YCT Gives Roundtable Low Score

The GOP's favorite game seems to be eating its own young, but now the young are biting back, as the notoriously cranky and ever-more-fringe Young Conservatives of Texas are throwing down on another right wing group – this one with heavy ties to Gov. Rick Perry.

The YCT issued a scathing email yesterday savaging the Texas Conservative Roundtable. The friction comes over their legislative score cards. Ah, score cards, that old electoral sleight of hand where a group takes a small cross-section of bills and counts up yay and nay votes to create arbitrary scales. In this case, it's whether the incumbent is conservative enough for the endorsing body's tastes.

At first glance, the TCR seems like your run-of-the-mill establishment, anti-regulation, anti-tax GOP endorsing body, and that's reflected in its leadership. First up is former solicitor general Julie Parsley who, as Perry's appointee to the Public Utility Commission, never met a pro-business ruling she didn't like. She is joined by another old Perry ally: Former Airborne Ranger Tyson Voelkel, who Governor Goodhair appointed as the first ever Student Regent for the Texas A&M University System. Then there's Bryan Herbert, formerly with the Texas Legislative Council and the office of Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. Rounding out the team is heavy-hitting California Republican strategist Charles Hahn. So far, so anti-tax, anti-spend.

So why are the YCT so mad? Because the TCR's scale isn't harsh enough for them. The lowest score achieved was by Rep. Marisa Marquez, D-El Paso, on 42.3% followed by Austin's own Democratic Rep. Donna Howard on 42.9%. Of course, liberals may be wondering how they got a score that high. Well, when you get points for measure like House Bill 9, which locked student success into higher education funding, or HB 275 (the vital measure using the Rainy Day Fund to cover existing debts), then it's easy to get a few percent.

So rather than be glad that every member looks a little conservative under this metric, the YCT stomped their collective foot and called the TCR cards "a fraudulent tool to give liberal legislators cover in contested primaries." Now, let's note that this is such a steep scoring curve that even Leo Berman got 85.7%, but whatever.

So what's this really about? Well, one House member singled out for real wrath is Rep. Todd Smith, who gets 100%. And why would the YCT get so bent out of shape? Because Smith is running for the vacated Senate District 9, and YCT is betting the college fund on his primary challenger Kelly Hancock, who only got 94.6%.