VOTE! ::: Our Endorsements Listed

VOTE STRAIGHT DEMOCRATIC

We need public officials working for us who understand how hard it can be to pay your bills every month, and how expensive it can be to see a doctor and get a prescription filled. We have all heard of the schemes to privatize Social Security in the chaos and greed of Wall Street stock markets, and to turn Medicare into a voucher program where the insurance companies call the shots, all while the wealthiest Americans get more and bigger tax breaks.

This November 2, we are standing with candidates who fight for seniors and working families. We are proud to endorse the candidates below, who will represent TEXAS, you, and your family in these tough economic times. We strongly encourage you to get out and vote November 2, or cast your vote early if you can, and to support these pro-working family candidates.

We have endorsed these candidates

STATEWIDE:

Bill White - Governor

Linda Chavez-Thompson - Lt. Governor

Hector Uribe - Attorney General

Hank Gilbert - Land Commissioner

Blake Bailey - Texas Supreme Court

CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS

John Lingenfelder – Dist. 3

Tom Berry – Dist. 5

Rep. Al Green – Dist. 9

Ted Ankrum – Dist. 10

Rep. Ruben Hinojosa – Dist. 15

Rep. Silvestre Reyes – Dist. 16

Rep. Chet Edwards – Dist. 17

Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee Dist. 18

Rep. Charlie Gonzalez – Dist. 20

Lainey Melnick – Dist. 21

Rep. Ciro Rodriguez – Dist. 23

Rep. Lloyd Doggett – Dist. 25

Rep. Neil Durrance – Dist. 26

Rep. Solomon Ortiz – Dist. 27

Rep. Henry Cuellar – Dist. 28

Rep. Gene Green – Dist. 29

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson – Dist. 30

To see just how current members of Congress have voted to support you and your family, click on the link below, then point at your state and click again. You will see how every member of your state delegation voted on issues vital to you and your family: HERE

Thank you for supporting the candidates who have fought to:

Protect Social Security from privatization, raising the retirement age and benefit cuts

Pass a $250 Social Security payment in place of a 2010 COLA

Help lower drug costs and close the Medicare Part D doughnut hole

End Medicare co-pays and deductibles for life-saving screenings and tests

Help early retirees afford health insurance

Create a way for middle-class families to get long-term care for a loved one.

Thanks again for your support.

Remember to vote on November 2.

What It Will Take For White To Win

Texas Democrats have some very harsh truths to face as they head into the final week of the elections.  The Texas Lyceum Poll (the most reliable of all the polls) puts Perry ahead of White by 5% percentage points.  Now, given that there is always a margin of error of 2 - 3 percentage points, White could be closer or further than the original number projects.

Perry has virtually all the Republicans and conservatives ready to vote for him, while, White has done an outstanding job of solidifying the traditional Democratic base, and winning over a majority of younger and independent voters.  There is no doubt that White will show better than any Democrat in a very, very long time. But, here's the rub. The undecided pool is only 3% and that is an extremely small segment from which White can draw to overtake Perry.

Undecideds at this point in a politcal campaign are usually uneducated, uninterested, and uninvolved and are more easily swayed by emotion and buzz words than reason or logic.  Perry wins on that score.

In order to win, White is going to have to find voters missed by the polls.  The campaigns of Hector Uribe and Linda Chavez-Thompson in South Texas and "The Valley" combined with Hank Gilbert's focus on rural voters might be the source of those votes.  Those demographics generally are under represented in the polls and could be the "sleepers" that would propel White into the Governor's mansion (or trailer).

Even so, the key to those votes lie with the strength of grassroots activists to mobilize and deliver voter turn-out on election day.  There is one more week of early voting and reports are that the Democratic precincts are witnessing strong turn-out.  It waits to be seen if that energy will be there in the form of car-pooling, phone-banking, and card-pushing come election day.

Without it, Democrats will mollify themselves with, "At least we have something to build on, and then proceed to turn on themselves gnawing and tearing away like gut-shot wolves!"

Hank Gilbert: Our First Endorsement

We are endorsing Hank Gilbert for Texas Commissioner of Agriculture.

I liked Hank Gilbert from the moment we first met at a Health Care Reform rally a little over a year ago.  Hank is the kind of Texan that you think of  when you hear someone say, "He's a Texan"; tall, broad-shouldered, pearl white stetson, honest, straight-talking , and unafraid to call a spade a dirty shovel!  We've all heard the story, from back in the day, of "one riot-one ranger".  Well, Hank is that sort of Texan.

As I got to know Hank a bit from sharing platforms and podiums with him, talking with him, and hearing him speak at gatherings, and reading about him out on the campaign trail, my like grew to respect.  Here's a man that, at the age of ten, began taking on a man's size work load on the family ranch.  Now, some of you "modern" Texans may not know what that means, but let me tell you as a person who, along with his cousins, all preteens, rose out of bed before dawn to take to the fields of Southern Illinois until sunset, in the heat of August, to walk behind a mule-drawn baler and wagon to wrestle, lug, lift cuss and shove "square bales" of hay for our uncle , I know how such work shapes a fellow and prepares him for life.  I don't know how much Hank got paid back then, but my cousins and I were grateful for some picture-show money and a bottle of pop.

Hank recently revealed that, under the neglect of current ag-commissioner, Republican, Todd Staples, inspections of the state's gasoline pumps have been allowed to dwindle from annual inspections to only once every four years, resulting in 20%-40% of Texas gasoline pumps overcharging hard-working Texans already paying outrageous pump prices.  At that press conference, he cited a specific gas-station in Tyler with out-dated inspection stickers on its pumps.

Yesterday, while Hank was holding a follow-up press-conference across the street from that very station, a state inspector showed up to conduct an inspection.  It was caught by a TV station's news cameras.  KETK-TV attempted to get a statement from Staples, who characteristically exercised his right to willful arrogance, and did not deign to respond to their request.  Just another example of Hank getting it right, while Staples was getting it all wrong.  Most politicians will climb a tree to tell a lie rather than stand flat-footed and tell the truth,  Well, from Hank, you're going to get the truth, no matter how much it smarts!

If Hank Gilbert's name sounds familiar, you may remember him as a leader in the fight against Texas Republican Governor, Rick Perry's, attempt to inflict the so-called, Trans Texas Corridor on unwary Texans.  This was a plan that would have taken the family homes, ranches and farms from Texans (some were in the same family since before statehood)  in order to build a gigantic toll road from Mexico to northern states, with the concession for that toll road going to a Spanish company.  Mexican trucks would have gotten a cursory "wave-through" inspection at the border with the effect of putting American truck drivers out of business.  Lading and loading would have shifted from American ports to Mexico, again putting American docks and dock workers out of business.  Hank fought and won that battle, and as seen yesterday, he continues to fight and win for Texans.  As the head of our Department of Agriculture, Hank Gilbert will continue to fight and win for working families and seniors.

The Texas Department of Agriculture oversees a large department with extensive and disparate responsibilities including licensing, regulation, crops, livestock, the coming broad band revolution, school lunch program, pesticide regulations, and feral hog abatement programs just to name a few.

Why 2010 Elections Are So Important for Texas Democrats

BIG ISSUES CONFRONT 2011 TEXAS LEGISLATURE

In seven short months we will have worked our way through an election and have seated and convened the 2011 Texas legislature.  That January 2011 session will begin to deal with many issues affecting Texas for decades to come:

Redistricting:  The 2010 National Census presents an opportunity to redraw state and congressional electoral districts to reflect population changes.  It could present Democrats an opportunity to undo the Tom Delay "gerrymandering" or the Republicans the chance to continue and entrench the process. And, it is likely that Texas will pick up one or more House seats.  It will, without any doubt, be the most rancorous issue facing the new legislature and will very likely spawn its own set of legal challenges and lawsuits regardless which party is in control of the process.  You can expect this to be one of the, if not the most, dominant issue before this legislature.

State Budget Shortfall & New Taxes:  The 2011 legislature will be presented with a budget shortfall now estimated to be in the range of $18 billion.  Putting aside all else, common sense (I know, I know) dictates that there are only a few options available; amend the state constitution to permit a continued budget deficit, reduce spending through budget and service cuts, austerity programs, accounting tricks and devices, tap the so-called "Rainy Day Fund", find new sources of state revenue i.e. casino gambling, or raise taxes.  Even if we were to see some or all of these measures except "raise taxes", there still would be a shortfall.

One area with a big "bull's-eye" are the goods and services that currently benefit from $30 billion in tax exemptions, exclusions and credits.  The way politicians think is that eliminating such is not the same as creating new taxes..."We balanced the budget without creating new taxes!"

Sunset Review/Environmental Issues:  Twenty-eight state agencies are to come under "sunset reviews" this coming session.  The process will determine which agencies will continue and how and if they should be "reformed".  Businesses and and established interests will be ready to fight any attempts to increase or impose new regulations.  If the Democrats are in control they will target many of those agencies, which under Republican control, have all but given businesses and special interest veritable wave throughs in the regulatory and review processes.

In addition to the big, well-known agencies like the Department of Insurance and the Department of Transportation, energy and environmental agencies such as The Public Utilities Commission, Commission on Environmental Quality, Water Development Board, and the Soil and Water Conservation Board will be closely scrutinized.

It is very important for us to note that this review process will take place as Texas is receiving more and more pressure to effect stronger regulations from the federal Environmental Protection Agency and non-government environmental groups.

Voter ID/Immigration:  We do not expect these hot-button, emotion laden issues to even come forth in a serious manner this session.  Frankly, this legislature is going to be so busy with the issues itemized above that there will no doubt be one, or even several, special sessions next summer.  There will be some posturing and blustering, but no significant action.

Health Care Reform:  Most of the noise on this will simply be Republicans and Democrats getting "on the record" for the folks back home.  However, look to decisions on how Texas is to implement new federal requirements to generate a lot of spleen as the legislature confronts whether to join the federal high-risk pool, and at what level to set Medicaid reimbursements. 

As always with the Texas Legislature, we can expect several to make utter jackasses of themselves, and at least a number of invitations to the "parking lot" to settle differences.  All that side, this is coming up to be as important a session as there ever has been..  Stay tuned, we will!

Bill White Will Win Texas Governorship---If!

BILL WHITE: NEXT GOVERNOR OF TEXAS--(Probably)

As it stands right now, the upcoming Texas Governor's race is the Democrat's to lose!  Here's why, and why it will not necessarily be a victory for all Democrats.

Consider our current dunce-cap wearing Governor, Rick Perry, who won his party's nod in a blistering and costly primary (alley-fight) with Senator Kay Bailey-Hutchison that deeply damaged his well-coiffed persona and left him open for some big questions about his high-on-the-hog personal lifestyle, honesty, and general inability to deal with problems greater than sleeping coyotes.  I'm not going to rag on the guy (I've already done that a time or two) but, I can tell you this: You can't trust a man who's hair doesn't move in a gale force wind!

Running against him this time is the most viable candidate the Democrats have put forth in recent memory, Mayor Bill White of Houston.  He will win!  Now don't get me wrong, this is not going to be a wave-through, but as mentioned earlier, Perry has lost whatever gravitas he once had through his reckless mismanagement of  state fiances and his absurd and adolescent boasting of shooting a coyote while out jogging....most of us don't have time for jogging governor, we're busy going to two or three jobs that are needed to to keep afloat in your misshapen economy that favors wealthy outside corporations and Wall Street financiers over hard-working everyday Texans.

Perry's blatant deficiencies are legendary and obviously haven't kept him from winning in the past.  But this time there is an opposing candidate with the credentials to give him a good old-fashioned parking lot style butt kicking.   Bill White, as mayor of the fourth largest city in the nation has proven himself with high-energy planning and exceptionally strong economic management.  Beyond that, is his singular (for Texas) ability to craft a strong coalition of Hispanics, independents and urban-based moderate Republicans along with the Democratic faithful who sense a winner and put aside their differences to effect a unified face at their recent convention in Corpus Christi.

However, all is not wonderful for all Democrats.  White is studiously putting distance between himself and President Obama (did you read what I wrote about Independents & Urban Based Moderate Republicans?) causing more than just little heartburn among the Obama faithful.  Liberals, already disenchanted with Obama, will support White simply because not to would be unthinkable given the stakes in this election.  Even a nominal Democrat is better than no Democrat!

Even with all this, there are some wild cards on the table.  The Democrats have an extraordinarily strong slate of candidates in addition to White and I have heard some backroom concerns that the unity is all on the surface but at the street level the White campaign is not offering support or "coattails" to the other statewide candidates.  And it is yet to be seen if the Democrats can mount an effective rural (E. Texas) presence and cash in with Hispanic voters through the draw of Linda Chavez-Thompson and Hector Uribe on the statewide ticket.

If the Democrats do not effectively pick up rural voters and craft a historic level of voter registration and ensuing turnout in Hispanic South Texas, they will be facing another four years of woulda, coulda, shoulda despite the strength of the ticket!

Our Clown Alley Congressmen

KIDS BEHAVING THIS BADLY WOULD BE PUNISHED!

At one time Texas sent men and women of honor and integrity to Congress.  These were men and women of stature who earned the respect of the world, not just their fellow Texans and Americans. Men and women such as Barbara Jordan, Ralph Yarborough, Mickey Leland, Sam Rayburn, Lloyd Bentsen, and Lyndon Johnson just to name a handful.

You might not always have agreed with them and on occasion you might take them to task for their political postures, but you always had respect for them--mainly because they demonstrated self-respect and obvious respect  for the offices they held.They understood the gravitas of the moment and the decorum expected of them.

Not so with our current collection of Clown Alley congressman.  As unattractive and motley a bunch of fools and damned fools as you would ever want to be subjected to.  There was a time when Texans would horsewhip such fools and send them over to Arkansas where they belonged--now we just elect them to congress.

Here's a sampling:

Jeb Hensarling (R), who was reported (Washington Monthly on August 26, 2009) to have responded to Senator Edward Kennedy's death in this way,  "While Americans should honor the legacy of the Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Republicans won't allow healthcare reform to proceed in the late senator's honor."

"Certainly people honor Sen. Ted Kennedy for all of his work," Hensarling, a top House Republican, said during an appearance on CNBC. "But at the end of the day, this is a democracy, and I think the voice of the people have [sic] been heard quite loudly in the month of August." Hensarling said health care reform should die "if anybody's listening to the American people."

Hensarling apparently was in Arkansas or some other foreign county for the 2008 elections in which Americans overwhelmingly voted for Democrats who were promising to bring about health care reform.  Fools and damned fools!

Randy Nuegebauer (R), who during the debate preceding the passage of the health reform legislation shouted out "Baby Killer" at Democratic congressman Bart Stupak who was explaining why he had shifted postions and would support the legislation. Nuegebauer later trotted out some lame, tortuously convoluted excuse that he really wasn't yelling at Stupak, he was yelling at the legislation...it is not known if the legislation deigned to yell back.  Fools and damned fools!

Louie Gohmert (R), who like a misbehaving and out of line kid at a middle-school assembly waved a sign "What Plan" during President Obama's address to a joint session of congress on health care reform.  And, just like an errant teenager, Gohmert launched a tortuously laborious  "explanation" in self defense of what he really meant by by his rudeness and thoughtfully ignorant behavior.  Had he have pulled that sort of crap at my  school, Mr. Harlow would have given him a week's worth of detention!  Or maybe swats too!  Fools and damned fools!


Joe Barton (R), who recently apologized to BP for the dreadful way they were being treated and what he termed "the strong-arm tactics of the White House" in getting them to agree to set up a $20-billion fund to indemnify people and business for their losses and for clean up and recovery of the environment related to the catastrophic oil spill coming from their rig in the gulf.

Barton, like Nuegebauer and Gohmert, quickly came force with some half-ass, quasi-apologetic explanation for his foolishness.  Even the BP executive testifying to a house committee to whom Barton rendered his apology looked at him like he'd just bitten the head off a living chicken.

Fools and Damned fools!  Blithering idiots.  Braying jack-asses. Utter disgraces to their party, to their state, to their nation, to themselves and to all humanity.

Democrats' Senior Problem - Tall Cotton

You may have heard this somewhere else, but it is true.  You cannot win an election without the "senior" (65 & Older) vote!  You can't!  Here's why.

Even though older Americans comprise only 12% of the total population, when it comes to voting they turn out at least 10% more than the other age cohorts combined.  They regard voting as a "God-Given Right" and a responsibility of citizenship. And that is bad news for the Democrats, who used to be able to count on the senior vote as being in their hip pockets. That is changing faster than Texas weather, if it is not already entirely changed.

According to the Republican polling organization, The Tarrance Group, seniors now favor Republicans by a margin of 48% to 31%.  Overall Americans are very narrowly split between favoring Democrats over Republicans.  Granted it's a Republican pollster and thus slightly skewed to the right and there are gender, race and regional variables, overall it augers an upheaval in the November 2010 elections.

The seniors who came of age during the Great Depression and WWII are dying--thousands each month.  They are being replaced by people who came to age during the Eisenhower era, which was a much more narrow and conservative era.  They matured during what might very well be the economic zenith of America, the early to mid-sixties--and they know little of the reasons for the New Deal and liberal politics of their parents and grandparents.  To all too many of them, The Grapes of Wrath would be a poor vintage wine or something they cribbed notes for in senior English.

Compounding the misery for Democrats and President Obama in the upcoming 2010 elections is the fact that, despite their very focused efforts, the youth vote is unlikely to turn out as it did in 2008.

Recently Gallup released polling data indicating that people 65 (favor Republicans) and over were twice as likely as people 18-29 (favor Democrats) to say they were "very enthusiastic" about voting in the upcoming November Congressional elections. 

Midterm elections rarely carry momentous issues around which either party can mobilize huge numbers of voters and in a climate of economic uncertainty, catastrophic unemployment and disenchantment with incumbents; Democrats will find themselves, for the most part, in some very tall cotton.

Another political truism is that all elections are local and none are more so than midterm congressional races.  And while we can expect to see some large-scale "fence-mending" through the summer and fall there is little achievement that the Democrats can use to sway the older voters.  Consider Obama's historic, signature domestic health care reform victory--by 58% to 36%, it is opposed by older voters who find few benefits in the bill and who are still suspicious of Government Death Panels.  The one major thing that Democrats can point to with pride has no resonance with the demography they most need to convince.

As I said, tall cotton!

Texas AFL-CIO COPE Endorsements

The Texas AFL-CIO Committee On Political Education (COPE) Releases Endorsements!

As the campaigns progress, we will post profiles of each candidate and their positions on issues critical to Texas seniors. These endorsements are for the statewide positions only. We will review the "local" endorsements at a later time.

Governor – Bill White
Lieutenant Governor – Linda Chavez-Thompson
Attorney General – Barbara Ann Radnofsky
Comptroller – No Endorsement
Land Commissioner – Hector Uribe
Agriculture Commissioner – Hank Gilbert
Railroad Commissioner – Jeff Weems
Texas Supreme Court, Place 3 – Jim Sharp
Texas Supreme Court, Place 5 – Bill Moody
Texas Supreme Court, Place 9 – Blake Bailey
Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 2 – No Endorsement
Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 5 – No Endorsement
Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 6 – Keith Hampton
Chair, Texas Democratic Party – Boyd Richie

TEXAS Primary Today--VOTE (Our Suggestions)

VOTE TODAY

Polls close at 7:00 pm:

We have made no endorsements at this point, however, we do recommend voting in the Democratic primary as none of the Republican candidates offer any progressive credentials!

While we are not yet issuing formal endorsements, we do have several recommendations for contested statewide races.

Governor: Bill White > The most experienced candidate with good name recognition - Electable over Perry in the upcoming general election!

Lieutenant Governor: Ronnie Earle > While I cringe at adult men who carry a diminutive into their adult life, Mr. Earle deserves consideration if for no other reason than he has carried forward investigations into both Tom DeLay's and Kay Bailey Hutchison's alleged wrongdoings.

Agriculture Commission: Hank Gilbert > Hank is probably the closest thing to a real democrat and real Texan in any of the races. Certainly more qualified for office than his rival; political dilettante, Kinky Friedman.

Commissioner of the General Land Office: No Preference > Either Hector Uribe or Bill Burton would serve well in this office and we have no clear preference despite Burton's slight edge in experience.

Why 2010 Elections Are So Important to Democrats

History Drives the Vehicle of the Present.

It is not over statement to say that the 2010 Texas elections have worldwide implications. Remember that 2010 is a census year and from that census will be determined the number of congressional seats Texas, and all other states, will have from 2011 through 2020.

A quick digression to explain "worldwide" implications: Think Bush and GOP majority (partly the result of Tom DeLay's redistricting strategy in Texas and elsewhere with the Texas delegation counting only 12-Democrats to the Republican's 20 as the result of that mid-decade gerrymandering) and catastrophic world affairs and foreign policy. ....OK, got it?

Now, back to the census and apportionment of congressional seats to the states. Based on population growth certain states stand to "pick up" seats while others could lose seats if their populations have sufficiently declined. Projections are that Texas will "pick up" three to four seats. But the fly in this batch of balm is that Texas currently suffers and languishes under a Republican majority, which if allowed to persist past the 2010 elections, would create a scenario, wherein it would be the Republican Texas legislature, through the redistricting process, that would determine whether those new seats become Republican or Democratic.

A brief look to the past will tell one how that works.

Remember that in 2002 when the Republicans captured the Texas House of Representatives for the first time in 100-years they used the opportunity a year later to initiate very controversial mid-decade redistricting to utterly butcher the Texas' Democratic delegation to the U.S. Congress. That much of that gerrymandered redistricting lost in subsequent court battles (for instance, Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett's "fajita district") is beside the point, as the end result is that the indicted, but not yet convicted scofflaw, Tom DeLay and his PAC (TRMPAC) has now wrecked havoc on the state's Democrats and their supporters for nearly a decade.

Right now, the Republicans hold a 76 - 74 margin over the Democrats in the Texas House and a 19-12 edge in the Senate going into the 2010 elections. Now that margin in the Senate provides both parties the ability to dodge any redistricting bill they regard as damaging to their interests. But, it doesn't stop with that. The Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, could decide to bypass Senate tradition and circumvent the two-thirds rule--it's been done before!

Still with me? Good. Here is where it gets quite thorny. If the legislature is unable to come up with a redistricting plan, the task transfers to the five member Legislative Redistricting Board (LRB). Who, you ask, is on that board? Good question, and here is the answer good to chill any democrat's blood: the House Speaker, Land Commissioner, Comptroller (correctly pronounced, by the way, "controller"), Attorney General and Lieutenant Governor. All blood red Republicans, every damned one of them!

So, do you understand why I'm saying that past is prologue and driving the bus we're on here in Texas? If you don't like the scenery you're seeing out of your window, understand that you will be seeing more of the same but worse unless Texas Democrats develop the will, and mine and use the resources needed to educate, organize, and mobilize voters to put them in a position to prevent a redistricting such as happened in 2003.

This election is as much about this issue as was the 2008 national election was about the make up of the United States Supreme Court!