Read this quick piece on election results from last week:
Ernest Bailes in East Texas (HD 18) won handily at 67%. As a rural Texan, we believe Mr. Bailes gets it on water protection and eminent domain reform. Future candidates for elective office need to take notice that Bailes’ opponent, Keith Strahan, simply refused to answer phone calls in the midst of a contest primary. Not a winning strategy. We look forward to working with Ernest Bailes.
We lost a good friend in the Texas House, David Simpson (R-Longview) – for now anyway. Rep. Simpson was trying to move up into the Texas Senate (Senate District 1 – NE Texas). But, alas, both Republican Party warring factions united behind Brian Hughes, who successfully stepped up from the House. Simpson was, simply put, too independent and by attempting to reform seized asset forfeiture laws and medical marijuana, bucked the law enforcement establishment. . We will miss his leadership not only on water issues and, perhaps most importantly, his willingness to challenge the process in the House. His office was always willing to look into potential rules violations. Good luck to Brian Hughes, who has been a supporter of protecting NE Texas from Dallas’ plan to flood 70,000 acres of prime timberland for the Marvin Nichols Reservoir.
Abilene’s Susan King who, like Simpson, was attempting to move up to the Texas Senate from the House, and failed too. That meant forfeiting her Texas House seat in the Abilene area. Good luck to Dawn Buckingham will be Troy Fraser’s replacement for Senate District 24.