Hilderbran’s ‘Courageous’ Campaign

Remember when we warned about moderates re-branding themselves during the primary season? Comptroller Candidate Harvey Hilderbran and his campaign team may be trying harder than any one.

Mr. Hilderbran – Speaker Straus’ Ways & Means Chairman — is now labeling himself as a “Courageous Conservative” on his campaign literature, as if voters had forgotten all about his voting record (or lack thereof) this session.

That’s right, you’ll surely recall Mr. Hilderbran was suspiciously absent from many noteworthy, big-issue votes during the 83^rd session, so much that the Dallas Morning News documented how his fellow members would laugh every time Mr. Hilderbran’s name was read as an excused absence.

Of course, Mr. Hilderbran made sure to put statements in the journal indicating how he would have voted… after the unofficial results of those votes were already announced.

When Mr. Hilderbran was actually present on the House floor, he was pushing for things like tax carve-outs for his corporate friends… something his primary opponent, State Sen. Glenn Hegar, had to fix in the state’s upper chamber in order to pass broad-based tax relief.

Sound courageous to you? Sounds more like ineffectiveness to me.

Texans deserve better than a self-described “courageous” conservative as their Comptroller. They deserve an actual conservative.

Dustin Matocha

Dustin Matocha is the CFO and COO of Texas Scorecard. Dustin graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BBA in Management, a BA in Government, and a minor in Marketing. He’s a self-described Corvette enthusiast, baseball purist, tech geek and growing connoisseur of local craft beer.