Why is this Texas Republican suddenly backing a Democrat against Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick?

Anyone who was shocked when Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley stepped out in favor of Democrat Mike Collier in the race for lieutenant governor hasn’t been listening to the Hurst Republican.

Whitley has been teeing off for years about Austin’s encroachment on local control, the state’s culpability for property-tax increases, and the hard-right turn of his party. And he’s laid much of it at Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s feet.

Still, it made for significant news when a decades-long leader in Texas’ largest Republican county spoke out against a party poobah two months before Election Day.

On the substance, Whitley is mostly right: State Republican lawmakers and leaders have generally been chipping away at local control, particularly for Texas’ largest — and Democrat-controlled — cities and counties. And the cost of public schools, for which the state should bear the brunt, is the biggest driver of property taxes.

On the politics, Whitley’s comments reflect a reality in Texas politics: His brand of Republicanism, the one that built a durable GOP majority, is fading.

Whitley’s interview on WFAA-TV’s “Y’allitics” podcast drew attention for his comments on Patrick. But he also talked extensively about how his party has shifted in his decades in office — and specifically the divide in Tarrant County. He’s retiring after four terms as county judge, and he acknowledged that the new environment favors candidates with a harder edge.

“I don’t know if I would have been able to win the primary,” he told WFAA.

Whitley lamented what he called an “ugly” GOP primary race to replace him, one in which Southlake Republican activist Tim O’Hare trounced Whitley’s preferred candidate, former Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price. And he decried the polarization and partisanship that dominate politics.

Republican primary voters want candidates they perceive more as “fighters,” particularly on cultural issues. But if they want to elect candidates to battle the establishment in Texas, that means warring with — other Texas Republicans.

MORE GROWTH, HIGHER PROPERTY APPRAISALS, HIGHER TAXES

Property tax increases fuel voter anger on all parts of the political spectrum. Growth is the main culprit — demand for real estate makes for higher property appraisals, which make for higher tax bills. Plenty of local governments — including Tarrant County under Whitley — have long enjoyed spending the added revenue while bragging that they haven’t raised tax rates.

There aren’t easy fixes. We want growth, but it necessitates more spending on roads, schools and services. Property taxes pay for every level of local government. As Whitley has lamented, only cities can levy sales tax. Texas has no income taxes, and that won’t change.

The Legislature, flush with surpluses fueled by the state sales tax, is promising relief by paying for a larger share of public education. But the more the state takes on, the harder the choices the next time there’s a recession. Some peddle fantasies about eliminating property taxes entirely, but they never quite explain how Texans would survive the sticker shock of a sales-tax rate that would have to double or more to compensate.

Lawmakers should spend less time telling cities and counties what to do, too. Local control is not an inviolable principle; the state is right to protect property rights and prevent patchwork economic policies that limit growth. But in recent years, Austin has dictated both highly specific instructions, such as how and when local officials can levy taxes, and vague strictures that create uncertainty and strife, such as what materials communities can have in their schools.

LIMITED IMPACT OF COLLIER ENDORSEMENT

Whitley’s backing of Collier, a Democrat making his third run for statewide office, made headlines but will have little practical effect. Collier gave Patrick a stronger-than-expected challenge in 2018, and he’s turned up the heat on the lieutenant governor, especially on the issue of Texas’ power grid. His fate is largely tied to broader events, though, including the overall political environment and how well the candidate above him on the ballot, Beto O’Rourke, does at driving new voters to the polls.

The whole episode is a marker. Whitley entered county office as a commissioner in 1997, as Republicans were locking in control of Texas politics. He’s the kind of Republican candidate who, by the thousands, turned Texas red and kept it that way.

Now, he’s an outlier in his own party.

This story was originally published September 7, 2022 at 11:40 AM.