OPINION: Preserve The Woodlands Candidate Committee announces 2024 Montgomery County Republican Primary Election endorsements

THE WOODLANDS, TX -- Early voting for the Texas Republican primary elections is now underway. Here are my endorsements, Texas House District 15 candidate analysis, and Montgomery County voting information. Please make sure to vote. I encourage you to do your own research and make your own choices.

I support the candidates listed in the image below who have been vetted and endorsed by the Preserve The Woodlands Candidate Committee. You may print this and take it with you to the voting booth (phones are not allowed).

Texas House District 15 Candidate Analysis
Skeeter Hubert is challenging incumbent Steve Toth for State Representative of House District 15, which includes The Woodlands, Shenandoah, Oakridge, and Benders Landing.

I strongly support Skeeter. I have known him for over 15 years and can speak highly of his work ethic and conservative and family values. We served together on The Woodlands Community Association Board toward the inception of the Woodlands Township. He has provided dedicated service as the longest-serving president of the CISD Board of Trustees, leading CISD to rank as the 2nd highest school district for academic and financial performance out of the 200 largest districts in Texas.

Unlike his opponent, Skeeter is not just a Texan, but a third-generation Texan, who will represent and advocate for our local community in the state legislature. His impressive array of endorsements from local leaders demonstrates that he is deeply committed to our community and will listen to and fight for us in Austin. Skeeter will stay true to his conservative principles, and he is not for sale.

Toth is a transplant from New York who put on boots and a hat as soon as he arrived and has been pretending for the last eight years in Austin that he is espousing our interests. Reportedly, he makes a public vote only to quietly change his vote after, and changed his vote 123 times last session, the 4th most of any legislator. He has demonstrated no leadership or ability to build a consensus, doing almost nothing for us in Montgomery County; instead, he has chased headlines from whichever way the wind wafts while taking orders from big donors in Austin. In other words,

Toth is for sale
Toth has received over $19,000 from the incorporation squad (Bunch, Rieser, Sekula-Gibbs) who pushed for bigger government, higher taxes, and drastic changes to The Woodlands' uniquely successful township governance model in an effort to gain political control. Toth tried to convince the residents of The Woodlands to vote for incorporation, but over 67% of voters rejected it.

It was only after incorporation failed that Toth finally participated in sponsoring a bill to allow The Woodlands to receive its share of local alcohol beverage taxes that had been going to the state. During the incorporation push, we were led to believe The Woodlands could only receive this revenue if it were to incorporate into a city. If Toth and the incorporation squad hadn't been so obsessed with promoting their incorporation agenda and had been more focused on the interests of our local taxpayers, perhaps we could have been receiving these funds throughout the last decade to help offset and lower The Woodlands' property taxes.

Toth has received $45,000 from House Speaker Dade Phelan, who has been censured for lack of fidelity to GOP principles.

Toth has received $9000 from Simon Sequeira, President of Quadvest, who profits from groundwater pumping in Montgomery County. Toth supported legislation to remove Jace Houston from his position at SJRA after Jace led initiatives to replace groundwater pumping with surface water pumping to mitigate subsidence and sustain our aquifers in Montgomery County.

Early voting for the 2024 Texas primary elections occurs from Tuesday, February 20th to Friday, March 1st. Election Day is Tuesday, March 5th. It is important to vote in the primaries, especially in our solid red Montgomery County, where Republican primaries effectively serve as the deciding race for who will ultimately be elected to local offices.

Yours truly,
Bruce Tough
Former Chairman of The Woodlands Township Board
Tough Law Firm