{"id":25570,"date":"2017-10-21T06:10:26","date_gmt":"2017-10-21T06:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=25570"},"modified":"2017-10-21T06:10:26","modified_gmt":"2017-10-21T06:10:26","slug":"seliger-wont-endorse-lt-gov-patrick-imagine-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=25570","title":{"rendered":"Seliger won&#8217;t &#8216;endorse&#8217; Lt. Gov. Patrick; imagine that"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Seliger21_copy_0.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-24306\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Seliger21_copy_0-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Seliger21_copy_0-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Seliger21_copy_0-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Seliger21_copy_0.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I just know in my bones that I am not the only observer who saw this one coming.<\/p>\n<p>Texas state Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, has decided he won&#8217;t <em>endorse<\/em> fellow Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in 2018. Seliger said he won&#8217;t endorse anyone else; he said he intends to &#8220;support&#8221; Patrick &#8212; whatever the hell that means.<\/p>\n<p>He just won&#8217;t &#8220;endorse&#8221; him, preferring to concentrate on his own re-election bid for the Senate District 31 seat he&#8217;s held since 2004.<\/p>\n<p>Not a single aspect of this surprises me.<\/p>\n<p>Seliger hasn&#8217;t been one of Patrick&#8217;s guys in the Senate. Sure, he&#8217;s backed much of Patrick&#8217;s agenda during the 2017 legislative session. He bolted on a couple of key issues:\u00a0 a bill that restricts local property tax increases and a bill that sought to subsidize the cost of private schools.<\/p>\n<p>Patrick announced that 19 of 20 state GOP senators were endorsing his re-election. Seliger&#8217;s name was absent from the list of Republican lawmakers. Is the Amarillo Republican worried? Hardly.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/amarillo.com\/local-news\/news\/2017-10-20\/state-sen-kel-seliger-opts-not-back-lt-gov-dan-patrick-re-election\">Seliger faces stern test for re-election<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Indeed, Seliger already is getting set for a rough-and-tumble GOP primary battle in Senate District 31. Seliger will run against former Midland Mayor Mike Canon &#8212; who lost to Seliger in 2014 &#8212; and Amarillo businessman Victor Leal.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll stipulate once again that I want Seliger to be renominated. I also will stipulate that I am no fan of Lt. Gov. Patrick, who I consider to be a ideological blowhard. Seliger is not. He is a serious legislative technician who I believe works hard at understanding the issues pertinent to the vast Senate district he represents.<\/p>\n<p>I am going to presume that Seliger understands that he works for West Texas voters, not the guy who presides over the Texas Senate.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I just know in my bones that I am not the only observer who saw this one coming. Texas state Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, has decided he won&#8217;t endorse fellow Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in 2018. Seliger said he won&#8217;t endorse anyone else; he said he intends to &#8220;support&#8221; Patrick &#8212; whatever the hell &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=25570\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Seliger won&#8217;t &#8216;endorse&#8217; Lt. Gov. Patrick; imagine that<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,18],"tags":[1255,2646,4622,4701],"class_list":["post-25570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","category-state-news","tag-dan-patrick","tag-kel-seliger","tag-texas-gop","tag-texas-senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25570"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25571,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25570\/revisions\/25571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}