The Coastal Bend region’s lead newspaper has announced its endorsement for the Lieutenant Governor’s race, calling Democratic candidate Leticia Van de Putte a “Democrat that GOP voters should trust.”  Here’s an excerpt from the full-throated endorsement by the Corpus Christi Caller Times…

The Democratic Party’s effort has been all about Van de Putte’s Senate colleague, gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis of Fort Worth, because of the national attention Davis gained from her filibuster against an abortion bill. But if there’s one race the Democrats need to win, it’s the lieutenant governor’s race. And not for the sake of the Democratic Party. She [Van de Putte] deserves the job irrespective of her party affiliation just like U.S. Sen. John Tower was deserving all those years he was Texas’ only Republican elected statewide.

Van de Putte is the most deserving Democrat in any race we’ve examined this cycle. Her colleagues in the majority-Republican Senate respect her and would welcome her leadership. And they’d be unlikely to do to her what has been rumored they would do to Patrick — change Senate rules to make the lieutenant governor less powerful. Lieutenant governor, despite its name which suggests a junior executive-branch role, is really a powerful legislative-branch position. And, as Van de Putte explained to our board, senators like it that way because of the leverage that their lieutenant governor can give them in their dealings with the House.

Van de Putte displays a strong grasp of issues even for someone who has been in the Legislature since 1991. She represents a landlocked district but is as informed about coastal windstorm insurance as acclaimed near-expert Hunter, one of many Republicans of whom she speaks highly.

She correctly identifies education and transportation and water infrastructure as priority issues. We wish we were hearing more from the gubernatorial candidates about those and less about what’s wrong with each other. Van de Putte doesn’t waste time tarring Patrick — enough Republicans are tending to it for her.

Van de Putte is a working pharmacist, which means that she’s informed about health care on more levels than most of her colleagues — and that she completed a tough, choosy STEM program in college. The world — and lawyer-heavy Texas government — needs more STEM professionals. Republicans who are true to their party’s philosophy would agree.

For all of the praise given to Van de Putte, the Caller Times editorial board had no such praise for her Republican TEApublican opponent Dan Patrick. They even admitted that even the prospect of sending Patrick to lead the State Senate could have disastrous results for the Texas legislature.

As if the Senator’s long record of bipartisan leadership wasn’t enough to land the endorsement, it’s clear that the editorial board was equally impressed with her unparalleled understanding of the many contemporary issues facing Texas.  If you’ve taken the time to read any one of Leticia Van de Putte’s Texas First plans on her website, what you encountered was nothing short of astounding.  The amount detail with which Van de Putte conveys her positions on a wide range of issues– veteran’s services, healthcare, human trafficking, immigration, the economy, infrastructure and so much more– would fascinate even the best policy analyst.  Basically, Leticia Van de Putte is the Ezra Klein of the Texas legislature.

Given the complete lack of information on Dan Patrick’s website, expect to see more major endorsements for Leticia Van de Putte.

(photo credit:  Austin MD magazine)