Well, our friends at the Texas Lege have responded to the Guv’s State of his Hair speech. Kuff’s got the video as well as press releases from the TexBlog PAC supported, Rep. Moody and Rep. Turner, and TexBlogs PAC fan, Rep. Garnet Coleman.
He also has the response from one of my favorites, State Rep. Trey Martinez-Fischer, which I also provide here.
Today, Governor Rick Perry delivered his state of the state speech in which he outlined his legislative priorities for the 81st Legislative Session. Governor Perry focused on what will become the broad strokes of his campaign to be re-elected Governor of Texas. The only problem– Texans are not interested in politics, they are interested in solutions.
“The only thing apparent was that someone is running for re-election.” said Representative Trey Martinez Fischer (D-San Antonio), the Chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus. “At a time, when 99% of Texans are worried about their paychecks and their pocketbooks, Governor Perry is worried about re-election.”
In what most consider to be the race of his political career, Governor Perry is expected to face strong opposition in the Republican gubernatorial primary by sitting United States Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Governor Perry’s speech was marked by references to controversial and partisan policies like voter identification.
“From the kitchen table to the Capitol, Texans are welcoming a new era of politics driven by what unites us–they are choosing policy over platitudes,” said Representative Martinez Fischer.
“MALC stands ready to work to help create jobs, increase access to quality and affordable healthcare and create opportunities for small businesses. Divisive rhetoric above common sense doesn’t create jobs,” said Representative Martinez Fischer.
Rick Perry is running on Voter ID and Immigration, apparently. We can rest assured that the Repugnant Primary will become another hate-fest. I doubt Hutch can remain quiet that long.
On the other hand, my friend Greg has an great response to Perry’s idea that we have the same ID requirements for voting that we have for voter registration.
Interesting framing of the issue there. Namely, if the far right of the GOP so adamantly believes that this is justification for Voter ID, then what’s to suggest we shouldn’t have same-day Voter Registration all the way up through Election Day? If the ID requirements were the same, why not?If nothing else, I’d hope some enterprising House or Senate members consider an amendment like this. If nothing else, watching the GOP vote against it underscores whatever pretense to intellectual consistency they might hope to have on the issue.
Of course, we should also add automatic voter registration when those those can afford their Texas ID or Driver’s License renew or apply. What the heck! The more voters, the better!
There were some great comments by Senator Van de Putte. They are posted over at Texas Politics.