Today Houston Mayor Bill White made the official move to run in the Democratic primary for Texas Governor. Hank Gilbert decided to switch races and run for Agriculture Commissioner instead of Governor, leaving Bill White as the frontrunner battling it out with CHI founder, Farouk Shami, and Kinky Friedman, as well as Felix Alvarado and Bill Dear. John Sharp is waiting out the race for Kay Bailey Hutchinson's seat. Those in Judicial races have also been swapping places which leaves Karen Sage and Cliff Brown now both unopposed for the time being although Mindy Montford is considering joining the race for retiring Judge Baird. This election season is full of surprises.
In the race for Congressional District 21, it's also heating up. Lamar Smith has spurred controversy and anger over his biased robo-calls including calls to cell phones on taxpayer dollars. This very slanted poll went out to about 420,000 Texans on their cell and land lines over the past two weeks, many not even in his district. Of the 420,000 calls made, 64,000 people actually responded. This push poll, with a 15% response rate, cost the taxpayers $40,000, and due to the bias and slant of the questions couldn't possibly give any viable feedback to help with the healthcare debate. It is extremely important for a Congressman to listen to his constituents and give them a fair chance to tell him how they really feel. When the only options that you're given on a poll is whether you want to send people to jail or pay 12% of your income, you're not able to challenge the bias in the premise and convey the real feedback for these issues. Lamar Smith's office says that the results mostly aligned with his views. So what has he learned from this? Texans don't like to send people to jail, and they don't like to pay out enormous amounts of money, but that doesn't mean that they don't want healthcare insurance reform. They do, and they deserve a Congressman who will fight for their interests and listen to their views objectively.
If you feel that your voice isn't being heard, if you are tired of the failed policies of Lamar Smith, and if you have a vision for a better tomorrow, please join me in taking action to win in 2010. Contribute to my campaign, volunteer, and spread the word.
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Lainey Melnick
Candidate for US Congress
Texas 21st District
http://www.LaineyForCongress.com
lmelnick@laineyforcongress.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
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