{"id":36696,"date":"2014-05-14T07:43:56","date_gmt":"2014-05-14T12:43:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=36696"},"modified":"2014-05-20T09:43:44","modified_gmt":"2014-05-20T14:43:44","slug":"with-little-difference-on-policy-gop-railroad-commission-race-gets-personal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/05\/14\/with-little-difference-on-policy-gop-railroad-commission-race-gets-personal\/","title":{"rendered":"With Little Difference on Policy, GOP Railroad Commission Race Gets Personal"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_36738\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Ryan Sitton and Wayne Christian are facing off to become the GOP nominee for Railroad Commissioner. \" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/1-Desktop15.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-36738\" alt=\"Ryan Sitton and Wayne Christian are facing off to become the GOP nominee for Railroad Commissioner. \" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/1-Desktop15-300x214.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"214\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/1-Desktop15-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/1-Desktop15-620x442.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/1-Desktop15.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Images from campaign videos of the candidates.<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ryan Sitton and Wayne Christian are facing off to become the GOP nominee for Railroad Commissioner.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Some political campaigns, like the race for governor or president, energize everyday people, grab the media spotlight, and spark heated public debate. Then there are races like the Republican primary runoff election for <a href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/02\/24\/why-you-should-pay-attention-to-the-race-for-railroad-commission\/\">Texas Railroad Commissioner<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a down-ballot race that many Texans know nothing about (the <a href=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/tag\/railroad-commission-of-texas\/\">commission<\/a> has nothing to do with railroads, rather it regulates Texas oil and gas industries).\u00a0But that hasn&#8217;t stopped the race from getting increasingly negative as the primary runoff on May 27th approaches.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, the lack of voter enthusiasm is likely part of what&#8217;s driving the negativity.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/149482134&amp;color=ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_artwork=true\" height=\"166\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\u201cYou\u2019ll see a big difference at the top of the ballot for people who vote in the Lieutenant Governor\u2019s Race on the Republican side, who don\u2019t vote when it gets down to this race,\u201d says<b style=\"font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;\">\u00a0<\/b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/about\/staff\/ross-ramsey\/\">Ross Ramsey<\/a>, co-founder and Executive Editor of the<em> Texas Tribune<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->Those that do vote will be choosing between former state representative Wayne Christian and oil and gas industry engineering consultant Ryan Sitton. These candidates each have the task of convincing a small number of Republican voters that they would make the better regulator.<\/p>\n<p>And this being a primary runoff, that small number of voters is very, very small.<\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><a href=\"\"><\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cThese voters are not only much more conservative than the average November voter,\u00a0but they\u2019re much more conservative than the average November Republican voter,&#8221; says <a href=\"http:\/\/politicalscience.rice.edu\/Content.aspx?id=103\">Mark Jones<\/a>, Chair of the Political Science Department at Rice University. &#8220;We\u2019re dealing with a subset of a subset, and that subset is very conservative.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jones says that&#8217;s why we\u2019re hearing a lot from the candidates about abortion, immigration, and other issues important to the GOP base.<\/p>\n<p>In a race where name recognition is low, Wayne Christian is also leaning on his symbolically potent surname to appeal to Republican primary voters, reminding them that he is &#8220;the only Christian on the ballot\u201d in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=k68RyKeOkP8\">a YouTube video<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s something Sitton \u2013 who also happens to be of the Christian faith \u2013 doesn&#8217;t much appreciate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know it&#8217;s a campaign gimmick, is what it is,&#8221; he tells StateImpact Texas.<\/p>\n<h4>Shared\u00a0Ideals and\u00a0Ideas<\/h4>\n<p>Not only do all these political topics have nothing to do with oil and gas regulation, the candidates appear to agree on them. And when it comes to their approach to policy, it&#8217;s hard to find much difference, either.<\/p>\n<p>Both candidates favor a relaxed regulatory environment, decrying what they see as the EPA overreach. They both reject the notion that the recent surge in earthquakes in Texas is linked to the oil and gas boom, even though scientific research <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/05\/12\/heres-9-studies-showing-a-link-between-quakes-and-drilling-activity-in-texas\/\">says it most likely is linked<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>With so many shared ideals and ideas, there&#8217;s not much left to talk about but their personal backgrounds.\u00a0So that&#8217;s where Sitton and Christian have staked their claims.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe thing that sets me apart is my experience in energy. Running a company that has served technically the oil and gas industry, that\u2019s what I will bring to the Railroad Commission,&#8221; Sitton tells StateImpact Texas.<\/p>\n<p>Wayne Christian did not respond to an interview request, but he\u2019s been highlighting his own conservative record as a former lawmaker.<\/p>\n<h4>Getting Personal<\/h4>\n<p>Because the race has boiled down to the personal histories of the candidates, the sniping between the campaigns has focused on those histories.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_36743\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"The candidates are trying to link their opponents to President Obama.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/christian-Obama.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-36743\" alt=\"The candidates are trying to link their opponents to President Obama.\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/christian-Obama-300x300.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/christian-Obama-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/christian-Obama-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/christian-Obama-32x32.jpg 32w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/christian-Obama-64x64.jpg 64w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/christian-Obama-96x96.jpg 96w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/christian-Obama-128x128.jpg 128w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/christian-Obama-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/christian-Obama-60x60.jpg 60w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/christian-Obama.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\"> <\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The candidates are trying to link their opponent to President Obama.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Christian has raised ethical questions about Sitton&#8217;s current ownership of a firm that does business with oil and gas companies. It&#8217;s an ethical problem to try to regulate an industry you do business with, he says.<\/p>\n<p>Sitton initially said he would stay at his firm if elected, but he&#8217;s backed away from that position.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re gonna take additional legal steps like putting our company in a blind trust, stepping down as CEO. Whatever steps I need to take so that voters will feel very confident that I\u2019m only a Railroad Commissioner, and there are no conflicts,&#8221; Sitton says.<\/p>\n<p>Sitton counters that his opponent\u2019s voting record raises <a href=\"http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2014\/04\/07\/gop-railroad-commission-hopefuls-trade-ethics-crit\/\">ethical questions of its own<\/a>, saying Christian supported laws that would have benefited him both personally and financially.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_36744\"  class=\"wp-caption module image left\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"The candidates are trying to link their opponents to President Obama.\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/Sitton-Obama.png\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-36744\" alt=\"The candidates are trying to link their opponents to President Obama.\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/Sitton-Obama.png\" width=\"300\" height=\"175\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">photo from rinositton.com<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The candidates are trying to link their opponent to President Obama.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>As the race draws to a close, the attacks appear to have become more pointed.\u00a0A quick online search for each candidate will yield not only their own campaign&#8217;s website&#8217;s, but also attack sites. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rinositton.com\/\">Rinositton.com<\/a>, for instance, paints Sitton as a &#8220;Republican In Name Only.&#8221; While <a href=\"http:\/\/therealwayne.com\/\">Therealwayne.com<\/a>\u00a0describes Christian as a corrupt politician who opposes Texas energy.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s something that Mark Jones of Rice says we\u2019re seeing a lot of this in Republican runoff campaigns this year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTheir policy position is relatively similar, and therefore what they\u2019re doing is attempting to discredit their opponent based on personal attacks,&#8221; says Jones.<\/p>\n<p>The runoff election is May 27th. Early voting starts Monday, May 19, and runs all week through Friday, May 23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s a down-ballot race that many Texans know nothing about, but that hasn&#8217;t stopped the race from getting increasingly negative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":36738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[21,50],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36696"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36696"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36713,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36696\/revisions\/36713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}