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Acusations Of Flip Flopping Continue In Republican Race For Lt. Gov.

www.toddstaples.com
Todd Staples campaign photo.

Accusations of flip flopping on the issues continue to dominate the Republicans campaigning for lieutenant governor.

This week started with incumbent David Dewhurst and state Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston reversing their opinions on repealing the  17th Amendment. 

Agriculture CommissionerTodd Staples took issue with their lack of consistency, but now it appears he may be guilty of changing his stance on the Senate’s two-thirds rule.  In a 2011 interview with the Texas Tribune’s Evan Smith, Staples was asked where he stood.

"I'm For it, I think it’s a good rule that has been used in this Texas, in this state for a hundred years," he said at the time.

"If you’re not for big government if you want to slow down the process, having that two thirds rule is a very good rule to have," he said.

He said as a general purpose the two-thirds rule is a good rule. This month, Staples, who is in the running for lieutenant governor, said the rule had been used to block the majority will of the people of Texas.

"For the last several sessions the two-thirds rule has been used not to ensure that there is good debate on the floor but just to block the majority will of a majority of Texans that want conservative laws passed," Staples said.

Staples said as lieutenant governor he would recommend to the Texas Senate that they do away with the the rule or lower the threshold to 60 percent of the votes. He said his stance on the issue has remained consistent over the last three years.   

In 2003 as a state senator, Staples said he voted to suspend the two-thirds rule on a redistricting bill in order to get it passed. He said he'd want a system that slows the process down, but didn’t want a mechanism that would allow any group to simply block legislation.

Ryan started his radio career in 2002 working for Austin’s News Radio KLBJ-AM as a show producer for the station's organic gardening shows. This slowly evolved into a role as the morning show producer and later as the group’s executive producer.