State Of The Religious Right In Texas

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As I mentioned yesterday afternoon, the Texas Freedom Network has issued its annual report on the State of the Religious Right in Texas.

It comes as no surprise who some of the alpha dogs are in the movement as it exists in Texas. To review, here is the list of the ones to watch:

David Bradley, State Board of Education
Barbara Cargill, State Board of Education
Frank Corte, Texas House
Warren Chisum, Texas House
Charlie Howard, Texas House
Phil King, Texas House
Terri Leo, State Board of Education
Ken Mercer, State Board of Education
Dan Patrick, Texas Senate
Robert Talton, Texas House
Susan Weddington, OneStar Foundation
Don Willett, Texas Supreme Court
Tommy Williams, Texas Senate
Bill Zedler, Texas House

Sadly, the list has grown from last year:

David Barton
Richard Ford
James Leininger
Dwight McKissic
Rick Scarborough
Kelly Shackelford
Susan Weddington
Laurence White

I believe these paragraphs from this year’s report sum up why the Right is such a danger in Texas:

Texas has rarely seen a time in which business interests were not the primary powerbrokers in the halls of government. Yet elected officials have also been building strong relationships
with a powerful new special interest over the last two decades: religious conservatives. These officials are scattered throughout state government, including the executive branch, the judiciary, the Legislature and the State Board of Education.
Many are not tied exclusively to the religious right’s public policy agenda. They use their work with other powerful interests, particularly business, to build their credibility on conservative causes involving taxation, public education and criminal justice. But that credibility with major conservative constituencies helps them then push a socially conservative agenda. That agenda ranges from opposing abortion and homosexuality to limiting stem cell research, advocating private school vouchers and promoting other positions that reflect a narrow, hard-right perspective.

Make sure you read the chapter on Dan Patrick in the report. It is very illuminating stuff about Houston’s new junior senator.

Aside from that, I think the one bio in the report everyone should read is the one of Terri Leo, one of the right-wing mouthpieces on the State Board of Education.

Here are some important excerpts:

Today the most outspoken and ideologically driven culture warrior on the state board is Terri Leo, a Republican who hails from the Houston suburb of Spring. Since her election in 2002, Leo has emerged as the board’s leading rabble-rouser for the religious right. It is a position that suggests an appetite for the media spotlight and political ambitions that extend beyond the state board.
This once obscure homemaker enjoys a good deal of media attention in her fanatical quest to rescue schoolchildren from, among other things, what she sees as the dangerous influences of “liberal New York editors” who pen the textbooks that drive her obsession. As part of this mission, Leo seeks to expand the SBOE’s reach into the classroom to help further the religious right’s ultimate goal of controlling the education system – at the expense of taxpayers. Toward that end, Leo works to recruit like-minded men and women to run for board seats – even if that means working to defeat fellow Republican incumbents she deems as insufficiently
conservative. In 2006, for example, she threw her support
behind former state Rep. Ken Mercer of San Antonio in his successful bid to unseat Republican board incumbent Dan Montgomery of Fredericksburg in the GOP primary. Following the March primaries and November general election in 2006, she has in her grasp a long-sought goal – a far-right majority on the 15-member panel and control over what Texas schoolchildren learn.

This report is a must-read for every Progressive and every Texan who is concerned about the influence of the Religious Right on Texas Government. If you do nothing else today, read the report.

Written by Vince Leibowitz

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Vince Leibowitz posted this article under Radical Republican Religious Right on Tuesday, February 6th, 2007 at 8:50 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a comment. Pinging is currently not allowed. View Technorati Linkbacks.