(Arlene) WOHLGEMUTH
Posted on 09/28/2004 6:55:37 AM PDT by Dubya
The campaign for Congress came to President Bush's backyard Saturday night.
Finally, Chet Edwards and challenger Arlene Wohlgemuth started naming names.
Wohlgemuth said she is endorsed by radio evangelist James Dobson and by a women's activist group led by Beverly LaHaye, wife of Armageddon-Rapture novelist Tim of Left Behind fame.
She said it as if that's a good thing.
Edwards, meanwhile, said he's backed by Texas farmers. He also criticized Wohlgemuth for her support from the Club for Growth, which I always get confused with the Hair Club for Men.
Wohlgemuth, though, has one very important endorsement in the new District 17, which stretches from Granbury and her home in Burleson south nearly to Houston.
"I am proud," she told a Clifton debate audience Saturday night, "that I will be receiving the vote of President George W. Bush."
The campaign to represent Bush's McLennan County ranch and much of Central Texas has turned into a traveling carnival.
At one point last week, Edwards and Wohlgemuth debated twice in 24 hours, first in the afternoon sun in a Cleburne park and again the next day in a Hillsboro college auditorium.
The weeklong workout ended Saturday in Bosque County, where both candidates took their sharpest jabs yet in a campaign until now confined mostly to Waco and Bryan TV commercials.
This show goes before the cameras next. TV debates are tentatively planned Oct. 16 in Bryan and Oct. 19 in Waco.
Neither is booked yet for TV in this end of the district, which means we'll miss out on what might be the best political theater of this Texas election campaign.
So far, much of Edwards' campaign and the commercials have centered around CHIP, the federally funded, state-run medical insurance plan for children from working families above the welfare level.
Edwards says the stricter rules Wohlgemuth backed in the last Texas Legislature cut off medical coverage for 147,000 children in a year.
She says no, her bill only cut off a fraction of that -- working out to about 26,000 children.
She said that as if it's a good thing.
Meanwhile, Wohlgemuth's campaign has focused on revealing the unreported truth about Edwards, an unknown in North Texas but a familiar face in Texas politics going back to his days as an assistant to U.S. Rep. Olin "Tiger" Teague.
Edwards, research has revealed, is a Democrat.
Not as liberal a Democrat as Martin Frost. But not as conservative as Charlie Stenholm, the congressman from west of Fort Worth who is also getting ready for TV debates against Lubbock Republican Randy Neugebauer.
Edwards has the Texas Farm Bureau behind him but not the National Rifle Association, which backs Wohlgemuth. Both candidates oppose late-term abortion, but Wohlgemuth criticizes Edwards for saying that early-term abortion should be a question "between a woman and her doctor." Wohlgemuth opposes abortion except to save the mother's life.
In Clifton, an audience question forced Edwards to finally say the name that might hurt him most.
Asked how he'll vote in the presidential election, Edwards said he'll stick with his party and its candidate, John Kerry.
The groan was loud enough to hear across the Middle Bosque River at the Bush ranch.
Wohlgemuth had already weighted down Edwards with party baggage. She asked him whether he could support the House leader she often calls "Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco."
Wohlgemuth says that as if San Francisco is somewhere near Fallujah.
He said he'd back Pelosi over U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, "who said to send your sons and daughters to college somewhere else because A&M and Baylor are too liberal" -- paraphrasing a 2002 DeLay speech in a Pearland church.
"That's scary," Edwards said.
Wohlgemuth coolly responded that she is the candidate who would "support our president in the war on terror" and support the Bush tax cuts, some of which Edwards opposed.
And that is a good thing.
Bud Kennedy's Column Appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. (817) 390-7538 bud@budkennedy.com
How about a Texas ping.
Like that's a good thing..../s
They sure are.
(Arlene) WOHLGEMUTH
I missed the debate. I'd a 'been cheerin Arlene.
Sadly, I still think that Edwards will win this one. I’m seeing more and more ads for him, on both local stations and local cable, but the only time I see ones for Wohlgemuth is during the local news. There are more Edward’s yard signs in town than Bush, Wohlgemuth, and Kerry signs combined. They’re even at houses that I know are Republicans. Just too many people, mostly seniors, who think Edwards is a Zell Miller Democrat like they used to vote for. He is running as a pro-Bush, conservative Democrat while his voting record is anything but. Also, the local media in the entire district is whoring for him so bad it makes me sick.
Okay. I better hurry though, because I'm heading out the door in a minute.
District 17 race makes for great politics and comedy (TEXAS)
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!
Thanks Meek.
You bet. Headin' out now. See ya later. :^D
The race between Max Sandlin and Louis Gohmert is starting to get ugly. For the longest, Max did not say he was a dim. Now he is going negative against Gohmert. Finally, Gohmert is getting on TV. I have received some print ads from him - not from Sandlin.
On the other hand, he needs all those votes just to get to even 'cause of the nature of the district.
I think the yard signs speak more to who's campaign organization is more on the ball than who is winning. I see twice as many Frost signs as Sessions signs around my house, but I don't think that reflects who is winning.
Frost must have some concerns since he has resurrected Amber Hagerman's mother for another round of commercials. They must be updated since her mother has a new last name.
THIS IS A ABSOLUTE LIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chet Edwards has voted against the ban(ie. pro infantide) on partial-birth abortion EVERY time it has come up!!!!
More typical liberal cBS!!!!!!
She said it as if that's a good thing.
Is this writer from San Francisco thinking that attacking Christians will get more votes?
A Texas bump!!
Except that CHIP isn't available to poorly paid state employees.
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