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U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw has the power of incumbency and is one of the most recognizable members of Congress.
But five months ahead of the GOP primary, the Houston Republican is already on the offensive against his expected top rival, state Rep. Steve Toth, a Conroe Republican.
Though Toth is regularly rated as one of the most conservative members of the Texas House, Crenshaw’s campaign has blasted him over votes on law enforcement, the future of NASA and property taxes.
"Texas deserves leaders who will back the blue, not betray them when it matters most," the Crenshaw campaign put in one statement to reporters.
Toth said all the charges are false and prove that Crenshaw is getting desperate. Toth said he always backs law enforcement, supports NASA in Houston and wants lower property taxes.
“He’s coming out of left field with some of these ridiculous hits,” Toth said.
Toth said his internal polling shows he is in a great position to knock Crenshaw out of office.
“He knows it, which is why he’s attacking me early,” he said.
Specifically, Crenshaw has slammed Toth for opposing a bill in May that would have required cities and counties with more than 75,000 people to go to the voters anytime they wanted to raise taxes. Toth voted against the bill, saying he wanted to force changes to apply the rule to smaller cities and counties too. The bill never passed the Legislature.
On NASA, Crenshaw’s team pointed to a Toth vote against a resolution asking Congress to move the space agency’s headquarters to Houston. Toth said it was a meaningless resolution that only asked Congress to do it and had no real influence. He said he votes against many of those resolutions, like one that honored Beyoncé, because they are a waste of time when the House should be working on serious issues.
Finally, on the law enforcement issue, Crenshaw’s team criticized Toth for opposing a bill to create a grant program to equip local law enforcement vehicles with bullet-resistant windshields and other safety equipment. Toth said he voted against it because there was no dollar figure attached and no one knew how much they were committing to spending.
“I typically don’t get behind stuff like that unless you’re going to tell me what it is and how much it's going to cost people back home,” Toth said.
Crenshaw and Toth are set to battle over the newly reconfigured 2nd Congressional District, which spans from Houston and includes big parts of Montgomery County.
Toth said he supported Crenshaw’s first campaign for Congress, but said he’s let people down by not being conservative enough. Crenshaw said he remains a conservative champion and next month has U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, a conservative stalwart from Ohio, coming to the region for an event to support him.
 | Jeremy Wallace, Texas politics reporter |
Who's Up, Who's Down
A daily stock market-style report on key players in Texas politics.
Up: Austin and San Antonio.
Could a new passenger rail line make travel between the two cities easier? The Travis County Commissioners Court unanimously approved a roughly $125,000 contract this week to study the feasibility of a new passenger rail line linking Austin and San Antonio. Already, the Texas Department of Transportation is working on their own study on a potentially different route than the one Travis County is exploring.
Down: Fleet Week.
Yet another victim of the government shutdown. Houston's inaugural Fleet Week, which was planned to start on Nov. 5, has been shelved, says Mayor John Whitmire. The seven-day event was supposed to include active-duty ships from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Coast Guard. Whitmire said the plan is to try again next year. That announcement comes as organizers of the first-ever Texas Capital Air Show in San Marcos also canceled that event because of the federal government shutdown. The display of aerial acrobatics was scheduled for Saturday and Sunday.
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