Moderate Republican Criticized for Being Lobbyist & State Board of Education Member

Self proclaimed Moderate Republican, Thomas Ratliff, has brought a heap of criticism on himself and the State Board of Education, as numerous media outlets are reporting the fact that he will maintain his day job as a paid lobbyist in Texas at the Texas Capitol, while serving as an elected official for the State of Texas, on the State Board of Education.

This was well known by many during his campaign against fellow Republican, Conservative champion, Don McLeroy, but it seems the rest of the state was unaware.  And they are not happy.  Now that Ratliff has been sworn in (as of last week), many are expressing outrage.

The word in 2010 from the hard left and Ratliff was that the new Republicans, like Thomas Ratliff, were going to bring reform to the State Board of Education, which has been led by conservative Republicans in recent years.  They stomped on McLeroy for being a dentist, and in his place they have brought us a paid lobbyist, who has already had to recuse himself from an SBOE meeting because of his lobbyist contracts creating a potential conflict.

There are numerous articles online already about this issue. Texas Eagle Forum brought this issue up at the Friday SBOE meeting, and it’s been on fire ever since.

Click here to see the articles.

Now it appears that the Travis County District Attorneys office could be involved, as well as the Texas Attorney General’s office.

There may be a fine line legally that Ratliff can walk on this issue, but it doesn’t seems to pass the smell test for the public.

He has already had to recuse himself from one SBOE meeting, just two days into the job.

Share this:
Back to blog