Open Letter to Texas Voters

I’m disappointed in Ted Cruz for the way he’s attacked David Dewhurst, the Governor and every Texas Republican from the first day of his campaign. Rather than running a campaign on his merits, he has consistently run against the entire Texas State Republican Party “establishment.”

Just for your information, and to review what I’ve posted in the past on WingRight.org, Facebook and Twitter,  I wholeheartedly supported Mr. Cruz last summer. At the time, I also wanted Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst to become Governor and Governor Perry to become President. From the beginning, I blogged, posted on forums, and donated money in support of the Cruz for Senate campaign.

However, I was very unhappy with the tone of the Cruz campaign, and with reading and hearing his talking points aimed at the Lt. Governor turned against the Governor in his Presidential race.I never received a response to my emails to the campaign about the problem.

Since I didn’t want to hurt Mr. Cruz’ chances, I took the opportunity to quietly and privately approach first two men on his staff and then Mr. Cruz, himself. at the November 2011 Texas Federation of Republican Women convention in Fort Worth. I explained my concerns and my disagreement with the way he was portraying our Texas Republican leadership. His staff members actually argued with me and Mr. Cruz became visibly angry with my request not to focus on a negative campaign against the Lt. Governor, but to focus on Cruz’ own abilities and qualifications. Mr. Cruz walked away from me as I was talking.  This dynamic was repeated when Mr. Cruz visited the Comal County forum on Feb. 2, 2012.

When I next confronted Mr. Cruz, it was at a public “meet and greet” event in my hometown of New Braunfels on May 28th, at which he claimed that there was a conspiracy among Texas Republicans to deny his election for several reasons: either to keep a man “with a z in his name” from winning State-wide office, because they were afraid of the repercussions from Lt. Governor Dewhurst, or because they wanted the Lt. Governor out of Austin for personal gain. If you’ll recall, Mr. Cruz had also told reporters that Governor Perry wasn’t being truthful about his motives for supporting the Lt. Governor, stating that the Governor wanted to get Mr. Dewhurst out of Austin.

I was surprised at that meeting by the fact that Mr. Cruz kept debating me, personally, for over 20 minutes, although other people wanted to ask questions and I tried to get him to move on.He made the conversation a very personal attack on me and my motives.

As we’ve seen in other venues, Mr. Cruz doesn’t admit to any mistakes, claiming that all of his tactics are “based on the truth,” although very loosely “spun” in his favor. Worse, he isn’t happy with being right or winning: he moves to speculation about his opponents’ motives and thoughts.

After his blow up in a radio interview with Dan Patrick,  I’m now concerned that Mr. Cruz is not only unwilling, but unable to take criticism or redirect his combativeness and anger. His response to the Texas Senate Republican Caucus’ “Open Letter to Texans,” was an emotional rant that became a personal list of grievances against all the Senators and Mr. Dewhurst. If you recall, he went so far as to repeat rumors from the leftist media about how Texas Senators truly felt about Mr. Dewhurst.

I became even more concerned about this animosity watching the July 17th Belo televised debate, when Ted  asked loaded questions about the Lt. Governor’s wealth and business interests and stated that he believed there were “conflicts of interest” which he couldn’t back up.

Mr. Cruz strikes me as a man who can’t back down and who imagines the worst of everyone, even those, like Senator Dan Patrick, who would be helpful and a mentor to him. If you’re middle-aged, like Mr. Cruz and myself, I’m sure you’ve had the opportunity to see this sort of ego many times over the years. While the lack of humility and self-protection by attacking others obviously does damage to those around him, it is also destructive to the person’s own happiness and well-being..

After all, Mr. Cruz and Lt. Gov. Dewhurst are running for the Republican nomination for Texas Senator. Regardless of the winner on July 31, Texas Republicans will need to come together on August 1st. The Republican nominee will need strong counselors and mentors through the remaining campaign against the Democrats and, eventually, in his office in the United States Senate. For the next week and when you vote in the Republican Primary runoff election, please consider which man, David Dewhurst or Ted Cruz, will best represent the Republican Party in Texas.

 Updated for grammar, adding in an “a’ and a “””7-23-12