There is no doubt that all eyes are on the May 27th runoff elections, but we must not lose sight of the fact that there is an election between now and then, the May 10th elections, which include some municipal elections, bond elections and the Special Election for Senate District 4 to fill the vacancy created by Senator Tommy Williams' exit.

In the May 10th election for Texas State Senate District 4, TCR strongly recommends and endorses State Representative Brandon Creighton to fill the shoes of retiring state Senator Tommy Williams.

Creighton is an 8th generation Texan, an attorney, rancher and businessman who has accomplished much in his young life. In 2006, Creighton was elected to the Texas House of Representatives where he has served with distinction and earned a reputation as a solid conservative, including being named as a "Taxpayer Champion," by Texans for Fiscal Responsibility. During his six years in the Texas House, Creighton has also earned the respect of his colleagues who elected him in 2013 the chair of the House Republican Caucus, serving as majority leader.

TCR believes that Brandon Creighton's far superior legislative experience will make him far more effective from the beginning in the Texas Senate than his less experienced competitors. This, when combined with his long history in the area, grassroots involvement and business experience, makes Brandon Creighton the best choice to represents the Texans of Senate District 4.

In her State of the City Address, Mayor Parker repeated the standards, but the only legislation she asked for was a human rights ordinance because after reciting how accepting and tolerant our city is, proposed another bureaucracy to provide unneeded protections to be enforced by the city.

Excuse me, when is the last time you heard we had a problem in the area? We can't recall.

This idea is another attempt for government to intervene in our lives, our businesses and relationships. We already have federal and state protection and the city should not wade in this area.

As for the Mayor's plans for real issues: (1) crime fighting, (2) infrastructure, and (3) runaway property taxes, the answers are: (1) we are doing it, (2) we are doing it, (3) no mention of it.

Here is the truth - we are under-policed and property crimes are rising, our infrastructure (potholes, etc.) are bad and getting worse, traffic congestion is increasing, and your property taxes are exploding upward, yet the Mayor expresses no interest in serious property tax relief for homeowners.

If the Mayor is interested in making Houston a world class city, look at Singapore and what they have done.

Houston needs visionary leaders interested in planning a world class future for our city, not self-congratulating cheerleaders who are pursuing personal agendas the city or its voters don't need.

Another shoe dropped on Obamacare, and now we know for sure that Obamacare is largely financed by taking lots of money out of Medicare!

The Obama administration recently admitted it, with plans to cut the popular Medicare Advantage program. Beginning next fall, they will be cutting $200 billion over the next decade or $13,000 for each of the current 15 million seniors in the program!

And that's not all, the CBO says that over the next decade about $1 trillion in Medicare funding is headed to Obamacare, which is 10% of the funding for Medicare.

One other stunning revelation, by 2020 the doctor and healthcare provider rates for Medicare will be lower than Medicaid, and you know the problem with doctors taking Medicaid patients now!

A few lessons here, Obamacare needs to go and Medicare needs to be reformed.

TCR Comment: Morgan Housel at the Motley Fool website recently put together a fascinating list of the reasons we are in good shape. We will put 10 reasons out each issue until we get to 50.

People bemoan the divisions that exist in America today. On a recent trip to New York City it took a New York minute (actually seven minutes) to show the grand demarcation that has occurred and it is more like a rupture.

We were recently in New York to celebrate my wife's birthday when the encounter happened. My wife follows from afar the social scene in New York with her principle source of information being the New York Social Diary which she reads daily. The creator and editor of the Diary, David Patrick Columbia, usually lunches on Wednesday at Michael's restaurant, the East Coast version of Michael McCarty's famous Santa Monica restaurant through which a significant portion of America's great chefs have graduated. It is also the place to have lunch on Wednesday in NYC and be seen. Great food and my wife's chance to meet the man who writes the Diary -- sounds fine to me.

After my wife schmoozed McCarty who introduced her to Mr. Columbia, she returned to our table. When we walked out we passed by Columbia's table which was needless to say in prime turf. While wife person was once more chatting up the King of the Diary, I cordially introduced myself to his lunch mate, Jesse Kornbluth. I had no knowledge of the man, but when we walked out seven minutes later I turned to my wife and stated there would be a column from that conversation.

Mr. Kornbluth runs a website, HeadButler.com, but is more prominently known as a contributing editor to Vanity Fair in addition to writing for publications like the Huffington Post. He is the author of a couple of books which gives him some street cred, but he dropped on me that he has written liner notes for Paul Simon albums so I figured he had some socially redeeming value.

I mentioned I was also a writer to which he asked for whom I write. Understand that Kornbluth, through his physical being, body language and attitude, had established himself as a New York Intellectual. If I told him I wrote for Slate but lived on the West Coast, he would most likely look down on me. After all most New York "intellectuals" think like Woody Allen about Los Angeles, "I don't want to move to a city where the only cultural advantage is being able to make a right turn on a red light." When I told him I wrote for Townhall.com, he appeared to conclude he was speaking with a Neanderthal who would be a subject of study.

I would never bring up politics in this situation so when he asked me what I had recently written I kept it soft and told him about my Jewish Joy of Christmas Music column. He then launched into a conversation about music, but soon went back to politics. He asked about my choice for 2016 to which I told him I was only focused on 2014. I give him credit; he is a reporter so he burrowed in until he I finally told him my first choice would be Scott Walker, Governor of Wisconsin. If I would have told him St. Michael I am confident he would have come back with a negative analysis, but he stated Walker would be the next Governor to go down. As it turns out, the malicious legal maneuvers against him were thrown out of court two days later. Then he told me of how the despicable Paul Gigot (Editorial page editor for the Wall Street Journal) had moved in down the hall from his apartment. He stated his wife was slipping detailed statements under the door of Mr. Gigot fact checking the editorial page. I thought of asking him where Jill Abramson (New York Times editor) lived so I could do the same to her as their editorial page is regularly guilty of the sin of omission and a good bit of distortion.

I thought the matter ended when we walked out, but my wife had received an email from Kornbluth, where he said he enjoyed meeting, etc. He also went back to politics, asking her to forward information to me as he was digging in on the sins of Scott Walker. After I replied to him I was fully aware of the Walker charges he invoked the #1 point in the liberal playbook today: the creators of all evil (now that George W. Bush is in retirement) - yes, you guessed it -- the Koch Brothers. When I suggested that beating up on the Kochs was a little passé and sent him another column of mine that might assuage his partisan concerns, he came back with detailed research of how the Kochs have weaved their way to control our political system. After he launched into a commentary about money in politics, I pointed out that Democrats seem to be very capable money raisers, which obviously includes our Cash-Register-in-Chief, Mr. Obama (although I did not state that to him as I stayed above any negative comments.)

After a couple more emails, Mr. Kornbluth let me know he was abandoning our dialogue and went on a long denunciation of my political beliefs which he had surmised from our short conversation and a few emails. I responded by telling him he needed me because I was quite confident he never interacts with someone like me (I am sure Gigot keeps his door locked), and it would be nice to actually experience another point of view. He went on to invoke the two issues that burn in every liberal's heart - global warming and abortion, despite neither being connected to our conversation.

The question thus becomes how we can breach the divide when even the smart members of the left-wing intelligentsia will not dialogue and will only stoop to ad hominem attacks on the Kochs and blaming all evils on abortion and global warming? There is little hope when you cannot have an ongoing civil conversation. Jesse, I am here and you need me.

Red, White & Blue featuring TCR Editor Gary Polland, liberal commentator David Jones and moderator Linda Lorelle on Fridays at 7:30 pm on PBS Houston Channel 8.1, replaying Saturdays at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 8.1, Mondays at 11:30 pm on Channel 8.2 and on the web at www.houstonpbs.org.

Coming soon:
Lieutenant Governor Candidates Dan Patrick and David Dewhurst. Attorney General Candidate Dan Branch confirmed, Ken Paxton invited.

The current show as well as past shows are available on YouTube.

Gary Polland is a long-time conservative and Republican spokesman, fund-raiser, and leader who completed three terms as the Harris County Republican Chairman. During his three terms, Gary was described as the most successful county Chairman in America by Human Events - The National Conservative Weekly. He is in his fifteenth year of editing a newsletter dealing with key conservative and Republican issues. The last twelve years he has edited Texas Conservative Review. As a public service for the last 10 years, Gary has published election guides for the GOP primary, general elections and city elections, all with the purpose of assisting conservative candidates. Gary is also in his twelfth year of co-hosting Red, White and Blue on PBS Houston. Gary is a practicing attorney and strategic consultant. He can be reached at (713) 621-6335.