area Director for Texas  Border Volunteers.

For reservation, contact Dee Brame at 210-493-5512 or email  

deeb@satx.rr.com
 

There remains a broad, reflexive, and very Republican kind of loyalty to George Bush. He is a war president with troops in the field. You can see his heart. He led us in a very human way through 9/11, from the early missteps to the later surefootedness. He was literally surefooted on the rubble that day he threw his arm around the retired fireman and said the people who did this will hear from all of us soon.

Images like that fix themselves in the heart. They're why Mr. Bush's popularity is at 38%. Without them it wouldn't be so high.

But there's unease in the base too, again for many reasons. One is that it's clear now to everyone in the Republican Party that Mr. Bush has changed the modern governing definition of "conservative."

He did this without asking. He did it even without explaining. He didn't go to the people whose loyalty and support raised him high and say, "This is what I'm doing, this is why I'm changing things, here's my thinking, here are the implications." The cynics around him likely thought this a good thing. To explain is to make things clearer, or at least to try, and they probably didn't want it clear. They had the best of both worlds, a conservative reputation and a liberal reality.

And Republicans, most of whom are conservative in at least general ways, and who endure the disadvantages of being conservative because they actually believe in ideas, in philosophy, in an understanding of the relation of man and the state, are still somewhat concussed. The conservative tradition on foreign affairs is prudent realism; the conservative position on borders is that they must be governed; the conservative position on high spending is that it is obnoxious and generationally irresponsible. Etc.

This is not how Mr. Bush has governed. And so in the base today, personal loyalty, and affection, bumps up against intellectual unease.

Here's a thing about American politics. Nobody sees himself as the base. They see themselves as individuals. And they're not dumb. They get it all. They know when you're trying to manipulate. They'll even tell you, with a lovely detachment, if you're doing a good job. (An unreported story this year is the lack of imagination, seriousness and respect in the work of political consultants on both sides. They have got to catch up with American brightness.)

Ms. Noonan is a contributing editor of The Wall Street Journal and author of "John Paul the Great: Remembering a Spiritual Father" (Penguin, 2005), which you can order from the OpinionJournal bookstore. Her column appears Fridays on OpinionJournal.com.

Copyright © Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
 

By John Merrifield,
Professor of Economics
Director, Entrepreneurial Conservatism Institute

November 6th, 2006

Follow the incentives is a virtual synonym of the well-known “follow the money.”  Our K-12 education system is proof that we are in denial of the basic principle that behavior follows reward, and flees penalty. The incentives are quite often at odds with the public interest. Until we change the key incentives, attempts at education reform will be costly acts of futility; hope triumphing over experience.

The teacher quality mandates of the latest federal school reform initiative, the 2002 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law are a prime example. Not a single state met the NCLB’s June, 2006 deadline for all teachers to highly qualified, nor will any comply any time soon. Like the unrealized “Goals 2000” that preceded NCLB, the teacher quality promise sounded good. Indeed, Albert Shanker, President of the American Federation of Teachers for nearly 30 years, said 1/4 were incompetent (750,000 incompetent teachers!!). Among the remainder, many are not qualified to teach the courses assigned to them. For example, 68% of eighth graders are taught math by teachers with no degree or certificate in the field. Add to that, the typical teacher receives no tangible reward for being effective, and suffers no penalty for ineffectiveness, and you understand why many of my economics students struggle with basic math.  Luckily, working with children yields many intangible rewards. Without that, the terribly low proficiency levels I reported in this space last week would be even worse. Many teachers try hard, and are innovative, despite the absence of tangible incentives to do so. But the overall terrible academic results match the weak and perverse incentives. 

Think about the incentives a minute, and you quickly see why teaching attracts the least able college graduates, and why the most able among them have the highest turnover rates. Regardless of subject field shortages, incoming teachers are paid the same salary. So, teaching attracts many students with low-paying majors, and few from high-paying majors like math and science. So, English, History, and PhysEd Majors teach a lot of math and science courses. Then, we base raises on experience, not results. So, teachers with few opportunities outside teaching stay and collect their annual raises, often for not much more than just showing up. That’s part of the reason why we do poorly in well-staffed subjects like history. Many of those able to secure larger raises by leaving teaching – in high demand fields, and the most creative and energetic – seize the opportunity to improve their standard of living. We’ve got a school system that is attractive to the least able and asks them to do things are they are not prepared for, and that is unattractive to the most able.

So, why don’t the school boards and superintendents dismiss those just showing up (or worse)? You know the answer. Follow the incentives. Even in Texas, where teacher unions are relatively weak, it is very difficult to fire a teacher. The long, costly, and contentious dismissal process is enough to discourage a lot of people. Then add to that a public school, which is assured of students, can easily survive bad teachers, and they aren’t paid by the boss, and it obvious why so many bad teachers are tolerated. Few parents have affordable alternatives to their assigned neighborhood public school. Schools of choice are much quicker to dismiss ineffective teachers. Parents can enroll their children elsewhere at no additional cost.

Actually, a careful look at the incentives of the world’s most difficult, unnecessary job – school district superintendent (future piece in this space) – shows the situation to be even worse. Because lower quality schooling does not mean less funding (perversely, the opposite is more likely), superintendents do not even hire the best applicants. The brighter ones are seen as more likely to cause trouble. How so? They are more likely to resist the de-professionalization implied in being told what to teach, how to teach it (‘teacher-proof’ materials), including a precise timetable to follow. Micro-management, the political answer to persistent failure to wring significantly improved performance from the present system, is less offensive to the least able.
 

Hill Country Reader Responds To Our Texas Trans-Corridor Commentary

I can see where they want to acquire right-of-way for the TTC now, even though it is massive, so they can do all the fighting in one fell swoop, and not have to go back and do it all over again every ten years.  This makes sense to me, since jockeying with county commissioners and landowners was what almost killed Dad, before he asked for a transfer.

The elder Zachry was a friend of ours, and I don't believe that he would have tied up with Cinta, but that's just my opinion. Certainly it's a new business world now. 

And as for tolls, I don't see tolling roads that are already built with our taxes. But heavens to Betsy, they have been in Houston and the Metroplex for years, and we knew it was coming. What makes San Antonio so different?

But when I see the TTC as part of a long-range plan to open borders and join with Mexico and Canada in some kind of super-union, I draw the line. Not only would Mexico pull us down to their poverty level, but Canada is so liberal they sweat pink. They even prosecute preachers for reading parts of the Bible uncomplimentary to certain groups! The whole prospect scares me spitless.

We just can't have that, and I'll vote against TTC, if I get the chance.

GOP Precinct Chair
 

I do not know where folks get their facts, but in the Sunday Express News it shows at this time Perry is substantially ahead of all the competition!

I guess if you spread falsehoods and often and loud enough, your message will attract other people who choose to believe the worst about everything, especially on toll roads.

The honest truth is that our US Secretary of Transportation has said in no uncertain terms that toll roads should be part of the transportation solution. This is not something that our elected officials in Texas just dreamed up, it’s the eyes wide open approach versus the head in the sand approach. Wishing we didn’t have a traffic problem will not make it go away. Please readers, just because someone pretends to know all the facts  doesn’t make it so. There’s a tragic force of malicious propaganda pouring in to help political agendas of folks who can’t unseat our incumbent governor any other way. Look at the economy, look at the job growth, look at a positive agenda rather than a perpetual factless smear campaign. We deserve the positive message for ourselves and future generations. Please see link below on the Dept. of Transportation’s Strategic Plan For Reducing Congestion.

 www.dot.gov/stratplan2011/redcong.htm  

QUOTE FROM THE US DEPT OF TRANSPORTATION WEBSITE:

Second, DOT will encourage more States to find ways to open their transportation infrastructure to private investment opportunities. State budgets are stretched thin, and gasoline taxes are becoming untenable as long-term sources of funding. At the same time, major financial institutions and their clients are expressing their willingness to invest billions of dollars in roads and airports. DOT will begin discussions with local officials and transportation consumers about the growing role that the private sector can and should play in transportation decision-making and investment. Our goal will be to expand the list of states that have flexible laws to permit greater private-sector involvement in transportation projects to meet the growing demand for infrastructure and ultimately to reduce congestion.
 

“Perry’s freeway tolls on MoPac and Texas 45 permanently take our public expressways, as we are forced to drive on increasingly congested frontage roads with stop lights. TxDOT will have a financial incentive NOT to address traffic congestion on our frontage roads. Traditional toll roads in the United States allow drivers free expressways as alternatives, but Perry’s freeway tolls permanently convert what should be a freeway to a toll way. And, the coming tolls on 71 and 183 are worse, as they are 100% funded with our tax dollars, the construction almost complete, and can easily open as free roads. Perry calls it ‘Innovative Financing,’ we call it Highway Robbery.”

First segment of tolls opens in Austin

Link to article in Express-News here (http://satollparty.com/post/?p=444).
 

“By now many Texans have heard about the proposed ‘NAFTA Superhighway,’ which is also referred to as the Trans-Texas Corridor,” he said in a statement. “What you may not know is the extent to which plans for such a superhighway are moving forward without congressional oversight or media attention.”...

...“The proposed highway is part of a broader plan advanced by a quasi-government organization called the ‘Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America,’ or SPP,” he explains. “The SPP was first launched in 2005 by the heads of state of Canada, Mexico, and the United States at a summit in Waco.”

Link to the rest of the World Net Daily article here:

Lou Dobbs report on NAFTA highways and more

Link to You Tube video here and here.

If you think it sounds implausible that Bush (and Perry is obviously on board) is working toward creating a North American Union and undermining our national sovereignty partly through these NAFTA superhighways like the Trans Texas Corridor, think again. The above video says it all and government documents prove it. Robert Pastor of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) who is interviewed in the second segment, is flat out lying to the American public in his comments. Read the details proving it here.

Time for a voter revolt and to expose our secretive, abusive government to a little American patriotic sunshine…then watch the roaches scatter!

First toll roads in statewide toll tidal wave open in Austin

The opening of these tax-funded toll ways is just a glimpse into the toll tidal wave Perry and the highway lobby have planned for Texans. Taxing us again for what we’ve already paid for is highway robbery! Perry is intent on selling off control of our public roadways to private special interests who have lined his campaign coffers to the tune of over $1 million.

It’s time to end this reign of corruption and end this tolling scheme that will cost the average family $2,000 to $4,000 a year just to drive to work.  Since Perry refuses to heed the will of the PEOPLE and refuses to allow us a vote, voters will choose to give Perry the boot on November 7.
 

This is a series by an anonymous political insider in Bexar County. The views of this author do not represent the views of South Texas Republicans. 

Tomorrow is Election Day. If you haven’t early voted like thousands of other Bexar County voters, tomorrow is your last chance to tell the politicians what you really think and where you stand.

What do they say? Go make a difference, especially those of you who claim to be true Conservatives.

Over the recent months leading up to next Tuesday, as a lifelong Democrat, I have been accused of unfairly trashing Republicans in a Republican newsletter and treasonous for trashing Democrats in a Republican newsletter.

In my defense, I admit to being an equal opportunity basher, and make no apologies. If the shoe fits, wear it. Would you believe size 7 pumps?

Let’s first talk about Republican leadership in this state. We have Governor Goodhair and Lt. Governor David Dewhurst--a contrast in leadership styles to say the least. It is akin to the classic novel “A Tale of Two Cities.” For our analogy, it is a tale of two leadership styles, one good and the other pathetic.

I have a question. Why does Lt. Governor David Dewhurst have a 60 percent approval rating and conducts himself professionally to secure the safety of our children’s future while Governor Goodhair spends his time ensuring his friends and former staffers pockets are lined and set for life?

The current governor is not a conservative choice. Raising business taxes, claiming to lower property taxes and out and out lying to teachers about giving them a $2,000 is not what true conservatives promote. Did I miss something?

Outsourcing to your lobbyist friends and contributors is not a conservative choice. Telling a state trooper, “Adios Mo Fo,” is not what a conservative would say. Wasting taxpayer’s money on useless special sessions that accomplished nothing is not a conservative stance.

Pushing for the transportation corridor that only benefits certain individuals and friends of the governor is a slap at Texas. Yet the governor has a 38 percent rating. I would think it should be more like 10 percent (family & lobbyists). 

Last week I predicted Governor Goodhair would lose. Despite the pollsters that say he will be re-elected, I am optimistic that voters will see the light and vote his useless behind out of office.

Despite the pundits, I believe that most Texans now realize that the Governor is sorely out of touch with mainstream Texans and that he is incapable of governing. We don’t need four more years of his posturing and selling Texas to the highest bidder.

Now that I have told you what I really think, let’s move on to talk more about other candidates. In my predictions, I made various comments on the winners, but didn’t necessarily talk in depth about those who would go home empty handed.

Case in point, I now mention 45th District court candidate Diane Rivera who is challenging incumbent Judge Barbara Nellermoe.

Having met her early in the campaign somewhere on the Southside, I found her be pleasant, soft-spoken, congenial and seemingly astute in the law. She reminds me of Probate #2 candidate Barbie Scharf-Zeldes whom I predicted in an upset over Tom Rickoff. Women rule.

Both come across as young and vibrant and looking to make their mark in society in a positive way. This reminds me of back in the days when I was a younger woman. I would hope Rivera would stick around and run again. It is just not her time. I had kind words for a Democrat and kind words for a Republican.

I would mention that although I predict Barbara Nellermoe will win, it is ever so slightly possible Diane could pull it off. I say that as a Southsider. She is a graduate of McCollum High School and sometimes a Southsider can make you blink.   

Speaking of the Southside, I am hearing more and more radio ads by George Antuna, but nothing out of Joe Farias. The race has developed into a barroom brawl. Looks like another Vietnam veteran in the fight of his life.

The rhetoric is really getting nasty between the two and the accusations are flowing. Antuna implies Farias is a crook, and Farias implies Antuna has a drinking problem. Let me get this straight. We have a drunk vs. a crook, now that is a real choice. Here we have negativity about a Republican and negativity about a Democrat.  

Both are drawing blood and leaving marks. I love Southside politics. It always degenerates into brawls and catfights. Sounds as nasty as the Castro vs. Balido title match with politics and boxing, all mixed into one. Again, we have negativity about a Republican and a Democrat. Is this fair and balanced or what?

Apparently, incumbent County Judge Al Alonso is really kicking into gear. He has recruited college students to block walk with him. He should ward off his opponent relatively easily. I hardly remember his opponent’s name. I think his opponent’s name is Sam Adams.

I never met him, never seen him or heard anything about him. Of course having former Bexar County Republican Party Chair Roy Barrera Jr. supporting Alonso is not bad at all, either. I am still on a roll.

All is quiet for Judge Monica Guerrero who I remind you will keep her seat on the bench. Genie Wright her opponent who I wrote about extensively early on has not made much of a blip on the radar screen. It is better it stays that way.

Last week I predicted that all incumbent county judges would retain their seats. That includes Paul Canales over Blair Cates, David Rodriguez over former Judge Bill White who is really a decent fellow, and Judge Tim Johnson. Johnson’s young opponent Ina Castillo is another neat professional woman who should stick around for another year and take another shot at a judgeship. Here we have given equal treatment once again for a Democrat and a Republican.

Remember the old saying, “it ain’t over until the fat lady sings,” and I ain’t even hummin’ a tune!

In the open seat for County Court #6, I predicted that Democrat Ray Olivarri would nudge Republican Wayne Christian. Christian is also a patriot and a good man. We all remember how his sister cost him his bench the last time around. Bexar County wins either way in this race. Either candidate winning the seat will do us proud. Unfortunately, sometimes two good candidates face off. Do I sound redundant?

In the District Courts, you may remember I said that most incumbent judges would retain their seats. Rene Diaz’s opponent Gloria Saldana is a classy lady. She even received the endorsement of the Express-News. It is still not enough to unseat Diaz. This niceness is wearing thin on me.

Michael Peden is an excellent judge and his opponent Milton Fagin would not come close to being a good judge. He isn’t even a good lawyer. We have been down that road. Here we have a positive comment on a Republican and one negative on a Democrat.

In the District 408th Court, I predicted last week that Democrat Larry Noll would finally become a judge. Who really knows incumbent Judge Richard Price? I finally saw one of his ads. What is with the beard? Now we have a positive for a Democrat and slightly negative for a Republican on this race.

Speaking of two excellent candidates facing off against each other, we have the contest for the 225th District bench. I predicted Peter Sakai would win that race. I repeat as the media darling for a long time, Sakai’s name ID is stronger than his challenger Marialyn Barnard. Then again, she has some heavy hitters in her corner as well to include Senator John Cornyn.

She too is articulate and a class act. She presents herself extremely well. I have said it before more than once, that race will be tight. Again voters don’t lose no matter who wins that race. Women are actively involved in that race on both sides. A positive comment and a positive comment makes two positive comments.

One last negative comment about the Democratic Party official who is ruffling feathers on the eastside by pushing for Congressman Lamar Smith. Word is the Party is leaning on him to resign his post for taking money from Smith. After the election is over, there will be hell to pay. So, did I upset both sides for being too nice or too negative to each side?  If so, I did my job.

Let’s see how well I prognosticate the results. Either I am astute or I haven’t a clue or both. Don’t judge me solely on the Perry race. I realize I might be dreaming, but miracles do happen and God does sometimes intervene and answer prayer, even for Democrats (Republicans too). Only time will tell.

That is the moderate viewpoint. I AM the "Republicrat".