{"id":39135,"date":"2019-10-05T01:38:44","date_gmt":"2019-10-05T01:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=39135"},"modified":"2019-10-05T01:38:44","modified_gmt":"2019-10-05T01:38:44","slug":"oh-the-conundrum-facing-this-friend-of-two-possible-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=39135","title":{"rendered":"Oh, the conundrum facing this friend of two possible candidates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Mac Thornberry’s announcement that he won’t seek re-election to the 13th Congressional District seat he has held since 1995 presents a potential quandary for me.<\/p>\n

I want to emphasize the potential part of that issue, because I do not yet know how this whole story is going to play out.<\/p>\n

It involves a possible successor to the veteran Clarendon, Texas, Republican lawmaker.<\/p>\n

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OK, for starters, I’ll go with what I have heard, which is that a good friend of mine, Greg Sagan, has declared his intention to run as a Democrat once again for the seat that Thornberry will vacate next year. Sagan lost to Thornberry in 2018, which is no surprise, given the 13th District’s strong Republican leaning.<\/p>\n

I couldn’t vote in that race, as I no longer live in Amarillo. Were I able to vote, I would have cast my ballot for my friend Greg Sagan. He is smart, articulate, ideologically progressive. He’s also a fellow Vietnam War veteran; so, he’s a kind of a “brother” to me, as Vietnam vets would understand.<\/p>\n

He’ll run again in 2020. I hate saying this out loud, but his chances of prevailing in a district drawn to benefit Republicans seems almost as distant as they were when he challenged a veteran incumbent.<\/p>\n

Which brings me to a still-hypothetical scenario. That involves a possible\/potential Republican<\/em> who might decide he wants a crack at the congressional seat. This fellow also is a friend of mine.<\/p>\n

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I refer to state Rep. Four Price, also of Amarillo.<\/p>\n

I don’t know this as fact, but I am willing to bet real American money that some movers and shakers within the Panhandle Republican network have already broached the subject to Price, who has become something of a star in the Texas Legislature.<\/p>\n

Price’s name was kicked around as a possible speaker after former Speaker Joe Straus left the Legislature prior to the 2019 session. He has earned his spurs as a champion for mental health reform.<\/p>\n

So, what kind of congressman would Four Price make? He would be effective. He would learn the ropes quickly. Furthermore, he would be eminently electable, given his solid Republican credentials as a candidate in a solid Republican congressional district.<\/p>\n

However, I wouldn’t dare make an endorsement in a contest involving Greg Sagan and Four Price. I would be terribly conflicted.<\/p>\n

I am virtually certain Sagan will run. I don’t know what Four Price’s plans include. Nonetheless, Mac Thornberry’s pending departure opens the door wide for an intelligent, thoughtful conservative Republican to run as a successor to a congressional veteran.<\/p>\n

Man, I detest quandaries \u2026 even if they aren’t yet developed fully.<\/p>\n\n

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Mac Thornberry’s announcement that he won’t seek re-election to the 13th Congressional District seat he has held since 1995 presents a potential quandary for me. I want to emphasize the potential part of that issue, because I do not yet know how this whole story is going to play out. It involves a possible successor … Continue reading Oh, the conundrum facing this friend of two possible candidates<\/span> →<\/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,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[27,7225,1112,1783,7161,2849],"class_list":["post-39135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-13th-congressional-district","tag-2020-election","tag-congress","tag-four-price","tag-greg-sagan","tag-mac-thornberry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39135","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=39135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39138,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39135\/revisions\/39138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}