Posted on 08/16/2005 6:29:30 PM PDT by The_Victor
Immigrants, legal or otherwise, come to Texas to "put a roof over their heads" and Texas has a responsibility to provide them education and health care once they are here, Republican gubernatorial candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn told a conservative GOP group today.
In a week when the governors of Arizona and New Mexico declared states of emergency for counties along their border with Mexico, citing the "ravages and terror" caused by illegal immigration, Strayhorn took a conciliatory tone on the same issue. But she also said the state needs help from the federal government.
"I sympathize with those coming over who want to put a roof over their heads," Strayhorn told the Greater Houston Pachyderm Club. "We can't turn them away from the hospital steps."
Strayhorn, the state comptroller who is challenging incumbent Gov. Rick Perry in the March 2006 primary, made her remarks in response to questions from club members who wanted to know if she would be willing to take similar steps as those taken by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano.
"We have to protect our borders from terrorists," Strayhorn said, noting that federal law requires states to provide education and health care to immigrants.
A spokesman for Perry agreed.
"The governor has and will continue to remind the federal government that border security is a federal issue, not a state issue," spokesman Robert Black said. "The state will do what it can and help in any way, but this is a federal issue."
Strayhorn, in taking a welcoming tone to immigrants from Mexico, is trying to find voters outside the traditional Republican primary-voting base, which is made up of conservative voters, said Bob Stein, political scientist at Rice University.
"There's a reasonable policy position on (illegal immigration), but it doesn't overlap with the passion" of GOP primary voters, Stein said.
Stein also theorized that Strayhorn, in search for campaign dollars, is unwilling to take a close-the-border stance and alienate large homebuilders and highway construction companies who use immigrant labor and contribute heavily in Republican politics.
The GOP challenger, whose prepared remarks excoriated Perry again for what she called a lack of leadership for the Legislature's failure to pass a school funding bill, pledged to make education the focus of her administration.
But Black noted that Strayhorn said she would issue a school finance plan last year.
"It's time for her to unveil her secret plan," he said.
Asked if she would "at least" do away with bilingual education, Strayhorn, a former school teacher and school board member, said that while total immersion in English is effective, "these kids go home to parents who speak Spanish."
"I can't make a blanket statement that bilingual education is bad," she said, adding that she favors school-based community programs that teach the whole
Neither will happen, so why waste brain cells discussing them?
There is a solution, but our govt won't do it, because it would work.
You bet. She is a Texas G.W. Bush Republican so y'all leave her alone!
I'm suprised the San Jacinto Monument didn't just come crashing to the ground!
That one cracks me up.
Like an Ostrich, Ms. Strayhorn has her head in a deep black hole! Strayhorn should first apprentice in Nuevo Laredo with El Presidente Vincente Fox. If they survive, then, and only then, will they both fully understand what's going on.
Loyal American conservatives, at least the ones I know about, have given up on the GOP because it no longer has an agenda that is even remotely conservative. For the first time, I am hearing people say "no more voting for the least worst".
Could it be possible this article is completely wrong? Will Ms Strayhorn release a statement denying these statements with a clear explanation? I have first hand info that this may actually occur...
Carole Keeton Strayhorn (formerly McClellan, formerly Rylander) is the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts since 1998 (re-elected 2002). Strayhorn switched affiliation to the Republican Party in 1985. She is currently running to be Governor of Texas.
Strayhorn is the daughter of the late Page Keeton, former Dean of the University of Texas Law School. She is the mother of White House Press Secretary and Plame affair grand jury witness Scott McClellan (who was Strayhorn's campaign manager three times), and Mark McClellan, who is currently director of Medicare for the Bush Administration and who previously served as Food and Drug Administration Commissioner. Her son Brad McClellan is a former Assistant Attorney General for Texas, where he headed the state's workers' compensation section and is now the manager for his mother's gubernatorial campaign.
As Carole Keeton McClellan, she was the first female mayor (1977-1983) and school board president of Austin, Texas. As Carole Keeton Rylander, she was the first female elected to the Texas Railroad Commission.
She has publicly feuded with current Texas governor Rick Perry over issues such as school finance reform and is running for Governor of Texas during the next election against Rick Perry.
She is currently married to jewelry designer and construction businessman Ed Strayhorn.
She's a RINO who will do or say anything to get and maintain power.
"Immigrants, legal or otherwise, come to Texas to "put a roof over their heads"
Well, that's easy for her to say. It isn't her money!
So, this rules her out as far as getting my vote. Of course she wasn't going to get it even before she said this. Time for a little ditty now.
bttt
BTTT
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