By Noah Dawson
With the November general election just over a month away and the May local elections coming much quicker than you might think, it’s as important as ever that voters know where they are getting their information about candidates and if that information can be trusted.
Worryingly, it seems that a locally Facebook group, “#Conservatives of Texas,” run by local Randall County precinct chair Alex Deanda (who goes by the pseudonym of ‘Precinct Ciento Once’ on Facebook), has a very mixed record when it comes to endorsing local candidates.
A recent example is their endorsement of Dee Johnson in the primary election earlier this year. Despite Dee Johnson’s vocal support of the infamous tax hike supporting Mayor Ginger Nelson, Deanda and his group supported her. Despite Dee Johnson’s campaign consultant, Murphy Nasica, having a record of working against conservatives, and working with clients opposed to conservative ideas, Deanda and his group supported her.
More recently, and, perhaps more worryingly, Deanda has turned his attention to the race for Potter County Judge.
The two candidates in the race are incumbent Nancy Tanner and the Potter County Republican Party endorsed write-in Tom Warren. The two candidates could not be more different.
Judge Nancy Tanner, who recently had a judicial ethics complaint filed against her, has a long record of raising taxes, appointing Democrats, and opposing gun rights and paper ballots. And, if that weren’t bad enough, the ways those taxes are being spent are pure waste. The county had an empty lot downtown which they spent over a hundred thousand dollars landscaping. Then, almost immediately afterwards, that landscaping was bulldozed over because Nancy Tanner wanted a new courthouse.
Tom Warren, meanwhile, is a successful local business owner who knows a thing or two about making and sticking to responsible budgets. He also knows just how devastating tax hikes pushed by politicians wanting to build vanity projects can be. He’s a lifelong conservative and is the only candidate in the race for county judge actually endorsed by the Potter County GOP and the Potter County GOP chair.
Which of these candidates has Alex Deanda, the supposed conservative, chosen to attack? Tom Warren, of course. Apparently, in Deanda’s world, Nancy Tanner is the perfect conservative. According to the Conservatives of Texas Facebook page, “we are not about getting Republicans elected, we are about getting the right Republicans elected!” What part of Nancy Tanner’s record makes her “the right Republican?” Is it her tax and waste agenda? Is it her appointment of Democrats? Is it her support for gun control? Is it her opposition to paper ballots? Is it her appointment of Robert Ruiz over Blair Schaffer for the Potter County Commission? What is it about Nancy Tanner that makes Alex Deanda feel the need to attack her Potter County GOP endorsed rival, especially given the fact that Alex Deanda does not even live in Potter County?
The rhetoric from Deanda and his group is often self-contradictory; the group is frequently angry about culture war issues like inappropriate materials in schools, but has no problem supporting candidates whose primary consultants also work with clients sponsoring “family friendly drag queen shows.” The group is angry about Republicans allegedly working with Democrats, but then supports candidates funded by individuals who have legally affiliated as Democrats in the past. The group’s leader quotes Bible verses to back up his stances, but then lies, or speculates nearly to the point of slander, to make his case stronger.
And to put a cherry on top of it all, Deanda often blocks the targets of his criticism on Facebook to ensure there will be no chance of debate from the opposition when he starts his attacks in his own echo chamber on Facebook.
Deanda’s most repeated attacks though have been aimed at The Amarillo Pioneer. One of his biggest complaints seems to be that we have Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic nominee for Governor on the record stating that “if that school wants to require masks, let them do that” and that the state should “make it easier for people to vote early and to vote by mail.” Maybe he’s upset because, while those quotes came from a podcast interview during the primary election, Beto has toned down his rhetoric for the general, especially within the panhandle. Is Deanda worried that, because The Amarillo Pioneer has Beto on record, voters might find out where he really stands? (Update: While Deanda still has me blocked, a source Deanda has not blocked has informed The Amarillo Pioneer that Deanda has made a post confirming he is upset we got Beto on the record. Why he would admit this is anyone’s guess.)
I’m not writing this to tell you who to vote for. If Dee Johnson’s support of Ginger Nelson and connections to Murphy Nasica made you want to vote for her, that’s fine. If Nancy Tanner’s anti-gun, pro-tax record is something you like, you can vote for her. However, I find it incredibly disingenuous to call either of them truly conservative. And to support or even endorse either via a group calling itself “#Conservatives of Texas” seems incredibly suspicious.
(Note: This opinion column was written by Noah Dawson. Amarillo Pioneer Publisher Tom Warren II is a candidate for Potter County Judge. Neither Tom Warren II nor his campaign exercised any editorial control over the content of this column.)