The event itself was a general meeting of the Woodland Heights Civic Association. This area is just north downtown Houston and is bounded on the north by Pecore Street, on the west by Studewood Street, on the east by I-45, and on the south by I-10. It is a historic area – there is quite a lot of information about it on their website.
As it was a general meeting, several reports were given. The one that interested me the most was about the crime in the area, for which they passed out a map which included all of the crime for the month of January. I scanned it and you can see it here. Not a pretty sight and exactly the type of information that needs to get out to all Texans about Bill White’s tenure as Mayor and the mess he left the city in.
Now to the candidate forum. It was sort of a cross between a forum and a meet/greet. Each candidate was allowed to speak for ten minutes and then the floor was opened up to questions.
John Faulk went first and talked about a few familiar themes – reduced spending, jobs and national security. Those were different themes than he talked about here. John has a wealth of knowledge about the district, having grown up in it and campaigned against the incumbent Sheila Jackson Lee in 2008, and it shows when he speaks. He seems to have substance while the other Republicans have talking points. This difference is far more noticeable when the candidates appear side by side than it is when reviewing position papers or issue pages.
Mitch Page was up next and his main theme is that Brenda is the only attorney on the Republican side and that the odds are that an attorney will win the district, as four of the six candidates (both parties) are lawyers. One of the other points that he made is that Brenda is a woman and a woman has never been on the Republican side of the ticket. His talk was along the lines of an email he sent me earlier:
Fat Old GOP Candidates
Vote Brenda Z. Page in the Primary Election
On the campaign trail, over and over I hear the same thing; “He is a fat old balding candidate who has lost every political campaign he ever entered, why should I vote for him? He’s a flake and acts like a fat old bitter woman attacking all.” He repeatedly claims he has a base of 39,000 voters but he fails to understand the 13th amendment to the U. S. Constitution which made men free and that there are three candidates to vote for in the 2010 Primary in Houston Texas.
Good point, on the one hand the Fat old Balding Guy is a proven loser and if up against an incumbent he will lose again in the November General election and the Democrat wins. So if the GOP guy wins the Primary in March “hold your nose and go to the poles and vote for him anyway”. Because a GOP win is far better than any Democrat chained to Speaker Pelosi, Obama and tax payer money spent on federally funded abortion and socialism. But if he will lose the General election, why should I vote for him?
The answer is, make the woman Republican candidate win the Primary and she can win the General election for you.
Speaking of “Fat Old”, fat is indicative of a lack of discipline in one’s leaders. I know this is harsh, but true.
Speaking of “Old” we know there are many great qualified young people to run for a political office but they are engaged in their jobs and family. And just because a person is “old” does not make them a person of wisdom, experience, morals, inclusiveness or education.
There is a guy out there that says – “look at me I served in the military as a photographer for two years”. If you only served two years you were a reserve so as to avoid the draft or a drop out “for cause” which implies you were never a warrior!
This same guy calms to be an accountant but to be an account you need a four year degree in accounting or be a CPA – is this true? Does he even live in the district? Can he vote for himself?
Jared Woofill is out there, not fat, not old, working hundreds of volunteer hours for us Republicans. All the other Republican Chair candidates have not contributed large sums of money or time to the Harris County Republican Party. All the HCRP chair candidates are good guys but we need someone who puts their money and time where their mouth is. Some folks need back off and rethink their position including some “Fat Old Balding” loser political supporters.
Fighting the “good old boys” in Austin and those professed Republicans donating to Democrat abortion supporters and gerrymandering CD18 can be likened to Apartheid. The “good old boys” (both Democrats & Republicans) want the status quo and to divide Texas into pieces to throw a bone here to the Republicans and a bone there to the Democrats – this is my definition of gerrymandering. Voters, let’s put an end to political Apartheid/gerrymandering. I know CD 18 in Texas has not benefited from such Austin Apartheid!
Also please watch out for Church goers and politicians speaking out of both sides of their mouth or with forked tongue. “I am against abortion but oh yeah I donated to politicians who support abortions.” Texans, I like Travis, lets draw a line in the sand! You either are or you aren’t.
Often times it has been said a Republican cannot win CD18 all I can say is “BS” take a look at what Brown did.
The problem is the people of CD18 have never been given a viable Republican candidate because of the “Austin Apartheid program” and as such has perpetuated poverty and suppression of various ethnic groups. Please look to the woman Republican Candidate for CD18.
The Fat Old Balding guy is loud and bitter against the GOP, he attacks the guy who is working the hardest and the best he knows how for the GOP and he attacks the HCRP. I do not know where he is going with this but he is NOT THE PERSON WE WANT IN CONGRESS we already have a female of similar sorts doing a bad job.
As for me Brenda is the Candidate for CD 18 and Jared is my man for HCRP.
Make of that what you will. Later, when answering the question “Will you support the constitution?”, Mitch’s answer was that since Brenda was a lawyer, she would be able to read the bills and know whether or not they were constitutional while the other two Republican candidates were not lawyer’s and wouldn’t know what to do. He also talked about Brenda’s rise in the financial world, her retirement and world travels, her decision to attend law school, and how they met at SSQQ. And you didn’t think I took notes. Shame on you.
Last up for the Republicans was Tex Christopher. Tex’s message was that we need leaders in Washington and he is a leader. His goal is to go to Washington and create systems that can be duplicated for efficiency and throughput improvements. He also mentioned that he was tough (ex-bull rider) and charismatic. He noted that he has set up a new website, which really isn’t a website but an explanation of why you should vote for him. It is WhyVoteTex.com.
Tex talked a lot about his business experience. He’s a marketing professional and was particularly proud of his work for Reliance Energy on getting out the message about deregulation and the benefits from that. Tex is a great guy – if you haven’t met him, you should. He’s full of energy and I’m sure that he will have many more business opportunities because of his campaign work.
Which brings us to the lone Democrat that bothered to show up at an inner city meeting, Sean Roberts. I immediately liked the guy, there is just something about him that says “nice guy”. And it was interesting listening to his point of view, which is so very different than mine. If you have any doubt at all that there isn’t a philosophical difference between the two parties, I invite you to listen to Mr. Roberts:
{vimeo}9341861{/vimeo}
Pay particular attention to his thoughts on what the job entails – “bringing home the bacon”. Unfortunately, that is what a lot of politicians think the job entails, which is why we are in the situation we’re in.
Mr. Roberts also had a tough question from one of the residents – she asked him what, specifically, he wanted to do about education. Again, he brought up bringing funding back to the district and noted that Gov. Perry had just turned away a ton of money that the districts needed. She scolded him for that answer, saying that money has not proven to be effective in education and that the real problem was administrators and teacher’s unions. I’m guessing she’ll be voting in the Republican primary. Most likely for Mr. Faulk. But that is just a guess.
Overall, it was a good meeting. I met a lot of good folks, they were just as nice as they could be. I’d like to think candidate for Precinct Chair in 001 Peggy Lindow for the invitation. Here are a few pictures:
