(Yo conozco a Wendy Davis y tenemos que elegirla governadora de Texas)

I Know Wendy Davis and we need to elect her governor of Texas

By Fernando Florez

April 11, 2014

FORT WORTH, Tx. -- Even before Wendy Davis announced her candidacy for governor of Texas, she was already being hammered by the Gregg Abbott campaign. She has been called an extremist, out of touch with the many problems people in our state face daily. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am writing this article for several reasons: one is to shed some light on the Wendy Davis I know. Another one is personal. I am peeved at Gregg Abbott about his comments comparing the Rio Grande Valley to a “third world country.” I was born in Zapata County, but moved to Edinburg, the county seat of Hidalgo County, in the Rio Grande Valley, at age eleven when I started the 6^th grade. I’ve been in the Fort Worth area since my Army discharge in 1968, but there will always be a special place in my heart for south Texas and the valley. The majority of my brothers and sisters and their families still live there.

         Still another reason for writing this article is because I want to help Wendy just like she has helped us and benefited the majority Hispanic neighborhoods in south Fort Worth’s inner city. To this day, as busy as she is, she has continued to help us; when I say this, although I am quite capable of writing political spin, it’s absolutely the truth. My final reason, and perhaps the most important one of all, is that I don’t like the direction our state is headed in. Wendy will make a great governor and help point our state in the right direction, a direction which will benefit aa Texans , not just those with a lot of money to fund lobbyists.

         (Full disclosure: I am a community leader and a political activist and consider myself progressive on social issues, but conservative on fiscal issues. I have also been a Wendy Davis supporter for a long time and have campaigned with her door-to-door talking with voters numerous times over the years. I often write about community and political issues and although Wendy is a friend, neither she nor anyone else put me up to writing this piece. I was not a Wendy Davis supporter when I first met her during her first race for the Fort Worth City Council. Let’s start this story there and look at some of the things she did here. This will give you an indication of what some of her values are and what she will do as our governor.)

         In May1996, we had a city council special election when our then city councilman resigned to run for mayor. There were two vacancies because our Mayor, Kay Granger, resigned to run for Congressional District 10, a seat she still occupies today.  

         In that election, I was the campaign manager for one of the four candidates running for City Council District 9. In the primary, while campaigning for my candidate I observed Wendy and kept hearing reports from our campaign workers that she was seen throughout the district knocking on doors. Campaigns are highly charged, intensely competitive and exhausting as each candidate pushes as hard as possible to win. Another thing from that campaign that I stored in my memory was the mature demeanor Wendy displayed. Even those who were not on her side were treated courteously and respectfully. My candidate finished in third place in the election. In the runoff we decided to support her opponent who won the highly contested election by 90 votes. In 1999, after the sitting city council representative resigned, she ran again. This time I was on her side and in a tough three-candidate race; one of her opponents was well-financed and fairly well known, but she beat him in a close race. She won several re-election bids until she resigned in 2008 to challenge entrenched Republican Sen. Kim Brimer for Texas Senate District 10. In a majority Republican district, after a long and nasty, mudslinging campaign, she won a narrow victory. In 2012, she again managed to be reelected in what is the strongest Republican leaning district in the state.   

         It was during her service on the Fort Worth City Council from 1999 to 2008, that I as president of the South Hemphill Heights Neighborhood Association and chairman of the Hemphill Corridor Task Force I worked with her extensively. There were zoning cases and crime related issues, but of special note is what we accomplished with her help on the Hemphill Corridor Task Force, a revitalization and economic development group. Of the many steps forward we took one was to  create a so called “urban village.” Urban villages” are small areas usually at intersections of two major streets where funding is concentrated. They serve as catalysts to attract private investment. With the creation of an urban village comes a Neighborhood Empowerment Zones (NEZ) which provides even more incentives to investors and home owners over a larger area. As seen by the vast majority of people, the redevelopment of the Hemphill Corridor over the past twenty plus years has been very successful. But, alas, as they say “no good deed goes unpunished.” During the whole time, we were fighting battles to root out slumlords and other undesirable elements and making  progress, I frequently found myself fighting rear actions against people who typically find fault in just about everything they encounter in life. Their objective was seemingly to undo the gains we had made and were making. Upon Wendy taking office, I was informed that members of that group were trying to supplant ours. They were trying to pull one on her by claiming that our group hadn’t been meeting and didn’t even exist! As my father used to say when we were growing up: En este mundo hay cosas que tienes que ver para creer. (In this world there are things that you have to see to believe.)

         Later, after a sizeable investment of time and money, those same individuals attempted to stop the creation of the “urban village.” I just sat back and chuckled silently as Wendy basically said “no” to them. They disappeared from the scene after that.Wendy is tough; she does the right thing and will stand up to bullies.But Wendy and I have not always agreed on everything. We didn’t agree on city council redistricting after the 2000 U.S. Census. She is a tough negotiator without being overbearing and fracturing a relationship to the point where it can’t be repaired.

         What I remember most about Wendy during her time on the council is how she saved our Summer Mobile Rec. Camp. My wife, Roberta, has been an organizer and leader of children’s programs in Fort Worth’s majority Hispanic south side since 1991. I’ve been working right along with her helping and supporting in many ways since then. Although there are always volunteers involved, funding is needed to pay key staff people and for programming. Raising funds has been a major challenge and many times over the years we’ve had to dig deep into our own pockets to keep programs going.  

         The Summer Mobile Rec. Camp is designed to keep children off the streets and out of trouble during the summer in an area where many families live at or below the poverty level and cannot afford to pay for a summer camp. In 2000, shortly after Wendy was elected to the city council, she helped us get city funding to launch the camp by bringing together the city’s Parks and Community Services Department, the Fort Worth Independent School District (which provided a site at an elementary school), and several businesses who donated money.The camp, which empowers children to succeed by providing educational and recreational activities, was started with one site and about 150 children. Since that time, the program has grown to four sites and 660 children as of last summer. Wendy Davis has continued to help us raise money even after she left the city council and was elected to the Texas Senate. On one occasion that I recall, a couple of years ago she and a city councilman served as bartenders and waiters one evening to help raise funds for the camp. There are many other instances where she has helped us. Wendy is compassionate about helping families, particulary children, and is not afraid to take tough stands and make difficult decisions.

         Most Texans know about Wendy because of her two filibusters. The first one occurred at the end of the 2011 Republican-controlled session of the Legislature. She filibustered to restore the large cut in education funding. It resulted in bringing more attention to this important issue and increased public awareness. The education of our children is the most important challenge we now face in this state with a majority Spanish- Mexican descent student population. How well these students are educated will determine the future of our state.

         We need change in Austin not business as usual. Republicans have governed Texas for nineteen years, since Ann Richards left office in 1995. Let’s take a quick look at the state of education in Texas: According to the National Education Association report in 2012, our state was rated 49^th out of 50 states and 44^th in graduation rates and 47^th in SAT scores by the 2013 Texas Legislative Group report.

         The other filibuster, in 2013, concerned the Republicans’ bill that would cut off access to clinics and doctors who provide health care and abortions to women. This was the focus of her filibuster was not whether the abortion ban should be beyond 24 weeks rather than 20 weeks; which was part of the bill. There is a lot of misleading information floating around on this issue. I am opposed to abortion except to save the life of a mother or in case of rape or incest and it’s my understanding that she is too. But as we all know, abortion is legal; it’s the law of the land. Look, she has two daughters who if she believed in abortion wouldn’t have. A close look at the legislation Wendy has sponsored and co-sponsored during her time in the Texas Senate indicates that she is working for Texas families.

         Why do we need to elect Wendy governor of Texas? To answer this question, let’s take a look at the alternative. With Tea Party pandering politicians in the Legislature now constituting a majority, the Republican Party in Texas has shifted to the extreme right, unlike anything we’ve ever seen. What may come in the form of legislation introduced when the Legislature convenes in 2015 is scary!

         If Sen. Dan Partick defeats Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in the Republican Runoff on May 27, as most pundits are predicting, it will pit him against Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, the Democrat, in November. If he defeats her, he will be the senate presiding officer and will push the Tea Party agenda: stronger measures on border security and illegal immigration, the latter includes ending instate tuition for undocumented students and ending so called “sanctuary cities.” But that’s only the beginning. On education, the focus will be on implementing a system of tax supported vouchers that will enable children to attend private schools, thus siphoning funds from our public school system as we know it, resulting in its demise. There will also be more cuts in social programs and spending in other areas. The danger is that those cuts can be made too deep, which can affect families and indivuals who have desperate needs and are working as hard as possible to survive. That’s why we need Wendy as our governor—to be a “checks and balances” and  rein in the Tea Party if necessary. She is our only hope (ella es nuestra única  esperanza). Hispanics will play a major role in determining whether Wendy is elected governor. Her election will be in our hands. Let’s not let her down by voting in November and urging all our friends and neighbors to do the same thing.