Voters in House District 81 are confronted with a simple question: should they return to office someone who lied to them, repeatedly and directly, just two years ago?
When campaigning for the Texas House in 2014, Brooks Landgraf promised everyone he met that he would vote with the conservatives, and specifically that he would vote against House Speaker Joe Straus. Right up until the morning of the vote, Landgraf was making that promise to his constituents.
Right up until the moment he voted for Straus.
It was later revealed that Landgraf had been meeting regularly with – and getting money from – cronies of the cartel of Democrats and liberal Republican running the House.
An otherwise undistinguished legislative session for Landgraf was punctuated by him working feverishly for a special land-deal that critics say would have wildly enriched his own father. It might have been the most blatant example of crass cronyism during the session and raised the ire of taxpayers back home, and his colleagues in the House.
The discrepancy between his campaign rhetoric and governing record will be on full display, as Landgraf is being challenged in the GOP primary by Odessa businessman Josh Crawford.
Crawford is waging a grassroots-focused campaign highlighting the issues important to conservatives. Married with children, Crawford’s business acumen and background meshes with the distinctly working-class conservative district.
Landgraf lied repeatedly in his first campaign, and then abused his office. Taxpayers shouldn’t bear the cost of another term for a lawmaker who so readily sacrificed his integrity for a seat at the table of power.
