Guest Post From Barbara Radnofsky

[The following is a guest post from Barbara Radnofsky, Democratic Nominee for United States Senate]

Houston Aug 1, 2006 : Opponent fails on her chosen issues.
After a return speech to the Executive Roundtable, I spoke to people all day, by phone and in person. With school activities starting, and folks returning from vacation, more calls get through, and we are able to connect and schedule.  The feeling among people I visit is upbeat for change, with sincere concern for the direction our leaders have taken this state and country.

1.  Opponent’s failures in immigration and transportation.

My opponent announced last year that immigration and transportation were her priorities. She has failed Texans in the areas on which she’s asked us to focus. Texas’ junior senator recently attacked my opponent’s immigration stance, further evidence of dissension in her party. She proposes to spend billions more of our taxpayer dollars on new, wacky immigration schemes, including “self deportation” and risky centers in foreign lands, built by private companies at public expense, with the kind of cost overruns we now see revealed in the news. When the KKK announced a Rally on immigration, I condemned the Klan’s hateful activities and domestic terroism. She still has not been able to bring herself to do so. Perhaps she will decide after her colleagues tell her it is safe, just as she delayed condemning lynching until her colleagues signed on to the anti-lynching resolution. Her excuse: she was too busy to sponsor such a thing. We exposed the fluffier and lighter resolutions she took time to sponsor.

Folks are well aware that my opponent couldn’t garner support for her anti-Texas stance on transporation or on tolling, and they are aware of her acceptance of special interest funds promoting the land grabbing, double taxing, community ruining Trans Texas Corridor. Her own party and the Texas Democratic Party both oppose the Trans Texas Corridor, which represents a huge waste of over a quarter of a trillion of our tax payer dollars. We’ve added a section to the issues chart on this scheme, and my opponent’s vote for tolling projects in last year’s transportation bill, which gave massive preferences to Alaska, and harmed Texas, leaving us a net donor to the rest of the country of Texas gas tax dollars, as we rank 49th in the US in per capita transportation spending. Her failure to pass her wright amendment bill, failing both sides, has made headlines, together with her attacks on the Justice Department, which pointed out the anti trust violations in her proposal.  She has not been able to convince her own party’s senators on key committees to work to support her legislative attempts.

2. Opponent’s failure with the economy.

My opponent’s third priority was the economy. She has sold out this economy, and mortgaged our children’s futures, as she consistently votes for waste of our taxpayer dollars and for corrupt legislative schemes. We see inflation at higher than predicted levels, and her claimed leadership over the four largest deficits in history as she rejects “pay as you go” spending, and as Texas suffers the most

3. Opponent’s contract with America: term limits and balancing the budget. Her time has come and gone, and she should now return to her broken Contract with America promise to balance the buget and limit herself to term terms. (She has served two plus a portion of another).

We’ve been asked to post her language of term limitation, so that voters can evaluate her trustworthiness:

The Dallas Morning News, May 22, 1993

Ms. Hutchison said, “I believe our founding fathers were right in maintaining that we should have citizen legislators, people who work for a living, who live with the taxes, who live with the mandates, who go to Washington and do service and come back to live with the laws that they passed.’

Hotline’s January 14, 1993 issue:

Treas. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) and Rep. Jack Fields (R-08) “barn-stormed” across TX “preaching fiscal conservatism and declaring their candidacies” for the special election to replace Bentsen. Both made stops “in the state’s major media markets of Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.” Fields
“pledged, and asked his opponents to do the same, to limit future government service to two terms.” Hutchison agreed to sign such a pledge.

November 9, 1994 Austin American Statesman:

Hutchison said her re-election was a mandate for her to return to Washington to fight for a balanced budget amendment, tax breaks for homemakers, fewer
regulations for small business owners, a strong national defense, and term limitations.

“I’ve always said that I would serve no more than two full terms. This may be my last term or I could run for one more. But no more after that. I firmly believe in term limitations and I plan to adhere to that,” Hutchison said.

Back in 1995, she co-sponsored   a term-limits
  constitutional amendment bill.
She did the same thing in 1997, when she she
  co-spoonsored a bill by then-Sen.
John Ashcroft which would have created a constitutional amendment limiting the terms of senators and members of the U.S. House.

4. Latest polling data. We’ve been asked to post the latest polling data available:

“The Wall Street Journal reports the Zogby poll in July.  Radnofsky  leads among moderates 50.2 to 39.4

Hutchison has sunk overall to 52 percent, with Radnofsky rising to 37 percent. Last month Radnofsky was barely ahead among moderates 43% to 41.5%, but this month Radnofsky
surged ahead 50.2% to 39.4%. Radnofsky gained in every party category.

Radnofsky gained in every religious category, and is ahead in ‘Large City’ and shaved the gap in ‘Suburbs’ from 26 points to 11 points. She holds steady among ‘Rural’ voters.”

BAR

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