Austin American-Statesman endorses Perry, calls TTC opponents 'xenophobes,' and falsely claims that an Anti-TTC PAC took money from Strayhorn
Editorial
ENDORSEMENT: TEXAS GOVERNOR
Perry best fits Texas' need for serious leadership
October 22, 2006
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2006
We have often been critical of Rick Perry's leadership, but in the past 18 months, the Texas governor has produced results that required initiative and creativity.
He enlisted former Comptroller John Sharp, a Democrat, to craft a school finance bill. It was a truly inspired move that generated bipartisan support for the legislation that finally led to an overhaul of the state's business tax and a bit of property tax relief. He has taken the lead on border security, and gets a tip of the hat for appointments that reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of modern Texas.
Against a weak field of sometimes right but never uncertain opposition, moreover, the governor looks good by comparison. We would be more enthusiastic in recommending Perry's re-election if we were sure that the governor will follow the direction he set for himself the past 18 months. Our reservations notwithstanding, Perry, 56, is the best of the five-candidate lot.
Any fair examination of Perry's record has to include the positives. As we have observed previously, any border governor has to develop a foreign policy, and Perry has. He understands the importance of a close-working alliance with his Mexican counterparts, and he is respected by them.
Perry had sense enough to abandon tax foe Grover Norquist and voucher advocate James Leininger, and enlist Sharp in overhauling the Texas school finance system. As pressing as the need was to overhaul state school finances, the Legislature couldn't come up with a bill. Sharp helped break the logjam.
Perry has been criticized because the bill isn't a long-term fix, but nobody said it would be. School finance is tricky enough without tying the hands of future legislators with a "long-term" solution that only looks good now. The Gilmer-Aikin Act, hailed as the school finance bill to end all school finance bills when it was adopted in the 1950s, was showing signs of social and economic fatigue by the 1960s.
As for the Trans Texas Corridor, we don't understand why Perry and his highway commission sat on some of the toll road's contract details for so long. A project of this magnitude can't succeed without public confidence, and disclosure builds confidence. Perry should it make clear that he and the taxpayers he represents won't settle for anything less than full and clear disclosure of plans for the corridor. We need roads.
Perry sat on the details of the contract long enough for independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn, the state comptroller, to pander to xenophobes who speak darkly about the foreign ownership of Cintra. The Spanish company has partnered with H.B. Zachry of San Antonio, which has been building Texas roads for decades, but the seeds of doubt have been planted.
For a good retail politician, Perry can be downright tone deaf to the wholesale aspects of the business, as this episode shows.
Democrat Chris Bell, on the other hand, is adept at neither wholesale nor retail politics. He has some ideas worth looking at, but it's doubtful that any of his policy proposals have a chance of resulting in action. Bell is right about public education's over-reliance on the TAKS test, but one issue does not a governor make.
Bell's opposition to tuition deregulation is not only short-sighted but potentially injurious to Austin. The Legislature's stinginess in funding higher education is well-documented. Denying the University of Texas and other state institutions the flexibility to set tuition rates limits their ability to raise money elsewhere. Perry appointed one of the strongest chairs to the UT system in recent years. UT Regents Chairman James Huffines has led the effort to restructure higher education and strengthen it financially.
It's disappointing that Bell, who showed the courage to take on Tom DeLay when the former House majority leader was at the zenith of his power, offers so little in the way of alternatives.
Speaking of alternatives, independents Strayhorn, the former Austin mayor, and entertainer Richard "Kinky" Friedman, are running full tilt to nowhere.
We are extremely disappointed that Strayhorn has thrown financial and political support to the political action committee founded and led by toll road opponent Sal Costello, who exploits the personal problems of policymakers with whom he disagrees.
He traffics in old divorce cases as a way of smearing his opponents, which is the lowest denominator of public debate. Strayhorn tossed Costello's PAC $15,000 in three $5,000 payments in February, March and September of this year. Lending her name and stature as a statewide official to someone of Costello's ilk is truly troubling.
Friedman's candidacy is a joke, much like the oft-repeated one-liners that have gone as stale as a day-old cheap cigar. Ethnic jokes aren't funny in a demographically complex state like Texas, or anywhere for that matter. The idea of a governor who doesn't respect that indisputable fact would be a cruel joke on all of us.
Perry's record of appointing minorities and women to positions of responsibility is excellent. His appointment of Louis E. Sturns of Fort Worth to the Texas Public Safety Commission, the panel that oversees the Department of Public Safety, was most welcome. Sturns is the first African American to sit on the commission. That was a significant if unheralded move, but one that shows Perry's eye for the details of managing a complex and growing state.
Like any incumbent, he gets his share of brickbats, and like any incumbent, he deserves some.
We have disagreed with the governor before and most likely will again. Against the field, however, Perry is the best choice.
© 2006 Austin American-Statesman: www. statesman.com
ENDORSEMENT: TEXAS GOVERNOR
Perry best fits Texas' need for serious leadership
October 22, 2006
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2006
We have often been critical of Rick Perry's leadership, but in the past 18 months, the Texas governor has produced results that required initiative and creativity.
He enlisted former Comptroller John Sharp, a Democrat, to craft a school finance bill. It was a truly inspired move that generated bipartisan support for the legislation that finally led to an overhaul of the state's business tax and a bit of property tax relief. He has taken the lead on border security, and gets a tip of the hat for appointments that reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of modern Texas.
Against a weak field of sometimes right but never uncertain opposition, moreover, the governor looks good by comparison. We would be more enthusiastic in recommending Perry's re-election if we were sure that the governor will follow the direction he set for himself the past 18 months. Our reservations notwithstanding, Perry, 56, is the best of the five-candidate lot.
Any fair examination of Perry's record has to include the positives. As we have observed previously, any border governor has to develop a foreign policy, and Perry has. He understands the importance of a close-working alliance with his Mexican counterparts, and he is respected by them.
Perry had sense enough to abandon tax foe Grover Norquist and voucher advocate James Leininger, and enlist Sharp in overhauling the Texas school finance system. As pressing as the need was to overhaul state school finances, the Legislature couldn't come up with a bill. Sharp helped break the logjam.
Perry has been criticized because the bill isn't a long-term fix, but nobody said it would be. School finance is tricky enough without tying the hands of future legislators with a "long-term" solution that only looks good now. The Gilmer-Aikin Act, hailed as the school finance bill to end all school finance bills when it was adopted in the 1950s, was showing signs of social and economic fatigue by the 1960s.
As for the Trans Texas Corridor, we don't understand why Perry and his highway commission sat on some of the toll road's contract details for so long. A project of this magnitude can't succeed without public confidence, and disclosure builds confidence. Perry should it make clear that he and the taxpayers he represents won't settle for anything less than full and clear disclosure of plans for the corridor. We need roads.
Perry sat on the details of the contract long enough for independent gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn, the state comptroller, to pander to xenophobes who speak darkly about the foreign ownership of Cintra. The Spanish company has partnered with H.B. Zachry of San Antonio, which has been building Texas roads for decades, but the seeds of doubt have been planted.
For a good retail politician, Perry can be downright tone deaf to the wholesale aspects of the business, as this episode shows.
Democrat Chris Bell, on the other hand, is adept at neither wholesale nor retail politics. He has some ideas worth looking at, but it's doubtful that any of his policy proposals have a chance of resulting in action. Bell is right about public education's over-reliance on the TAKS test, but one issue does not a governor make.
Bell's opposition to tuition deregulation is not only short-sighted but potentially injurious to Austin. The Legislature's stinginess in funding higher education is well-documented. Denying the University of Texas and other state institutions the flexibility to set tuition rates limits their ability to raise money elsewhere. Perry appointed one of the strongest chairs to the UT system in recent years. UT Regents Chairman James Huffines has led the effort to restructure higher education and strengthen it financially.
It's disappointing that Bell, who showed the courage to take on Tom DeLay when the former House majority leader was at the zenith of his power, offers so little in the way of alternatives.
Speaking of alternatives, independents Strayhorn, the former Austin mayor, and entertainer Richard "Kinky" Friedman, are running full tilt to nowhere.
We are extremely disappointed that Strayhorn has thrown financial and political support to the political action committee founded and led by toll road opponent Sal Costello, who exploits the personal problems of policymakers with whom he disagrees.
He traffics in old divorce cases as a way of smearing his opponents, which is the lowest denominator of public debate. Strayhorn tossed Costello's PAC $15,000 in three $5,000 payments in February, March and September of this year. Lending her name and stature as a statewide official to someone of Costello's ilk is truly troubling.
Friedman's candidacy is a joke, much like the oft-repeated one-liners that have gone as stale as a day-old cheap cigar. Ethnic jokes aren't funny in a demographically complex state like Texas, or anywhere for that matter. The idea of a governor who doesn't respect that indisputable fact would be a cruel joke on all of us.
Perry's record of appointing minorities and women to positions of responsibility is excellent. His appointment of Louis E. Sturns of Fort Worth to the Texas Public Safety Commission, the panel that oversees the Department of Public Safety, was most welcome. Sturns is the first African American to sit on the commission. That was a significant if unheralded move, but one that shows Perry's eye for the details of managing a complex and growing state.
Like any incumbent, he gets his share of brickbats, and like any incumbent, he deserves some.
We have disagreed with the governor before and most likely will again. Against the field, however, Perry is the best choice.
© 2006 Austin American-Statesman:
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Sunday, October 22, 2006
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