Chad’s Morning Brief: John Cornyn Calls for Party Unity, What About Cruz?, Lubbock City Council Meeting, and Other Top Stories
Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of May 23, 2014. Give me your feedback below and tune in to The Chad Hasty Show for these and many more topics from 8:30 to 11am. Remember, you can listen online at KFYO.com or on your iPhone/Android with the radioPup App.
Important Election Dates:
Early Voting for GOP and Dem. Primary Runoff: FINAL DAY IS TODAY!
Election Day for GOP and Dem. Primary Runoff: May 27
Election Day for Lubbock City Council District 3 Runoff: June 14
Unity
The Dallas Morning News is taking a look at GOP unity after Mitch McConnell's big primary win. The Dallas Morning News says that Senator John Cornyn wants unity, but Senator Ted Cruz? That might be a different story.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had vowed to crush the tea party in this spring’s primaries. His decisive win on Tuesday over a tea party challenger in Kentucky’s GOP primary has fueled plenty of establishment-over-tea party stories.
Let’s just say the war ain’t over.
“After the primary is over, it’s really the responsibility of everyone who wants to see a change in Washington, D.C., come November to support our candidates,” said Texas Sen. John Cornyn, McConnell’s deputy GOP Senate leader, who survived a much more tepid tea party onslaught in his own primary in early March.
Cornyn singled out Kentucky’s junior senator, tea party darling and 2016 presidential hopeful Rand Paul, for pitching in with McConnell’s reelection effort.
“Rand Paul has done an admirable job of trying to bring the party together,” Cornyn said.
No mention of Sen. Ted Cruz. Texas’ other senator, like Paul, is a tea party freshman with White House ambitions. But unlike Paul, Cruz has been quietly at war with the party’s establishment. He steered clear of the Kentucky primary. So he can’t be accused of directly trying to undermine McConnell. But his post-primary comments left plenty of room for interpretation.
In carefully crafted terms, Cruz issued a statement congratulating McConnell, implicitly expressing support for him in his even tougher fight, against Kentucky’s Democratic Secretary of State Allison Lundergan Grimes.
But read it carefully. Cruz isn’t vowing to support him for another term as Senate GOP leader:
“Kentucky primary voters have spoken, and Senator McConnell is the Republican Party nominee. As I’ve said before, we should respect the primary process and work together to elect a majority–not for the mere sake of a majority–but for a majority that commits in no uncertain terms to reject Washington business as usual, restore the Constitution, and enact meaningful reform,” Cruz said.
“And while Senator McConnell has not requested my support or endorsement in the general election, I stand ready to work with anyone who commits to reduce the ever-growing power that the federal government imposes on the daily lives of the people. There is no doubt that a Senate led by [Democratic majority leader] Harry Reid offers no hope for meaningful reform for the millions of Americans still looking for work.
“I am optimistic that if we work together and communicate our commitment to reduce the power claimed by Washington to govern every detail of Americans’ lives, that Americans will elect a Senate majority, retire Harry Reid as Majority Leader, and provide us the opportunity to prove we are serious about restoring opportunity and economic growth.”
Cornyn, discussing the McConnell primary’s implications earlier today on a semi-regular call with Texas reporters, called such primaries “an intra-family fight.” Once voters settle it, he hopes to see all elements of the party rally behind a nominee. “That is the way to address the problems that the tea party and the establishment and conservatives across the spectrum are most worried about – and that is how do we win elections in November, and then how do we govern in the majority,” he said.
Nothing is mandatory for a tea party senator who might have preferred another nominee, Cornyn averred.
“Different people have different ways of supporting candidates. Some do it financially. Some do it with endorsements,” he said. “I would say what we need to do is turn the focus outward rather than inward. The primary is a time when we have these fights within the family but recognizing that the cause the conservatives care most about is not advanced when a Democrat wins in November.”
City Council
The Lubbock City Council meeting was an unexpectedly short one last night. Council took no action regarding Electric Utility Board Members that may have conflicts of interest. The council voted to open up the eastern most lane on Ave. K near the Omni building. The lane opening will help businesses and will be on a 30-day trial. KFYO's Cole Shooter also writes about one other issue the council took up.
Also discussed by the Council was the possibility to amend the City Council rules regarding the regular City Council meeting times.
“I’m recommending that maybe we look at starting our evening meetings at 5:15 p.m. instead of 6:15 p.m. and start our executive session at 2:30 p.m.,” said Robertson. The meeting ended shortly before 8:30 p.m. Thursday, hours earlier than the meetings in the past two months generally finished.
The item on the agenda was to discuss the possibility of changing meeting times, but no action on the item was to be taken.
Some meetings of the City Council have lasted past midnight in recent history, though Thursday evening’s meeting was the exception. The Council began the majority of items for the work session at 1 p.m. instead of after the meeting.
District Five Councilwoman Karen Gibson weighed in to Robertson, saying “I think, depending on the topics, you’ve got the gavel. If we’ve got a hot topic and you think we need to bring it up first, bring it up first.”
Robertson has said that keeping City employees late costs the City more money. Loomis said that most of the employees that stay for the Council are salaried, so the cost is generally not much higher to the City.
Robertson responded to Gibson, saying “There is no managing this Council when this Council wants to expound upon their wisdom sometimes…We take up 80 percent of the time a lot of times posturing for the camera, in my opinion.”
District Three Councilman Todd Klein, who originally championed moving the meetings from mornings to evenings, discussed the issue.
“Democracy costs money, but I think from what I’ve seen in my years, there’s flex time given to employees that are here, when they’re here in the evening, and bottom line, it’s the will of the Council,” said Klein. “I just think that you have the public that wants to be here or should be afforded that opportunity. One hour, I don’t think, makes a lot of difference, but on principle, as Councilman Hernandez said, it’s the reason we began evening meetings, and with that, I’ll just simply watch the discussion as it goes forward.”
Robertson quipped back, saying “I thank you for proving my point, Mr. Klein.”
Mayor Robertson said that he does not plan to post the item to move meeting times on the agenda again.
Other Top Stories:
These and many more topics coming up on today’s edition of The Chad Hasty Show. Tune in mornings 8:30-11am on News/Talk 790 KFYO, streaming online at kfyo.com, and now on your iPhone and Android device with the radioPup App. All guest interviews can be heard online in our podcast section after the show at kfyo.com.
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