Spotlight on HD 132: Interview with Michael Schofield

As long as I've been of age to vote, I took my choices seriously and did the research that was needed to help select the best and most qualified candidate.  Pffffft!  If you believe that, then I've got some ocean front property in Arizona to sell.  I hate to admit it, but it hasn't been until recently that I have been doing any sort of research or homework on candidates.

Since I've entered a more mature and responsible phase of my life, ahem, I do actually think about who would be the best candidate for the job and if you've been reading any of my posts recently, you'll know that I'm referring to one race in particular; the race for Texas House District 132.  The run-off is in full swing (early voting has started) and the two candidates that are contenders for Bill Callegari's seat at the table in HD 132 are Ann Hodge, Katy Chamber President and Mike Schofield, former adviser to Governor Perry.  I already published my interview for Ann Hodges, so here is my interview with Mike Schofield for your information.  I wanted to get a feel for both candidates and see where the interview led, and I started out with some basic questions.  Here they are in some particular order:

Kelly Horsley: Why did you decide to run for office?
Mike Schofield: Back in 2003 I got hired by the governor to work on tort reform.  It's the first time I'd ever worked with the legislature and it didn't take long to realize that this is where I could actually do my service.  This is where I could help my community most and make my mark.  Some people teach adults to read, other people can coach little league and what I could do was public policy and particularly in the house.  I realized pretty early on that I have the facility for legislating and also for figuring out how to get stuff done up there which is very different.  It's great to have an idea, it's another thing to get stuff done.  The more the governor added to my portfolio, the broader array of issues I got to work on, the more I realized that what my calling was, to serve in the legislature.  By the time I'm done, I hope I'm able to provide a service to the community.

KH: How long would you serve if elected?
MS: I have no idea.  This district will cease to exist in eight years, so if you were planning on serving for more than eight years, you have no knowledge of that.
KH:What makes you say that the district will cease to exist?
MS:The district is growing so fast, at best, it will be cut in half.  It might get decimated depending on the demographics of the county and of the area.  They may take pieces from all over the place.  They may do any number of things, but at best, it will get cut in half.  Which can change everything from not only the size of the district, but the demographics and everything else.  I've heard people say they think it will be sliced north and south of 529.

KH:Tell me a little more about your job with the Governor because I'd like to find out more about it myself and to be able to share it with the readers.
MS: I was originally hired to work on the big tort reform bill of 2003.  We were losing Dr.'s left and right.  Women in the Valley with problem pregnancies had drive all the way to Corpus or San Antonio because doctors were leaving, even doctors who had never been sued were seeing 10% and 15% increases in their malpractice insurance every year to the point where they threw in the towel.  So I went up to work on that bill and that was my first assignment that's what I started with.  The Governor liked my work and they were in the middle of redistricting so he added election law to my portfolio.  Then he added gaming to my portfolio and then for a little while part of insurance although we have a separate person to do that.  The more I went along, the more he added. Every time he'd assign me to something, I became 'the guy' for that issue.
 By the time I was done, I had those issues, plus anything to do with property rights because I'd worked the eminent domain bill.  Plus, as I got more senior, I would be brought in on issues that weren't my responsibility originally as sort of an adviser.
I would get brought in on a number of issues over the course of time, to the point where my last session that I worked for the Governor in 2013, I had 500 bills that I was responsible for.  I was responsible for every word of them.. You're not responsible in general, you have to know if something has been added to that bill on a Thursday in April that might make it unpalatable, whether somebody snuck something in in committee OR whether somebody took a part of your bill and put it on somebody else's bill that they might not be aware of.  So, it was great training for being a legislator because you have to keep track of where everything is at all times.  You have to know how to get things off of your bill, you have to know how to go persuade people to leave your stuff alone, you have to be able to fight to maintain the things that you're trying to pass, and fight to keep bad things from happening.  That's essentially the function of a legislator.

KH: What work are you most proud of while you were there in Austin, working for the Governor?
MS: I think I'm most proud of two things; I'm most proud of my work on tort reform over the years, not any one particular bill.  I'm proud of being the guy who was responsible for seeing any problems developing anywhere in any legislation and snuffing them out so we don't lose what we've gained in Texas by preventing frivilous lawsuits and by preventing the damage to our economy that happens when you allow the lawyers to run rampant and hold everybody up.  The second thing I'm most proud of is my work on the voter ID Bill.  It took three sessions of working with legislators, working with stakeholders from around the country about their experiences with their voter ID Bills to get that bill passed.  I'm proud of my work on a lot of the text of the bill, making sure that we had free voter ID's  so that we couldn't be challenged for violating the poll tax cases.  Making sure that we had a strong Photo ID bill that didn't back down to allowing two forms of non-photo ID.  The other provisions that we had to work with over the course of the bill to make sure that we not only passed it, but we had a bill that would hold up in court and that would work.  Sometimes you see politicians just want to  pass a bill so that they get credit for it; it doesn't really matter to them what's underneath the caption.  This was really important to us that we got this bill right and it would actually serve to avoid some of the fraud and some of the problems we've seen in elections over the years.

KH: Tell me a little about the work you've done with True the Vote
MS: As the governor's election law adviser I've learned a lot about the way our election system works, so we met with stakeholders, anybody who wanted to meet with us, to let us know what they were seeing in the field and to give them the benefit of our expertise on what the law is and how things are supposed to work.  The True the Vote people, particularly Catherine Englebrecht have worked really hard to ensure fair elections.  They sent people into places where they weren't welcome to make sure the elections were being run fairly.  They took an awful lot of really vicious and inaccurate statements about what they were doing.  Politicians wanted to chill their right to go and participate in the process and ensure free elections, and they stayed with it anyway.  That's kind of going above and beyond the call but it's also what we need from citizens if we are going to maintain a free society.  You can't sit on the sidelines and hope that somebody else does that kind of work, and I really appreciate that they got off the ground and did their due diligence and got out there and learned what they needed to learn about how the system worked and trained everybody at what they were supposed to do when they got to the polling place and recruited enough volunteers to make sure the polling got done.

KH:If something gets passed, any bill, and the public says, "I hate this bill!  Call the Governor and ask him to veto it!"  Or, let's say something doesn't get passed and the public says, "Hey, what happened here?"  How much power or input do the people really have when they call and do that sort of thing?
MS: People can have as much impact on the Texas Legislature as they want.  And what I mean by that is, I've had numerous people at their doorstep tell me, "Well, I want to talk to my legislator but I just don't think it matters or people are paying attention."   Over the last decade I have spent a lot of time in legislators offices and I can tell you from experience that two or three calls on any one issue lights their entire office on fire.  You'll be in there and you'll here, you now, two or three calls about some water issue and suddenly the legislator's saying why is everybody in my district worried about this water issue?
 Remember, state legislative districts are fairly small compared to other political districts and legislators also know that they are not that famous or well known, so their name recognition isn't going to carry them through.  They can't afford to have people in the district angry at them, so I think that tends to spur people to really pay a lot closer attention to what happens in their district.  Particularly during a session when you're not home as much as you are the rest of the time, you rely on the people who speak up.  The squeaky wheel gets the grease because you are the conduit to what's going on in the neighborhood.
So, but my short answer to your short question, is that people can have a lot of impact, but it's incumbent on the people to be paying enough attention to contact their legislator before the action is taken rather than after the vote.  If you come to your legislator in July and say why did this pass in May, you can't do much good.  If you talk to your legislator when a bill is set for a hearing or when it's  had it's hearing and maybe there's been a news story about it, you can reach your legislator before he has to vote on it and that's when they can realize that people in the district have a different way of viewing this issue than I thought they did.

KH:That leads me to my next question, how do we keep track of all of the things that are happening in the State Legislature?  You get bits and pieces from the news.  If I want to keep up with the State Legislature I'm looking at Texas Tribune, or some of the local type things.  If a regular citizen says, they see that the state is proposing, xyz, how do we follow those bills?
MS: I never rely on the mainstream media for news about anything about public policy, not just because of their views, but because they tend to report on something after it happens, which is of no use to you.  Instead, I would go to whatever source I'm comfortable with learn about the issues I care about.  If your interested in general, you go to the Texas Tribune or the Quorum Report or any number of other frees sources where you can learn about what's about to happen.  They all have lists of hearings that are coming up.  They have discussions about bills that are in the process that haven't had any action yet.  Then, I would go to capitol.state.tx.us, which is a great resource, if you play with it for about twenty minutes, you start to learn that you look for things that you care about in any number of ways.   You can look up all the bills Schofield has filed.  You can say, I want to see all of the things in the State Affairs Committee, because that committee tends to carry the things that I care about.  You can also look up the bill by bill number.  So if you know representative Schofield has filed bill 123, you can go on and track what's happening with that bill.  Once you've got the bill, now you're good.  You can follow every step of the process.  I cannot emphasize enough, you want to get to a bill, if it's going to have a hearing, you want to get to it before the hearing, so maybe you can testify.  Maybe you can talk to the author and you can have a say in what the committee substitutes going to be.  If it's about to go to the floor, you don't want to wait until after they voted on it.  When it's going to go to the Governor's office, you don't want to wait until after he has signed it or vetoed it, you want to weigh in while he's holding on to it.

KH:What is something you wish more voters knew about the legislative process?
MS:The main thing I wish people knew was how to track the things they care about, because your interests may be different than your neighbors.  Each of you should be able to find what it is you care about, where that is in the process so that you can have an impact. That's the number one thing.  The number two thing I used to go around to different Republican groups and give a lecture on the state budget, because more people should be able to understand how to find things in that budget, understand how their money's being spent, because it is actually fairly accessible, if you know what you're looking for.  It's like learning a language, once you know what you're looking for, you never have to ask me again.  You don't have to be dependent on any state rep or any staffer or anybody else because you'll be able to look it up from now on.  An educated and an informed electorate is the best possible source of maintaining democracy.  It's so easy now.

I listened to this interview and Michael had such great answers and I really enjoyed our time during the interview.  He is a wealth of information about the legislative process and what I really liked is that he seemed passionate about making sure the electorate in HD 132 is informed and kept up to speed about things that are happening in the legislature.  That's something he and I both agree on, an informed electorate is key. 

So, HD 132, we have a great problem on our hands, we have two outstanding candidates to choose from.  Please feel free to share this and other blogs of mine or others here on Texas GOP Vote to help make an informed decision on who to best represent you. Early voting started this week and election day is May 27th.  Please get out and make your voices heard!
 

Spotlight on HD 132 Runoff: Interview With Ann Hodge Part 2

As you know, Republican State Representative Bill Callegari resigned his seat at the close of the last legislative session; you know the one with a record three special sessions?  That left the opportunity for, well, anybody and everybody to throw their name into the ring to take his place.  Four candidates emerged and after the primary held in March, we are down to two.  The runoff election is around the corner and the two candidates facing off are Michael Schofield and Ann Hodge.  Hey, HD 132, we have two fantastic candidates and we have a choice to make.  As a resident of Texas House District 132 and an activist for my community, I want an informed electorate to be able to make the best choice possible; sue me.  I was very appreciative that Ann Hodge, candidate for HD 132 took time out of her day to answer my questions.  I have already shared with you the first half of our interview, and now, I'm proud to share with you the long awaited sequel.  Here goes!


KH: What piece of legislation did you want to see passed last session that failed?
AH: I wanted to see more on HB 5.  I am very concerned about end of semester testing.  I have had the pleasure of working with HCC and Katy ISD and I do not understand the disconnect.  We are testing at a certain level, but yet I continue to be told when they reach college or the community college level or the university, a lot of our students are in remedial classes.  How can you be in a remedial class?  I'm seeing employees that can't spell.  I really am struggling with what we are  testing and teaching to the test.  I am a huge proponent of accountability, but I'm not sure we are measuring it the right way.

KH: What would you like to see brought back?  Would you like to see HB 5 brought back?
AH:  It's interesting, at the candidate forum the other night, at the school board candidate forum, they were all like, our wish is the legislature will leave alone what they've already done and not touch anything.  I mean, really?  There's not some things you would have tweaked a little?  The other thing is, I haven't had the chance to run the analysis yet, but I did log onto HCAD and I was pretty shocked to see the dramatic increase in my husband's and my home.  What I'm looking at is it seems to me like  that we've got a pretty big windfall coming in Harris County and our respective school districts.  Now, I have not seen what that looks like for Ft. Bend and Waller County, which is part of Katy ISD, but I would really like to entertain some dialogue as to how we are going to be using that increase in the tax rolls that we are going to see from the appraised value versus the market value.  I recognize that there's a cap, but it still is a pretty significant amount if our little piece of the world is indicative.  I'm told right now that homes are staying on MLS for eight days in this corridor and they're going for full ask, if not with a kicker from the realtors that I'm working with on a daily basis, so I've got to believe some of that appraisal is pretty close to being accurate.  That's some significant money and we're not talking about it.  I'm the one bringing it up going, um guys, what's going to happen?

The other piece that I"m troubled by is I serve on two hospital boards and I'm not convinced that we've made any progress with the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  As a result, I've asked both administrators of the two hospitals, have you seen a decrease in the load of indigent and uninsured that we are serving walking through the doors.  No, quite the opposite, we've seen an increase.  Yet, you and I pay Harris County Hospital taxes and I would really like to have a dialog about that line item on our property tax that we are paying.  I understand how Zerwas' bill for a waiver on the Medicaid went down in the last session, but if there is a way that we can find to draw down some of the dollars from the federal government without increasing our tax burden, I'm all for trying to get that from Washington, D.C.  Now what form that looks like; I was told there were opportunities for block grants and waivers without any increases but drawing back some of those dollars, which takes the burden off of those of us that own property, then I'd like to have that discussion.  I'd like to have it, hopefully, without all the rhetoric, I mean, you know that it has to be draped in party lines.  I mean, why aren't we fighting for everything we can get back from Washington, D.C.?  I want our share.

KH: What legislation would you most like to see repealed?
AH:  I think we need to look at every agency and what their function is and I'm convinced that there is duplication of effort.  I'm also disturbed because I keep hearing from professional organizations who have licensing or regulatory fees that they pay, that those dollars are not going to support that agency that is to oversee that profession; they are being diverted.  I think that we need to just say that is an indirect tax and be honest about some of this.  I think that's where government loses the respect of citizens as well as business owners because what they see is that they are basically speaking out of both sides of their mouth.  If I had to tell you something that I would repeal, sitting here today, I don't know if I could tell you one thing I would repeal as much as I would really like to tear apart the structures and take a hard look at what each of the agencies is responsible for, what their income sources are and are they delivering the services or is it really just a front for revenue for the state of Texas, in which case, let's be honest about it.  I mean, if you look at where our fuel taxes are going and so forth.  If you look at what happened with the Lottery, I would just say we have really been mislead on a number of things that I find unfortunate.  It's that behavior, and you know as a business owner, you're not going to succeed.

In closing, Ann had this to say about serving the community as a state representative and being a member of the community: "I think that constituent services; lets face it, your there day in and day out.  You're only up in Austin for six months every two years and it's what you do in the district that really counts and that's where the model of the chamber pays huge dividends, in my opinion; that customer service is essential.  I would just suggest that customer service, as you well know, that's job one and it will be job one for me."

*Don't miss tonight's candidate forum!*

What: Katy Libertea is hosting with Bob Price moderating 

When: May 8th 

Time: 6:30 PM

Where: 1773 Westborough Drive, Katy 77449 

Spotlight on HD 132 Runoff: Interview With Ann Hodge

Last week, I was able to sit down with one of the candidates in the runoff for the House District 132 seat, Ann Hodge.  Ann has been a resident of District 132 for a while now and her name is synonymous with the Katy Chamber, of which she has been the president since 1999.  With the primary over and the runoff in full swing, it's like hitting the reset button on vetting candidates and trying to sway voters to support each respective candidate.  We discussed that and other issues related to the election; from families to committees, nothing was off limits.

Kelly Horsley: Ann, what made you decide to run for office?

Ann Hodge: People in the community came to me and asked me to run, because it was clear that they felt like we needed someone who was more grounded in the community, had lived the issues and they felt like someone needed name identification, and they needed to be able to raise the money and they needed to be able to go the distance; and not a career politician.

Kelly Horsley: How long do you think that you would serve in the state house, if you were elected?

Ann Hodge: My guess is it would probably be eight to twelve years just depending on what happens.  You know, it's not that I want to make it a career, by any stretch of the imagination.  I think it would closely mirror what Bill Callegari did and I think that he was able to achieve most of his agenda, during that tenure.  I think two to four years is probably a little short, but I would say that would be my best guess.  
Kelly Horsley: I know that's kind of subjective and that you might say, I'll go back to Austin as many times as the voters send me back, but I was just curious.
AH: It's certainly not a stepping stone for me.

K H: I know that there are a lot of tough issues that we're facing as a nation, nationally, locally, etc.  What do you think is the biggest issue facing Texas?
AH: I actually think there's three, and I think infrastructure is huge.  Matter of fact, I just saw where Congress is taking a look at a one time funding for mobility.  I'm very, very concerned about the lack of funding for mobility, particularly in the high growth areas.  I'm extremely concerned that Texas is  having to protect our borders, that the feds are not doing that and that it's falling to us as taxpayers.  And last but not least, I'm passionate about local control, I do not feel that the people in Austin much less in Washington D.C. know what's best for my children or my grandchildren.

KH: What house members, if you were to get elected, would you see yourself working closely with?
AH: I think the delegation that we have.  Of course we don't know what will happen with Glenn Heger's seat, we don't know a couple of seats.  We know that Paul Bettencourt will be probably our next Senator for district 7.  We have been very, very blessed, in my opinion to have Bill Callegari, John Zerwas, Dan Patick, and Joan Huffman and all of the folks including Glenn Heger that have done a great job.  I think the biggest thing is we work together; they've listened to the community, they've tried.  One of the things that concerns me is being in three counties; the Katy area, you can't just vote from our legislative boundaries.  And people say to me, you hosted a fundraiser for John Zerwas a couple years ago, yeah, and John's got part of Katy.  I may not get to vote for John, and I don't get to vote for Dan Patrick anymore for that seat, but I think we are all in this together.  So, you align with the people that I think can most closely mirror what you're trying to do. That's probably going to be more of your urban legislators than it is your rural, although we certainly have some issues in Cypress as well as Katy with some of your existing farms that need a lot of assistance too to maintain their stablity.

KH: What committees do you see yourself working on, if elected?
AH: Well, State Affairs, of course, the plum is always appropriations.  I would be remiss to not say education; the holy grail.

KH: What are your thoughts on home schooling?
AH: Oh, I applaud it.  I have five grandchildren and I can tell you they all have five different gifts. My first granddaughter  I told my husband that I would get down and kiss the ground if she walked across the stage at the Merrell Center and she did, bless her heart; and I did, I kissed the ground.  The next one that graduated from Katy High is at Uof H in the Bauer program so, the one that graduated first, though, attended some private schools, and definitely been in one charter school, and just trying to find that niche.  So, I'm very sensitive to that that. one size doesn't fit all and I don't think they develop their gifts and their talents at the same rate and I think we've got to figure out a better way to address that.  I'm very concerned that by eighth grade they're being asked to decide a career path.  I'm not convinced that everybody in the eighth grade has the ability to do that.

KH: You are known as the 'chamber lady'.  I wouldn't normally equate the chamber with 'grassroots'.  How do you bridge that gap to the voters who might have that same thought?
AH: When HCC decided that they were going to force annexation on Spring Branch, Katy ISD and NorthForest and Alief to bring them into the taxing district.
KH: When was that?
AH: I believe that it was in 2006.  I am positive that they thought that we would never rise up.  So, they were going to get our tax base.  Whereas, Cy-Fair has said, no-no; we will make our own determination for our community college district.  The head of the Cy-Fair chamber at the time, what used to be North Harris County Montgomery Community College, which is now Lone Star, and to HCC, you may make formal presentations and then our community will decide.  We were being forced into the annexation and they held a vote, at the Houstonian to call the election.  Now, I called my fellow chamber execs, there wasn't really one for NorthForest, with all due respect, I mean, you know what happened to North Forest, but Spring Branch and Alief said, 'no'.  I said,  'no', we're not going to sit back and take this.  Our community deserves better, we should have a say. If we are going to be in the taxing district, we need to have a say.

So we launched a massive grassroots campaign on absolutely a shoestring and stopped them dead in their tracks.  We then went to Callegari and Heger and Patrick and all of our delegation and got that loophole in the law closed in the next session.  The loophole basically said, if you want to annex an existing school district that is not part of your tax base, it's a majority vote of your existing tax base, plus the to-be annexed.  So, if everyone at NorthForest, Spring Branch, Alief and Katy ISD, had voted against it, they would have still outnumbered us and why wouldn't they want us in their tax base?  Look at what the tax rolls were that we would bring in and we would have no say.  We stopped them; grassroots, because we flooded them. 

KH: There was a recent effort chamber of the chamber to take out the Tea Party..
AH: The US Chamber; We're not a member, we are not affiliated with that.
KH:  Well, how do you feel about that?
AH: We absolutely oppose it.  And, our board has never voted in favor of that.  There are a lot of initiatives by TAB as well as the US Chamber that our board will not go for.  Bill Hammond went to all of the chambers and asked them to support a guest worker program.  I told him, I'm not taking that back to Katy!  Are you kidding me?  So, it's a great sound bite.  People say, well, you are an affiliate of (the US Chamber) and I'm like, oh, no, we're not.  You need to look at the Secretary of States filing.  We were incorporated in 1962 and we are a stand alone non-profit.  We have a stand alone board who answers to no one but our members.  They don't answer to Washington, D.C., or Austin, but it's being used against me.
KH: I'm glad I got the opportunity to ask the question.
AH: I appreciate the opportunity to answer.  You would be surprised how many true believers in the tea party philosophy you have in the business community.  The challenge is sometimes, there are activities that are frightening to business leaders.  No business owner or executive that I work with and have worked with either at BFI or in the Chamber, want more taxes or more regulations; they get it.
Sometimes, they're concerned about confrontation, so they are very passionate about lower taxes and lower regulations and that's why you see the support for me because they know that I've fought for that.  You know, do I think that the business tax is the perfect tax in this state?  No, I don't, not at all.  I think that we are hurting ourselves, I mean, I worked for fifteen years at BFI and I was told the other day, someone wanted to know when was the last time the state of Texas cited a landfill?  It's been four years.
 Now with the growth we are experiencing, let me just say, I understand nobody wants them in their backyard, but I spent enough years in that arena to know that we better be preparing for how we are going to deal with it.  You and I don't have any problem putting it out on the curb, but we divorce ourselves from it once we put it out on the curb.  I'm being flooded right now with letters on recycling batteries and stuff.  I don't know who started this campaign, but if I've gotten one letter, I've gotten 150 letters about this.  So environmental issues are still something that people are very passionate about and somebody's definitely launching a bit effort.  I think that the business community has more passion around a lot of the philosophy

I had such a great interview with Ann, and there is more to share.  Stay tuned for part two of Spotlight on HD 132.  Thanks for reading!

Priorities: Republicans Haz 'Em

Think about the things that Texas is known for.  Oil, trucks, cowboys, cows and big city life.  Also, a gun loving governor and a booming economy.  Oh, yeah and the myth that everything is bigger in Texas, right?  We've got big trucks, big hair and...big government?  Big government, you say?  Sadly, yes.

Back in 1999, the Texas Legislature signed a bill into law that granted a panel of doctors, appointed by the hospital in which they work, to help with end of life directives.  What does that mean, exactly?  Well, if you wanted to go all Sarah Palin, then, I guess you could call these death panels.

As we all know, the 83rd legislative session of the Texas house is coming to a close.  This year proved to be a fairly quiet one, until now.  The current legislative body has apparently being working on drafting what they would have you believe is an improvement to the law already in place.  My state representative, Bill Callegari happens to be one of the co-authors and he is down right proud of his work on this bill, according to his staffer, Steven, Representative Callegari feels it would be 'morally wrong' not to pass this bill.  They are selling this as an upgrade, if you will.  SB 303 and
HB 303 are up for consideration, and from my own personal research, along with others, this bill is just as bad.  Hey, don't take my word for it, take a look for yourself.  Texas Right to Life is an organization that believes that this bill should not be passed in it's current form.  You can even read their own pro-life stance here. I would tend to agree with their philosophy on life.  Life is sacred.  It's so sacred that it's enumerated in our Declaration of Independence, "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Also for your viewing pleasure, I have a side-by-side comparison of the current law and the proposed bill and Texas Right to Life's stand on the bill.

There are other groups here in Texas that have raised some legitimate concerns about the passage of this bill and Texas Home School Coalition is one of them.  You can read their own blog about this bill here.  This bill could also prove to hinder the rights of parents to decide their own child's fate when end of life decisions need to be made.  That's a sobering thought.

I called Representative Callegari's office and I started off the conversation with a question that seemed simple enough to answer.  I asked him that since Representative Callegari is a Republican representative, what does he see the role of government in every day citizens lives.  He tried to roll me with an actual story that he thought would sell me on the idea of this bill needing to be passed.  I thanked him for the information, but wondered if he would answer my original question.  He couldn't.  His answer was that Rep. Callegari doesn't feel that this bill creates death panels. 

I also called a few other representatives and they relayed that they had met with and interviewed a number of doctors and talked to groups like Texas Alliance for Life and after that, they were more comfortable with the bill.  My question is, what about the constituents?  Where do they factor in?  They are the folks who got you elected, are they not?  The answer that the staffer seemed hung up on was that Representative Callegari felt that it would be morally wrong not to pass this bill. 

I also asked where this bill had originated; why it was authored in the first place, and he assured me it was his own constituents.  Well, I'd like to meet some of those liberty lovin' folks!  #sarcasm, people!  He also assured me upon my questioning that Rep. Callegari isn't beholden to any lobbyist groups because he doesn't need their money to win elections. 

One of the other things that concerns me is that Steven told me that these 'end of life' situations usually only crop up two times a year.  Yeah, TWO times a year!  So, let's knee jerk legislate this problem away, shall we?

This is why it's so important to stay active and vigilant when it comes to government on all levels, whether it be local school boards and mud districts, our state government, or all the way to the nations capitol.  It's called tyranny 'creep' for a reason, ya'll.

Believe it or not, I have yet to hear from Representative Callegari himself.  Hey, I'm still waiting....

*This article was originally published on the Texas GOP Vote website and you can view it here.