Antcliff & Lizarraga

From Burges Candidate Forum

Its pretty much a foregone conclusion how this race is going to end. I know my friends on the right are very hopeful that this race won't be impacted by the fact that there are so many more Democrats in this town than there are Republicans, but this race was over on March the 3rd, as was the race for the State Senate, County Judge,and Congressional seats.


Antcliff is a great guy and a qualified jurist. No doubt about it and no argument from me.

But in the State of Texas, we elect our judges and they serve at the discretion of the people. The People make the decision of who's values best represent the communities.

Antcliff has been appointed before. He's run and lost before and will likely be appointed again if Perry holds on to the Governor's Mansion.

Now let me correct some people that are making a very bad comparison between this race and that of Manny Barraza and Don Minton. First of all, stop doing that because the races are a totally different set of circumstances.

For one, Barraza basically sailed through the primary without much a challenge. Lizarraga had to really work hard to win the nomination in the Democratic primary. Much harder than Antcliff has ever had to campaign because Antcliff was never in competitive races.

Lizarraga took on a strong, qualified, and will-funded opponent. Let's not forget that Lizarraga did something that doesn't happen too often in this town, he beat a Latina female in a countywide race.

The other thing thats different about the races is that Lizarraga is not Barraza. I tried to warn everyone in the county about Barraza and no one would listen. I was ridiculed, mocked, and some people even tried to intimidate me.

The guy tried to represent the Night Stalker for God's sake!

Barraza had a long list of reasons why in my opinion, people shouldn't have voted for him. I'm proud that I looked passed party affiliation and warned people.

That's why I think its completely unfair to compare Marcos Lizarraga to Manny Barraza. In fact, there is very little the races have in common other than the fact that both opponents where White Republicans. The only thing Barazza and Lizarraga have in common is that they have Spanish surnames, are both attorneys, and have a z in their last name.

So I've outlined what is different in this race and the Barraza-Minton race, but let me tell you what will be the same...the result.

Antcliff will probably out perform the other countywide Republican candidates like Chavez,and Besco because he has spent a pretty good amount of money to hold on to the gavel.

To say that any candidate in this town is going to win based only because they are a Democrat or only because of a Spanish last name is lazy analysis. Dan Chavez and Jaime O. Perez both have Spanish surnames and they are going to lose, so the idea that a candidate will win only because of a Spanish surname is simply not true.

Something else that's not true is the idea that people are mindless zombies when they vote. The people that actually go to the polls and cast a vote are higher up on the intellectual food chain than the idiots that never vote. Sure, some people vote for the brand, that is a political reality that I fully acknowledge. In fact, the brand vote will hurt Democratic candidates this year.

But lets remember, you don't vote straight ticket in the primary election and Lizarraga got more votes in the primary than Antcliff did and Lizarraga had an opponent.

Will Lizarraga benefit from straight-ticket voting, sure he will. But he went to law school, passed the bar, served many years as the #2 in the DA's office, etc...

Lizarraga has won the fight he needed to win. On election night he will do the same.

Its not a slight to Judge Antcliff, I'm just callin' 'em like I see 'em.