By Thomas Warren III, Editor-in-Chief

Have you noticed that every time something happens that Kel Seliger doesn’t like, it’s always trumped up as a grand conspiracy against the Amarillo liberal Republican? Well, if you haven’t noticed it yet, you will very soon, as Seliger’s conspiracy talk has once again returned.

This week, Texas Senators voted to approve a new senate redistricting map for the entire state. The new map includes changes to virtually every senate district in Texas, mostly due to population shifts, including for Texas’ 31st District, which is currently represented by Sen. Seliger (R-Amarillo). The district, which presently includes most of the Panhandle and the Midland-Odessa area, would be changed under the new map to send a few Panhandle counties into a nearby district, while collecting a few more counties to the south.

The district change, which seems reasonable and was approved by a 20-11 vote of the Senate, saw only one Republican vote against the map — Seliger. You might be asking yourself why Seliger would vote against this map when its only real change was to accommodate for population shifts. Seliger’s reason is because once again, there is a grand conspiracy against him.

“I believe, members, that really what this is about is to take counties out of the Panhandle and move them closer to Midland because a member of the board of Texas Public Policy Foundation is running,” Seliger said on the Senate floor before the vote.

Ah, yes, because every Republican senator in Texas and three Democrats voted for a redistricting map that includes the entire state just to get at Seliger.

Give me a break.

Anyone who has followed the career of Seliger over the past few years has probably noticed this to be his tendency. Something goes wrong for the Senator and he claims there is a conspiracy against him. In 2018, Seliger faced former Muleshoe Mayor and restaurant owner Victor Leal and former Midland Mayor Mike Canon in a runoff. Canon had run against Seliger before in 2014 and Leal was a well-known conservative political activist in the Panhandle, as well as an outspoken critic of Seliger. It is understandable why both of these candidates would want to run against Seliger. But, when the Senator was asked why, he once again said it was a grand conspiracy.

"It is an absolute fact," Seliger was quoted as saying to the Amarillo Globe-News about whether Leal’s candidacy was the result of a conspiracy.

I guess for Seliger it was totally out of the realm of possibility that a person who had been critical of his legislative record for virtually his entire stint as the most liberal Republican in the Senate would run against him.

Talk about out of touch.

Or, even think about when Seliger was booted from his chairmanship on the Senate Agriculture Committee last year after saying that he had a suggestion for one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s female aide’s “lips and my back end.”

When Seliger issued a statement after being removed from his chairmanship, he claimed he was being targeted for opposing Patrick, not for his comments and his failure to apologize after he was given that opportunity by Patrick.

Once again, instead of understanding why something happened, he claimed he was being targeted.

For Kel Seliger, everything is a conspiracy.

If Kel Seliger runs for re-election this year, I’m sure you will hear more conspiracy talk. Maybe President Trump is even in on the conspiracy since he has already endorsed Kevin Sparks, a businessman who is challenging Seliger. You know, because I’m sure Trump conferred with Leal and Patrick and everyone else who is out to get Seliger so he could be part of the conspiracy too.

The truth is that Seliger’s record speaks for itself and he doesn’t want to own up to it, so it’s easier to just claim a conspiracy against him. He has consistently been the most liberal Republican in the Senate and has opposed the conservative grassroots on every issue. But, make no mistake, he will once again try to sway voters by deflecting from his record and claiming that there is a conspiracy to get him out of office, brought to you by people like Sparks, Leal, Patrick, and now, apparently, President Donald Trump.

If voters want to end Seliger’s shenanigans, they can do so by voting for Kevin Sparks in the Republican primary for Texas Senate next year. The only way to end Seliger’s bad record and his constant whining about an imaginary conspiracy is to vote him out of office.