{"id":26768,"date":"2017-12-08T21:35:37","date_gmt":"2017-12-08T21:35:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=26768"},"modified":"2017-12-08T21:35:37","modified_gmt":"2017-12-08T21:35:37","slug":"the-gun-guy-is-getting-back-into-the-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=26768","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;The Gun Guy&#8217; is getting back into the game"},"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\/12\/TribLivePatterson05_1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-26770\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/TribLivePatterson05_1-300x201.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/TribLivePatterson05_1-300x201.jpg 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/TribLivePatterson05_1-768x515.jpg 768w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/TribLivePatterson05_1.jpg 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Well, I&#8217;ll be hornswoggled.<\/p>\n<p>Jerry Patterson wants his old job back. What is that? He is the former Texas land commissioner who four years ago decided against seeking a third term.<\/p>\n<p>His successor is George P. Bush, the grandson and nephew of two former presidents of the United States. Patterson doesn&#8217;t think Bush has done well at the Land Office. He considers him to be too much of a politician with his eyes seemingly on grander political prizes.<\/p>\n<p>So the former Texas state senator who once was known primarily for authoring the state&#8217;s concealed handgun carry legislation in 1995 is wanting to get back into the political game.<\/p>\n<p>I welcome Patterson back. The former &#8220;gun guy&#8221; is going to liven the Republican Party primary if he actually takes the plunge.<\/p>\n<p>I remember meeting him years ago during his time as land commissioner. I found him to be self-deprecating yet smart at the same time. I recall him mentioning how he finished &#8220;in the top 75 percent of my class at Texas A&amp;M.&#8221; He was acutely aware that his primary legislative accomplishment &#8212; enactment of the concealed carry bill &#8212; would brand him with the &#8220;gun guy&#8221; moniker.<\/p>\n<p>Those two matters endeared him immediately as someone who did not take himself as seriously as he takes his public service responsibility.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve never met George P. Bush, although I do remember him speaking on behalf of &#8220;Poppy&#8221; Bush during the 1992 Republican National Convention in Houston. The youngster stood at the Astrodome podium as a 16-year-old and declared <em>&#8220;Viva Boosh!&#8221;<\/em> in an appeal to Latino voters, given that his mother is an immigrant from Mexico. He brought the house down.<\/p>\n<p>The next time I would see his name would be during the 2014 campaign for Texas land commissioner.<\/p>\n<p>Patterson seems to be primed for a tough battle against the incumbent, according to the Texas Tribune: <em>&#8220;Patterson has been a regular critic, recently sending an editorial contrasting the land office&#8217;s response to Hurricane Ike, when he was in charge, with his response to Harvey this year. &#8220;Harvey victims still living in tents along the coast are, at least in part, victims of a politician&#8217;s desire to look good for the next election by being a &#8216;small government Republican,'&#8221; Patterson wrote in what looks like a preview of his political campaign.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This could be a fascinating campaign to watch.<\/p>\n<p>Go for it, Mr. Gun Guy!<\/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>Well, I&#8217;ll be hornswoggled. Jerry Patterson wants his old job back. What is that? He is the former Texas land commissioner who four years ago decided against seeking a third term. His successor is George P. Bush, the grandson and nephew of two former presidents of the United States. Patterson doesn&#8217;t think Bush has done &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=26768\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8216;The Gun Guy&#8217; is getting back into the game<\/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":[17],"tags":[7460,1881,1895,2449,3967,4728],"class_list":["post-26768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news","tag-astrodome","tag-general-land-office","tag-george-p-bush","tag-jerry-patterson","tag-rnc","tag-texas-tribune"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26768","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=26768"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26768\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26771,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26768\/revisions\/26771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}