Sheriff Henry Patterson’s political machine, infamously known as the Outsiders, has now started doing exactly what they said they were going to do. This is part one in what we anticipate will be an ongoing series of articles covering the desperate attempts of Eddie Shauberger and The Outsiders to re-write the biography of Sheriff Henry so voters might vote for him and the biography of Judge Bobby Rader so conservatives will tend to stay away from the polls.
In late 2011 Eddie Shauberger told Ray Akins and Richard Pegues and God only knows who else that supporting Bobby Rader for Sheriff would prove to be a bad mistake.
“Henry Patterson will be… no, no, he MUST be elected Sheriff,” Shauberger said angrily.
Adding to his personal threats to Akins and Pegues, Shauberger sneered as he explained that the facts in politics were not important but that appearance was. He said Rader has a nice job, but when The Outsiders get finished with him, he will wish he had just been satisfied being a JP.
“Tell him if he will pull out of the Sheriff’s race, we will let him keep his JP job,” Shauberger said.
The Outsiders have launched into cyberspace and the public domain the exact type of things Shauberger, a/k/a “Chatterbox”, promised they would. Unfortunately, if Shauberger was telling the truth, their opening salvo will be followed “with so much mud, Bobby will never be able to climb out from underneath it.”
Shauberger also bragged that Sheriff Patterson had a pastor in the north part of the county that he had “wrapped around his finger” that would help make Patterson look “good” while Rader was being made to “look worse than the devil himself.” Shauberger described the pastor as a “true believer” in Patterson. This first shot at Rader we are referring to is in the form of an e-mail from Aubrey Vaughn, a pastor from Cleveland. Not knowing Vaughn, it is still easy for anyone who reads his e-mail attacking Rader that he is deeply devoted to and believes in one man… Henry Patterson. And that he either doesn’t understand the key concepts of conservatism or he just doesn’t agree with them.
The following is a short response to the Vaughn’s claims that voters should not consider voting for Bobby Rader for Sheriff because he is still a working Judge.
The law dictates what elected public officials do under certain circumstances. Justice of the Peace Bobby Rader may prefer to be free to be out and about campaigning with fewer responsibilities, but he is the most qualified person to carry out the duties in precinct one he has had for years and he is willing to sacrifice campaign time to make sure this office is continues the high standards it has had for years. Vaughn claims if Judge Bobby Rader were ethical he would resign. But anyone familiar with the six way political race by those vying to replace Rader as JP #1 might think just the opposite. In fact, they may have the same view as the Commissioners’ Court. The Court voted 3 to 1 to keep Judge Rader on the job while challengers seeking his position duke it out in the May 29th primary. This keeps proven trustworthy leadership on the JP #1 bench while allowing voters to select his replacement without the influence of incumbency.
Shauberger said way back in 2011 that Rader would more than likely be asked to keep serving until a new JP was elected. Shauberger said that they could easily paint Rader as “another crooked good ole boy” if he stayed on the bench.
Shauberger doesn’t sound much like someone who thinks in terms of public service or like a conservative for that matter. The genius of Madison and the federalism in the U.S. Constitution along with the county system, etc. and emphasis on local control in the Texas Constitution leaves this community with our own unique circumstances to decide what to do with someone who resigns to run for another office. Republicans have always embraced the idea of having decision makers closer to the voters that they affect. Commissioners want Rader to stay on the bench. As for Rader being like some of the good ole boys in Liberty County’s past… well that is a stretch. Rader ran for office and served as ran as a Republican when there were no other local Republicans holding office. For years, he was blamed and ridiculed for anything Republicans did by some local Democrats.
Vaughn says in the e-mail he broadcast, “It is interesting to note that the Court immediately appointed the new Tax Assessor/Collector when the former Tax Assessor/Collector recently resigned.” The law is on the side of Liberty County commissioners for their decision to keep Rader on as interim JP.
The Outsiders may have this man “wrapped around their finger” but someone needs to point out to him that the Tax Assessor resigned and therefore was not available to serve until May 29th. it is these kinds of red herring ineffective arguments, whether they are sincere or whether they are planted and known to be illegitimate, that make us know that make us realize Shauberger’s threats of loads and loads of mud must surely be coming into this race.
The fact of the matter is the closest thing to a good ole boy political machine that we have left in this county after the last two elections is the group Patterson and Vaughn are working along side of – and worse than all of the good ole boy systems in the past, these men are mostly not even residents of Liberty County.
Note: Please stay tuned for future parts to this series. This county has been threatened with so many accusations and so much mudslinging that no one could possibly survive it all and be elected by the voters. We believe that is big talk from people who post pictures of some of Liberty Dispatch’s contributors but who will not post pictures of Valdez, William, or Farmer.
