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Fri Oct 14, 2011 at 08:19 PM CDT
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| As the battle over who will represent Democrats in the battle over District 35 gets closer than ever, it's a given that details will get lost in the smoke. This is especially the case given the extensive resumes of the two candidates. However, voters need to recognize important distinctions that separate our two candidates will ultimately affect how the people of the 35 corridor will be represented in Austin. Those distinctions ultimately boil down to one question: who will stand up to the far right-wing extremism of the Republican Party and who will end up siding with the right-wing establishment for the sake of "compromise" and "not rocking the boat?"
Other writers have pointed out that Joaquin Castro was one of the 52 Texas representatives in 2003 to leave the state in response to Tom DeLay's attempts at carving the state into a more Republican landscape. This, they say, forgives (or even dismisses) whatever role he may have played in working with Republicans to create an equally unfair set of maps in 2011. They even go so far as to say that Castro was "risking his political future," despite the fact that Democrats have safely won his district with near 60% of the vote in every general election since at least 1992 (src: http://www.texastribune.org/di... How, then, was Castro risking his political future by doing what few if any would consider a risk at all?
The second important point to note is that 2003 was not the 2011 session. Whatever actions Castro took in 2003 do not excuse or dismiss any role he may have played in colluding with Republicans this past session. If it's true that Castro threw his Democratic colleagues under the bus by helping Republicans carve districts into the current maps in exchange for getting a congressional district that he can use to advance his own goals and ousting a true Democratic leader who has dedicated his life to protecting and defending the hard-working families from far-right wing extremism in all its flavors, it is something that the voters of this district must take into account when casting their ballot. Once again, do we want someone who only makes the bold decisions when it's easy or politically advantageous only to ultimately break under pressure? Or do we stay with Lloyd Doggett, the only one with a proven track record of representing the the people of Central Texas? When you break it down like this, the choice is anything but murky.
-Larry Breaux |
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