All the Democratic candidates for statewide offices rallied with the Texas Lutheran University Young Democrats in Seguin Saturday. The local Democratic organizations put on a great party with hotdogs, chips, sodas, homemade cakes and cookies, much music, a little back slapping and a lot of rousing speeches.
The group of men and women who raised their hands together on the stage at the end of the evening includes veterans, parents, businessmen and professionals. A few of them have devoted their lives to public service, but a significant number of them are entering politics for the first time because they fear for the future of Texas. They are united in the desire to move away from a state government controlled by Republican technocrats to fulfill the vision of a government of citizens in service to the public.
The candidates told the gathered crowd about their motivations for running for office and the experiences they’ve had on the campaign trail this summer. They urged everyone to pay attention to government and to participate. And, of course, they addressed the problems they see in their opponents’ policies and proposals. Not surprisingly, Rick Perry’s hair was about the only feature of his that anyone praised.
Very surprisingly, however, it turns out that the Republican Party faithful (or Re-pubs, as many of the candidates call them) aren’t really sure who their party has put forward for office. Valinda Hathcox had to tell some Republican folks she ran into recently that their candidate for Commissioner of the General Land Office (the current commissioner) isn’t a woman.
It scares me to think that people pay so little attention to the commissioners that even their supporters don’t know who they are. Some of the commissioners have a lot more power to effect policy than the governor of Texas does, as I understood the book I read on Texas government when I moved here four years ago. (Someone, please, correct me if I’m wrong.)
Even after reading up a little and looking at the incumbent’s Web site , I’m still a little fuzzy on the role of the lieutenant governor. It must be hard for a candidate to come up with a concrete set of ideas to push when a substantial part of the job will be redefined by a new state senate.
The media concentrate on the race for governor, which I admit is colorful, and don’t pay much attention to the other races (or the various offices: do you know who the Commissioner of Agriculture is, for example? Do you know what the Rail Road Commission does? ), but according to the same Texas government textbook, the structure of state government purposely limits the power of the governor and places a great deal of emphasis on the offices of the commissioners.
Although back in March the Democrats and Republicans working at the poll in Seguin joked that we might all end up voting for Kinky, I have to agree with Chris Bell, Democratic candidate for governor, that it’s not really worth the effort to take Friedman seriously. Is a vote for Kinky a vote against the current system, as some people have said, or is it Rick Perry’s ticket to re-election? If the opposition vote is divided between Bell and Friedman, Perry will need fewer votes to keep himself in office.
We might have a fun time with Kinky on the campaign trail, but what would happen during the next four years? We’d still have a lieutenant governor from one of the two major parties and likewise with state legislators. Maybe things would get really interesting with a split legislature, a good-hearted but inexperienced lieutenant governor… and Kinky at the helm.
“Just as we don’t need a joke for a governor,” Bell said, “We don’t need a governor just for jokes.”
For those who are wondering why I didn’t include Strayhorn in the opposition, I just can’t see her as an outsider. “Carol Strayhorn has been there to put lipstick on the pig time and time again,” Bell said. I have to agree with Bell’s summation of Strayhorn’s attempt to establish her independence, “I can call my horse a dog, but at the end of the day, it’s still a horse.”
I’ll back Bell’s horse. And I’ll urge anyone who is considering jumping on another one to hear Bell in person before they do. He delivers a much more fiery speech than you would expect. He has a firm handshake, and he has real ideas.
“I know it’s not enough to win this race by being right about Rick Perry being wrong,” Bell said.
Two of his platform planks caught my attention: health and education. In particular, medical care for children and teacher salaries. Bell is for both, unlike the incumbents.
Bell denounced the policy of scrubbing the budget that has resulted in a crisis for children’s health and education in this state.
“The bristles of the scrub brush come down most of the time on the backs of those who can least afford it,” Bell said. Unlike the Re-pubs, whose philosophy of government has seen to it that Texas can’t (won’t?) provide medical care or textbooks to millions of its children, Bell will make children and educators a priority. He plans, for instance, to tie legislative pensions to the level of teacher salaries, for example.
And Bell thinks government should get out of the way of stem-cell research.
“Jesus didn’t consult the Pharisees before he healed the lepers,” he said. He won’t waver on this in the face of opposition because he has lost people he loved to diseases that could be treated with stem-cell therapies.
Bell said, “We’re going to have to be willing to change ourselves, to change the Democratic Party. We have to learn to win again.”
If you didn’t go to the rally, you should have. Tony Bazan and the Guadalupe County Democrats put on a great party. They even served veggie dogs, and if that doesn’t herald a new era in Texas, I don’t know what would.
To loyal readers who may be wondering: David Van Os didn’t have time to sit a spell on my porch (he’s visited about half of the counties, but he still has a long way to go to walk all the way across Texas), but he did shake my hand twice and give a really great speech.
 |
Posts
