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Political Report

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The Legislative Report
By SHEILAH PEPPER
The Gazette Staff
Former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin returned to Texas last Saturday to appear at an event at the Oil Palace in Tyler.
Appropriate to the setting, Palin went after energy policy and talked about the importance of drilling domestically for our own oil and natural gas, in a responsible manner.
"We chant ‘Drill baby, drill' because we understand the need to domestically develop our resources," Palin stated.
She added that she supports domestic drilling with strict oversight. Palin also went after Obama on the bill she calls "cap and tax." She said it would be "nothing short of a disaster" in undermining the short term economy and damaging the long term. She noted that costs for everything from transportation, utilities and even groceries will be affected and that the elderly and the poor will be hurt greatly by the added costs. It has been estimated that the bill could more than double the average household energy bill with little, if any, impact on greenhouse gases.
She added that there is nothing preventing the U.S. from achieving energy independence that a couple of elections can't fix. She pointed to the Congressional elections this November and the presidential election in November 2012.
She also said that President Obama is taking America down a path "to socialism" and that is not what Americans want.
Gov. Rick Perry also spoke at the event and he too went after the administration. "You want a blueprint on how to run America?" he asked. "Come to Texas, Obama." U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler and State Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, also spoke at the event.
Gohmert said, "Things aren't going so well in Washington - I know that's why you're here. We have been blessed with the greatest nation in the history of the world and we need to fight to keep it."
Berman is running for speaker of the house, so that lawmakers can "finally deal with the 2.5 million illegal aliens here in Texas." He is one of the lawmakers who will file a bill similar to the Arizona bill when the Texas Legislature convenes in January.
Some estimate put the size of the crowd in Tyler at over 5,000.
The Democrats held their state convention in Corpus Christi June 24th to 26th with little fanfare. No national figures appeared in support of their gubernatorial candidate, Bill White, although he apparently got support in writing from Bill Clinton.
By a ratio of 3 - 1, Democrats rejected a proposal to scrap the so-called Texas two-step system of awarding presidential delegates through both a primary vote and caucuses.
Under this approach, presidential candidates are awarded with two-thirds of the pledged delegates based on the vote at the polls and one-third based on turnout at caucuses.
The proposed change would have allocated all the delegates based on the primary vote though caucuses would still meet to select delegates. The caucus system can be messy and confusing and also allows for a measure of manipulation, so it's a mystery to those outside the Democrat Party as to why they want to keep this system. Some think it boils down to pressure from urban and minority districts.
As for the Democrats chances this November, one pundit said he though that down-ballot Democrats might benefit from the White candidacy for governor. The party has not won a statewide office in 15 years, so this seems, to this reporter, to be a tad optimistic on the part of said pundit.
Lots more to come, folks, as the weeks roll on toward November.