Political And Other Miscellany From A Stout Democrat In Dallas Texas.
"Politics is the only game for adults." --from Robert A. Heinlein's Double Star
As of the most recent filing of the candidates' campaign finance reports, one opponent, Mr. Ames, has accepted funds from a special interest, third party. Well over half of the campaign contributions accepted by him come from one vendor, and its staff, who contracts with the County to collect the delinquent taxes.
Who contributes to a campaign is of public interest. In an online questionnaire, the Dallas Morning News asked candidates to list their top three contributors. Mr. Ames failed to list his top two contributors, from the vendor, who gave thousands of dollars of 'in kind' contribution to his campaign. Why not?
"It is unfortunate that a candidate would fail to respond accurately to the newspaper's questionnaire on such a sensitive topic," stated Diana Lackey. "For elected officials, or a government office, it is essential that there not be even the appearance of a conflict of interest. I would not accept campaign funds from a vendor dealing directly with the Tax Office. As your Assessor-Collector, I would insure that there were departmental policies in place to prevent the acceptance of gifts. This is similar to the conflict of interest policies I previously established as a county Assistant Assessor managing a department of over 240 employees. I wanted an office above reproach."
"David Jordan is running for Judge of Criminal District Court No. 3. He has 19 years of criminal experience, a former prosecutor, Dallas and Ellis Counties, and a former Drug Special Prosecutor. He has been self-employed for the last 16 ½ years. He has a strong work ethic and will make this a stellar Court. Provide equal treatment to all attorneys. Have a fair and equitable system of appointing attorneys. Provide a system of determining if Defendants, really, qualify for appointed attorneys. Provide, victims with access and complete information. Sit on the bench full time, disposing of cases in a rapid, but fair pace for victims, witnesses, police, and the defendant’s. (The longer a case takes to go to trial the harder the case is to prove or defend.) To not have Jurors on waiting on benches, outside the Court, wandering what’s taking so long. To provide stiffer penalties for those who commit serious crimes. Provide tougher conditions and stronger supervision for Defendants on probation to reduce recidivism. Provide speedy trials, which will provide for swift justice. Provide a jury- and victim-friendly court, reimbursement and protection for victims and citizens, and reduce our tax obligations to Dallas County." His web site is www.jordan4judge.com.
(Please Note: The DCDP and its email Roundup do not make endorsements. Profile space there [and here] is available to candidates with contested races in the Dallas County Democratic Primary. Send me a picture and just 200 words (not including a web site link). Count them closely, because space is limited. For a list of all the candidates in the primary, see this page.)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.If you have any doubt that Paul Moreno deserves re-election to the House, you should read his personal privilege speech.
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.
I was Dallas County Democratic Party Chair from May 1999 through April 2002. From July 2013 to January 2014 I served as interim Executive Director.
