OK, here's my general voting philosophy:
I'm going to grab my ankles and vote for not-very-RKBA-friendly Republicans 90+% of the time because, on the whole, the Dems are [still] anti-gun.
I do believe in the protest vote, but for pragmatic reasons/purposes, I'm not going to vote for a Libertarian (or any other 3rd party candidate) if it'll draw enough votes away that a pro-gun Republican will lose to an anti-gun Democrat.
Now, off to the races.......
I. Atty General:
- REP: Greg Abbot
- DEM: David Van Os
- LIB: Jon Roland
Here's the thing with the AG race. More than anything, I don't want to vote against Abbot (and probably won't), as he's "A+" rated by TSRA ("A" is a candidate who answered a questionnarie perfectly or an incumbent who has no votes against RKBA; "A+" is reserved for incumbents who have "carried the torch" for TSRA, so to speak).
That said, I would probably prefer a libertarian (small "l") approach to the AG's office. I like a lot of the stuff Jon Roland's written, especially on the Second Amendment (example from his
website: "
Intent of the Fourteenth Amendment was to Protect All Rights, 2000.").
And, if I go "all in" on Roland, who ends up leeching too many votes from Abbott, and Van Os gets elected, I'm not exactly going to wind up with a dead man's hand because, well, Van Os is a TSRA "A" candidate himself...... I probably won't like his DEM approach to a lot of other traditional lib DEM shit, but *sometimes* "them's the breaks". If you can't make a damned
omlet without breaking a few eggs, just how many eggs will it take to fix a Republic?
II. Almost all of the judiciary candidates......
In my districts, a lot of the races are between REPs and LIBs, so I can "protest vote" for the LIB to send a message to the REPs, and there are no real losers........
or are there?
I certainly don't want to vote against a pro-gun REP, as that might send the *wrong* message.
III. State Rep
So far, I am voting for one DEM. And in a race I never thought I'd vote for a DEM....... State Rep. Delwin Jones is currently my rep, and I've voted for him every time prior. That said, even with the incumbent's advantage, he's only managed to get a "B" rating by TSRA. His challenger, John E. Miller is a DEM (
profile at PVS). Also a "B" rating by TSRA. But he's also an NRA Life Member (1968-), and a retired LTC, USAR.
I have talked to the Jones office about 10 times in the last 2-3 years regarding 2A/RKBA legislation, and I've always gotten a very lukewarm reception. They never seemed to think gun issues were as important as I did (although in his defense, he voted the way I wanted him to about 1/2 to 3/4 of the time).
I haven't pulled the lever (so to speak) yet, but it's what I'm ready to do. I've been working on my sample ballot for the past three days. If I shouldn't do it, talk me out of it. I know the main reason not to do it is that, no matter how RKBA-friendly *he* may be, he doesn't represent the party, and a vote for him is a vote toward giving the Sheila Jackson Lee types the majority.