City of Fort Worth
Fort Worth City Councilman Cary Moon said this week that he would leave that post, put on a Republican sash, and vie for a different job in public life, a seat in the Texas state House from the recently redrawn District 93.
It has been the home of state Rep. Matt Krause (R-Fort Worth), who has announced his intention to take a dip into a Republican primary race for state attorney general that is sure to produce its share of strife with an incumbent seemingly bent on stepping in controversy and a Bush heir.
Moon, who ran and defeated Danny Scarth for his seat on the council in 2015, will enter the race with as a pro-business conservative with a vision to reform Texas’ property tax model, as well as defend the interests of Fort Worth in Austin.
“My heart is in Fort Worth and though my job would be at the Texas Capitol, I will still stay close to City Hall,” Moon said. “It’s an opportunity to serve Fort Worth at the next level.
“There’s been many times Fort Worth has lost battles in Austin because maybe our legislators didn’t have a good understanding of the impact to Fort Worth. I plan on fighting and winning those battles because I have a better understanding.”
That might have been a swipe at his presumed rival Laura Hill, the former Southlake mayor — nicknamed “Mom Mayor” — who has said she, too, will run as a Republican.
In addition to tax relief and “protecting the pocketbook” of the taxpayer, and ensuring good representation for the district in Austin, Moon said his priorities would be the state economy, and protecting the right to harvest natural gas resources.
“I want to find a way to get away from property tax,” Moon said, while adding he is adamantly opposed to a state income tax. He said his record with the city’s financials has been a good one, particularly in identifying methods other than a property tax increase to meet the city’s financial obligations.
You can be certain the primary will be full of the same national issues that have rock-ribbed conservative communities on the edge of their seats.
“Protecting education” was the term Moon used for “making sure parents have a say of what goes on in the classroom. And making sure tax dollars are tied to that curriculum, and that teachers aren’t teaching outside the curriculum and indoctrinating children.”
That, of course, is an allusion to the hyper-controversial Critical Race Theory that has swept across the desks of seemingly every school board.
“I’ve been very effective with public policy because I’m a business owner and accountant,” he said. “When government got in the way or wasn’t able to regulate the way it needed to, we changed that at City Hall.”
Moon is also sure to confront a personal lapse in October of 2020. He was arrested in Burleson on a misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated. Moon said on Wednesday that the matter has been remedied through the courts.
“It’s a legal matter I still deal with,” he said. “I am serving probation. That was part of the agreement. But I have completed the victim impact training, the alcohol awareness, and my community service. It’s an ongoing legal issue that you deal with. It’s not something I’m running from or hiding from. I will speak to it publicly regularly.”