Texas State Senator Craig Estes
by Lenny Leatherman
Through the years I have noticed that it takes a significant amount of courage to stand solitarily against the collective will of a body.
Knowing he had absolutely nothing to gain by abstaining, and that it would probably cost him his Senate leadership role in the Agriculture, Rural Affairs, and Homeland Security Committee and the Committee on State Affairs, Senator Estes had the character and the courage to stand alone against the collective will of the Senate majority by not following the herd. He abstained from voting on a very popular bill among Senate Republicans; a bill I would have likely voted for.
–
Thank you Senator Craig Estes for defending your position, and for having the courage to stand alone when you are convinced it’s the RIGHT thing to do.
One never draws hostile fire by keeping his head down and going along with the pack. It’s generally when you have the courage to stand alone, that you draw hostile fire.
Senator Estes’ decision did in fact cost him his Committee Chair assignments. But if you ask him today if he would take the same action again, his answer would be a resounding YES!
You may agree, or you may disagree with Senator Estes on a particular bill, but one thing is for certain; you always know where he stands on an issue. One example is shown here: https://www.facebook.com/COSProjectTX/videos/vb.298961580289316/
434207456764727/?type=2&theater
For those who have been so critical of Senator Estes:
Were you so anti – Estes when he authored the Pastor Protection Act, Senate Bill 2065, and guiding it to passage in the Senate?
Were you equally opposed to Senator Estes when he authored the Senate’s Open Carry bill (Senate Bill 17), companion bill to House Bill 910, and for guiding HB 910 through the Senate debate thereby achieving final passage?
My lovely wife of 44 years occasionally disagrees with me. She is not timid about voicing her opinion, and more often than not, she is right. Many times I have thanked God that she didn’t kick me to the curb the first time we disagreed about an issue. On balance our journey through this life together has been harmonious and productive. The only change I have considered has been; not to change her, but to work toward eliminating my own faults.
I try to maintain an equally ‘balanced’ attitude when it comes to supporting elected officials.
More on this issue – http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/local-news/estes-loses-committee-chairs_17863361
Parker County Blog 
He does not have my vote. He is the personification of a “politician”
Estes gets this one right………………not enough other issues, but this one – yes. He is to be congratulated for his perspicacity on at least, this one issue. I personally know several folk who “enlightened ” him on the dangers of an Article V ” Con Con “, which is an absolute one-sided no-win situation for genuine liberty-minded true “conservatives”. ( Birdwell makes a feel-good emotional nonsense response in the video).
Too bad Craig has far too often failed to stand for the average citizen, the working class Texans who are bearing the brunt of his (and others) endeavors for the massive TOLL ROAD schemes the conmen in Austin bullied thru years ago, for “foreign interests”. Fellow traveler King is in lock-step on those issues as well.
And the $2BILLION water theft scheme, structured EXACTLY like the toll road scheme, he endorsed last year. For a guy with a Harvard MBA, you will never convince me he did not know how fraught with danger these schemes were, and are…Oh, he knew.
Where was that perspicacity then, Estes ?
A statesman is PRO-active in guarding individual liberty, whereas a “politician ” is mereley “RE-active” to pressure when caught with his hands in the cookie jar. Once enough of the populace understood the land theft toll road schemes and the 3Ps and CDA abuses, our elected saints suddenly got RE-active and scrambling like rats
Estes and King are both poster boys for TERM LIMITS.
“My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution, or that have failed their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden.”
Barry Goldwater