Ex-Rep. Chris Bell, the guy who filed the ethics complaint against Tom DeLay, is exploring a race for Texas Governor. Today he put out a statement endorsing legislation to outlaw economic redlining, or the practice of denying insurance to people with bad credit:
"There is no logical basis to link insurance rates to credit ratings. Whether someone is late on his credit card bill does not mean that a tornado is going to hit his barn. Economic redlining only serves to protect the profits of insurance companies, and we have a moral mandate to stop this now and to lower the barriers to home ownership.
"This is not a partisan issue. The sponsors of HB 23 are Republicans, and in 2002, Rick Perry promised to end credit scoring in Texas. He was right to take that election-year stand back then, and though his appointee at the Texas Department of Insurance is protecting economic redlining, the Governor would do well to keep his earlier promise."