Less than 24 hours after state Sen. Florence Shapiro announced she won't be running for another term, two Republicans have jumped at the chance to take over her suburban district, north of Dallas.
State Rep. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney, announced this morning on the Mark Davis show that he will run for the Senate District 8 seat. Paxton gained statewide attention last year by campaigning to unseat House Speaker Joe Straus.
Davis said Shapiro, first elected to the Senate in 1993, will be a tough person to replace.
"Those are big pumps to fill and that's not a foot size argument, it's a metaphor," Davis said.
Paxton isn't the first candidate in the race. That honor goes to Scott O'Grady, a former air force pilot who made the cover of TIME after surviving being shot down in Bosnia in 1995. O'Grady has been active in Republican politics for years. This year, O'Grady has been busy campaigning in Iowa on behalf of Strong America Now, a nonprofit urging presidential candidates to pledge to erase the national deficit by 2017 using so-called Lean Six Sigma practices.
“Senator Shapiro is a valued friend and role model," O'Grady said in a statement. "She has set the bar high with her distinguished career as a Republican leader in the State Senate. If elected to continue her work in the State Senate, I will call upon her as a valued mentor and adviser to serve our community and state."
-Aman Batheja
O'Grady is a political opportunist with no legislative record who will rely on incidents (F16 Bosnia crash) to get elected. He's been buddying up to entrenched political interests for years, and even bought a house in Collin County with the intent of running for office there (still lives in Dallas). He enters the race citing a dubious and unscientific poll suggesting parity with himself and Paxton, but no mention whatsoever of guiding principles. Caveat emptor.
Posted by: Chris | September 20, 2011 at 11:37 AM
Chris ... I don't know what planet you're on, but it it isn't earth with those comments about Scott. He worked hard on the 218 iniative that helped America get the house back in 2010. Imagine where the Obama agenda would be if we didn't have the house. He has worked with grassroots activists and spoke at tea party events, so he is far from being party of "entrenched" political interests. If anyone is "entrenched," it would be Ken Paxton who has been part of the establishment. Ken sold the grassroots short by going for speaker and then quitting at the last minute. Stop throwing stones, except in your case, peebles.
Posted by: Kelly | September 21, 2011 at 12:01 PM
Kelly.. you brought a plastic spoon to a gun fight.
Mr. Paxton is hardly entrenched, or he wouldn't have challenged the speaker to begin with. Check out his voting record.. like it or not, it speaks for itself. His record certainly departs from entrenched interests.
Yes, O'Grady spoke at Tea Party events. He told those tea party people that he doesn't support the re-election of Speaker Strauss. What did Scott do next? He went to Austin for his house race fundraiser (yes, he was running for House BEFORE he entered the Senate race) hosted by the speaker himself. The same speaker that the Tea Party greatly disklikes. He lied to the tea party people. The tea party doesn't support this guy. So, in summary, he is supported by moderate Straus, and he announced his bid to the Senate within two hours of Shapiro (another moderate) retiring. Clearly an orchestrated entry into the race with Shapiro's blessing. If you think the tea party supports this guy, you're badly misinformed.
Posted by: Chris | September 30, 2011 at 11:25 AM