wow

being a neil young fan since before i could walk, i had to post this…. you MUST listen to this album. click the affiliate link on the top of this blog.

blog hiatus and state convention planning

i am going to be taking an extended blogging hiatus effective immediately. i need the time off, as real life is taking precedence over blogging. i’m planning an event for the democratic state convention which is going to eat up all my time over the next month.

you can read more about the upcoming bloggers caucus at texaskos or BOR.

i hope to see you there!

welcome to the tex-o-sphere

texas kos has launched – go say “howdy!”

we don’t need no stinkin’ teachers…

funny, i thought the texas lege was mandated to fix the school funding issue this time around. why then, am i now hearing this (hat tip to matt & drive democracy):

Highland Park Windfall Proposal Ends School Funding

A procedural rule will be introduced tomorrow in the House as the first frontal assault on teachers, schools, and school districts. The rule will dictate the procedure of the house and will regulate amendments, costs, and most importantly the required focus of the legislation.

The Texas Supreme Court recently ruled that the current property tax is an unconstitutional statewide property tax. Now, Austin is in a frenzy trying to fix the problem and “get out of dodge.”

If legislators vote for the proposed rule tomorrow, they will be voting for restricting House Bill 1 (The Highland Park Windfall Proposal) to only taxation issues and will not address school funding.

This will mandate that no amendment can be offered to increase teacher pay, no new textbooks, no funding for school facilities, no teacher health insurance, and no extra funding for transportation during these time of extraordinary gas prices.

It is time to hold the legislature accountable to teachers and students. It is time for our elected officials to focus their attention on school funding and not just creating huge windfalls for Highland Park, Alamo Heights, or Bellaire while forgetting Edgewood, Houston, Dallas, or the thousands of other school districts.

By voting for a rule tomorrow, they are saying no to education for potentially the next decade!

this is a craddick push, but woolley will most likely introduce the measure.

more on this issue via in the pink texas, eye on williamson, and common sense blog.

yea, “screw the teachers” sure sounds like a realllllllly smart re-election campaign for the GOP to run on in november. hey, it worked for grusendorf!!! oh wait…

from a strictly strategic viewpoint, i hope the GOP introduces this rule. if they do, every single democratic candidate should hammer it ad nauseum until november.

but then again, i’m not a heartless ass. even though i am childless and plan on staying that way, i fully support funding for new textbooks, infrastructure upgrades, and teacher pay raises and benefits. i have no problem paying property taxes to pay for these things.

but oh boy, if the GOP does this… bring it on in november.

TXU sucks

our power is out AGAIN. third time in less than a week, fourth time in three weeks.

LOVELY.

just called TXU and here is the official complaints address and fax number for those who may be currently experiencing an outage:

fax: 800 232 9488

correspondence dept.
po box 662888
dallas tx 75266

please people, if you’re having an outage, take the time to file a complaint. this is RIDICULOUS.

new sigur ros video

…rocks!! that’s the song i want playing when i leave this mortal coil (thx paul for finding it). i mean that.

dream of californication..

so on the way home i was wondering why all the traffic lights on the northside of town were out. traffic was snarled, store signs were off… i’m thinking, “great, we had another power outage.” last week after the storms rolled through, our power went out for about an hour. this is becoming a regular occurrence. the box two houses down blows and we’re out for hours (or in one particularly eggregious case last year, 4 days in august). well, as most d/fw residents know by now, it was no random outage. rather it was a rolling blackout“

A scorching April day strained the Texas electricity grid Monday afternoon, forcing rolling blackouts through much of Dallas-Fort Worth and elsewhere as surprised electricity companies struggled to meet the sudden demand for air conditioning.

At 4:53 p.m., the temperature at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport hit 101 degrees, smashing the previous record high of 94 in 1913 and 1925, according to the National Weather Service in Fort Worth. The normal high temperature for this time of year is 76.

“We weren’t even close,” forecaster Dave Martin said.

About 250,000 North Texas households went dark in 15-minute increments as power outages rolled through thelate afternoon. TXU Electric Delivery first cut service to industrial users that had given permission through their “interruptable” contracts and then moved to the rolling blackouts and emergency conservation measures as a last resort.

the excuses given by ERCOT were multiple. the claimed that nobody anticipated the demand for yesterday, the claimed that some plants were offline for maintenance, and they claimed that three other power plants went “offline unexpectedly”.

sean-paul has already called bullshit on the “planned maintenance” excuse, noting that this was the same line that was fed to californians a few years ago before the energy trading gaming scheme by enron and others was fully exposed. i call bullshit on the weather excuse as well. does nobody at ERCOT have a television? the forecast was warning us of record-breaking heat for days. SURELY someone at ERCOT could have onlined a few of those plants that were supposedly down for maintenance during this early heat wave. and what about those three plants that “unexpectedly went offline” yesterday? are they back up? all i know is this. ERCOT actually has a real time stats engine online, and we have been in the negative ALL DAY. right now we are -365 megawatts. that doesn’t sound like much, sure, but when you realise that 1 megawatt can power between 800-1000 homes, the deficit becomes quite clear.

i was saying to some friends earlier today that this is not the last time we’ll experience rolling blackouts. i would not be suprised in the least to see them become a regular occurrence this summer. after all, deregulation of our markets is a giant scam. we’ve seen what it can do to california, especially after the “grama millie” tapes became public. california was gamed, robbed, raped, and pilliaged. and i would not be suprised to see the same thing going on in texas.

let’s review, shall we?

Dereg, Texas-style
Texas began moving toward deregulation in 1995, when the state opened its wholesale power market to competition. The Legislature expanded the deregulatory process further in 1999 with Senate Bill 7, legislation that deregulates retail electricity markets for customers served by private, investor-owned utilities. Texas’ 77 electric cooperatives and 73 city-owned utilities will not be a part of the deregulated retail market unless they opt to join.

S.B. 7 calls for private utilities competing in Texas to “unbundle” into power generating companies, transmission and distribution entities, and new companies called retail electric providers (REPs), which will buy power from generating facilities and sell it to end users.

Texas’ Public Utility Commission (PUC) will continue to regulate transmission and distribution and will license REPs. The retail market will be overseen by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), a private, nonprofit organization that manages the energy grid that handles 85 percent of the state’s power. Certain areas of the state, including El Paso and portions of East Texas and the Panhandle, do not fall under ERCOT’s authority and will not participate in deregulation.

Texas followed the lead of other states by building in guaranteed customer savings. Beginning in January 2002, existing investor-owned utilities must offer residences and small commercial customers rates representing a savings of at least 6 percent over their January 1999 price. This “price to beat” will remain in effect until January 2007. It is designed to benefit customers who choose not to switch providers and to represent a built-in challenge to REPs wishing to lure customers away from their traditional utilities.

Due to this benchmark price, as well as lower natural gas costs for generators, many Texans are guaranteed to see lower utility bills over the next year. A 2001 report by the Energy Institute at the University of Houston’s C.T. Bauer College of Business estimated that deregulation will save Texas households an average of $78 each in 2002. And Representative Steven Wolens, a sponsor of S.B. 7, says that the benefits should extend beyond savings.

“As the competitive market matures in the next few years, we should see the development of new technologies and new services, similar to the explosion of retail communications products and services following the deregulation of phone service,” Wolens says.

these were the claims made my the state of texas and deregulation proponents. in addition, they said our energy supply would be more reliable because we produce more power than we use, our deregulation system would prevent “gaming’, and they gauranteed that we’d have lower bills. after yesterday, i sincerely doubt that ERCOT can legitimately claim that texas produces more power than it uses. in addition, what about those lower bills? that surely hasn’t happened. back in 2001, people noticed a spike in their bills:

Texas, staring into the same energy abyss that swallowed California, struggled to find its way yesterday as wholesale electricity prices spiked sharply higher.

In the past week, prices have swung wildly as the Lone Star State test- drives deregulation measures set to be introduced on a broader scale in January. [...]

Texas, staring into the same energy abyss that swallowed California, struggled to find its way yesterday as wholesale electricity prices spiked sharply higher.

In the past week, prices have swung wildly as the Lone Star State test- drives deregulation measures set to be introduced on a broader scale in January.

now that was back in 2001. shit, even the freepers noticed the more recent spikes. this is an article from their message board which was published last month:

Deregulation +10 Years: Texas Electricity Rates Are Up, Not Down
Fort Worth Star Telegram ^ | 2006.03.20 | R.A. Dyer

Posted on 03/20/2006 3:00:56 PM PST by B-Chan

AUSTIN – Under electricity deregulation, Texans have paid some of the highest rates in the nation — a reversal of at least a decade of relatively cheap electricity under the state’s old regulated system.

That’s the conclusion of a national utility expert, who also reports that those in deregulated states typically have had larger rate increases than customers in states still under regulation. Separate academic reports likewise show, after making adjustments for inflation and other factors, that electricity prices in Texas have gone up since 1996, while those in regulated states have gone down; and that in general terms, electricity prices in the United States have not fallen under competition.

“Deregulation isn’t working in the way that most people had hoped,” said Kenneth Rose, a senior fellow at Michigan State University who did the study for Virginia regulators. “Evidence that we’re gathering — at least as we had originally thought it would work — is not bearing out from the customer perspective.”

The studies are made possible because some states have opted to end regulation while others have maintained it. In effect, this mix of markets has allowed experts to make head-to-head comparisons that help answer a basic question: Is deregulation saving money for consumers?

And the growing academic consensus, said Rose, is no.

For his report, Rose took nationwide utility data from the U.S. Energy Department and calculated pricing trends for different states. His analysis shows that from 1990 through 2000, Texans paid less than the national average for electricity.

Then in 2001, as the Public Utility Commission began allowing utilities to keep excess earnings in preparation for deregulation, Texans paid roughly $89 per month for electricity. That was about 3.2 percent higher than the national average of $86.20.

In 2002, the first year of deregulation in Texas, rates dipped below the national average — as a 6 percent rate cut was mandated that year by the Texas Legislature.

In 2004, the typical Texas residential customer paid an average of $96.00 per month, compared with the national average of $89.40.

The available data for Rose’s analysis go only through 2004, although the he said initial information from 2005 indicates that the pricing gap between regulated and unregulated areas continues.

That would fall in line with another recent review conducted by the Office of Public Utility Counsel — a separate agency from the PUC — that indicates that Texans, on average, paid the 11th highest rates in the nation in 2005.

our local carrier, TXU, asked for and received permission for a 25% rate hike last october. d/fw consumers were shocked at their january bills. and they’re not the only ones. statewide consumers are seeing massive increases in their bills. so i call BULLSHIT on the whole “deregulation will save you money” argument.

in addition, the excuse offered for the rate hikes was that the price of natural gas had risen. funny, because the original proponents of deregulation had this to say in response to people who claimed prices would rise:

Texas: not California
Proponents say, however, that Texas’ deregulation program has advantages that should prevent any repetition of the California crisis. For one thing, Texas imports less than 1 percent of its power from out of state, compared with 25 percent for California.

“California also relies on water and wind, two intermittent resources, for more than 20 percent of its generation needs,” says Wolens.

Texas, by contrast, draws its power from a variety of sources, leaving it much less vulnerable to uncontrollable factors such as the Pacific Northwest drought.

According to Kathleen Magruder, vice-president of Government Affairs for The New Power Company, an REP already serving more than 80,000 Texas customers.

“Texas is blessed in that it sits on top of a lot of natural gas, the preferred fuel for generating electricity,” Magruder says.

oops.

and the article from the Texas Government also states that “45 power plants have been built in Texas since 1995. Another 17 are under construction and 32 are in the planning stages.” fourty-five new plants online and ERCOT still can’t produce enough electricity to avoid rolling blackouts??? my ass!

now to the gaming issue. ever since the idea of deregulation was floated here, the proponents have sworn up and down that texas’s system won’t be vulnerable to gaming. oh really? why then – in 2002, long before the latest massive rate hikes – did the PUC fine ENRON $7 Million for “gaming” the texas system right around the time when heads rolled at ERCOT?

Begging this question last week are the announcements that:

* The chair and vice chair of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) – which operates Texas’ deregulated power grid – hastily resigned; and
* Texas’ leading new power marketer, Enron spin-off New Power Co., fled the state and went bankrupt.

New Power, which had about one-third of the 255,000 brave Texans who switched power suppliers, is pulling the plug on 80,000 customers. Ironically, these consumers will be switched to TXU and Reliant Energy – the pillars of the state’s electric monopoly days.

Business control
The sudden decapitation of ERCOT’s Board also is significant. Amid allegations that power companies gouged consumers by “gaming” deregulated markets in California and Texas, Texans are questioning the wisdom of letting power companies dominate ERCOT – he nonprofit entity charged with developing a competitive electric market. [...]

Federal and state officials are investigating allegations that many of the power companies that dominate ERCOT cheated investors or consumers by allegedly cooking their books or gaming deregulated markets in California or Texas. [...]

Enron and its subsidiaries have been at the center of government probes. The Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC) staff has recommended a $7 million fine against Enron for gaming the Texas system by overscheduling power last summer. The PUC is settling similar charges with five other companies that all have seats on ERCOT’s board. The PUC also is investigating complaints that New Power improperly levied surcharges on Texas customers with poor credit ratings.

oh gee, you don’t think that ERCOT is screwing grama millie again, do ya? and does anyone really believe that ERCOT’s board has been cleaned up in the past three years? really?

how we got here is a long and twisted story, but it includes a lot of campaign contributions, big energy lobbyists, and a pack of lies sold to gullible texans who have been conditioned to believe in the power of the free market to regulate itself. well, it doesn’t work. california is attempting to reregulate, and several states have dropped plans to deregulate after witnessing what happened to california. and while our deregulation was “rolled out carefully and over time” in an effort to prevent what happened in california, i think it’s clear that deregulation is an abject and utter failure. reliability has gone down and prices have gone up. deregulation has, in fact, had the exact opposite effect of what texans were sold.

so where do we go from here? personally, i would prefer to reregulate the market. but we have to raise hell in order to make that happen. i think the best place to start is to lodge a complaint with the PUC every time you experience a power outage or rolling blackout. you can write, call, or file a complaint online. i would urge everyone who’s reading this site to please fill out the online form, make the phone call, or write a letter to the PUC today. tell them about your skyrocketing electricity prices and the frequency of power outages. ask your friends and family to do the same. if we can get enough people on this bandwagon, then perhaps we can start lobbying our lege to reregulate.

the broken contract

when bush’s rating really started to tank, i had a sneaking suspicion that this could be a watershed year for democrats akin to the GOP’s gains in 94. yes, i know that sounds terribly optimistic and the dems will really have to step up and offer an alternative this year instead of sitting back and letting the GOP implode, but it doesn’t seem that far-fetched to me. after 12 years controlling congress, and 6 years of one-party rule in washington (minus that few months when jeffords switched to independent), i wondered whether the GOP had kept it’s promises made in the Contract with America.

well, fortunately vince had nothing better to do this weekend than sit around and analyse the whole damn thing. of course i’m kidding vince a little bit, but i’m grateful for the amount of time he spent breaking it all down.

it seems to me that the contract is irretrievably broken. sure, the gop introduced a lot of legislation, but in the end what have we really got? we’ve got a gop that is twice as corrupt as the old democrats, a government that’s larger and more inefficient than it’s ever been, a national debt that is spiralling out of control, a world which neither trusts nor respects america, a global threat the likes of which we have never faced, and an executive branch so drunk with power that it operates as if it’s above the law.

think about it. the GOP has tried for many years to reinforce it’s brand. ask a republican what they believe in and they can tell you in 30 seconds:

small government.
fiscal responsibility.
strong defense.
the constitution.
family values.

think about it.

small government??? this from a party which has presided over the biggest expansion of government in half a century.
fiscal responsibility??? yea, i’m supposed to believe the party that just raised our debt ceiling YET AGAIN as the debt balloons to nearly 9,000,000,000,000 dollars is fiscally responsible. what-ever.
strong defense??? i’ll believe that when bush stops ignoring PDBs titled “bin laden determined to strike in the united states“, gives us a timetable for redeploying our troops out of iraq, and stops talking crazy about nuking iran. oh, and bin laden’s head on a stick would help on that front, too.
the constitution??? yea, the leaker is chief is real concerned about the consitution when he’s wiping his ass with it.
family values… is hate a family value? i mean, why else would the GOP’s leadership deny equal rights to GLBT americans? and why else would idiots like bill “cat killer” frist pass bills specifically designed to allow the federal government to interfere with a family’s most personal decisions?

they’re full of crap, that’s why. they had no intention of keeping their promises. they broke every single one, and for that the american people should show them the door in november.

i suppose what this all comes down to is whether the democrats will come up with a unified plan with concrete steps that they can sell this fall. can they come up with a strong enough brand and back it up with real proposals to help america?

i’ve been trying to distill the democratic message down to a few “bumper sticker” phrases (or the 30 second elevator speech, as some call it) for a while. when people ask me what we believe in, i have a million answers. but i think we have to distill them down into core values: civil liberties, fairness and equality, honest and accountable government, and diplomacy before destruction.

i’m sure there may be better frames out there, but i think you can put almost all the major democratic interest issues into those frames. regardless, that’s a brainstorm for another post. for now, we start with the broken contract, then go from there…

more on the broken contract from the texosphere at BOR and just another blog. p.s. commnon sense blog has a new URL. update your bookmarks!

update: mind speak has chimed in, and eye on williamson has more on the broken contract here. it’s an interesting angle:

In 1994 this contract was a late comer to the election, 6 weeks before. What had transpired over the first two years of the Clinton presidency, the healthcare debacle, and his subsequent low approval ratings, as well as the Democratic controlled Congress’ at the time, had as much if not more to do with it. Also the percentage of the electorate that knew which party controlled Congress was very high. Why is that important? Well, here’s why: Our Message In 2006: Republicans Control Congress [...]

…when the disgust of whats going on in our country, state, and in our case county, it is essential for gains to be made that everyone knows who’s in charge and therefore responsible for the current state of affairs. While it’s improtant that the electorate knows Republicans are corrupt, broke promises, and are running everything into the ground. It’s most important that they know Republicans are in control of Congress, and every other branch of government of our country, state and county and in order to change that they have to elect Democrats.

i think he hit it right there. that’s the theme. now will democrats run with it?

this won’t negate the need for a broad platform that speaks to america’s interests, but it would be an excellent start.

KBH: oops. she did it again!

wow, hutchison is even more of a hypocrite than i ever imagined. check out the dirt vince dug up:

———

Kay Bailey Hutchison has broken her promise to Texans. Not only did she promise to adhere to term limits herself, but she co-sponsored legislation to create a constitutional amendment mandating term limits for senators and congressmen not once, but at least twice! [...]

Perhaps the worst smoking gun for Hutchison, though, isn’t that she just said she’d limit herself, but that she co-sponsored legislation for term limits!

Back in 1995, she co-sponsored a term-limits constitutional amendment bill.

She did the same thing in 1997, when she she co-spoonsored a bill by then Sen. John Ashcroft which would have created a constitutional amendment limiting the terms of senators and members of the U.S. House.

Clearly, if she can’t be held to her word, we don’t need her in Washington.

kay bailey hutchison: hypocrite

a broken promise:

REPLACING BENTSEN/THE RACE FOR U.S. SENATE/Two more Republicans jump into Senate race
ALAN BERNSTEIN, R.G. RATCLIFFE
Staff
564 words
14 January 1993
Houston Chronicle
2 STAR
17
English
(Copyright 1993)

With Democrats rallying behind Bob Krueger, two more Republicans jumped Wednesday into the special election race for the U.S. Senate seat Krueger is set to occupy temporarily.

State Treasurer Kay Bailey Hutchison and U.S. Rep. Jack Fields of Humble announced they will join fellow Republican U.S. Rep. Joe Barton of Ennis in the campaign for outgoing Sen. Lloyd Bentsen’s post.

Gov. Ann Richards has named Krueger to replace Bentsen until a special election is held, most likely on May 1. Bentsen is expected to be confirmed next week as U.S. Treasury secretary.

Krueger won endorsements for the special election this week from the Texas AFL-CIO and the state Democratic Party’s governing committee. Richards and party leaders are working to unify Democratic activists behind Krueger to thwart the potential candidacy of former Attorney General Jim Mattox, a Democrat.

Hutchison has served in a variety of public posts but cast herself as the outsider candidate for Bentsen’s seat, while Fields portrayed himself as the candidate who can best appeal to blue-collar and working Texans.

Both promised to serve a maximum of two six-year terms in the Senate and support term limits for members of Congress.

Hutchison said her goal as senator would be to erase the federal deficit, create jobs and pass a balanced budget law.

She said she has voluntarily reduced her state agency’s budget, beyond the 10 percent cuts ordered by the Legislature, and would take the same approach to the Senate.

In what could be viewed as an attack on Barton and Fields, Hutchison said voters can’t change government “”by sending the same old faces back to Congress.”

After four years as a state lawmaker from Bellaire and West University Place, Hutchison served in 1976-77 on the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington, D.C. She moved to Dallas in 1978 and made an unsuccessful bid for a U.S. House seat there in 1982.

Yet Hutchison told reporters that she is the “”outsider” contender because she is not part of the congressional network.

Fields took a veiled swipe at Hutchison, who has been part of the Dallas political establishment associated with the exclusive neighborhood of Highland Park.

“”It’s easy to give a speech in Highland Park and get a good response. It’s another thing to be at the plant gates of Deer Park, communicating with average Texans,” he said.

Fields, outside the city hall in his hometown of Humble, said he wouldn’t vote for any new taxes and would work to block attempts to trim benefits for senior citizens and boost inheritance taxes.

He said he was the only candidate whose record and accomplishments have been tested long-term in “”a major media market,” the Houston area.

Fields wrote 22 overdrafts for a total of $10,000 at the now-closed House bank. But he said the check-bouncing was not an issue in his last campaign, in which he trounced a little-known Democrat, and he does not expect it to become an issue in the Senate race. Fields has served in the U.S. House since 1981.

—————

NEWS
Hutchison, Fields turn up heat in Senate campaigns
Anne Marie Kilday, Sam Attlesey
Staff Writers of The Dallas Morning News
1015 words
29 April 1993
The Dallas Morning News
HOME FINAL
14D
English
(Copyright 1993)

Republican U.S. Senate candidates Kay Bailey Hutchison and Jack Fields stepped up their appeals Wednesday as a pair of new polls indicated that Ms. Hutchison is closing in on an expected runoff spot.

Ms. Hutchison, the state treasurer, mostly ignored her GOP foes, turning her fire against Democratic Sen. Bob Krueger, the front-runner in Saturday’s election, and President Clinton.

At airport stops in six West Texas cities, Ms. Hutchison repeatedly told supporters she would “help Bill Clinton when I think he is right, and I will fight him when he is wrong.’

“And I think his economic plan is all wrong,’ Ms. Hutchison said.

Mr. Fields, a congressman from Humble, campaigned in the Rio Grande Valley and West Texas, stressing his proposed $385 billion in federal budget cuts and his experience in Congress.

“Texas needs a senator who can be effective on Day One,’ he said.

Two independent polls released Wednesday indicated that Mr. Krueger, named to replace Lloyd Bentsen, is leading the 24-candidate pack in the special election but does not have enough support to avoid a runoff. If no one gets a majority, the top two vote-getters advance to a runoff, probably June 5.

A Houston Chronicle poll published Wednesday showed Mr. Krueger with 26 percent, followed by Ms. Hutchison at 19 percent. Twenty-five percent of those surveyed were undecided.

The newspaper poll had Mr. Fields third at 12 percent; U.S. Rep. Joe Barton at 10 percent; Dallas Democrat Richard Fisher at 6 percent; and Dallas Democrat Jose Angel Gutierrez at 1 percent. One percent picked other candidates.

The statewide telephone survey of 621 registered voters, conducted Saturday through Monday, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

A poll by Mason-Dixon Political Media Research of Columbia, Md., reported Wednesday by one of its sponsors, KXAS-TV (Channel 5) in Fort Worth, put Mr. Krueger and Ms. Hutchison in a tie at 27 percent. They were followed by Mr. Fields at 13 percent, Mr. Fisher at 8 percent and Mr. Barton at 6 percent. The remainder either supported other candidates or were undecided.

The telephone poll of 829 registered voters, conducted Tuesday and Wednesday, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

The Chronicle survey also showed that in a runoff Ms. Hutchison would lead Mr. Krueger, 40 percent to 36 percent, with the rest unsure.

Ms. Hutchison said the expected runoff will be a referendum on the Clinton administration, as well as the differences between Mr. Krueger and herself on the issues.

She criticized the president’s first 100 days in office, saying, “It has been nothing but broken campaign pledges and proposals to raise taxes.’

Campaigning with Ms. Hutchison on “Take Your Daughter to Work’ day were Reagan Rath, 10, and McLaren Weeks, 13, daughters of campaign supporters and staff. Reagan is the daughter of Diane Rath, Ms. Hutchison’s Bexar County campaign chairman, and McLaren is the daughter of campaign media consultant David Weeks.

Ms. Hutchison also repeated her pledge to serve only two terms in the U.S. Senate, if elected.

And, she said, term limits ought to cover all senators — including U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas.

Asked whether the two-term restriction ought to apply to all senators, Ms. Hutchison said: “Oh, absolutely. I’m a strong believer in term limitations.’

Mr. Gramm, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is in the middle of his second six-year term.

Ms. Hutchison conceded: “We would lose Phil Gramm. But I think the good outweighs the bad.’

Ms. Hutchison and Mr. Fields almost kept up a tradition in Texas Senate campaigns — crossing paths on an airport tarmac. The candidates avoided each other by ducking into separate restrooms.

Ms. Hutchison said she is seeking the support of Texas women because she believes that women voters decided the 1990 gubernatorial election won by Democrat Ann Richards.

“The woman’s vote is very important to me,’ Ms. Hutchison said.

At almost every stop, Ms. Hutchison fielded questions about earlier allegations from former treasury aides that she struck some employees and directed them to conduct her political and personal business on public time.

She has denied the allegations and said she passed a polygraph test in an effort to prove the reports were false.

“I am very, very pleased that the people of Texas have seen through this political sleaze,’ she said.

Mr. Fields did not bring up the allegations during his campaigning but didn’t shy away from discussing the subject when asked.

“I think Ms. Hutchison has a real problem,’ he said. “Physical abuse in the workplace is absolutely wrong.’

He said the accusations will hurt Republicans’ chances of winning the Senate seat if Ms. Hutchison is one of the two top finishers.

“Bob Krueger will talk about abuse in the workplace for 30 days. She’s got a big problem,’ Mr. Fields said.

Mr. Fields said the allegations are causing Ms. Hutchison’s “negatives’ to go up in the polls while he still has momentum in the final days of the campaign.

He predicted that a low turnout on Saturday will help him because his loyal supporters will cast ballots in large numbers. “I think this race is up for grabs,’ he said.

Craig Murphy, a spokesman for Mr. Barton, R-Ennis, said the survey indicates a race so close that the key to Saturday’s election will be which campaigns do the best job getting supporters to the polls.

“He is leading in the North Texas area and the North Texas area is leading in turnout’ based on early voter turnout, he said.

Also running for the Senate are Billy Brown, Louis Davis, Rick Draheim, Rose Floyd, Lottie Bolling Hancock, Roger Henson, Stephen Hopkins, Charles Ben Howell, Gene Kelly, C. “Sonny’ Payne, Don Richardson, Chuck Sibley, Thomas Spink, Herbert Spiro, Maco Stewart, James Vallaster, Clymer Wright and Lou Zaeske.

——-

Copyright 1994 The Austin American-Statesman
Austin American-Statesman (Texas)

View Related Topics

November 09, 1994 WEDNESDAY

SECTION: NEWS

LENGTH: 553 words

HEADLINE: Hutchison cruises to decisive victory for full Senate

BYLINE: Linda Leavell; David Elliot

DALLAS – Republican U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison swept to a landslide
victory Tuesday, dominating her opponent in every region of the state.

Claiming a full six-year term, Hutchison defeated Democrat Richard
Fisher, a Dallas financier who has never held public office.

“This time, it’s for real!” Hutchison told hundreds of supporters in a
packed ballroom in a North Dallas hotel.

“Today, America corrected its course. The people of America have spoken
and our voices are making a difference. Just a year and a half ago, Texans
started a ripple across the water that has turned into a tidal wave across
this country.”

With 55 percent of the precincts reporting, Hutchison had captured 61
percent of the vote to Fisher’s 39 percent. Libertarian candidate Pierre
Blondeau received 1 percent.

Fisher, however, said he was not deflated by the crushing defeat. Of
the wide margin between the candidates, he quipped, “Remember what Mark
Twain said about opera: ‘It’s not as bad as it sounds.’ “

Hutchison said her re-election was a mandate for her to return to
Washington to fight for a balanced budget amendment, tax breaks for
homemakers, fewer regulations for small business owners, a strong national
defense, and term limitations.

“I’ve always said that I would serve no more than two full terms. This
may be my last term or I could run for one more. But no more after that. I
firmly believe in term limitations and I plan to adhere to that,” Hutchison
said.

She also acknowledged that she was savoring the victory.

“Well, after four elections in 18 months, you know, it’s been a
marathon, and I am having a great time. . . . We knew that Texas was rough
and tumble, but it was real rough and tumble. And now we’re enjoying the
victory and ready to go to work.”

Hutchison finished first in the May 1993 special Senate election to
choose a successor to Lloyd Bentsen, then easily won the June runoff
against appointed Democratic Sen. Bob Krueger with 67 percent of the vote.
She also breezed past six little-known opponents in this year’s GOP
primary.

Hutchison dominated Fisher throughout the state. Her largest margin was
in West Texas, and she carried both Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston by
substantial margins, exit polls showed.

The exit poll showed Hutchison put together a strong coalition of
Republicans and independents in her victory.

Preliminary results showed honesty was the issue most often mentioned
as mattering most to voters, followed by health care and President Clinton.

Hutchison, who earlier this year was acquitted of charges she misused
the state treasurer’s office, had a slight edge among voters who listed
honesty as a key concern. She also had a slight majority among those who
cited health care, and a three-to-one lead among those who mentioned
Clinton.

Fisher beat former Attorney General Jim Mattox in a bruising runoff
election in April after the two edged Congressman Mike Andrews in the
Democratic primary in March.

Mattox said Tuesday night that Fisher’s presence at the top of the
ticket hurt Democrats. “It appears he threw in the towel at least 60 or 90
days ago,” Mattox said.
Staff writer David Elliott contributed to this report.

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KBH: HYPOCRITE.