Remember when Land Commissioner George P. Bush was considered a rising star? The Chronicle does.
Miguel Suazo
Four years ago we enthusiastically endorsed George P. Bush for land commissioner. We said he was “the real deal.” Turns out, we were really off.
You don’t have to take our word for it.
Bush’s predecessor in the office, Republican Jerry Patterson, not only has refused to endorse Bush. He is actually reaching across the aisle to endorse Democratic candidate Miguel Suazo.
The defection from the party line is more widespread than a single Republican activist: Bush’s other Republican primary opponents — Rick Range, Davey Edwards and David Watts — all signed onto a letter with Patterson saying they would not be voting for Bush in November.
In these divisive times, when allegiance to political parties has become tribal, the bipartisan objection to Bush says a lot.
Suazo has our endorsement as well.
In contrast to so many politicians who like to play a hardscrabble cowboy in campaign ads, Suazo, 37, has lived that role. He grew up on a cattle ranch and labored as a janitor to put himself through the University of New Mexico. He has experience working as a staffer on Capitol Hill for U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat who retired in 2013.
Today, Suazo works as an Austin-based energy and natural resources attorney and has an expert’s knowledge of oil and gas law, and water law. These are key issues for the man in charge of Texas’ oldest state agency. The position’s most important job involves the massive oil and gas reserves under state soil. Revenues from those mineral rights serve as a core asset for the state’s Permanent School Fund.
See here for more on the Patterson endorsement, and read the rest for the Chron’s list of grievances against Bush. Bush was one of the top votegetters in 2014, and it’s a little hard to envision him losing even in a great Democratic year, but he’s not only been bad at his job, he’s also had his own share of headlines about questionable decisions and ethical morasses. In a state without Sid Miller and Ken Paxton, he might seem to be the most vulnerable statewide incumbent running. The fact that this is all barely a ripple says a lot about the Republican slate.
Elsewhere, the Chron endorses more judges, and unlike the theme of these last three endorsement posts, they generally like the Republican incumbents. If it weren’t for the bail lawsuit, they would have endorsed an overwhelming number of them by now, with nearly all of the star-system ties going to the office-holder. Keep that in mind if you hear anyone grumble about bias.