We’re a short time away from the March 7th Democratic Primary in Texas. It is at that point that the Democratic candidate for Governor will be decided. There are three Democrats running in the primary, this year: Chris Bell, Bob Gammage, and Rashad Jafer.

Interesting enough, all three are from Houston, although Bell is the only one to truly start his political career, here. In 1997, Bell was elected to the Houston city council, and quickly earned a reputation for being a hardnosed fiscal watchdog. Bell helped to pass the city’s first property tax rollback, and fought to curb wasteful spending. After only five years on the Council, Bell was elected to Congress in November, 2002, and made his name known rather quickly. From his early formation of the Port Security Caucus (a bipartisan group fighting for resources to improve the nation’s seaport security) to his 2004 ethics complaint against Tom DeLay, Bell has been a fighter for ethical government.

Secondly, we have Bob Gammage. Gammage touts himself as a lawyer, teacher, and veteran. Regardless of his non-government life, his government work has been impressive. Gammage has been: elected (statewide) to the Supreme Court of Texas, elected to the Texas Coury of Appeals (Central Texas District), Elected to the U.S. Congress, Elected to the Texas Senate (Harris and Ft. Bend), elected to the Texas House (Harris County), and was a member of the “Dirty Thirty” (a bi-partisan group of legislators that pushed for reform in the wake of the Sharpstown Scandal in the 1970s).

Finally, we have Rashad Jafer. Jafer has had no legislative experience, and no political experience within the state. Originally from Pakistan, Jafer received a bachelors degree from the University of Karachi in Microbiology. After immigrating to the United States in 1981 (and to Houston in 1982), Jafer picked retail as his career, and has fought his way up the chain of command until he has become a manager of a major retail chain. Jafer is running on a grass roots movement that has spawned from his intense feelings on the problems of the state he loves, and calls home.

Bell, Gammage, and Jafer all share similar base platforms - Democratic/liberal, doing what is best for Texas. Although the specifics on how they plan to accomplish these tasks tend to differ. (For the following segment, information on Bell and Gammage is taken from an interview done at Polstate.com. Information on Jafer is taken from his campaign website.)

Continuing on, you will find the candidates comments and feelings on a variety of issues. This is round one of two. Round two appears, Thursday, Feb 16th.

School Finance

When asked about school finance, specifically ensuring that Texas public schools were equitably funded, Bell responded by stating that it was time to re-design the business tax system to provide a more fair and equitable system. Citing that currently only one in eight businesses pays the franchise tax, Bell goes on to state that he has no patience with a “revenue neutral” plan. Bell states that we need an increase of $3 - $5 billion.

Gammage responded by proposing an Excellence in Education Act to “strengthen our public school system and provide our Texas school children with an excellent, not merely adequte, education…” Gammage goes on to state that as an appelate judge, he dealt with the Edgewood cases, and how the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Edgewood school district, four times, because “Texas was failing to do its job of adequately investing in our schools…” Gammage stated that we need to develop a more equitable and evenly distributed funding system to ensure that “everyone pays their fair share” and that funds are distributed evenly and fairly. Gammage goes on to state that the investment is needed to reduce class size, enhance teacher quality, increase pay for teachers (my fiance would agree to that), and provide all students with books, technology, and safety. Gammage goes on to do some primarily partisan outlining of his plan, which making critical comments of Rick Perry.

Jafer takes a different line, concentrating on minorities (who now make up 50.2% of Texans). Jafer points out that only 40% of minority students have progressed from ninth grade to graduation. Low-income pupils comprised 54.6 percent of all removals. Jafer goes on to point out that Texas is ranked as one of the richest states in America, yet our schools are a paltry 40th rank. We have the second largest number of students in any state, yet our spending on schools ranks 25th. Jafer goes on to point out that more spending does not neccisarily mean better schools, showing the figures that we spend around $8,000 per student, yet we have on seven schools on the list of US top 100. Flordia has sixteen schools on that list, and only spends around $6,015 per student. Jafer goes on to propose four solutions:

• Revamp school systems to make them “student friendly” centers of excellence. “Education reforms cannot be imposed - the need to evolve.”
• Empower school principals with a little more autonomy than is currently being given. Let the school administration and teachers decide new innovation to the learning experience
• Raise teacher salaries to attract and retain the best reachers. Jafer states that he believes “a happy teacher keeps sound pupils.”
• Public money for Public schools. Tax dollars should not be the only way to finance. Jafer suggest introducing a public-private partnership, getting local businesses to sponsor schools in their area.

Abortion Rights

When asked about Abortion rights, Gammage responded rather succinctly by stating that he supported a woman’s right to choose long before the law permitted the choice. Gammage states that during the 62nd state legislature, he supported HB 1092 to repeal the statute making abortion illegal in Texas. This was more than two years before Roe v. Wade.

Bell took over Gammage’s place in the lengthy responses, this time, by stating right off that he is pro-choice, and has voted 100% with NARAL and Planned Parenthood when he was in congress. Bell spend quite a bit of time talking about the fact that in order to come to terms with the abortion issue, the parties need to cease partisan politics and meet in the neutral, middle ground. He then states that the peace is a two-way street, and that we cannot allow Rick Perry to state that he is against abortion, without demanding real results. Bell then takes a mild slap at Mississippi by comparing the fact that Texas has the second-highest teen pregnancy rate in the country. Bell states, “It’s easy to blame a high-school girl for getting pregnant, but when Texas is competing with the likes of Mississippi in teen pregnancy, we need to take a hard look at what we’re teaching these kids.” Bell then spends a paragraph stating that abortion rates have gone up nearly 80,000 each year during Perry’s administration. Finally, Bell ceases the partisan politicing and comes clean: “I suppose abstinence-plus programs that have been shown to postpone sexual activity and to increase the use of contraceptive and birth control when it does start. We would all rather that children abstain, but we need to have the moral courage to face the truth.” Amen, Chris.

Jafer, in a more grass-roots movement, stated his feelings on abortion very succintly. “I am against abortion unless the mother’s life is in jeopardy. Regardless of when a fetus is formed the practice is inhumane. However, I cannot impose my beliefs on others. If a mother decides to lose her fetus it should be her decision and the state should not be involved in the decision making. Roe v. Wade gives the necessary powers to the mother and I support it.” In short, Jafer treats abortion as a non-issue - as it should be. The real issue should be sexual education.

Trans-Texas Corridor and Toll Roads

When asked about his feelings on the Trans-Texas Corridor and toll roads, Bell responded by stating that he felt that toll roads were fine. He then went on to say that while toll roads were fine, the roads should not be “double-taxed.” That is, roads that are built with tax money should not be toll roads, and vice-versa.

Gammage begins by stating that toll roads should only play a supplemental role in Texas transportion, not a principal role. Gammage then goes on to speak for several paragraphs, and essentially states what Chriss Bell did in just two: He supports toll roads, but not when they are “double-taxed.”

Jafer has yet to comment on this particular issue.

Economic Development (State)

PolState asked the question of Gammage and Bell (Jafer was unable to participate in the interviews), “If elected governor, how would you handle economic development in Texas? What would be your long-range goals toward increasing the Texas workforce and creating more jobs for Texans. Do you favour starting at home, or recruiting companies from out of state, or a balange of both?”

Bell begins by asking us to pretend we’re governor for a day. I love exercises that start out that way, although I invariably get off track. If I were governor for only a day, I would likely spend less time on economic reform, and more time on specific things that I feel are more important dealt with in the short tem. To continue: Bell makes the first suggestion of putting the tax dollars into what one think tank called the state’s “most reliable state-funded program that creates jobs, upgrades worker skills, and grows the economy.” He then goes on to give some fairly impressive numbers of this program. Bell then opens door number two, showing up “a $300-million boondoggle” that has been called (by a friend of Bell’s) “the biggest and most political slush fund ever in Texas.” Bell then goes on to show less-than-impressive numbers on the effectiveness of this particular program. Showing that while it promised 22,800 jobs, thus far it had only created about 275 jobs. Bell begins to wrap it up by stating “We can invest in Texas by investing in our people, or we can subsidize out-of-state corporations and hope that they keep their promises.” Needless to say, the final two paragraphs point towards the investing in Texas, and slam Perry for his choice of investing in corporations.

Gammage spends two long paragraphs saying the same things Bell said about the Perry “boondoggle.” His third and final paragraph, however, states his feelings on the “how” matter: “invest in building word-class schools, provide greater access to college and create a stronger social safety net.” He then goes on to state that by addressing the skyrocketing costs of health care, and working for a cleaner environment would help urge businesses to relocate to, or expand in, Texas.

Jafer did not respond directly to the question, as he was unable to participate in the interview. However, on reading over his campaign website, the following things jump out. First and foremost, Jafer proposes a radical change to the prison system that may actually serve to lower governmental spending on supplies, and might even make prisons self-sustaining. Jafer’s plan calls for compulsory occupational rehabilitation of all prison inmates via vocational training. Then, using that training (and those inmates) for revenue generation by means of extracting productive work from the inmates. “The produce can be of several types,” states Jafer. He goes on to state that supplies to the government and its various agencies could, itsself, be a reasonable quantity of production from this program, and the revenues generated (as well as the savings of prison-produced supplies) could be large enough to reduce public spending, and perhaps even make the prisons self sufficient. This would also provide the ability for parolees and those who have served their time, the ability to more easily find a skilled worker type job.

Jafer then goes on to speak about taxation throughout the state - something the other two candidates have not really touched on. Jafer states that Texas has one of the highest taxes in the country, and that “surely not all are in a position to shoulder that load.” Jafer’s proposal is to:

• Introduce a tax cap
• Balance the budget with no deficits and no excess surplus. (The need of a tax system that is based on ground realities, rather than a “need to collect.”)
• Allow people to have a say in the expenditure and collection
• Increase tax coverage, not tax rate
• Bring in more revenues by showcasing resources, not depletion of resources. “(E.g.: revenues through carbon trading, emissions trading, etc.)”

Concluding Remarks

By now, it should be no secret who is my preference. I have long been a fan of the underdog, and especially those who go at things through a grass-roots movement. Although Jafer does not have the political experience most would deem neccesary to be governor of Texas, I believe he has the drive, will, and heart to do so.

Please don’t misunderstand me. Bell and Gammage are both excellent candidates; and all three candidates have their strong points, and their faults. But I am proud to be a supporter of Rashad Jafer for the Democratic candidacy for Texas State Governor.

To those who would say that I am being biased in my commentary. I try not to be. My comments on any candidate bringing in partisan politics, or commenting about Perry, are simply because I have never been a fan of partisan politicking, regardless of the issue. That, my friends, is why I have never registered to a specific party, and never will. That’s right, folks. I am unable to vote in the democratic primary (or the Republican one, for that matter). I still have my choice for my support, though.

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