In what is surely among the oddest claims of the Texas GOP U.S. Senate race, former Dallas mayor Tom Leppert has put out a new television advertisement in which he claims all of his opponents are “empty suits”.
Who is the 'empty suit' in Texas' US Senate race?
Leppert’s largely self-funded campaign has the money to get out its message but, a successful campaign needs a message based in some element of truth in order to connect with GOP voters. I wonder what Leppert and his strategists think about the voters to whom they seek to appeal? Do they think we’re dumb, ignorant, or stupid?
How do you have anything rooted in truth when claiming that conservative Ted Cruz or Lt. Governor David Dewhurst are “empty suits”?
Unlike Leppert, Dewhurst made his much larger fortune as an entrepreneur in energy, not as a hired-hand executive for an already big firm. Dewhurst served as a CIA case officer, was elected Texas Land Commissioner, and then to the second highest job in Texas, Lt. Governor, more than once. That’s hardly an “empty suit”.
Ted Cruz is almost universally recognized as one of the most brilliant young constitutional lawyers in the United States of America. His reputation is so far reaching that well before we even knew who all was running, conservative constitutionalist stars from across the country endorsed Ted Cruz. Cruz served as Texas chief lawyer, its Solicitor General, and was successful in a number of landmark cases on behalf of Texas and states’ rights – hardly an “empty suit.”
Tom Leppert however, was an executive of a big company that he didn’t build, served as Dallas mayor for less than one full term, and so shocked Dallas by declaring himself a conservative when announcing for Senate, that his hometown newspaper’s first big story was a “who knew?” piece about his seemingly new found conservatism.
If any suit is empty among the three, it is that of Tom Leppert. About all he brings to the race is his full wallet.
