{"id":36970,"date":"2014-05-27T22:55:42","date_gmt":"2014-05-28T03:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=36970"},"modified":"2014-05-27T23:26:30","modified_gmt":"2014-05-28T04:26:30","slug":"ryan-sitton-takes-railroad-commission-runoff-in-election-night-surprise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/05\/27\/ryan-sitton-takes-railroad-commission-runoff-in-election-night-surprise\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Sitton Wins Railroad Commission Runoff in Election Night Surprise"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_37006\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Ryan Sitton was chosen as the Republican nominee for Reailroad Commissioner. \" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/sittonPICcropped.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-37006\" alt=\"Ryan Sitton was chosen as the Republican nominee for Reailroad Commissioner. \" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/sittonPICcropped-300x206.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"206\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/sittonPICcropped-300x206.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2014\/05\/sittonPICcropped.jpg 504w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\"> <\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ryan Sitton was chosen as the Republican nominee for Reailroad Commissioner.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>When former State Rep. Wayne Christian entered the\u00a0GOP\u00a0primary runoff for Railroad Commission 12 points ahead of his opponent, he had the backing of numerous Tea Party groups and Republican clubs. He looked very much like the favorite in his\u00a0race against\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/directory\/ryan-sitton\/\" target=\"_blank\">relative political newcomer<\/a>\u00a0Ryan Sitton.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Tuesday\u00a0GOP voters upended those expectations, nominating Sitton to run in the general election for a seat on the Commission, which regulates the Texas oil and gas industry.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Sitton owns an oil and gas engineering consulting firm. He faced numerous questions in the primary and runoff over whether he could ethically regulate an industry to which he belongs. He initially said he would stay involved with his company if elected, a position from which he<a href=\"http:\/\/trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com\/2014\/04\/railroad-commissioner-candidate-ryan-sitton-to-sever-business-ties-if-elected.html\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0later backtracked<\/a>. He also came under criticism for\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2014\/04\/07\/gop-railroad-commission-hopefuls-trade-ethics-crit\/\" target=\"_blank\">refusing to divulge his client list<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Little appeared to differentiate Christian and Sitton on policy issues. Both candidates\u00a0stuck\u00a0close to conservative positions on regulation, decrying what they\u00a0describe\u00a0as federal overreach and burdensome environmental rules. They also shared similar views on social issues unrelated to oil and gas, and reminded voters of their anti-abortion and pro-gun rights positions.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/ci6.googleusercontent.com\/proxy\/vk4iaSRDggMuFQld2WKYqwvXWvKtvt5AO1LoX5321t3YJjly3aqo8E_3Xscy5TU4qhEVZl9BlAJXm8oCwetDpe1reQGSWQE4C8hN8RpB9gopl0UeP-J5RreRYsQoznUyToxjzdMlEcFYDc7i1TE=s0-d-e1-ft#https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-includes\/js\/tinymce\/plugins\/wordpress\/img\/trans.gif\" border=\"0\" \/><!--more-->While little separated them on policy, they presented distinct personal histories. They also appeared unafraid to go negative in the final weeks of the campaign.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/05\/14\/with-little-difference-on-policy-gop-railroad-commission-race-gets-personal\/\">With Little Difference on Policy, GOP Railroad Commission Race Gets Personal<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/03\/04\/primary-results-republican-railroad-commission-race-goes-to-runoff\/\">Primary Results: Republican Railroad Commission Race Goes to Runoff<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/02\/19\/could-earthquakes-shake-up-the-race-for-railroad-commission\/\">Could Earthquakes Shake Up the Race for Railroad Commissioner?<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/02\/24\/why-you-should-pay-attention-to-the-race-for-railroad-commission\/\">Why You Should Pay Attention to the Race for Railroad Commission<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/09\/CommSmitherman-bio.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/railroad-commission-of-texas\/\">What Is The Railroad Commission Of Texas?<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\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,\u201d Sitton\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/05\/14\/with-little-difference-on-policy-gop-railroad-commission-race-gets-personal\/\" target=\"_blank\">told StateImpact Texas<\/a>, trying to turn what his opponents painted as a weakness into a strength.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>It&#8217;s a tactic that appears to have worked. In claiming victory on his website tonight,\u00a0Sitton said he was &#8220;committed to working as hard as ever to earn every Texan&#8217;s\u00a0vote&#8221; in the general election.<\/p>\n<p>In the days to come, political analysts will try to explain how the Railroad Commission race became the only high profile\u00a0Republican runoff in which the supposed Tea Party favorite lost. Jim Malewitz at the Texas Tribune\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2014\/05\/27\/liveblog-2014-primary-runoff-elections\/#update-at-1401237521%7C5091\" target=\"_blank\">notes\u00a0<\/a>that Sitton outspent Christian. Sitton appeared to be the favorite of the oil and gas industry. He had numerous personal endorsements from industry leaders and some established Republican figures (although more\u00a0money\u00a0and\u00a0endorsements\u00a0didn\u2019t seem to\u00a0help some other candidates\u00a0the runoffs).<\/p>\n<p>Sitton will now face Democrat Steve Brown and Libertarian Mark Miller in the general election.<\/p>\n<p>Brown has spent the primary election raising questions about the unintended consequences of the Texas oil and gas boom. He&#8217;s traveled to North Texas to call attention to concerns over\u00a0manmade earthquakes, and to South Texas to highlight air pollution. Those are topics that got little attention in the Republican primary, though Sitton may need to address them further as he heads to November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When former State Rep. Wayne Christian entered the\u00a0GOP\u00a0primary runoff for Railroad Commission 12 points ahead of his opponent, he had the backing of numerous Tea Party groups and Republican clubs. He looked very much like the favorite in his\u00a0race against\u00a0relative political newcomer\u00a0Ryan Sitton. Tuesday\u00a0GOP voters upended those expectations, nominating Sitton to run in the general [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[50],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36970"}],"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=36970"}],"version-history":[{"count":49,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37019,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36970\/revisions\/37019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}