It is red meat season and Attorney General hopeful Dan Branch is already serving caviar and crumpets.
Yesterday Dan Branch helped make the case for his opponent Ken Paxton, releasing an endorsement list he called “conservative”, but that was made up of the most liberal Republican members of the Texas House.
This self-generated publicity is a good snapshot for primary voters who get to see the liberal Branch’s concept of “conservative” – a Republican endorsement list with a D+ average on the 2011 scorecards of Empower Texans and Young Conservatives of Texas.
The other side of the coin is that the actual House conservatives have gone overwhelmingly for Paxton. Paxton’s GOP House endorsements average an A+ on the Empower Texans scorecard and an 85 on YCT’s scorecard. For the purposes of the GOP primary, these are the only endorsements that matter.
This year’s scorecards aren’t out yet, but it is projected the freshmen who endorsed Branch will do even worse than the veteran liberal Republicans Branch considers conservative.
Look for a follow-up post when 2013 scorecards are released.