At least one “Republican” candidate for the Texas House is actively courting Democrats in his bid to unseat a conservative incumbent. And he just got $10,000 from Texas Realtors to keep at it.
This has become a standing practice for liberal Republicans. It’s one thing to grow the GOP by attracting conservatives who have never voted in a primary; it’s another thing to undermine the party’s conservative grounding by bringing in liberals.
Andy Cargile is a former school administrator who was recruited to take on conservative freshman Jonathan Stickland in Tarrant County. Cargile has run a campaign long on innuendo and flat-out lies, but short on policy substance.
One of his biggest contributors? The Texas Realtors’ PAC, also known as TREPAC. (Why rank-and-file, daily-grind Realtors around the state allow their state association to oppose limited government, low taxes and conservative public policy is beyond this writer’s understanding.)
Meanwhile, Andy is actively courting liberal Democrats to turn-out in the GOP primary. At his campaign fundraiser in January, Cargile’s featured speaker — Irwin Matthews — said as much, urging others in attendance get their “Democratic friends” to turn out for Cargile. The NE Tarrant Tea Party recently wrote about an e-mail circulating in HD92 asking Democrat voters to support Cargile in the GOP primary!
In-district observers point to the sheer number of instances where “Andy Cargile” signs are in the same front yards as “Wendy Davis” signs.
Indeed, Mr. Stickland posted to his a Facebook page yesterday a photo of the house of a Democratic precinct chairman, Jeff Childers, in the district sporting that very sign combination!
