Thoughout the week, the Texan Editorial Board is releasing endorsements for all contested races that UT students are likely to see on their ballots Nov. 2. Today's endorsements focus on the three U.S. House races that will affect Austin. All endorsements will be available at www.dailytexanonline.com.
Last year's Republican-led redistricting left Austin divided into three predetermined congressional races with no cohesive voice for the city. The newly molded districts group students with voters from Houston to San Antonio to the border. In all the confusion, you may be in a different district now and not even realize it. Find your district at www.capitol.state.tx.us/fyi/fyi.htm.
District 25: Lloyd Doggett
Hopefully you live far enough south to vote for Austin's beloved Lloyd Doggett, former UT student government president, 10-year House veteran and nationally renowned progressive. One of redistricting's more blatant targets, his District 10 was stretched all the way to Houston to grab enough republicans to kick him out of office. But Doggett moved to 300-mile-long District 25 and has been campaigning hard to gain support in the two-thirds Latino district.
Republican Rebecca Armendariz Klein is a bit of a Renaissance woman - she served in the Gulf War, and then became President Bush's policy director before her stint as chairwoman of the Texas Public Utility Commission. While she claims her Mexican heritage more accurately reflects the district's diversity, her platform does not. Voters may align with her culturally in opposing abortion and gay marriage, but she also supports many detrimental policies, including the invasion of Iraq, private school vouchers, the underfunded No Child Left Behind, stricter immigration laws and general economic policies that favor the rich.
Democrats outnumber Republicans almost two to one in the district, so Doggett should survive in the House. He is experienced, compassionate and has represented Austin well this past decade. Plus, voting for Doggett sticks it to the man by foiling Tom DeLay's best-laid plans to oust him.
District 10: Lorenzo Sadun
Redistricting stood to make this a boring election season until Lorenzo Sadun came along. Disgusted by the absence of a Democrat running in the newly gerrymandered district now extending to Houston, the UT math professor forfeited his time and resources to give voters an option.
"As a voter, I felt personally hurt that I wasn't going to have a right to vote in November, and I realized there were thousands of people in the same situation," he told the Texan in April.
He captured the deep anger many felt over redistricting and quickly gathered the 500 signatures needed to become a write-in candidate.
Opponent Michael McCaul is just another pretty boy party-liner who will vote however DeLay tells him, giving little thought to important decisions or how they affect our city.
"My two main goals are to help the president win the war on terror abroad and at home and to get the economy moving again," he told the Texan in April.
When President Bush tells McCaul to jump, he'll enthusiastically ask "How high?"
This district was hand-tailored for a Republican - Sadun has no shot. But sometimes voting isn't about picking the winner, it's about picking the person you believe in. And we believe in Sadun because he embodies the idealism and integrity sorely missing in politics.
District 21: No endorsement
If you live in the dorms or near campus, you don't have much of a choice this year. Republican Lamar Smith has represented District 21 since 1987, becoming a leader of the far right along the way. Recently he's made headlines with a string of bad legislation from introducing the Piracy Deterrence and Education Act of 2004, which could send Kazaa users to prison for up to five years, to defending a section of the 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act that legalizes the deportation of immigrants suspected of terrorism to countries likely to torture them.
This fall, Smith also introduced the Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act which threatens trial lawyers with sanctions for filing baseless claims. Completely missing the point, Smith said the law would stop people who "sue a theme park because its haunted houses are too scary" or "sue McDonald's claiming a hot pickle dropped from a hamburger caused a burn and mental injury."
But Democrat Rhett Smith is hardly an exciting challenger. A former state worker who served in the Navy, he just hasn't been giving his campaign much effort because it's an uphill battle in the Republican district, and he relies too heavily on Bush-bashing without providing any solutions.
We recommend voting for Rhett Smith in opposition to Lamar Smith's offensive record or Libertarian James Werner for a jab at the two-party system. We're disappointed at all the choices.
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