by Linda Curtis
June 1, 2006
I attended Wednesday's press conference and stood by Carole Keeton Strayhorn, independent gubernatorial candidate & Texas Comptroller calling upon Gov. Perry to open the development contract he signed over a year ago with CINTRA, a Spanish toll road consortium, to build the massive $187 billion Trans-Texas Corridor. A member of the press asked her what she would say if someone accused her of merely "scoring political points" by raising this issue.
First, this is not a football game, despite Rick Perry's past cheer leading days. This is a gubernatorial campaign. Strayhorn is running as an independent because no state partisan politicians wanted to hear what the people had to say on this and other issues. Meanwhile, people are having their land taken for a contract nobody's seen. If speaking out against this is scoring points, then I for one want Carole Strayhorn to score as many points as she can. We don't need silly little 30 second sound bites debating the nothing.
At the press conference were several local elected officials from small towns that are being mowed down by Gov. Perry and Rick Williamson, his appointed Transportation Commission chairman. In response to 100 elected officials in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex asking that the Corridor build a loop around the traffic-jammed city. Williamson actually said, "When you bring the private sector in, you don't tell them where to build the roads." This is the kind of 'do-nothing drugstore cowboy' (as Carole so aptly calls it) politics that currently rules Texas. We've got to change it and we now have a real chance to do that!
Strayhorn has helped bring forth an issue in this campaign, which not only allows the little town mayors and big city officials to have a voice of reason, she is giving voice to the "nobody" farmers and ranchers, teachers and small business folks, and thousands more who are organizing ourselves for an up-from-the-bottom revolt. They won't see us until they see the "whites of our eyes" in November. They don't see us, because we're a bunch of REAL nobodies -- we're independent! I say, score all the points you want on behalf of the "little guy", Carole, and you go girl!
Linda Curtis is the leading spokesperson, analyst and tactician for the Texas independent political movement. An impassioned advocate for independent voters and a seasoned organizer, Curtis has fought against the corrupting effects of partisanship for over 25 years. In 2001 she founded Independent Texans which seeks political recognition for the state's approximate 4.2 million independent voters. She can be reached at Phone: (512) 454-7200 E-Mail: info@indytexans.org
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