| To my fellow Democrats,
After hearing Aaron Peña's lies on the Texas Tribune I must set the record straight and clarify a few key points. Peña, in this well done interview by Reeve Hamilton, blames the far left for pushing him to switch parties. He claims, falsely, the far left never reached out to him to ask his side of the story.
Well, Rep. Peña, that's a bold face lie. I called his legislative office (and I am aware of nearly a half dozen others) and contacted his campaign without a peep or response. In fact, all of our reporting was on the bad calculus for even openly admitting a possible party switch. So, in due diligence, we reached out to both the campaign and legislative offices.
Second, why is Rep. Peña so surprised we are outraged? He is ridiculous!
Before we go into some critical facts, I want to address an issue from the Tribune article. In the article, Peña, equates people who are angry with him and his dumb choice to alcoholics going through the 12 step process. Seriously!? As a person who has family members who are alcoholics and live questioning their own DNA, I am going to offer some friendly advice... stop talking. Seriously. Take a few days but stop talking. Every time you open your mouth, you make it worse for yourself.
With that off my chest, let me go over the reasons why people are mad at Rep. Peña and his decisions. Before we go further, you have to wonder if he has stopped to ask himself one simple question, "Why are people mad at me and not Allan Ritter?"
Let me go through the reasons.
First, let me take a little ownership. The old expression, "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me" is absolutely in play. Peña betrayed his district once 4 years ago when he voted for Tom Craddick for speaker. Even though Craddick slashed and burned social services for his conservative ideology and played aggressive, partisan politics with members bills, Peña and a handful of safe district Democrats preserved his reign as Speaker. This effectively shut down the legislature for most of the session.
Peña was so irate with the pressure he received, he linked Burnt Orange Report to the sound of a toilet flushing on his blog.
After 4 years and private apologies, the blogging community took him at his word and we moved on together. This was proven when he, along with Mean Rachel, led the tweet up at this years state convention.
Some of this anger is because we have now been burned by him twice. Once for short term political gain and now because he can't read election returns.
That moves us to the present. Allan Ritter's district is a toss-up seat. Ritter would likely have lost if he had any opponent last November. Not excusable, but understandable. I still hold the position that he and Rep. Ritter should resign and seek re-election in a special election. Ritter would likely win a special election. Mr. Peña would not.
This last election, the 2010 election, the straight party vote in Hidalgo county was 71% countywide. The lowest vote getter for the Democrats received 56%. The average was 63%. In 2008, Barack Obama got 76.8% in Peña's district; Henry Cuellar received over 90% in Peña's district.
For the first time in at least a generation, Democrats will be forced to field competitive general election races because the tsunami took out incumbents for areas that ranged from +5 DPI to +18 DPI. This means, the whole of the Valley and Rio Grande area will see an increase in voter turnout.
Put another way... there is no way Peña will win re-election.
This means, his district, on face, doesn't support the ideals he now claims to stand for. Make the case for the border wall. Make the case for cutting social services. Make a stand for why Medicaid and Social Security are bad and why they need to be reduced in the district. Support the Texas Republican Party's positions on immigration, choice, education, college tuition rates, LGBT rights, equity pay, wall street reform, credit card reform, etc. etc.
He may stand on his principles, but the district doesn't agree with those principals. That is why he will lose. That is why Democrats win in landslides in HD-40. To openly question why he would publicly weight switch parties, is to question your political calculus.
We are mad as hell because he is lying to the press. Peña is lying to his district. He has lied to us. And, most importantly, he refuses to let his district affirm or deny him the right to represent them - making him a coward.
Most of all, Peña and Allan Ritter refuse to return money donated to them, unless people specifically request it. It is their duty and obligation as elected officials to inform individuals of their rights and their willingness to refund their hard earned money in this tough economy.
So to sum up Mean Rachel, forget you! |
