In one of the more funny episodes of arrogant officeholders, state Rep. Travis Clardy, reared in Lubbock but representing Nacogdoches, has been reported to have threatened to sue Cherokee County Republican Party officials because they dared consider a resolution of censure of him as provided in rule 44 of the Republican Party of Texas platform.
“A courtesy message was sent by Cherokee County Republican Party Chairwoman Tammy Blair to Clardy about the censure resolution. Clardy immediately responded with a phone call. According to Blair, Clardy boasted during the call, “The Republican Party Platform is meaningless… It is meant to get people elected,” reported the Texas Scorecard.
Rep. Travis Clardy
And therein you get an admission of what many of the, for lack of a better term, establishment politicians think of the political party they use to get elected. It is a dishonest and dishonorable belief I have heard many express over the years.
One can run as an Independent in Texas landing on the November ballot without running in a party’s nominating primary election. But instead of being honest with voters at large or voters who make up the membership of a party, some politicians go to great lengths to get a party’s brand by their name to facilitate their election in a General Election.
If you run as a party’s nominee it certainly doesn’t mean you have to agree with every detail of that party’s collection of philosophy, expressed in its platform, but it is reasonable for voters to expect that in general your votes once in office would be such as to carry that platform forward into official policy.
Clardy can stamp feet and threaten to sue people for calling him out, if that indeed happened, but no amount of foot stamping changes the fact that when you run with a party’s brand, with no intention of representing that brand while in office, you are a liar and a disreputable person.
To dishonestly use a political party to gain office is dishonorable
Robert Pratt
In one of the more funny episodes of arrogant officeholders, state Rep. Travis Clardy, reared in Lubbock but representing Nacogdoches, has been reported to have threatened to sue Cherokee County Republican Party officials because they dared consider a resolution of censure of him as provided in rule 44 of the Republican Party of Texas platform.
“A courtesy message was sent by Cherokee County Republican Party Chairwoman Tammy Blair to Clardy about the censure resolution. Clardy immediately responded with a phone call. According to Blair, Clardy boasted during the call, “The Republican Party Platform is meaningless… It is meant to get people elected,” reported the Texas Scorecard.
Rep. Travis Clardy
And therein you get an admission of what many of the, for lack of a better term, establishment politicians think of the political party they use to get elected. It is a dishonest and dishonorable belief I have heard many express over the years.
One can run as an Independent in Texas landing on the November ballot without running in a party’s nominating primary election. But instead of being honest with voters at large or voters who make up the membership of a party, some politicians go to great lengths to get a party’s brand by their name to facilitate their election in a General Election.
If you run as a party’s nominee it certainly doesn’t mean you have to agree with every detail of that party’s collection of philosophy, expressed in its platform, but it is reasonable for voters to expect that in general your votes once in office would be such as to carry that platform forward into official policy.
Clardy can stamp feet and threaten to sue people for calling him out, if that indeed happened, but no amount of foot stamping changes the fact that when you run with a party’s brand, with no intention of representing that brand while in office, you are a liar and a disreputable person.