Thursday, August 07, 2008

The Upcoming Elections

Here in Texas, we have a lot at stake in these upcoming elections. The races for the Texas House and Senate are being hotly contested and our candidates really do need our help.

What's at stake? For the big picture, just read the Texas Democrat Platform, they pretty much lay it out for you. More spending, more entitlements, more taxes and less opportunity to succeed.

The main focus of this blog is gun rights, and gun rights are going to be front and center during the next legislative session. There will be at least three initiatives expanding gun rights introduced. First will be a employer parking lot bill that would affirm the right of a law abiding gun owner to have his or her firearm in their personal vehicle while at work. Second will be a bill authorizing CHL holders to carry a concealed handgun on all state funded college campuses. And third will be an open carry bill. The anti's will be introducing legislation of their own. At a minimum we will see a "one gun a month" bill and a "closing the gun show loop hole" bill introduced.

Which bills go forward and become law, and which ones end up languishing in committee depends entirely upon the makeup of the legislator. If Republicans loose much ground in the Texas legislator, we will not see progress in gun rights legislation. It is pretty much as simple as that.

So plan on voting, and bring a friend or two to the polls. Vigorously support your local candidate for the Texas State House or Senate. Donate some of your hard earned money to your candidate and offer them some help. I understand that there is a lot of out of state money supporting the opposition, we need to do what we can to counter that out of state influence and elect strong conservative candidates.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be highlighting a few of the races that are close and really need our support.

6 comments:

Frances Clements said...

I lived in north Fort Worth. Thanks for the tip. I will have to look into my state legislators. I don't think that I have even ever heard his/her name. I think that this year it is especially important to support conservative candidates where we can find them. I don't want people to stay home all together because McCain is such a lame-o.

Frances Clements said...

Ok, I found my TX state rep (Kelly Hancock) and my TX state senator (Jane Nelson). But their websites don't really have any information about issues like gun ownership or abortion, etc. How do I find out this information? Is there some sort of local officials voting guide? Thanks.

John R said...

Jane Nelson represents Senate District 12 and is not up for re-election during this cycle.

One good way to see if an incumbent supports your values is to check out what legislation was introduced, sponsored or co-sponsored. Kelly Hancock was a co-sponsor of the Texas Castle Doctrine Bill. He also sponsored/co-sponsored a couple bills that you might find of interest.

With a little more digging you can check out his voting record.

Links to bills he has put his name on can be found here

Frances Clements said...

Thanks for the information about Kelly Hancock and the Castle Doctrine Bill. I had never heard of it before today and after looking into it I am glad he was a co-sponsor. I am new to 2nd amendment stuff so I appreciate your blog. I was never against gun ownership, I just never really gave it much thought until recently.

Anonymous said...

Didn't see word one about gunz in the dimorat platform. Wonder if Heller is making them think more about "gun control"?

TexasFred said...

JR, you have my email I think, ANY articles you'd like to have cross posted concerning these election issues, send em my way, we can't allow this crap to happen in Texas, the more folks that see it, the better...

Off topic a bit, but, you DO know that my Son is a Deputy, on the SWAT team, a SGT in the National Guard with one tour of Iraq already, he's no rookie and he's about to turn 23...

He also carries an XD-45 tactical, all the time..

I just told him the story of the old Ranger being interviewed by the media and how he was asked "WHY do carry a .45??"

Because they don't make a .46 is now HIS stock answer too... LMAO...