Some dedicate their lives to serving others. Others use public office to serve themselves.
Tony Tinderholt is one of those who has dedicated his life to serving others, even putting his life on the line on behalf of his country. Tinderholt entered his first tenure in the military in 1988, serving for ten years in Air Force Intelligence. When he left the Air Force he served as a teacher. But following the Sept 11th attacks on our nation, Tinderholt reentered the military to fight in the US Army. During that tenure he received the bronze star for his bravery in combat.
Tinderholt recently filed to represent Arlington as their State Representative for District 94. He is challenging incumbent Rep. Diane Patrick for the Republican nomination.
Patrick has been a disappointment in office, earning an “F” on the Fiscal Responsibility Index. On her way to earning that grade she voted to increase session-to-session spending 26.9%, supported opening the door for the state to massively increase spending by expanding Medicaid under ObamaCare, endorsed unconstitutional requirements on political speech while exempting labor unions from the new rules, and voted to fund corporate welfare programs.
But bad votes are commonplace in the Texas Legislature. What sets Patrick apart is the first bill she authored this legislative session. HB 638, which Patrick filed on January 23 and joint authored with liberal Democrat Gene Wu, would have mandated that every kindergarten student in Texas undergo a dental exam before they could move on to the first grade.
A dumb idea and a nice piece of nanny-statism, sure, but the really offensive part was how the bill related to Patrick’s bottom line. You see, Patrick’s husband is a dentist at West Park Row Dental in Arlington and specializes in treating family dental needs. When his wife talks about imposing a dental visit mandate on Texas children, Mr. Patrick sees dollar signs.
Voters in Arlington need to ask themselves who they would like representing them, a liberal like Rep. Diane Patrick who uses her office to benefit herself and her husband, or a fiscally responsible conservative like Tony Tinderholt who has a lifelong record of service.
Here at TFR we think the choice is obvious. We have endorsed Tinderholt for State Representative.
