Patrick v Van Arsdale, Round 2

Karen Brooks writes about the upcoming primary fight between State Rep. Corbin Van Arsdale and Sen. Dan Patrick, who has apparently succeeded in recruiting a proxy to wage that battle for him.

Patrick - one of the most conservative senators in the chamber - told the Houston Chronicle a month or two ago that his recruiting against Corbin had nothing to do with that, but instead because it is "clear that Mr. Van Arsdale has not voted in line with his district, and he has surely not voted in line with me."

You know ... ok. I haven't looked at each one of the 47,000 votes the lawmakers took over the course of the session. But I have seen CVA's voting patterns over the last three (and many special sessions) - and I can say with absolute authority (and we know how powerful that is...) that he ain't no liberal. Or even a moderate.

But in the interest of truthiness, to check Patrick's statement, I looked for conservative rankings of the legislators and found this chart from the Heritage Foundation - which, by the looks of it, is about as far right an organization as you can get.

Out of a possible 100, they gave Corbin an 85. Patrick scored a 77. From what I remember from high school, Corbin just got a B to Patrick's C-.

Well, whaddaya know. Patrick's correct. Turns out they didn't vote the same...

I think that would technically qualify as a C+, but you get the idea. And just to prove that snarky minds think alike, Los Dos Professors made the same observation. I guess that's the downside of being an attention hound - people listen to what you say even when you'd have been better off being ignored.

More unintentional hilarity comes from the Chron story on this potential race.

In September, Patrick sent precinct chairs an e-mail that fell just short of endorsing his business partner Michael Kubosh.

Kubosh, who voted in the 2006 Democratic primary and ran as a Democrat against Patrick, isn't running, said political consultant Court Koenning.

He said Kubosh was worried that his work as a bail bondsman would be targeted in campaign ads.

He's more worried about his work as a bail bondsman being targeted in the campaign than the fact that he ran as a Democrat (sorry, "ran" as a "Democrat") against Patrick in 2006? Those are some interesting voters out in HD130. But it's all good as far as I'm concerned. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to tend to my popcorn before it burns. Mmm, popcorn...

Posted by Charles Kuffner on November 03, 2007 to Election 2008