Good morning!

Closing out the week is my reflection on the problem created by treating elections like popularity contests... and how it leads to corruption.

Here is the Texas Minute for Friday, February 11, 2022.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

NOTE: New editions of The Headline with Brandon Waltens premiere each Friday at 5 p.m., with video archives and podcasts available immediately.

EXCLUSIVE: Lieutenant Governor Conversations

• Constitutionally, the lieutenant governor in Texas wields extraordinary power – often more than the governor. This was by design, as Texas’ constitutional framers wanted to keep the executive branch of government divided and answerable to the citizenry. While these positions are appointed in the federal government and many other states, in Texas the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and other positions all elected separately on the ballot from each other.
      
• Each of the Republican candidates for lieutenant governor were invited to sit down in the 1836 Studios with Texas Scorecard’s Managing Editor, Brandon Waltens, for one-on-one interviews. The incumbent, Dan Patrick, declined the invitation.
   
• The discussions covered issues ranging from the state’s response to COVID-19 to how Republican priorities are stifled in the legislature. The participating GOP candidates for lieutenant governor include:

Paxton Launches Investigation Into GoFundMe

• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has launched an investigation into GoFundMe, Inc., a crowd-funding platform. The company processed more than $10 million in donations to benefit the truck drivers at the U.S-Canada border protesting forced COVID jabs, but then announced they wouldn’t distribute the funds as promised. Jacob Asmussen has the details.
        
• Paxton has issued a “Civil Investigative Demands” letter to the California-based company “to investigate potential violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act,” according to the A.G.’s office.
      
• “GoFundMe’s response to an anti-mandate, pro-liberty movement should ring alarm bells to anyone using the donation platform and, more broadly, any American wanting to protect their constitutional rights,” said Paxton.
       
• Canadian journalist Ezra Levant reported that, at the behest of Canada’s prime minister, GoFundMe decided to not refund the cash but rather direct it to left wing organizations like “Black Lives Matter, Greenpeace and Planned Parenthood!”
        

• After public outcry and threats of fraud investigation by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Paxton, GoFundMe changed their tune and announced they would be refunding the money. That doesn’t appear to be stopping the investigations, or the flood of criticism.

      
• “[GoFundMe] allowed money to go to bailing violent BLM rioters out of jail… but now denies the peaceful Freedom Convoy their funds,” tweeted media personality Tim Young.
     
• GoFundMe has proven itself to be a very bad company; decent people should refuse to use the platform.

GAWTP Issues More Statewide Endorsements

• With early voting starting on Monday, Sydnie Henry reports on the statewide endorsements made by Grassroots America We The People.
   
• The organization - led by JoAnn Fleming of Tyler – had previously announced the endorsement of Allen West for governor.
   
• GAWTP is endorsing Jon Spiers for Land Commissioner and Louie Gohmert for Attorney General. For lieutenant governor, the organization is endorsing both Trayce Bradford and Daniel Miller.

Voter Fraud Voids School Election

• Remind me again how there is no evidence of voter fraud?
   
• The 2020 school board election in Brownsville has been overturned due to “repeated mistakes” by local elections officials that allowed illegal votes to be counted. Erin Anderson has the details.
   
• A state district court has found “clear and convincing evidence” that more illegal votes were cast in the November 2020 Brownsville ISD school board election than the margin of victory.
      

• Marisa Leal, who was originally declared the winner by one vote, contested the results after a recount found her opponent, incumbent Minerva Peña, won by eight votes. The court found at least 24 illegal votes had been cast. A do-over election has been set for May 7.
      

• Ironically, Leal’s attorney is Gilberto Hinojosa – he is the chairman of the Texas Democrat Party, which denies voter fraud is a problem and opposes voter ID and other ballot security measures.

TFR: Explaining Alternative Property Tax Revenues

• With a great many people now talking about eliminating some or all of the state’s myriad of property taxes, our friends at Texans for Fiscal Responsibility look at some of the taxing alternatives.
   
• “Viable plans exist to move Texas off of the immoral practice of collecting property taxes to fund government services. The question that remains however is whether the political will exists to actually follow through and move beyond paying lip service to the issue?” – Jeramy Kitchen

Friday Reflection: Serving Two Masters

Who do our public servants actually serve? The evidence of bloated budgets, soaring taxes, and unfulfilled promises makes the case that incumbents serve themselves, and not the citizens. It’s time for the citizens to take action.

It’s in the Gospel of Matthew where we find Jesus’ admonition that, “No one can serve two masters.” Practical experiences shows us that no matter how hard we try, it is always true.

And it is especially true in politics.

I find very few instances in which someone ran for office for the sake of being corrupt. No, corruption happens over time as elected officials start seeking the approval of lobbyists and their fellow elected officials, rather than the voters for whom they ostensibly work.

I regularly hear incumbents tell me they have to violate their campaign promises by doing one thing, or by not doing something else, because they “have to work with these people.” Those people, of course, being the lobbyists and their fellow lawmakers. They don’t want to upset the legislative apple cart, disrupt the congeniality of the process, or risk being unpopular in Austin or Washington.

Because too many of us as citizens treat elections has popularity contests, our elections attract candidates drawn to being thought of as popular in whatever setting they happen to be. They tend to be approval-seekers.

That’s probably fine when they are seeking the approval of the citizens. It is less so when they crave the approval of their fellow politicians and the swampy, sewer lobbyists that hang around seats of power.

Here’s the rub. Politicians cannot seek both your approval and the approval of the political establishment. The tension of even trying will always result in the citizens seeing their precious liberties sacrificed by the politicians at the altar of contrived congeniality in the crony religion of self-promotion.

For our system of government to work, for liberty to be preserved, politicians must remember they are the citizens’ servants. We must expect them to serve the citizens first and only.

And, if we are to save this republic, the citizens should remember it as well.