| The attacks are already flying in a U.S. Senate race that is, so far, without an election date. Last week, Vince Leibowitz of Capitol Annex, a friend who I agree with 99.99 percent of the time, wrote a post entitled, "In Context Of Voter ID Debate, Bill White’s Republican Ties Very Troubling." At the center of the post is Vince's contention that Bill White raised money for Tom DeLay at a 2004 fundraiser at the home of David Saperstein, who was working in the Office of Mobility as Houston's traffic czar at the time. From the invitation to the DeLay event: Congressman and Majority Leader DeLay, Mayor White, Metro officials, along with the Mayor's Office of Mobility have enjoyed serious discussions to improve mobility throughout the region.
No mention of Bill White as a "guest of honor", as Capitol Annex's initial post alleged. White never raised money for DeLay, never contributed money to DeLay and, in fact, the invitation does not even say that White would be in attendance. It just notes that DeLay had been working with city officials like Mayor White "to improve mobility throughout ther region." The same year Saperstein hosted the DeLay fundraiser, he also hosted a fundraiser for Chet Edwards (D-Waco). From the invitation to the Edwards event: Chet is a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee and is the only Texan serving on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Water and Energy Development, which funds all Army Corps of Engineers flood control and seaport projects. In this capacity, Chet has worked closely with the Harris County Congressional delegation to obtain over $180 million in funding for the Port of Houston to deepen and widen the Houston Ship Channel. His subcommittee has also put tens of millions of dollars into Houston flood control projects.
As a leader in Houston's Office of Mobility, David Saperstein hosted two fundraisers for two powerful congressman from two different parties. These events were not about partisan politics, they were about helping Houston. As Mayor of Houston, Bill White attended both of these events. White has raised funds for Texas Congressmen like Chet Edwards and Al Green, both Democrats. However, he never raised money for Tom DeLay. For the campaign cycle in question, the only contributions White made were to the Harris County Democratic Party ($1000) and Chris Bell for Congress ($500). The rest of White's prolific Democratic contribution history is too long to go into detail about, though it includes $5,000 to Chris Bell's State Senate campaign last year and, ironically, $10,000 to John Sharp's 2002 campaign for Lieutenant Governor. At this time, no federal money had been allocated for Houston's metro, DeLay was majority leader and Edwards was a member of the House Appropriations Committee. Bill White was elected to be Mayor of all of Houston, not just the Democratic part. To refuse to seek the help of the House Majority Leader would be to refuse to do the job he was elected to do. White has served as Texas Democratic Party Chair, in the cabinet of a Democratic president, contributed tens of thosuands of dollars to Democrats and worked to elect Texas Democrats for decades. His success at the ballot box shows that, while progressive Democrats like us will not agree with 100 percent of what he has done, the results are hard to argue with. Bill White has held the largest non-partisan job in Texas and was re-elected with margins of 86 and 91 percent. |
