This is cross-posted from Burnt Orange Report -- it is a very Austin-centric post, but Austin is the big city in the district. Ted Ankrum is a very smart man who deserves more attention than he's getting.
10. Ankrum gets it on poverty - on his website, he talks about how a family of four making minimum wage would have to work 3573 hours in a year to get up to the federal poverty level. He goes on to say: " A full-time 40 hour per week job is 2080 hours in a year. Since people on minimum wage jobs hardly ever get paid vacations or sick leave, it means that family of four must hold down two jobs. That means that Mom is not home with the children because she's at work, or Dad has two jobs, or some combination of the two. At worst, dad has abandoned his family because if he does, they will be eligible for welfare and Medicaid. This certainly does nothing to further any of the Family Values we hear so much of."
Republicans talk about how they're concerned about the middle class, but we rarely hear politicians talking about how hard it is for the poor. It is way easier to use them for a punching bag.
9. He's smart & he's got guts. Check out this from his entry on competence & cronyism: "I have no illusions about how much influence a Freshman Congressman, like Mike McCaul, can have on legislation. The answer is "hardly any". But, one thing a freshman Representative can do is show up at Committee oversight hearings and ask questions that get to the heart of whether a Federal agency is doing it's job. To do that, you need to have had some experience at doing something other than being a lawyer, and to be willing to ask questions that might embarrass the White House." Wow. Wouldn't it be cool to have a congressional representative (besides Lloyd Doggett) who would go to committee meetings & ask questions the White House doesn't want asked????
8. He's realistic about choice. There's never going to be an office holder that has the same position on choice as me, unless either Cecile Richards or Kate Michaelman ever holds office. Given that, I like Ted's answer in an interview by Capitol Annex (from Ted's website): "I do not believe that making abortions illegal will stop them any more than making drugs illegal has stopped their use, or making drunk driving illegal has stopped that." He goes on the say that the only way to reduce the number of abortions is sex education in school and easy availability of contraceptives, "unless one is considering that "Just say no to sex" is going to be more successful than "Just say no to drugs"."
7. He has a great position on the gay marriage issue. He would set up a system of civil unions for everybody, and leave the religious issues to the churches. Civil unions would cover things like property rights, child support, and access; and would be open to any couple. He points out that the institution of marriage has evolved already; pointing out that in previous times a woman's property became that of her husband after marriage. Direct quote from the interview on his website: "I simply feel that we should continue this evolution by severing the two [civil unions & church marriages], entirely, and let each Church establish it's own standards for the "Sacraments of Marriage"."
I like a person who is for equality for everyone. And I am way more up for a fight within my denomination than a state by state, bloody, ugly battle over the definition of marriage.
6. Iraq - there is no such thing as a great solution on Iraq - Ankrum has some good ideas, and, again shows some intelligence on the matter. Quote from his website:
"We have to stop being an occupying force and become solely the enablers of the Iraqi democracy. We need to take some of our troops in Iraq and send them to Afghanistan to finish the job of getting Osama Bin-Laden and help an Afghan Government that is descending into Warlordism. We need to take some of our troops and put them in the large desert bases that Saddam built to train the Iraqi security forces, and put some with Iraqi units as advisors. We need to continue to provide air support and logistics support to the Iraqi security forces. We need to bring the rest of our troops home, where they can do things such as guard our own borders, rather than Iraq's. Above all, we need to get our combat troops out of the Iraqi villages and cities."
5. Health care - he wants universal health care, he's lived in a place where it works, and he has a plan. He points out that we are already paying for universal health care - it is included in the price of items you buy, and points out that Toyota decided to locate a plant in Canada because they would have much lower costs for employee health care there. He wants to expand Medicare to everyone (gotta like the whole not re-inventing the wheel thing), and says: "The problem with universal health care is usually waiting lists for "elective" procedures. That's the problem in Australia, Canada, and England, just to name a few. In Australia, you buy this private insurance and it pays the difference between what the government reimburses and what private hospitals or physicians who elect to stay out of the Medicare system charge. Everybody gets standard care and people who can afford it buy their way off the waiting list. That's the American way. No one goes without standard care; but if you work hard, you can do better. The Australian health insurance is much cheaper than US health insurance because it's not carrying the cost of a whole lot of uninsured people, or for people seeking standard care."
Again, I say - this guy is smart.
4. Education - he has many good ideas on education, including pointing out how a universal living wage would make for better students, because poor parents wouldn't have to work more than two jobs just to reach the poverty level; and thus would have more time and energy to spend on their kids.
But this is the Burnt Orange Report, so here's what he has to say about higher education: "But, we have another problem. State Governments have become so strapped for cash that in-State tuition at State Universities has risen across the land. It is now strapping middle-class families ability to send their children to University. It's also happening at the Local Junior College, where much of our Vo-Tech training is done, today. Many of my acquaintances have deliberately limited the size of their families because of the cost of educating our children. What's the solution? This is a National problem, affecting the future of the whole country; so I propose a National solution. Instead of cutting back on Student Loans, as the current Congress is doing, I propose that we increase them. Also, because these loans are becoming a crushing debt burden on families and students, I propose a system to forgive a large fraction of the loans if the student completes a course in a field where the country has a shortage. For instance, today; math and science teachers, engineers, and nursing students should be encouraged, and what better way to do it than by loan forgiveness. I call this the "Invest in America Bill", to have the same effect on out country as the GI Bill did after WW II."
3. In this blog, entry, he talks about the primary - what did & didn't work & what he did when things didn't work. I really like a person who can take advice and then do something different when that doesn't work.
http://tinyurl.com/...
2. Energy - he wants to reach energy independence in ten years through things like conservation, increased use of renewable energy and better fuel efficiency. He's also interested in doing something about global warming. Here's the link to his position paper:
http://tedankrum.com/...
1. check out that resume
* Deputy Director of Facilities Engineering, and Head of Environmental Compliance, NASA
* Deputy Director of EPA Superfund Hazardous Waste Cleanup Program
* Chief of Conservation and Renewable Energy Commercialization Programs in the Carter Administration Department of Energy
* Diplomat in Australia during the Clinton Administration
* Chief of Program Evaluation for the Assistant Secretary of Energy for Unconventional Oil and Gas Programs
* Chief Quality Inspector for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and Director of the Congressionally-mandated Report to Congress on what went wrong with the Commercial Nuclear Power Industry
15 years of active duty and 15 of Reserve service in the US Navy:
* Served four tours in Vietnam, receiving the Bronze Star Medal for Valor, Purple Heart Medal for wounds received, Navy Commendation Medal, Vietnamese Medal of Honor and Cross of Gallantry
I started this article thinking "This guy is more conservative than I am, but he seems like a good guy." As I did research, I'm not finding that much that he's that much more conservative than me on. Choice, but, as I said in that entry, pretty much everyone is more conservative than me on that; and guns - but is that an issue likely to come before Congress? And in his position paper on energy, he talks about using ANWR as a last resort place to drill for oil when the peak oil time arrives; while I would rather not have that as even a possibility. But over all, I would much rather have a congressional representative with whom I disagree but who will listen to me than what we currently have. I had that for years with the very Honorable Jake Pickle, who seemed at the time to be incredibly conservative, but always had amazing constituent service, listened to the people, and was an honorable man. And in today's political climate, would be considered left of center. Anyway, Ted Ankrum seems like a good guy, with the intelligence and guts needed to make a difference.
Did I miss any other good things about this candidate?
<font size=1>research from Ted Ankrum's website, including an interview with Capitol Annex, and Daily Kos</font>