Burnt Orange Report Endorses Lon Burnam in HD-90

by: Burnt Orange Report

Tue May 15, 2012 at 00:00 PM CDT

Burnam is a fierce advocate for education, immigrant rights, and progressive socio-economic policies. The Fort Worth native is a leader on environmental issues, actively fighting Rick Perry's efforts to rubber-stamp a nuclear waste dump in West Texas. He has sounded the alarm on unsafe fracking practices that threaten our drinking water. A man of faith, Burnam uses his Quaker values to reclaim turf for religious progressives in the culture wars. There is absolutely no reason for voters in HD-90 to turn him out of office, and the challenger in particular presents no improvement over the incumbent.

We completely respect the desire of Hispanic leaders to elect Hispanic candidates to majority-Hispanic districts, however in this case it is unlikely that Vasquez would be an improvement over Burnam in any way shape or form, or that he would do better on Hispanic issues than the progressive incumbent. Surely there are other progressive Hispanic candidates who would be better contenders here should Burnam ever decide to retire. Carlos Vasquez has close political ties to questionable individuals, and it sounds as if he may have been involved in efforts to steer contracts towards his cronies while on the Fort Worth school board. Additionally, Vasquez comes across as a divisive figure on the campaign trail, and if there's one thing the Democratic caucus does not need it's freshman members who can't work well with others.

Burnam is a progressive champion and solid Democrat who has devoted his career to making life better for the people of Fort Worth. We unanimously and enthusiastically endorse him for re-election to HD-90.