Cindy Burkett

Cindy Burkett
Texas State House, District 101
Incumbent
In office
2011 - Present
Term ends
January 11, 2013
Years in position	2
Party	Republican
Compensation
Base salary	$7,200/year
Per diem	$150/day
Elections and appointments
Last election	November 2, 2010
First elected	2010
Next election	November 6, 2012
Term limits	N/A
Websites
Office website

Cindy Burkett is a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives, representing the 101st District. She has served since 2011.

Biography

Professional Experience

Cindy is the co-owner of Highline Enterprises, a company that owns and operates several Subway sandwich shops. Prior to her time in the legislature, Cindy represented Senate District 2 on the State Republican Executive Committee. She also sat on the Mesquite Board of Adjustments and on the board of Keep Mesquite Beautiful. Cindy is an active member of Mimosa Lane Baptist Church.

Education

Cindy has a BA in Political Science from the University of Texas at Arlington, where she graduated in 2004. Currently, she serves on the Elections and Criminal Jurisprudence Committees.

Committee assignments

2013-2014

At the beginning of the 2013 legislative session, Burkett served on the following committees:

Texas Committee Assignments, 2013
• Investments & Financial Services
• Local & Consent Calendars
• Transportation

2011-2012

Burkett serves on the following Texas House of Representatives committees:

Texas Committee Assignments, 2011
• Criminal Jurisprudence
• Elections

Issues

Burkett outlined her views across a number of issues on her campaign site:

Less government: Yes

Excerpt:"Concerned that government is overstepping it’s bounds? If you are, you’re right. It is. Cindy knows first hand that government is getting bigger and more burdensome by the minute – making it harder for employers to keep people on the job. Higher taxes and more regulations imposed at all levels of government are crushing the economy."

Higher taxes: No

Excerpt:"You’d think that politicians would have learned this lesson already. Ronald Reagan and JFK both proved that cutting taxes stimulates the economy. Lower taxes means more money in your pocket, more money to hire people and more money to invest. Higher taxes stifle economic growth. That’s what we’re feeling right now in our economy. Cindy will vote to cut taxes – and cut them deeply."

Illegal immigration: No

Excerpt:"The percentage of babies born at Parkland (Dallas County’s taxpayer funded hospital) to illegal immigrants has increased over the past couple of years from an eye-popping 70% to a mind-numbing 74%. Illegal immigration is down across the country because of the economy, but up in Texas, costing taxpayers an estimated $3.7 billion per year! With 50% of immigrant families on some kind of welfare program and Texas breadwinners having a tough enough time providing for our own families, we simply can’t afford this anymore."

2nd Amendment: Yes

Excerpt:"Cindy is the proud bearer of a concealed handgun license. She believes strongly in the U.S. Constitution and the right to keep and bear arms."

Pro-Life: Yes

Excerpt:"Cindy believes that life is precious and will defend it."

2nd Amendment: Yes

Excerpt:"Cindy is the proud bearer of a concealed handgun license. She believes strongly in the U.S. Constitution and the right to keep and bear arms."

More welfare: No

Excerpt:"Frankly, if you ask Cindy, America is getting “way too European.” Our nation was built on hard work and individual freedom. If we are going to pull ourselves out of this recession, it will be by re-instilling our people with the spirit that grew our nation over the past century. The problem we are having with our national debt is the most obvious example of where we have lost our way. Now we are indebted to countries like China. We are their welfare case. Breaking free of this cycle is going to start right here at home with all of us taking more responsibility for our actions."

2nd Amendment: Yes

Excerpt:"Cindy is the proud bearer of a concealed handgun license. She believes strongly in the U.S. Constitution and the right to keep and bear arms."

Obamacare: No

Excerpt:"Talk about out-of-control government. The Obamacare bill threatens all of us. It was passed despite massive public opposition and represents our government going against the will of the people. Cindy will fight it, and she will vote to prevent Obamacare from affecting Texans."

Small business: Yes

Excerpt:"Small businesses employ over half of all private sector workers and pay 44% of private sector payroll. They have also created 64% of the private sector jobs over the past 15 years. It’s time to stop “saying nice things” about small business and start freeing them up to save our economy from this mess the politicians have gotten us into. First, we must block Obamacare, which will ruin many small businesses. Also, we must lower taxes so that small business people can retain employees they may have had to layoff or hire new folks. And finally, we need to stop allowing big businesses and their lobbyists to shut out competition from start-ups and entrepreneurs."

Cut taxes to create jobs: Yes

Excerpt:"Recently, Dallas County government voted to raise property taxes. Cindy Burkett knows that the more you raise taxes, the harder it is for people to make ends meet. And since the government can foreclose on people’s homes for failure to pay property taxes, increases create fear throughout our community. Fear of losing a job leads to fear of losing a home. Cindy Burkett will vote against any moves to increase taxes. Will vote against any state income tax. Look at the states with the highest tax rates. They’re the ones losing all the jobs."

Small business: Yes

Excerpt:"Small businesses employ over half of all private sector workers and pay 44% of private sector payroll. They have also created 64% of the private sector jobs over the past 15 years. It’s time to stop “saying nice things” about small business and start freeing them up to save our economy from this mess the politicians have gotten us into. First, we must block Obamacare, which will ruin many small businesses. Also, we must lower taxes so that small business people can retain employees they may have had to layoff or hire new folks. And finally, we need to stop allowing big businesses and their lobbyists to shut out competition from start-ups and entrepreneurs."

Political corruption: No

Excerpt:"Just about every day you read that some member of Congress has been caught taking money inappropriately from lobbyists. Cindy Burkett knows that, unfortunately, the bigger government gets, the more tax money of ours it takes, the more corrupt it will become. Bigger government equals more corrupt government. With all that money at stake, it’s just going to happen. So the solution is smaller government and lower taxes. As we move slowly in that direction, Cindy believes that we should prohibit elected officials and their relatives from becoming paid lobbyists. It’s just not right for someone to get elected and immediately start planning for their high paid lobby job once they leave office. We need our elected officials working for the people, not the lobbyists and their clients."

Property Rights

Excerpt:"Cindy is a conservative who believes strongly in private property rights. She opposes any forced seizure of private property for the Trans-Texas Corridor project."

Taking our country back from Obama and Pelosi: Yes

Excerpt:"Talk about the most destructive Administration in the history of the country. Obama and Pelosi have run the world’s greatest economy into the ground and overreached so dramatically, that average people like us have to stand up to them. America was not built on socialism. We were not taught to solve problems by borrowing a trillion dollars from China. But Obama and Pelosi seem bent on bankrupting our children’s future. If we don’t stand up and fight then we will be remembered as the generation that allowed America, the greatest country ever conceived, to fall."

Elections

2012

See also: Texas House of Representatives elections, 2012

Burkett won re-election in the 2012 election for Texas House of Representatives, District 113. Burkett was unopposed in the May 29 primary and defeated Angela Sarlay (G) in the general election which took place on November 6, 2012.

Texas House of Representatives, District 113, General Election, 2012
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Republican	Cindy Burkett Incumbent	80.9%	28,727
	Green	Angela Sarlay	19.1%	6,763
Total Votes				35,490

2010

See also: Texas House of Representatives elections, 2010

Burkett won election to Texas House of Representatives District 101. She defeated Greg Noschese and Thomas Latham in the March 2 Republican primary. She then defeated incumbent Republican candidate Robert Miklos in the November 2 general election.

Texas House of Representatives, District 101 2010 General election results
Candidates		Votes	Percent
Cindy Burkett (R)		13,266	51.81%
Robert Miklos (D)		12,338	48.18%

Campaign donors

2012

Campaign donor information is not yet available for this year.

2010

Burkett raised a total of $860,010 in 2010. Below are Burkett's top 5 campaign contributors in the 2010 election:

Contributor	2010 total
Texans for Lawsuit Reform	$217,673
Associated Republicans of Texas	$182,844
Perry, Bob J.	$52,500
Republican Party of Texas	$50,000
Conservative Republicans of Texas	$38,442

Endorsements

• Texas Association of Business
• Texas Restaurant Association
• Dallas County Republican Assembly
• Texans for Fiscal Responsibility/Empower Texans
• Texas Home School Coalition
• Texas Alliance for Life
• Texas Right to Life
• Concerned Women of America
• David Barton with Wall Builders
• Young Conservatives of Texas
• Conservative Republicans of Texas
• A-Rating by the NRA and TSRA

Contact

cindy@cindyburkett.org

1024 Primrose Street Mesquite, TX 75149

Phone: 972-567-3155

Cell phone: 972-968-7774

Scorecards

Empower Texans Fiscal Responsibility Index

Empower Texans produces the Fiscal Responsibility Index as "a measurement of how lawmakers perform on size and role of government issues." The index uses "exemplar votes on core budget and free enterprise issues that demonstrate legislators' governing philosophy." Legislators are graded along a standard grading scale, receiving grades A through F based on their performance during the legislative session.

2011

Cindy Burkett received a grade of B+ on the 2011 Fiscal Responsibility Index.

• 2011 Taxpayer Advocate. Burkett was named a "2011 Taxpayer Advocate," which is "An award presented to by Texans for Fiscal Responsibility to legislators based on their strong rating on the most recent Fiscal Responsibility Index."

External links

Suggest a link

• Official Campaign website
• Official Facebook Page
• Candidate Twitter Page
• Candidate's LinkedIn Profile
• Texas House GOP YouTube Channel
• Official Campaign Contributions
• Contributions, Follow the Money
• Biography from Project Vote Smart
• Texas Tribune Profile
• Imagine Election Profile

References

Political offices
Preceded by Robert Miklos (D)	Texas House of Representatives District 101 2011-Present	Succeeded by -