HD-134: Wong has "contempt...for voters' intelligence"

by: Ryan Goodland

Thu Nov 02, 2006 at 09:27 AM CST

Coming out of Texas, though, the ads from Gov. Rick Perry and state Rep. Martha Wong say a little too much about the values to which they're pandering. It's not enough that they look silly themselves. They also manage to make Texans look like ignorant xenophobes.

Wong's offering is a TV cartoon sequence purporting to depict Democratic rival Ellen Cohen. It features a male voiceover with a faux Canadian accent intoning, "Hello. I'm Ellen Cohen, the tax-increase lady. And I moved here from Canada, the land of big government and big taxes."

As Chronicle columnist Rick Casey notes, Cohen, a native of Cleveland, Ohio, did in fact move here from Canada — about 30 years ago. But then, many Houstonians, including Wong's family, came from elsewhere. So it's a little odd to attribute the Ellen Cohen of the mid-1960s with responsibility for Canada's tax code and system of government.

It goes on to say that Wong's ad (among others) "reflect the familiar contempt of politicians and their campaign managers for the voters' intelligence and powers of discernment." You sure know how to end a campaign, Martha!

On the Web: Ellen Cohen for State Representative