RachL

Jameson, the “set aside personal controversies” framing doesn’t hold when the controversies are official acts as AG. Impeachment articles covered abuse of office, using the AG’s office to benefit Nate Paul (including intervening in litigation involving a charity), and firing the whistleblowers who reported it. Those aren’t private scandals—they’re how he exercised (and abused) the powers of the office. Constitutional conservatism includes the rule of law applying to the person who enforces it, not just suing the feds. Beyond that: Texas Constitution Article VII, Section 1 requires an efficient system of public free schools. Vouchers raise a legitimate constitutional question—that’s the AG’s job to assert or defend. He has deferred to donor priorities instead. The Texas Constitution has never given the AG general original criminal jurisdiction; that belongs to local prosecutors. When the Court of Criminal Appeals (all Republican) held in State v. Stephens that a statute letting him unilaterally prosecute election crimes violated separation of powers, Paxton’s allies targeted three of the judges who joined the majority. They were ousted in the 2024 primary. That’s not defending the Constitution—it’s punishing judges for applying it. It’s demanding activist judges which is opposed to the foundational premise you purpose to hold.. yet you too will excuse it. He refused to defend the Texas Ethics Commission against Empower Texans (tied to major donors). Selective defense of state institutions. Significant losses and resource expenditure in high-profile Biden-era suits. In the State Bar matter tied to the 2020 election lawsuit, he argued the AG is not subject to ordinary bar rules for official actions. Texas’s data-center sales-tax exemptions (which he supported as a legislator) have been projected to cost billions in foregone revenue amid growing local concerns over water and grid impacts. Many projects involve limited transparency. The AG’s office has not been aggressive in scrutinizing them. When the Abbott administration delays or downplays data on maternal deaths or other inconvenient facts, Paxton does not act as an independent check. He protects the political team. The constituents are not the herd; the leadership is. The pattern is consistent: usurp local control at the state level, then yield state power when it conflicts with national MAGA priorities. The apparatus treats Congress and the courts as subordinate to the executive and demands “unity to the team” from the ISD board up to the Senate. That team is not the public. That collapses federalism, states’ rights, representation, and the rule of law. Challenging federal overreach is fine. Desired. Performative politics is not. Suit for the media blitz knowing you’ll lose in the law is harm. Outsourcing suits at $2500/hour while drawing a salary and paying a full staff and then cheering the work as one’s own is astounding. Doing all that while hiding $27M and 15 properties in a government salary is beyond. Treating the AG’s office as a political and donor instrument while ignoring or undermining Texas’s own constitutional obligations, limits, and structure is not Constitutional. And because you’re right that this matters to me: Character and public trust aren’t optional extras; they’re part of the job.