COMMENTARY | The Texas Primary has come and gone and, as expected, former Solicitor General Ted Cruz has forced a runoff with Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for the race to fill, Kay Bailey Hutchison's United States Senate seat.
Dewhurst got 45 percent of the vote and Cruz 34 percent.
While not a whole lot of daylight exists between the two candidates on the issues, I voted for Cruz because he was the younger, fresher man who will not be as easily domesticated in Washington as would Dewhurst, a man who has been in Texas politics for over a decade. If there has been one constant irritant Americans -- myself included -- have felt about our elected representatives it is their tendency to insulate themselves from the desires of the people who sent them to Washington. In my judgment, Cruz, as the insurgent tea party candidate, would not be as likely to succumb to that tendency.
Also, for someone who writes about politics, nine more weeks of a Senate race leading up to a July 31 runoff has a certain appeal. The Dewhurst/Cruz runoff will be hard fought and nasty almost beyond belief, if the primary race is any indication. Accusations of dishonesty, of being too much a lawyer and, worse of all, not being a conservative have already been hurtled back and forth like lobbed hand grenades.
The Houston Chronicle already attests to what is to come by quoting the two candidate's election night speeches.
Dewhurst said, "Today, Republican voters made a choice between a conservative Texas businessman and Washington special interests." Dewhurst, in case the reader doesn't know, is the conservative Texas businessman and Cruz is the creature of Washington special interests.
Cruz was not shy of wagging a finger at Dewhurst: "The voters of Texas want a leader who will be a strong conservative and a fighter, and the lieutenant governor's record has not been conservative." In this race, one might better be accused of being a child molester than of being not a conservative.
There is one other thing about the runoff that makes me happy. The National Review story on the race, as has virtually every other story, mentions the Sarah Palin factor. Palin's endorsement boosted Cruz and likely padded his vote total in the primary. As a Palin admirer, the anguished cries of her haters over this result are musical indeed.
