Amarillo Matters must be having one heck of an identity crisis.
For those who are unaware, Amarillo Matters is a local political action committee that says it is committed to electing leaders of "impeccable character." The tactics that have used to elect their candidates are often met with ire from the community and have raised questions over the ethics in Amarillo elections.
Today, Amarillo Matters announced that it is endorsing Senator Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo), State Representative Four Price (R-Amarillo) and State Representative John Smithee (R-Amarillo) for re-election. This is an interesting - and expected - development from a group that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars electing five people to the Amarillo City Council. The group has also waged a pitiful effort to get a veterinary school in Amarillo.
However, an identity crisis must be taking place at the Amarillo Matters' headquarters.
Amarillo Matters executive director Steve Pair issued a statement a few days ago, blasting groups that he said "run counter to conservative values." Pair also added that these groups can "lead to bigger government" and therefore cannot be supported by Amarillo Matters.
This is quite an interesting statement. Perhaps Amarillo Matters is unaware of the irony of such a statement. Days after Pair and the group issued the statement, the five members of the City Council that were supported by Amarillo Matters voted to create a new advisory board, repeal term limits for advisory boards and expand existing boards. I wonder if this is what would be considered "small government" by Amarillo Matters.
In addition, Amarillo Matters praised the candidates that they endorsed were praised by Pair in a statement released today.
“Seliger, Price and Smithee are proven conservatives who put the needs of their district first, regardless of the pressures put on them at the state level," Pair said in a statement.
Perhaps Pair does not understand the definition of a political "conservative."
In the most recent legislative rankings released by the American Conservative Union and its chairperson, Matt Schlapp, each of the three legislators scored well below the average for "conservative" legislators in the rankings. In fact, Seliger's score was only 3 points higher than the lowest scored Republican in the entire Texas Senate. Price and Smithee scored closer to the average Republican score than Seliger did, but still fell short of the average score turned in by Republican legislators.
Amarillo Matters says it is for "small government," but does not seem to understand what small government actually is. The group also says it is for "conservative" candidates, but does not seem to understand what is means to be conservative.
The Amarillo Matters identity crisis continues to be shown clearer every day. This is just another reason that Amarillo should reject Amarillo Matters in 2018 and beyond.
-Thomas Warren III, Editor-In-Chief
