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Eagle Editorial Board
Surely everyone knows there are three Republicans running for governor. It is hard to turn on the TV without seeing an ad for Gov. Rick Perry or U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Newcomer Debra Medina is gaining appeal with Republicans tired of both of the other candidates.
Less well-known is the fact that there are Democrats running for governor -- seven of them, to be exact.
Republicans
Only Hutchison met with the Editorial Board. Perry announced he would not meet with any boards, probably unwilling to answer tough questions they might have. Medina tried, but was unable to squeeze a meeting into her schedule.
Rick Perry has been governor for 10 years, since George W. Bush stepped down to run for president. In that time, he has appointed every member of every board in the state and appointed many of the justices on the Texas Supreme Court and other judicial benches. While most of those appointees are well-qualified, many owe intense loyalty to Perry and not to the board or institution they serve.
A prime example is Texas A&M University, where Perry's meddling has left the university wounded and floundering. Its reputation in the academic community is in free-fall and it likely will take years to return to the stature it once enjoyed.
Perry has shown a lack of leadership, frequently waiting until after legislators have adjourned to veto bills when he could have ex-pressed his concerns in time for his ideas to have been incorporated. He has not proposed solutions to pressing issues, such as school finance reform, health care and higher education.
Under Perry, the education our children receive has declined. He seems to believe that barely getting by is good enough. He has a vision of what Texas education is, not what it could be and what it should be.
In his ads, Perry touts the numerous tax cuts he brought about, yet somehow Texans are paying more taxes than ever, with little positive to show for them.
It is time for Perry to go.
Medina would eliminate property taxes in Texas, replacing them with a broader-based sales tax. Doing so, she said, would bring a $3 billion increase in net personal income and would create up to 175,000 new jobs. She terms the business margins tax a "back-door income tax," adding that she would work to eliminate it.
If elected, Medina says she would fight the federal government to restore sovereignty to the states, rejecting Washington's attempts to intrude into matters that are the prerogative of Texas.
Perry's campaign attempts to portray Hutchison as a liberal in the mold of U.S. Rep. Barney Frank are laughable. Like most Texans, she is comfortably to the right of center, as her extensive re-cord in the Senate shows. Asked why she would give up the seniority and the stature she has gained in the Senate over the past 17 years, Hutchison said it is time for someone else to begin building seniority in Congress. She said she would step down later this year to allow a new Texas senator to get a headstart. Frankly, we are sad to lose her in Washington, where she has been a passionate and effective voice for Texas since 1993.
Hutchison is focusing on three main areas in her bid for the nomination: education, transportation and ethics reform. She says the state's 30 percent dropout rate is unacceptable. Every child must get the preparation necessary to go to college if he or she chooses, Hutchison said.
The senator said she wants to reform the Texas Department of Transportation, an agency she termed arrogant. She said the agency needs a bottom-up mentality and a board that is more representative of the state as a whole.
Hutchison said she wants more "sunshine" in state government, more transparency and more accountability to the people of Texas. She said she would propose a constitutional amendment limiting the governor to no more than two four-year terms. She also would like to see a moratorium period on gubernatorial aides going to work as lobbyists.
If it is past time for Perry to leave, who then should people vote for in the Republican Primary? Hutchison has shown her ability to get things done, to work across party lines when necessary, to compromise when it is in the best interests of her constituents. She would make an outstanding governor of Texas.
The Eagle recommends a vote for Kay Bailey Hutchison for governor in the Republican Primary.
Democrats
On the Democratic side, former Houston Mayor Bill White is the best known candidate, but -- except in the Houston area -- is not that well known. Farouk Shami, a native of Palestine who came to this country 44 years ago, is spending millions of his own dollars on the race. He developed the first ammonia-free hair coloring products. He sells his products under the BioSilk, SunGlitz and Caitonic Hydration Interlink lines. He employs 2,000 Americans now and is building a factory to employ 5,000 more.
Also in the race are Dr. Alma Ludvina Aguado of San Antonio; San Antonio school teacher Felix Alvarado; private investigator Bill Dear of Mount Calm; Prairie View A&M associate professor E. Clement Glenn of Navasota; and gadfly Star Locke of Port Aransas.
Only Dear and Glenn met with the Editorial Board.
Dear has been involved in investigating the O.J. Simp-son murder case, as well as Lee Harvey Oswald's role in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He faults Perry's lack of leadership. Dear said he supports the family unit and the state must stop people who shouldn't have children from having them. He said the state might have to consider casino gambling as a way to pay for public education. Students in public school should be ranked, not by test scores, but by their actions, he said; if children don't want to be in school and are disruptive, then maybe they shouldn't be forced to attend, he said.
Glenn said he wants to speak to the hearts of Texans. He said teachers are the most "miseducated" people in the America and they need to be retrained. They need to be motivated, he said, adding that teachers need bonuses and tax incentives if they retrain in his method of education that employs the "taxonomy of the right brain with the taxonomy of the left brain" to create a holistic way of educating.
As Houston mayor, White claims credit for adding more jobs than 334 states combined. He says he has made Houston government more efficient, even while cutting the property tax rate. He also claims credit for reducing the city's crime rate to the lowest level in more than 25 years. During his years as deputy secretary of the federal Department of Energy, White said he implemented management reforms that saved taxpayers more than $1 billion.
Shami has made a number of gaffes during the campaign involving race, religion and whether our government played a role in the Sept. 11 acts of terror.
Clearly, White is by far the best candidate in the Democratic race for governor.
The Eagle recommends a vote for Bill White in the Democratic Primary.
