Posted on 11/01/2006 8:29:56 PM PST by Snickering Hound
Mayor Bill White today ordered a halt to a privately funded drive to offer flu vaccinations at early voting sites in Hispanic and black neighborhoods, amid conservative criticism that the effort would boost Democratic votes.
Since Monday, the city had been offering the free vaccinations at four polling places around Houston under a national grant program, used in more than 20 other cities.
White defended the program at a news conference today, saying public health was the city's only motive in launching the initiative. Still, he said he decided this morning to abandon the plan after today to avoid perception that it could be viewed as an effort to draw certain voters to the polls. White is a former chairman of the state Democratic Party.
"There was no political motive whatsoever to do it," he said. "I don't want to have to spend more money in defending a baseless lawsuit than we're giving away in vaccine — or allow anybody to question the integrity of the political process."
Critics of the program have been discussing the issue on conservative Web blogs and talk radio.
At an afternoon news conference that had been scheduled before White's announcement, county Republican Chairman Jared Woodfill accused White of deliberately selecting early voting sites in Democratic strongholds in an attempt to gin up votes favorable to city propositions on Tuesday's general election ballot.
``I think the program was completely motivated by a plan to turn out Democratic voters,'' said Woodfill, citing White's service as party chair and as a deputy energy secretary under former President Clinton.
He said the vote-vaccination plan violated a portion of the Texas Election Code that prohibits offering anything of value in exchange for votes.
Woodfill insisted the county GOP still would have protested if the sites selected had been in Republican strongholds. ``It still would illegal,'' he said.
Woodfill said the party is pledging $1,000 to provide free vaccinations for all takers beginning the day after the election, and called on the city and the Harris County Democratic Party to match those funds.
Stephen Williams, director of the city's Health and Human Services Department, which has touted the program in recent days, said he hopes to get permission to use the vaccine in other locations.
The terms of the grant, he and White said, required a tie to polling places in medically underserved areas where populations are less likely to get a vaccination.
The city and Amerigroup Foundation got the 3,000 doses with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a philanthropic group that devotes funding to health care.
The Amerigroup Foundation, according to its Web site, is the philanthropic arm of the Amerigroup Corp., a managed health-care company with a focus on providing services to low-income communities.
If he wanted to avoid the perception of trying to buy votes with flu shots, all he had to do was to wait until the 8th to give the free shots. Unless the perception was correct.
Very sneaky. It amazes me at the extent they will go to get dem votes.
Even better start giving free flu shots on November 8'th at voting locations.
The Democratic strategy:
1. Vote enhancement for Democratic votes
2. Voice suppression for Republican votes
it's just that simple
I don't think I understand. Houston is a very large parasite nest ("city") and therefore most voters who go to the polls there would typically be parasites ("Democrats") anyway.... So what's the big deal?
Oh wait.... This could effect statewide races. Okay.
Patrick's show is simulcast on the two radio stations he owns; one in the Houston area (KSEV AM 700) and the other in Dallas (KVCE AM 1160). The signal of the combined stations can be heard from the Texas/Oklahoma border all the way south to Corpus Christi, TX.
Dan Patrick really slammed Mayor White hard on this issue yesterday, and together with pressure applied from Republican Chairman Jared Woodfill they obviously convinced Mayor White that he wouldn't be able to keep it under the radar. Don't you just love the situational ethics of liberal Democrats?
Prostitutes.
Instead of free flu shots, he should just be handing out $100 bills and several absentee ballots.
snark
What would have been interesting is if the Republicans had bussed in hundreds of nursing home patients or elementary school kids from another precinct and demanded they get the shots.
If the purpose of the program was simply to give free shots to the needy, how could they refuse? But if they argue that only eligible voters of that precinct can get the shots, you have proof of the *real* purpose of the program - to buy votes.
Wow...a misuse of government funds for political purposes.
White should be facing charges. Not just on the funding issue...but also under Title 39. In the state of Texas...its illegal to misuse ones office.
ping
It's not just preception. He realized it was too transparently obvious and people saw through it in a heartbeat.
Judge Orders Vietnamese Vote Bribery Ads and Coupon Distribution Stopped [State Rep. Race in TX]
The Dems are relentless in their election lawbreaking this year.
If we can stop Voter Fraud (VOTER ID,VOTER ID VOTER ID!), Democrats simply will no longer win elections, and MILLIONS will be free to have thier votes COUNTED for the first time in DECADES.....
There's a bar in Houston offering a free drink if you vote. I think there's a Kinky spin to it though.
Mayor White should be prosecuted....or should resign. I know he would protest any Republican plan to give away flu shots at republican precinct polling places.....
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