The real question is what did Rick Perry have to do in order to win his party’s 51%?  The result that may well count the most is the continued exodus of  voters out of the Republican Party who can no longer stand the political stench created by the Governor.

How do we know this?  Four days prior to election day, volunteers from Independent Texans including yours truly, were on the phone calling independent voters in House District 92.  These voters had backed Carole Keeton Strayhorn or Kinky Freidman as independents for Governor in 2006.  We asked them to kindly vote in the Republican primary for Debra Medina and to help reelect their Texas House representative Todd Smith.  On Saturday, I received a call from Smith’s opponent, Jeff Cason, who claimed he didn’t really know who Bob Perry was, though he had just taken $25,000 from him.  Ironically, on Monday a jury awarded a Mansfield couple $51 million in a case against Perry Homes.  Maybe now Cason knows who Bob Perry is.

Bob Perry’s connections to Rick Perry and the Governor’s appointees to the Texas Residential Construction Commission had been a big issue back in 2006 when  Smith asked then State Comptroller, Carole Strayhorn, to review the agency.  This investigation eventually led to the abolition of the agency by the Sunset Commission.

Mr. Cason seemed to think that, as an independent, I would be angered if I knew the “truth” about Smith’s failure to pass the Voter ID bill.  I might have caught him off guard when I said that from the vantage point of Texas independents the real failing of Voter ID was its dominance of the last session.  I further pointed out to Cason that about 4 million independent, non-aligned Texas voters have been disenfranchised for about 40 years.  We were much hotter to trot on real reforms like Redistricting Reform — taking the redistricting weapon out of the hands of both parties.

I wouldn’t, for one minute, claim we saved Todd Smith, though we were happy to help.  My point is the same as Will Lutz of the Lone Star Report.  There is a growing lack of decency and honesty in Texas politics.  Political honesty is a prerequisite for any true reform.  Cason’s temerity in sending out a mailing implying that Todd Smith was soft on sexual predation deserved a smack down – which HD 92 voters likely figured out for themselves.

I got a note from a member of the Texas media (one of the few who likes Rick Perry) who wrote to me, “Why don’t you just get over it”—referring to Perry’s penchant for privatized toll roads and the Trans-Texas Corridor.  Our grudge against Rick Perry goes way deeper than the resentment Texans naturally feel for the Governor’s attempt to grab 500,000 acres of prime, private farmland for the TTC.  It goes to the structural problems in our electoral system which breeds more and more polarization.  This creates opportunities for likes of Rick Perry despite the fact that they actually enjoy minority (no pun intended) support.  An example of my point is the defeat of Victor Carillo, Republican incumbent Railroad Commissioner.  It appears that Mr. Carrillo’s only “sin” was his Hispanic last name.

One out every two of those voting in the Republican primary voted for Debra Medina (18.6%) or Kay Bailey Hutchison (33.3%).  Kay’s concession speech came with less than 20% of the precincts having been counted.  It was clear that regular Republicans, out of weakness in the face of the Medina insurgency, needed to circle the wagons.  If we, at Independent Texans, have anything to say about it, the wagons will be re-routed somewhere else in November.  We can start with the political reform that gets to the heart of partisan power over the next two years – redistricting.

Prediction:  If Bill White figures out how to reach out to independents with real reform propositions on redistricting and more, he will beat Rick Perry.  If he doesn’t, Rick Perry will keep fueling the rise of independent politics in Texas and some day we will win.

Message to Texas Tea Partiers:  You have an important decision to make.  Are you really independent, or will you patch things up like Kay did with Rick Perry and Sarah Palin, who are out to use and then crush you?  It’s your choice.

Message to Bill White:  Pledge to move redistricting to a special session and have the Governor’s Call contain this simple message – legislators should not be allowed to draw their own district lines.  This is an example of what it means to be a small “i” independent (and, as you say, “inclusive”) Governor.

PS For to those wanting to be knowledgeable:  The new online Texas Tribune newspaper is providing excellent followup coverage of Texas races, including a nifty tool to search for where candidates are getting their contributions.

My advice to Rick Perry is to keep running – down your toll roads.  The fact that Beck, Perry and now Kay (shame on you girl!) are attacking Medina makes me want to support her all the more.

You see, independents love a fair fight and we detest the party machines for their dirty tricks.  Although independents span the political spectrum, and therefore many of us don’t exactly fit into the Tea Party movement, we appreciate what is going on here.  Medina is standing up to the party hacks and saying that ordinary people have – quite simply – the right to think and say whatever they believe without being demonized.  The party hacks will never stand for that.  But you knew that already, right?

Beck’s attack on Medina should be taken as a signal and a warning to tea partiers that the Republican Party will do and spend whatever it takes to crash and burn your party.  There is a better place for you.  It’s called the independent movement.  But let me give you fair warning.  We are of the belief that nothing is going to change about policy in this country, unless we build a united movement (across the ideological divide) for political reform.

We tried to build a united front for reform back in the 1990’s when Perot-led independent movement came on like gangbusters.  But the Republican Party co-opted and then killed our agenda (deficit reduction, term limits and campaign finance reform).  The rest of the movement killed itself off arguing about which litmus test we would use to denote a “true reformer”.  Let’s not keep replaying this bad movie.

Here’s the Beck/Medina tape on YouTube for your own edification:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j2Ov6u9e38

Here’s Debra’s response:  http://www.medinafortexas.com/getPost?p=272

Details below.

Linda Curtis, Independent Texans http://IndyTexans.org

Debra Medina for Governor

Independent Texans’ members are well aware of Governor Rick Perry’s record which is why he received not one vote of support from our members.   Perry has become legendary for his abuses of power and the veto pen, his revolving door for lobbyists, and for poisoning the halls of the legislature with a redistricting gerrymander on steroids back in 2003.  For Texas independents Perry is the embodiment of what is so wrong in government today.  Rick Perry is such a problem for political independents that we have resorted to joking about it at BootPerry.org to make our point.

Kay Bailey Hutchison, who received about 30% support from our members, grasps our concerns about the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC), but has not yet fully made the connection between such policy monstrosities as the TTC and political reform.  Though the same might be said for Debra Medina, our endorsement of Mrs. Medina springs from the long-held desires of independent voters for citizen legislators.  Debra is an ordinary person (a nurse to be exact) who has held her own in this race with two titans in Texas politics.  She has demonstrated that she deserves our support.

What Independents Want – A United Front for Reform

Since 1992 when Ross Perot received the largest independent vote in US history, independent voters (now at 41% of the American electorate – Pew Research Center, May 2009) and our concerns, have grown.  We are even sicker today of the partisan gamesmanship that keeps voters fighting amongst ourselves while the big shots in both parties have put the economy and our very livelihoods on the edge of a cliff.

We never liked Bush bashing and we don’t like Obama bashing either.  We want the parties to either come together or get out of the way.  We – Americans of all persuasions — want to be part of the conversation about fixing our problems before it is too late.

Once every ten years we, as a country, have an opportunity to damp down the partisan game immediately following the census.  It is called redistricting. We can no longer afford to allow politicians to choose their own voters.  We must take the gerrymandering weapon out of the hands of both parties, through a non-partisan independent redistricting commission.  This is the single most important thing Texans need to bring any real policy solutions to the table.  Is there a gubernatorial candidate out there who will stand up for a Texas Redistricting Commission?  Rick Perry would never sign it.  Would Kay?  Debra Medina…our best hope. (Read more about political reform here.)