Paul Workman leading in Travis County GOP Texas House primary

Austin American-Statesman (TX)

March 07--State Rep. Paul Workman is leading in the Republican primary in state House District 47 which encompasses western Travis County, according to early voting results.

Workman, who was elected to the state legislature in 2011, has 60 percent of the results so far, ahead of business owner Jay Wiley who had 32 percent of the votes and Patty Vredevelt, a retired nurse, who had 8 percent of the votes.

Although Workman won the endorsement of Gov. Greg Abbott months ago, Wiley has said Workman's voting record isn't conservative enough. Wiley, who ran against Workman in the 2016 Republican primary, said that Workman supported an increase on local hotel occupancy tax and increasing taxes on nursing home patients. He also pointed to Workman's initial vote against an amendment that bans third-trimester abortions during the last regular legislative session. Workman later changed his vote.

READ: In Austin-area House race, candidates' party loyalties at question

Workman has defended his record, saying the hotel industry in Austin supported the occupancy tax increase because it would create more visitors to the city. He also said he supported a tax on nursing homes, not on their clients.

If re-elected, Workman said he plans on continuing to curb cities like Austin from exerting too much control over their residents and businesses. He said he'll work on overturning the Austin City Council's recent decision to require all nongovernmental employers to provide paid sick leave to their employees.

If elected, Wiley said he'd join the House's Freedom Caucus, tea party-aligned members who sometimes defy the Republican majority. He said he wants to change the way the Legislature develops the state's budget every two years by first zeroing out all agency budgets and adding what agencies need.

Workman must garner more than 50 percent of the votes to avoid a runoff election May 22. Whoever wins the Republican primary will face the Democratic primary winner in the general election in November.

Democratic primary

Real estate broker Vikki Goodwin is leading in the Democratic primary with 35 percent of the early votes.

Elaina Fowler, who runs an employee retiree group, is in second place with 28 percent of the votes, followed by nonprofit owner Sheri Soltes (24 percent), nurse Candace Aylor (7 percent) and company executive Will Simpson (6 percent).

Goodwin's loyalty to the Democratic party was called into question during the campaign. She had supported Republican Travis County Commissioner Gerald Daugherty in 2012 while she was Democratic Party precinct chairwoman.

Goodwin said voters haven't asked her about Daugherty and that she's running on things they care about like fixing the school funding system. If elected she said she would ensure that commercial properties pay their fair share of property taxes.

In addition to supporting Medicaid expansion and stopping "reckless developments" that hurt the environment, Soltes said she wants to increase the state's share of school funding from about 40 percent to 60 percent and divert some of the money spent on fortifying the Texas-Mexico border to public schools.

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