Hey, did you know that there’s an election coming up? It’s the special election runoff for SD04 to succeed Tommy Williams and it features the ghastly Rep. Steve Toth and the slightly less ghastly Rep. Brandon Creighton. The Chron, who had endorsed third-place finisher Gordy Bunch back in April, now chooses the lesser evil of Creighton in the runoff.
Rep. Brandon Creighton
To understand the difference between the two candidates seeking to replace state Sen. Tommy Williams in state Senate District 4, look at their reactions to the surge of Central American children crossing our border. For state Rep. Brandon Creighton of Conroe, it is a “full-blown humanitarian crisis.” For state Rep. Steve Toth of The Woodlands, it is a “full-blown invasion.”
Both men have sterling conservative credentials, but Creighton doesn’t have to tarnish children to prove his. In the runoff for the SD-4 special election, Creighton deserves voters’ support.
[…]
Creighton isn’t always the most impressive candidate, but we’ve seen him work well behind the scenes, particularly during fights last session over the state’s water funding. On the campaign trail, he’s pushed for local law enforcement to bolster Department of Public Safety efforts along the border while avoiding counterproductive fear-mongering.
In contrast, Toth spreads conspiracy theories about disease outbreaks and advocates for Montgomery County to reject temporary housing for any of the children who have made it to our border. You would expect more compassion from a former pastor.
“Sterling” isn’t perhaps the word I would have used in paragraph 2, but I will concede there’s a matter of perspective involved. As for Toth, given the state of what Fred Clark calls “white evangelical Christianity” today, I actually would not expect any more compassion from a “pastor” like him. I can think of quite a few other “pastors” right here in the Houston area with an equal lack of compassion, and I’m sure the Chron’s editorial board could as well if they put their minds to it. Be that as it may, I agree that Creighton is the less distasteful choice. Too bad we can’t do any better than that. Runoff Day is August 5, if you’re keeping score at home, with early voting set to start next week. Let’s see how many votes are needed to send one of these two to the upper chamber.
I am in SD4 and get all of their mailouts delivered to my mailbox. I realize there wasn’t much for the chron to choose from, but it still seems odd that instead of sitting it out the chron endorsed the guy who’s biggest claim, according to everything I see, is “the man who kept Obamacare out of Texas”. He is also fond of the redstate.com quote that he is “a fighter in the mold of Ted Cruz”. I think it is more of a nod to Creighton for giving the cold shoulder to several grassroots groups in the area who weren’t too fond of Creighton before the border issues came to the front. Creighton thinks he has it locked up and refuses to answer candidate surveys or box himself in on any promises. Smart strategy if you think you will win.
Kind of an interesting little race going on. I live in SD 4 and I haven’t got any of their mailouts. It really sucks that he is the one who kept Medicaid expansion under Obamacate out of Texas and that apparently he is a fighter in the mold of Ted Cruz(which honestly I don’t see how that is so). I could see Steve Toth that way, yes, but not Creighton. The only good think I could think of for Creighton is that he supported Joe Straus in the House and Toth did not. Straus is about as good as it gets for us now until we can gain control. I just wonder if there is enough of us to keep Toth out of there. What’s the voting turnout going to look like? Who knows? I looked in the last Senate Special Election between Garcia and Alvarado there was an increase from the first election to the runoff. But from what I can tell Texas has never seen a Senate run off in August. Any guesses Kuff?
Ted – I think Creighton is the favorite, but I agree that anything can happen. We used to have September elections in the past but this is the first August runoff I can recall. Mark Jones guessed 20,000 for turnout on NPR the other day. I’ll go along with that.
Aug. 10,. 1985 we had a special election to fill HD140; I think the incumbent moved up to JP. Turnout was 6.16%