I’m sure it wouldn’t be so easy, or if it could even work that way. The bottom line is that Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM) has been cleared by the Dept. of Justice. As if this blogger ever had any doubt!
Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I still say there is a concerted effort to derail the careers of good Latino leaders.
(Photo–Courtesy of CBS.com)
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Posted in Chicano Politics, TYS: Told Ya' So!, U.S. Ethnic Relations
Courtesy of Garnet Coleman
Democrat Tom Schieffer, candidate for Governor, announced a major set of endorsements today from the Democratic legislative leadership. These nods add to a diverse list of supporters who have already shown they are behind the former member of the Texas Lege. Here’s the announcement:
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Schieffer today won key endorsements from four Democratic leaders of the Texas House – Representatives Garnet Coleman of Houston, Jim Dunnam of Waco, Jessica Farrar of Houston and Pete Gallego of Alpine.
“I am gratified by this broad base of Democratic support,” Schieffer said. “These leaders have long been in the forefront – often fighting against strong Republican opposition – of efforts to improve education, make quality health care available to more Texans, improve our transportation system and lower insurance rates and utility bills. Together, we can reverse this race to the bottom and improve the quality of life for Texas families.”
The veteran lawmakers represent a wide range of expertise on critical issues, including education, health care, appropriations, criminal justice and economic development, and all have received numerous awards for their public service.
“We are proud to endorse Ambassador Tom Schieffer to serve as the next governor of Texas because he is addressing issues and concerns that are important to Texas families – public education, jobs, children’s health insurance, rising college tuition, energy, protecting the environment and transportation,” Coleman said. “Tom Schieffer is going to be the next governor of Texas because he cares about solving real problems for Texas families.”
Coleman chairs the Legislative Study Group, a nonpartisan caucus dedicated to the development of sound public policy for Texas families. He is the immediate past chair of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus and co-authored legislation creating the Children’s Health Insurance Program in Texas and making it easier for low-income children to enroll in Medicaid.
“Democrats across Texas can be proud to support Tom Schieffer – a fellow, lifelong Democrat who has never missed voting in a Democratic primary since he was old enough to vote in 1968,” said Dunnam, the House Democratic Leader.
“Tom’s service to our country during the previous administration doesn’t change that,” Dunnam added. “Texans deserve better than one Republican who wants to be governor for life and another who thinks the governor’s mansion is a retirement home. That is why Democrats across the state will unite behind Tom Schieffer.”
Dunnam chairs the House Select Committee on Federal Economic Stabilization Funding, which played a key role in allocating federal stimulus dollars during the recent legislative session. He has sponsored numerous laws during his legislative career, including bills improving 911 service to rural areas, ensuring smaller class sizes for elementary students and cracking down on drunk driving.
Farrar, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said Democratic legislators “are ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work “ electing Schieffer governor. “We will knock on doors, raise money and help spread his positive message of real solutions for Texas families,” she said.
Farrar also is vice chair of the House Committee on Land and Resource Management, founder and vice chair of the Women’s Health Caucus and founder and secretary of the House Environmental Caucus. She co-founded the Texas Women’s Health Foundation, a non-partisan, non-profit group aimed at depoliticizing women’s health issues, and founded Latinas on the Rise, a non-profit mentoring program for Latina college students.
She has worked extensively on legislation related to women’s and children’s health, the environment, domestic violence, sexual assault and reproductive rights.
“Tom Schieffer will be the next governor of Texas because he is a proven leader, not an ideologue,” Gallego said. “His successful record as a lawyer, businessman and diplomat proves he will bring people together from across the political spectrum and put the needs of Texas and Texans ahead of narrow partisan and ideological interests.”
Gallego, chair of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, added: “Tom is the kind of Democrat who can win statewide office. He is the kind of leader our state needs — someone who can appeal to Democrats, independents and thoughtful Republicans.”
Gallego is a former chair of the House Democratic Caucus and former chair of the Mexican-American Legislative Caucus. He is the first Hispanic elected to represent his 39,000-square-mile West Texas district along the Mexican border.
Schieffer’s growing support builds on a strong, diverse leadership team with deep roots in the Texas Democratic Party. His campaign co-chairs are former Judge Gilberto Hinojosa of Brownsville, a member of the Democratic National Committee and State Democratic Executive Committee, and veteran Democratic activist Susan Longley of Austin. Former House Speaker Pete Laney of Hale Center and State Representative Senfronia Thompson of Houston, the Democratic dean of the House and member of the DNC, head his senior advisory committee. Schieffer’s finance co-chairs are Lyndon L. Olson Jr. of Waco, a former Democratic legislator and former ambassador to Sweden under President Clinton, and Alann Sampson, longtime civic leader and philanthropist in Fort Worth.
Schieffer also has been endorsed by the Association of Hispanic County Judges and County Commissioners.
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Posted in Texas Dems 2010, Texas Lege
My favorite union, United Farm Workers, voted on this resolution back in 2008 and proudly displays it today.
Que Viva Ted Kennedy!
UNITED FARM WORKERS
18th Constitutional Convention
August 22-24, 2008
Fresno, California
Whereas, Senator Edward M. Kennedy has championed the cause of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Worker Movement after picking up the mantle from Senator Robert F. Kennedy following his assassination in 1968, and since then no national political leader has more effectively and selflessly supported the farm workers’ cause; and
Whereas, from helping convince Congress to end the infamous Bracero Program in 1964 to becoming the driving force behind the United Farm Workers’ historic AgJobs immigration reform bill in the U.S. Senate today, Senator Ted Kennedy has never failed to respond to the farm workers’ call for help; and
Whereas, in 1967 Senator Ted Kennedy oversaw the first official hearing of a committee of the United States Senate to ever take place in Starr County, Texas during a UFW-led strike in Rio Grande City, Texas; and
Whereas, Senator Ted Kennedy has embraced farm worker boycotts, beginning his address before the 1972 National Democratic Convention by exclaiming, “Greetings fellow lettuce boycotters”; and
Whereas, year after year and time after time, Senator Ted Kennedy has spent much of his public career standing shoulder to shoulder with the farm workers during marches and rallies, political campaigns and legislative battles from the halls of the United States Senate to the dusty fields of California; and
Whereas, Senator Ted Kennedy has always joined the farm workers in speaking out for justice as well as against violence, causing Cesar Chavez to once describe him as “always available” and as “the favorite among Latinos all over the country”; and
Whereas, as UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta once said, Robert and Ted Kennedy “didn’t come to us and tell us what was good for us. All they said was, ‘What do you want? And how can I help?’ That’s why we love them”; and
Whereas, in 1973 Senator Ted Kennedy traveled to Fresno, California to address the delegates to the United Farm Workers’ First Constitutional Convention at the height of a bitter statewide grape strike; and
Whereas, Senator Ted Kennedy has helped lead the fights for all workers, including passage of the most recent federal increase in the minimum wage in 2007, as well as efforts to increase student financial aid, improve educational standards for working people and lead the fight to make it easier for workers to organize, and
Whereas, during Senator Ted Kennedy’s 1980 presidential campaign the UFW proudly endorsed his candidacy and dispatched top organizers, including Cesar Chavez and Arturo Rodriguez, to work on his behalf; and
Whereas, in 1985 and 1986 Senator Ted Kennedy worked with Dolores Huerta when she was leading UFW efforts to help pass an historic immigration reform law that allowed more than a million farm workers to win legal status, including many attending this UFW convention; and
Whereas, most recently, Senator Kennedy has been a leading author of the landmark AgJobs bill, negotiated by the UFW and the nation’s agricultural industry to allow undocumented farm workers in this country to earn the permanent legal right to stay by continuing to work in agriculture; now therefore
Be It Resolved that the United Farm Workers of America, sitting in convention in Fresno, California, expresses genuine thanks and gratitude to Senator Ted Kennedy for all he has done for farm workers and other people in our country who still suffer; and
Be It Further Resolved that the farm workers pray for Senator Ted Kennedy and ask God to permit his voice to continue to be heard on behalf of America’s poor and dispossessed.
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Posted in RIP, U.S. Ethnic Relations
With the advent of the border wall, and an increase in the Border Patrol, it looks like migrants are attempting to come over through our ports using other people’s papers.
The number of people caught at the nation’s ports of entry with fraudulent, stolen or purchased documents grew from about 23,500 in 2006 to more than 28,000 in 2008 — an increase of about 19 percent, according to CBP statistics.
For anyone attempting to cross to the U.S. side, it is obvious they are seeking opportunity and a sense of economic security that they are not getting in their home country. So, I can’t say I blame them for wanting to come over. Those already here have been a source of cheap labor, but given their money is as green as any “legal” Americans money, they have also been an unofficial boon for the U.S. economy. One should wonder what the effects on the current economy would be if these folks’ contribution wasn’t included–since the fact is they provide a surplus effect (they put in more than they get from government, contrary to the nativists).
While the gum’mint can spin it all they want that they are “catching” criminals, what this ultimately is is a cry for help from an immigration system that has failed. We still have the “back of the line” argument permeating the debate, while the tea baggers and Republican members of Congress take out the 2006 playbook to blame immigrants all over again–this time, as a means of derailing health care reform.
A UT expert on migration reminds us, this is neither new, nor surprising.
Nestor Rodriguez, a University of Texas at Austin sociology professor who specializes in immigration issues, said the practice of posing as someone else who has legitimate papers dates to early waves of migration to the U.S. and historically was noted among Chinese immigrants in the 1800s.
Unfortunately, this time around, those caught with others’ papers stand to be convicted and thus, blocked from any opportunity for legalization, if/when reform comes. This only shows the sense of desperation that exists within a group of economic refugees seeking something better.
So, if the system has been failing for over 200 years, we obviously have a problem that no wall or checkpoint will stop. Again, this is a cry for help and the system must be fixed comprehensively, rather than punitively. Unfortunately, the Obama administration has decided to wait until 2010. But news items like this make for good “tough on illegals” language for blue dogs who thrive politically from that sort of language.
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Posted in Chicano Politics, DREAM Act, Immigration, Texas Dems 2010, U.S. Ethnic Relations, Violence Against Latinos
OK, so whaddaya think? Kuff has more, including reaction from others: Hair Balls, Greg, Campos, and David Ortez.
I think part of the excitement is that he’s the first one with an ad, unless you count the videos on their respective websites. A policy-wonk like me prefers the policy pronouncements and the more substantive videos on the websites. Still, you have to hand it to Peter Brown for having a nice one done. I have yet to see it on the tube, but I’m sure we’ll be deluged with ads as we get closer to November 3. Right?
Secret: I recognized one of the actors in the ad!!!
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Posted in HoustonVotes 09
I had forgotten about this, but I was a vocal proponent of getting rid of the Texas Two-Step primacaucus because I honestly believed it short-changed Mexican American voters in South Texas.
The ruling by a three-judge panel will allow the lawsuit to go forward and put the Texas delegate system closer to facing a potential review by the Justice Department, which Latino advocates sought in the aftermath of last year’s intense Democratic primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
In a lawsuit filed last year, the Latino groups argued that the way Texas Democrats awarded presidential delegates unfairly discriminated against Latinos by awarding fewer presidential delegates to heavily Hispanic areas. They did not contest to whom the delegates were awarded, but rather how the allotment was made.
With a voter-friendly Obama administration, let’s hope that DOJ reviews become the norm. Of course, that means TDP needs to check itself, too. Of course, does that mean that the current way of doing things will be changed?
Nearly all the delegates in the Texas system are apportioned based on Democratic voter turnout numbers in previous elections in state senate districts. For Latino districts, that meant low turnout in a 2006 gubernatorial election resulted in fewer presidential delegates in the 2008 primary and caucuses.
Either that, or the TDP, its candidates, and its check-writers need to pump some energy into the process to increase turnout. Or should I just expect the usual, “why didn’t your people vote?” questions the day after Primary Day?
UPDATE:
What the court really decided is to allow the lawsuit to proceed. While TDP can spin it any way they want, lets face facts. (emphasis mine).
“LULAC is excited and happy with this decision and will seek further relief immediately,” Vera said.
The opinion suggests the delegate selection process should be approved by the Justice Department under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 “because it has the potential for discrimination.” The federal panel pressed the Texas Democratic Party “to seek pre-clearance of its delegate allocation rules instead of proceeding further in this litigation.”
Obviously, this is an opportunity and I hope TDP sees it as such. We are way beyond Obama-Clinton here. This is about the rights of voters.
Posted in Texas Dems 2010
Nile Copeland--Democrat for Judge of the 234th Civil District Court
Born and raised in Louisiana , Nile Copeland moved to Texas as fast as he could by enrolling in law school in 1996. Nile was the first in his family to go to college, graduate and law school. He went to Louisiana State University and earned a B.S. in Biology, Masters in Education and then South Texas College of Law for his J.D. After law school he started his own law practice and IT consulting company. He has worked and volunteered in the legal, IT and real estate communities. Nile and his family make their home in West Houston.
Nile’s community involvement includes being a director of the Houston Highland Games Association, volunteering in various organizations, volunteers as a mediator for the Harris County Dispute Resolution Center, and with the Houston Bar Association – Night Court, and is a member of Lakewood Church.
Visit Nile’s website: http://www.CopelandforJudge.com
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Posted in 2010 Profiles
The only Democrat in the running for Governor, Tom Schieffer, released a statement today regarding the state of education in Texas.
Thousands of young Texans, their teachers and parents are excited about the prospects of a new school year that begins this week. They deserve more out of state government than they are getting.
Only recently, the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University released a study warning that almost one-quarter of this year’s high school sophomores may not graduate in 2012. Eventually, the study said, these dropouts will cost the state and its economy $6 billion to $10.7 billion. Without a high school education, these young people will more likely be tax consumers than taxpayers. We keep trying to make the kid fit the educational system when we should be trying to make the educational system fit the kid.
Right now, Texas has the highest percentage of high school dropouts over the age of 25 of any state. We rank 46th in SAT scores and 49th in teacher pay. If we don’t change the leadership of this state, we are going to walk right into an educational buzz saw with Texas last across the board.
Texans and our children deserve better.
DosCentavos thinks that Texas is in the middle of a slow-motion trainwreck when it comes to Education. Equity and opportunity will only come with a Democrat in office, and not with the same old race-to-the-bottom mentality of the Republicans.
Posted in Higher Education, K-12 Education, Texas Dems 2010, Texas Lege
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