[Written by Refinish69 from Doing My Part For The Left.

Travis County is the bluest county in Texas and on March 4th, voters have a chance to make it a TRUE BLUE Delegation in the Texas Legislature. Brian Thompson is running against Dawwna Dukes for District 46. Brian has received every major endorsement in the Travis County area and for good reason. He cares about the district and is willing to vote for the people of Texas instead of supporting Tom Craddick and his minions who have thrown children of SCHIP, stolen women’s rights away each legislative session, sold out Texas land owners for the Trans Texas Corridor, and were instrumental in writing legalized discrimination into the Texas Constitution.

Brian Thompson has been indorsed by the Texas Progressive Alliance. He has also been endorsed by :

Austin Progressive Coalition
University Democrats
Victory Fund
Central Austin Democrats
Texas Environmental Democrats
Southwest Austin Democrats
Capital Area Progressive Democrats
Teamsters Local 657
Capital Area Asian American Democrats
Austin Stonewall Democrats
South Austin Democrats
Austin Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus

Brain has also been endorsed by Lon Burnam, House District 80

Lon Burnam is the only Democrat in the House who has voted against Craddick from the beginning. It is time we had more strong Democrats in the Texas Legislature who are not afraid to speak out against the autocratic rule of Tom Craddick and the devastation which is being wrought on Texas and our quality of life. The time has come to hold our elected officials accountable for their action and non-action when it comes to taking care of their districts and the rest of Texas.

Brian is willing to work to make the quality of life better for all Texans and not just a select few. Teachers and students alike will have a strong advocate in the Ledge once Brian is elected. Women and children will not have to worry about their rights being stolen from them by the privileged who can buy their way out of any problem and are willing to let the rest of Texas suffer. Our retired teachers will not see Brian vote against a raise in their pension. Brian will be at the forefront leading the charge for changes and fighting injustice as an elected officials should be instead of skipping votes or voting the right way but not speaking out. It is time for strong leadership in the Travis County Legislative Delegation. Brian will be a welcome addition to some of the already strong voices for Texas and Travis County!!!

Support Paul Moreno, The Consience Of The Texas House

This election season, Tom Craddick and his allies are playing a skillful game of chess. Recognizing that he is unlikely to gain any votes for his continued Speakership in the general election–as Republicans are projected to fall like flies across the state–Craddick has, in effect moved all of his pawns on the chessboard into Democratic districts in an attempt to defeat progressive, anti-Craddick state representatives.

One district where Tom Craddick has deployed his pawns is Texas House District 77, against none other than the Dean and Conscience of the Texas House–Rep. Paul Moreno (D-El Paso).

Paul Moreno was born in El Paso. He served six years as a U.S. Marine in Korea, and was awarded the Silver Star and numerous Bronze Stars. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Texas Western College (now UT-El Paso), and a law degree from UT School of Law. He was first elected to the Texas House in 1967, and is among the longest serving members of that body, and the longest serving Latino elected official in America.

Paul Moreno has a distinguished record of public service to his district, and the entire state. He has been endorsed as part of the Texas Progressive Alliance’s TexRoots 08 slate, and needs our support.

Some of the most important legislation of the past three decades bears Moreno’s fingerprints, such as The Bilingual Education Act of 1983-84. Moreno, along with the Mexical American Legislative Caucus (of which he was the first Chair in 1975), helped push this legislation through the House. He fought to add farmworkers to the unemployment compensation legislation for the first time since 1913 in 1985. In 1987, he fought for a minimum wage bill for farm workers and helped end conservative attempts to alter House Bill 72 (comprehensive education reform).

Too, in more than four decades in the House, Moreno has worked hard to provide El Paso’s citizens with a quality public education system.

Moreno was key to the passage of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and has fought for teacher pay raises and teacher retirement.

Moreno has also brought billions of dollars in appropriations to the el Paso Community. The University of Texas-El Paso, Texas Tech Academic Health Science Center, and Franklin Mountain State Park are only a few institutions which have seen the benefit of Moreno’s tenure.

A member of the “Dirty Thirty” and the “Killer Ds,” Paul Moreno is a true Progressive. He is a true champion for the poor, the working poor, the elderly, students, teachers, minorities, the handicapped, and more.

Moreno is often called two things, “The Conscience of the Texas House” and “Kill Bill.” He’s called “Kill Bill” because, over the years, he has killed more anti-Progressive legislation than most any other members. He’s called the “Conscience of the Texas House” because he is that not-so-little voice who speaks up when that body goes down the wrong path and does things that aren’t in the best interest of ordinary Texans.

Last session, following a hate-filled personal privilege speech by Rep. Leo Berman (R-Tyler), Rep. Moreno took the floor for a point of personal privilege. Many thought it would be the moment he announced his retirement. Instead, he renewed his commitment to the people of El Paso and the people of Texas:

I heard that yesterday, my city, my beloved city of El Paso, was accused of having a bond issue of $240 million, or something like that, and that we were doing nothing but educating illegal aliens. When I heard that, that really hurt me. When you talk about the city of El Paso, educating illegal aliens, you’re talking about my children.

My family has been in El Paso for seven generations. Five of my brothers, and many of you have heard this, five of my brothers have served in the military. Five of my six brothers have served in the military. Two of my brothers-in-law, one of them was severely wounded in Europe. My other brother-in-law died as a result of agent orange, suffered in Vietnam. I have a cousin that was killed in Korea with me, died, from Denver. In El Paso, a very good friend of mine received the medal of honor. His name is Sandrocio Guillen, we call him El Mocho. And when they say that they’re teaching illegal aliens, that hurts. That hurts very, very, very, very much. We should have the respect and the dignity that we as humans should give other people.

We had a good government here when Pete Laney was speaker. When he was elected the first election, I voted against him. I voted against Pete Laney because I thought he wasn’t liberal enough, and I voted against him, and I think I’m the only one who’s ever voted against Pete Laney. But most of you members that were here, during the Pete Laney era remember the appropriations bill that we had. Pete Laney placed me in the appropriations committee and we were able to bring an appropriations bill to this house. I opened up the debate in favor of the appropriations bill, thanks to my good friend Representative Pitts. He asked me to open the debate for the approval of the appropriations bill. We passed that appropriations bill without one dissent. At that time I said, “Paul, we’re doing a good job.” This is Texas, this is finally America, this is finally what you’ve been looking for—then something happened.

Leadership changed, and please, please, Mr. Speaker, don’t take anything personal, but you have your deep political beliefs, and so does your group, and I noticed a lot of changes that happened. And when those changes happened, we started going down. Tonight I was determined to make a decision, and none of my friends changed my opinion. This country, this state, is in a worse position for Mexican Americans than it was when I first got elected. When I first got elected, there were eight of us, eight Mexican Americans. Yes, we knew—we knew our stand, we knew where we belonged. But there was respect. Now, the respect, in my opinion, has somewhat diminished. And in those days, the Mexican Americans were low in numbers, but we were still satisfied because we knew that there were very little of us and we were glad we were getting at least a little bit of it. Now things are changing.

If you have any doubt that Paul Moreno deserves re-election to the House, you should read his personal privilege speech.

Paul Moreno is a true progressive champion. He deserves our support, which is why he is endorsed by the Texas Progressive Alliance. Please join us in supporting Rep. Moreno by making your contribution to his campaign today, via the TPA’s Act Blue page for TexRoots.

KIRK WATSON: Are You A MOTO? If Not, You Should Be

[Note: State Sen. Kirk Watson (D-Austin) was kind enough to write a guest blog for the Texas Progressive Alliance as we continue to push our TexRoots 2008 Slate of Candidates. Texas Progressive Alliance Blogs are publishing this guest blog today. It appears below.]

A few months back, a certain progressive blogger took note of a piece I had published. This writer responded with an entry that was mostly complementary – I’d guess we agree about 90 percent of the time. But then, after hitting a point I thought was pretty inarguable, the writer called me a “MOTO.”

Most of you who read Texas’ great progressive blogs probably know what a “MOTO” is. I, on the other hand, had to turn to my 18-year-old son (and pop culture crutch) Preston, who steered me to something called urbandictionary.com. There, I finally learned the truth:

I am, it seems, a “Master Of The Obvious”.

It was kind of a frustrating revelation, partly because it’s true. But if I’ve learned anything at all in my year as a State Senator, it’s that what’s so obvious to me (and to acronym-wielding bloggers) seems downright foreign to so many others – particularly the Republican leadership in the Texas Capitol.

Here are just a few MOTO moments from the past few months:

•It’s wrong for a governor to use a 39 percent mandate to rig state agencies in ways that benefit corporate contributors, privatize public roads, and ignore the real health and educational needs of this state.

•It’s wrong for a lieutenant governor to wage a partisan campaign to ram through a voter screening bill that targets Hispanics and the elderly. It’s worse to force a very ill senator set up a sick bed outside the Senate Chamber simply to block such a terrible, discriminatory proposal.

•It’s wrong for a speaker of the House to stand before a body of democratically elected officials who gave him his office, and then declare he has absolute power to ignore them.

•It’s wrong for Supreme Court justices to stretch campaign finance laws, or to ignore law and precedent in rulings that protect political contributors, or to take advantage of a politicized criminal justice process.

•And it’s very wrong for a high court judge to slam shut the doors of justice as early as possible, even when it means sending a man to his death.

All pretty obvious, right? Well, not to the people who’ve run this state for all these years. And that’s where we all have work to do.

We are right. We are anxious to do great things for Texas, to restore opportunity, and to create reasons to hope for a better future.

But we can’t just know that. We can’t just talk to ourselves.

We can’t assume it’s obvious.

We must make it apparent to anyone who cares about this state and where it’s headed, and we must remind them of the most obvious statement of all: Texans cannot trust the Republican leadership.

I’m talking about the political bosses, bullies, ideologues and figure heads that control the agenda, bury the opposition, and block any bill that runs counter to their dogma.

I’m talking about the folks who are more interested in taking irresponsible pledges than in solving Texas’ challenges, who will deny the most verifiable fact if it doesn’t conform to their ideology, and who will embrace every budget trick before they level with Texans about what people are worth to them.

I’m talking about the select group that’s denied children health care at any cost, that’s allowed our colleges and universities to become overcrowded, underfunded and inadequate, that’s watched our highways deteriorate while forcing Texans to choose between crushing traffic and private toll roads, and that’s denied and deferred environmental problems, leaving our children to fix them.

Here’s what’s most obvious: only the Democratic Party will bring about the positive changes that Texans need and demand.

That means we have to do all we can this year — we must make it obvious — that the people of Texas must challenge the so-called absolute power of the Republican leadership. Once we make MOTOs out of everyone, Texas will elect strong Democrats in 2008.

The Swift Boating of Juan Garcia: Give To The Texas Trio Today

Gene Seaman is so desparate not to be the next Craddickat sent packing from Austin that he’s already swift boating Juan Garcia:

During an interview about the race for District 32 State Representative, Republican incumbent Gene Seaman tried to shoot down Democratic opponent Juan Garcia’s Naval flight record.

“He’s not a fighter pilot,” Seaman asserted. “He never flew jets, he flew P-3s. He is not a fighter pilot even though he takes his picture behind a jet.”

Garcia did not fly jets, his campaign staff agreed. But he did fly 30 armed missions in the Persian Gulf and served as a top aide to the deputy Commander in Chief of U.S. Naval Forces in Europe. He also served in Operation Allied Force in Kosovo and on the aircraft carrier USS Constellation in support of the enforcement of the no-fly zone in Iraq.

Gene Seaman is simply begging to be contradicted in starting this debate.

Read more

Support The Texas Trio: Gilbert, Garcia & Sklar

Today marks the launch of the Texas Progressive Alliance’s TexRoots Campaign.

The first three candidates selected by Texas bloggers are Shane Sklar (D-Edna) in CD 14; Hank Gilbert (D-Whitehouse), running for Agriculture Commissioner; and Juan Garcia (D-Corpus Christi), running in Texas House District 32.

Our goal is, through blogs, to raise $3,000 for these worthy candidates. You can contribute to Sklar, Garcia and Gilbert by clicking on the graphic at left or here.

Between now and Election Day, we plan to roll out other candidates as well with fund-raising goals. Future roll-outs will feature a similar format: a statewide, and a congressional candidate and state house candidate or a pair of state house/senate candidates, or some combination thereof.

This first roll-out features a trio of marquee candidates in important races.

Juan Garcia. [Website, Bio, Volunteer] Juan Garcia is running against entrenched Craddickat incumbent Gene Seaman (R-Corpus Christi). This is one of a hand-full of races that can be “flipped” from Republican to Democratic control this fall. While Seaman has a massive warchest on hand from previous election cycles, Garcia is actually leading the incumbent in fund-raising right now. To boot, he’s flipped a number of Seaman’s contributors and supporters who are tired of this district being in the hands of someone who is more concerned with staying in Tom Craddick’s good graces than serving the people. And, who could forget Seaman’s vacation to his home-away-from-home in Vail.

Here are some other good Garcia coverage: Why You Should Vote For Juan Garcia (South Texas Chisme), Where In The World Is Gene Seaman (CapitolAnnex), Juan Garcia vs. The Culture of Corruption (Truth Serum Blog), Gene Seaman Is Already Running Scared (The Red State), Juan Garcia Conference Call (CapitolAnnex).

Shane Sklar. [Website, Bio, Volunteer] At 30, Shane Sklar has already headed one of the state’s largest agriculture groups and made a name for himself in the agriculture community. Now, he’s seeking to unseat failed Libertarian Presidential Candidate turned Republican Congressman Ron Paul (R-Surfside) to give the people of Congressional District 14 effective representation. Paul’s main pet projects including voting against nearly every piece of legislation he has the opportunity to vote against—including aide for parts of Texas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina—and bemoaning the fact that the U.S. is no longer on the “gold standard.” Polling in the district earlier this year shows that voters are dissatisfied with Paul’s “Dr. No” attitude and his failure to support legislation that would benefit the district.

Here are some other links related to Shane Sklar: Guest Post at Off The Kuff, Interview with Shane Sklar (via Kuff, mp3), Sklar blasts Paul for voting against Relief (Baytown Sun), Captain Ron (In The Pink Texas), Interview with Shane Sklar (AustinNews.net), Bad Poll Numbers for Ron Paul (Kuff’s World).

Hank Gilbert. [Website, Bio, Volunteer] Remember Todd Staples (R-Palestine)? The State Senator who was one of the architects of DeLay’s redistricting scheme and is one of the Trans Texas Corridor’s best friends in the Legislature? He’s now running for Agriculture Commissioner, although no one can quite point to any major achievements he made for agricluture while in the Texas Senate. Hank Gilbert is a rancher and former high school ag teacher who actually wants to be agriculture commissioner, instead of simply use the post as a stepping-stone to higher office, like Leininger devotee Susan Combs. Hank’s fierce opposition to the Trans Texas Corridor and his common-sense goals for the Texas Department of Agriculture are far more suited to a state that boasts such an important agribusiness economy than those of his opponent.

Here are some links on Hank (or, in the case of the first link, against his opponent): Don’t Get Stapled, Hank Gilbert Or Corporate Interests–You Choose (Jobsanger), Hank Gilbert For Ag Commissioner (Burnt Orange Report), Hank Gilbert, 40/40 Project (Burnt Orange Report),  Hank Gilbert: Candidate for Ag Commissioner has Better Solution (The Open Road [note: this is an anti-toll road blog, not a progressive “D” blog, but I thought it added some variety to this list), Interview with Hank Gilbert (mp3, via Off The Kuff).

So…what are you waiting for? Click here to support these three great candidates! You can split your donation among all three candidates or make separate donations to each campaign.