Posted on 10/29/2002 5:07:35 AM PST by Theodore R.
Sanchez, Demo pals make rounds in SE Texas
BY TRICIA CORTEZ Times staff writer
BEAUMONT - It wasn't just a massive weather system that moved into the home of Spindletop Monday, where Texas oil first gushed in 1901.
A caravan, led by Tony Sanchez and his "Tony Express" a.k.a. the "Lower Rates Express," rolled into the Golden Triangle cities of Beaumont, Port Arthur and Orange in southeast Texas, where high school bands played and the Democratic faithful came out.
Amid pouring rain, two tour buses and a slew of Suburbans also made stops in Liberty, Clear Lake and Galveston.
In Port Arthur, traditionally known for its strong unions, a crowd gathered in the middle of Central Mall while thunderheads clamored above.
"Get on Down the Road," the crowd chanted, referring to a Sanchez ad featuring video from the Texas Department of Public Safety of opponent Gov. Rick Perry telling an officer who stopped them to "Let us get on down the road."
Jefferson County, where Port Arthur and Beaumont are located, is a leading county in early voting.
"We're pushing it hard. We have people walking and knocking," Mary Williams, a 20-year party activist, explained.
Ricardo Benitez and Terry Darling of the Carpenters Union, Local 502, agreed and said that income inequality is on the rise in Texas.
"There is a big division with the working class," Darling said. "You know, with the haves and have-nots."
Up on stage, Sanchez talked about education and insurance issues affecting working class families.
During the stops, he told the crowds, which were a mixture of African-Americans, union workers, the elderly, Anglos and Hispanics that "this is an historic opportunity to elect people who look like Texas.
"I'm running for governor because I want every child to be treated equally, and right now their government is leaving them behind," Sanchez told a group of nearly 200 Galveston Democrats.
He pointed to recent statistics that show 88 percent of all Texas students do not get college degrees and that Texas has the third highest dropout rate in the nation.
"Yet our teachers are still forced to teach to the test," Sanchez said to a quiet audience.
Later in his stump speech, he talked about insurance issues and joked that on Nov. 6, one day after Election Day, he was going to meet with Big Insurance and give them two options.
"You either treat the people of Texas with respect and rollback those rates, or you're going to see my friend Kirk Watson, the next attorney general of Texas," Sanchez said as the crowd cheered.
At the Orange County Courthouse, students from the Little Cypress-Mauriceville high school band wore green raincoats and played "This Is My Country."
LC-M Superintendent Pauline Hargrove said she had the high school band play at the event so that "they could show their appreciation and see the people who want to serve them and make a difference in their lives."
"We want them to learn the importance of being involved and to recognize the importance of making wise decisions and voting for people who have the same values and principles," Hargrove added.
In Beaumont, students from Ozen High School greeted the candidates with "Boogie Wonderland" and cheered on Sanchez and Ron Kirk for U.S. Senate.
Keisha Guidry and Whitney Davis, two high school flute player, said they were "excited" to perform at the event.
"It's a good way we can understand more about the community, and it makes you want to get out and vote," Guidry said.
During the stops, Sanchez spoke about restoring dignity to the office of the governor.
Attorney General candidate Kirk Watson said "it's time to have an attorney general who represented average homebuyers."
His opponent, Greg Abbott, works for a law firm that "brags of representing Big Insurance," Watson said.
John Sharp, candidate for lieutenant governor, talked about the need to stop discriminating against working class families.
He focused on the need to provide financial help to the children of working-class and middle-class families, who often don't qualify for federal financial aid.
Sharp then jabbed at his opponent David Dewhurst, who was part of the Redistricting Committee, "that destroyed your political power during redistricting," he told the Port Arthur crowd that shouted in agreement.
The aftermath of the Republican-led 2001 Texas redistricting effort left heavily Democratic southeast Texas without local representation, Sharp said.
Ron Kirk, candidate for U.S. Senate, was received with a standing ovation in Liberty and rowdy cheers in Beaumont and Clear Lake.
"Imagine, we're gonna have a U.S. Senate without Phil Gramm, Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond," Kirk told an audience that laughed and gestured in approval.
Back on the road amid the pouring rain, the Democratic candidates traded political stories, embellished Texas-style, and told how they would finish out the last week of campaigning.
Candidates on the bus included Sanchez, Kirk, Sharp, Watson, David Bernsen of Beaumont (Land Commissioner), Tom Ramsay of Mt. Pleasant (Agriculture Commissioner), Jim Parsons and Linda Yanez (Texas Supreme Court), and other regional candidates such as Nick Lampson (U.S. Rep.), Joe Deshotel (state Rep.) and Mike Smith (state Sen.).
(Staff writer Tricia Cortez can be reached at 728-2568 or tricia@lmtonline.com.)
Yes, there will be no Phil, Jesse, and Strom after January 3, 2003, but will ther be a liberal Kirk to cancel out most of Kay Bailey Hutchison's votes? Kirk remains self-confident despite polls showing him trailing John Cornyn. One thing for sure, the Democrats are smart to concentrate on "get-out-the-vote" in their strongholds, such as Beaumont and the SE corner of the state near LA. By contrast, the Republicans do not seem to be maximizing their strongholds as well as the more determined Democrats seem to be. Another irony: all this campaign for the Democrats seems increasingly to be paid with Tony Sanchez's money.
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