VALLEY GOP STALWART WARNS STATE LEADERS ABOUT EFFECTS OF CUTS (TEXAS)

The Quorum Report ^ | June 7, 2004 | Harvey Kronberg

[SwinneySwitch]

Treviño still confident Republicans can attract Hispanic voters.

If the Republican Party of Texas is going to seriously dent the traditional dominance of Democrats in the Rio Grande Valley, it needs more supporters like Isabel Treviño.

Treviño, an attorney from Rio Grande City, chairs the Starr County Republican Party and was one of only two GOP members from her county at the state convention. The other was her daughter Sarah.

Treviño said the GOP is poised to make significant inroads in the Valley because it shares the same core values as Hispanics. She said those were the importance of religion, the sanctity of life, personal accountability and a strong military.

She said what the party should avoid, however, is cutting back vital health care programs such as the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and doing away with the Robin Hood equalized funding system in public education.

The rest of the story, subscribers only

[SwinneySwitch]

Sat next to Isabel and her daughter Sarah in San Antonio. Both are first class ladies; from a strong military family.

[bayourod]

When I was involved with the party, all the Hispanics did was fight among themselves. We had two official auxiliaries, Mexican-American Republicans of Texas, and The Hispanic Assembly of Texas. Both groups combined couldn't deliver more than two votes.

[Cyphas]

I fail to see how selling out our principles for smaller government and less spending in order to garner a percentage of the hispanic vote in south texas is going to help us as a party.

[jf55510]

I would take anything that Harvey Kromberg says with a grain of salt because he is a liberal through and through. You should have heard him during the special sessions on TV down in Austin.

[MeekOneGOP]

Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Texas ping list!. . .don't be shy.
No, you don't HAVE to be a Texan to get on this list!

[Dubya]

Thanks for the ping.

[sinkspur]

and doing away with the Robin Hood equalized funding system in public education.

Well, they may be classy ladies, but the Robin Hood system does nothing but foster class warfare.

It's simply not working, and will be replaced, Hispanics or no Hispanics, sooner or later.

[Texas Federalist]

Sure, let's sell out our principles to buy some minority votes. It seems to have worked so well for President Bush and the national Republican party. (sarcasm)

[esarlls3]

Nice to meet you in SA.

The best thing we can do to increase hispanic participation in the Republican party is to elect two hispanic ladies with the courage to face tough Democrat opponents:

• Becky Armendarez Klein, who is facing Lloyd Doggett in CD25. (Austin to the valley, including Travis (part), Caldwell, Gonzales, Karnes, Live Oak, Duval, Jim Hogg, Starr, and Hidalgo (part) counties.) This district is 68% hispanic, 22% white, 8% black. One key is that it only had 37% turnout in 2002. If Becky can get her message out, this is very winnable. What she needs is cash to fund media across this very large district.
• Arlette Molina, who is facing Al Green in CD9. (SW Houston to the Medical Center, including parts of SW Harris and NW Fort Bend counties.) This district is more evenly split: 36% black, 31% hispanic, 21% white, 12% asian. The white vote here is strongly Republican so turnout of hispanics is key. This is a poor district in an expensive media market. Again, cash will be the key for Arlette to get her message out.

I have had extended discussions with both of these candidates and they deserve all the support we can give to them. They are also both leaning for support of the FairTax but have not made it a major issue in their campaigns yet. I'm working on educating them on how this issue could make a big difference in their races.

Arlette, in particular, as far as I can tell, is getting little assistance from the state or county party.

[af_vet_rr]

I fail to see how selling out our principles for smaller government and less spending in order to garner a percentage of the hispanic vote in south texas is going to help us as a party.

We've already sold out at the national level, why not make a clean sweep of it and do it at the local?

She brings up two programs that she feels are near and dear to attracting more voters. The problem is, those two programs plus the next person's two pet programs plus the next person's two pet programs add up to a helluva lot of pet programs and that has helped put us in the situation we are in. She is in luck though, both at the national and state level, the GOP hasn't shown that much of an interest in any meaningful government reduction.

[FITZ]

She said what the party should avoid, however, is cutting back vital health care programs such as the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and doing away with the Robin Hood equalized funding system in public education.

There's the catch --- Communistic programs must be supported by Republicans in exchange for votes. Cuts in spending are absolutely needed and the "hispanics" are against that. Not the taxpaying hispanics --- but the hundreds of thousands moving over from Mexico to get the handouts.

[SwinneySwitch]

Good meeting you too!

Live Oak County is having a fundraiser for Becky Armendariz-Klein on July 31st. It will be a dinner event on a ranch with live music. (We're thinking of charging between $25 and $40 per person.) If anyone is interested in coming, I'll update you as things develop. Becky's is one of 6 congressional races targeted nationally.

[FITZ]

personal accountability

She certainly contradicts herself by claiming they believe in "personal accountability" and yet demand free health care and other government handouts.

[Admin Moderator]

We can't edit posts.

[SwinneySwitch]

Oops! U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert and U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay have identified Becky's race as one of six key congressional battles in Texas.

[SwinneySwitch]

Oops! U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert and U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay have identified Becky's race as one of six key congressional battles in Texas.

[Redbob]

So Isabel thinks one of our "core values" involves handouts?

She wasn't really paing attention to the Platform we were handed down there, was she?

If it takes more government handouts to win over the "hispanic vote," we may just be a long long time getting them to come around...