Abbott’s shallow but partisan rhetoric is exactly the same political recipe Rick Perry has been serving for over a dozen years. Like Perry, Greg Abbott sees public service as an opportunity for personal advancement. His record is a series of self-serving actions that have held Texans back rather than move us forward. Texans don’t want or need a fifth term for Rick Perry, yet that is what a Greg Abbott governorship would be.
A career politician dependent upon public office
Greg Abbott has spent most of his adult life either running for office or serving in office, all while milking the state payroll. Abbott is part of a group of political lifers who have drawn a state paycheck for a combined 114 years. He worked in private practice as a lawyer for barely 10 years. Abbott’s first two political offices were not the result of him winning an election but rather as appointments to fill a vacancy. Greg Abbott been living off of Texas taxpayers and political contributors for almost every one of the last 20 years.
Working against Texans rather than for them
Time and again as State Attorney General, Abbott has ignored real problems that threaten Texas families and instead used the resources of the AG’s office to go after perceived political enemies or to advance himself. Just a few years ago, Abbott converted over $1 million in federal grant money intended for use in prosecuting online sexual predators and other cyber crimes and instead used it to harass and prosecute senior citizens who were assisting other senior citizens in applying for mail-in ballots.
Partisanship matched by incompetence
Texans’ privacy and personal finances were threatened when the AG’s office exposed hundreds of thousands of Social Security numbers while releasing other documents during voter photo ID litigation. Abbott’s incompetence did not result in a wider release of private information ONLY because opposing council in the case identified and notified Abbott of his error.
Partisan like Perry, but more bitter and mean-spirited
Like Perry, Abbott sees the world as red versus blue and uses his official office to punish enemies while advancing himself and his partisan allies. Abbott has taken his partisanship even further to what can only be described as heartlessness. As part of a sham investigation into voter fraud, Abbott sent agents from the AG’s office to harass an elderly Democratic activist in Fort Worth. The agents went to the elderly woman’s home and, when she did not immediately come to the door, they circled the house and peeped in her windows. The woman was startled to see one of Abbott’s agents staring at her through the bathroom window as she stepped out of the shower. Rather than apologize, the agents insisted on interrogating the woman, then left without fully explaining their reasons for coming to her home. Greg Abbott has yet to explain his actions, much less apologize for them.
