| As you (hopefully) know, the Austin American-Statesman is running an excellent series on the candidates for Texas Governor This past week, they have featured Bill White and Farouk Shami in a compelling set of stories that, when read together, provide tremendous insight and allow the reader to develop a strong side-by-side comparison of the two candidates. Here are the links to each section of the series: The series is quite remarkable. If you put it aside this week, or just missed it, or especially if you are in the majority of our readership that live outside Austin, please click on the links above and read the articles in full to get the full side-by-side comparison of the candidates. One month ago today, I praised the filing day coverage of the Dallas Morning News as "Incredible Journalism." At the time, I wrote: The Dallas Morning News, without question, has shown up for the 2010 election season with the best political coverage in the state. Between now and the primary, everyone else is playing catch up. They laid the gauntlet down on Day One, and it's going to take some seriously impressive efforts from other news organizations to match what the DMN has put forth on their first day.
Today marks the start of the second month of the 2010 campaign season in Texas. The Morning News may have thrown the gauntlet down, but right now it's the Statesman that is delivering the strongest coverage. Between the Gubernatorial Profile series and their excellent new PolitFact feature, they are doing tremendous with with this election cycle, and I look forward to more of it in the coming days, weeks, and months. On our end, more on the Governor's race is forthcoming as we prepare for Monday's gubernatorial debate. For now, though, here are some highlights of the Statesman series -- for those looking to glimpse the key parts of each particular section: Candidate Profile: Bill White & Farouk Shami
- Bill White: "White comes by his geek credentials honestly"
White developed an interest in government, sparked in part, he says, by "the horrors of Selma and Birmingham and the awakening of the civil rights movement." "That interested me, engaged me, when I saw that laws could make a difference," he said, "and where there was a stark choice between some who felt we needed to defer making good on the promises made in our founding documents and others who thought, as did my parents ... that every person is made in the image of God." - Farouk Shami: "Shami overcame personal, professional obstacles early in life"
In 1955, some of Farouk's brothers and cousins were playing with a bomb left behind after a battle between Israelis and the Jordanian army near the family's house. It exploded. Three of his brothers and two of his cousins were killed. "It's hard to remember it," he says softly. "I saw my brothers torn into pieces." He was 12. With the loss of Faheem, 11, Kareem, 10, and Haleem, 7, six brothers became three. After that, everything changed. Jamil Shami said that from that moment, he and Farouk were driven to succeed as a way of compensating their parents for what was lost. And because of the violent incident, the family moved into the city of Ramallah. The Friends School offered Farouk and Jamil scholarships. "It was a disaster, but I was fortunate to go to the best school in the country," Farouk Shami said. "There's always an opportunity in a disaster."
On the Record: Bill White & Farouk Shami - Bill White: "White's career incorporates law, business and politics"
White's career in the upper echelons of law, business and government gives him a perspective that influences his approach to everything from problem-solving (identify solutions, delegate tasks, hold people accountable and change course as needed) to his meetings with the oil executives. "I believed senior management wanted to be good neighbors and citizens," White said. "They don't want to be treated differently than their competitor, and they want some predictability, and they are all concerned about the image of their industry." - Farouk Shami: "Farouk Shami's business has landed in court often"
Since the 1990s, Shami's company has been involved in more than 80 lawsuits, according to district and federal court records available online. The lawsuits, which range from dissolved partnerships to trademark and contractual disputes to sexual harassment claims, mark the challenges Shami has encountered in his climb to become founder and head of Farouk Systems Inc., which sells the popular CHI hair-straightening iron and BioSilk hair care line. Its executives say the privately held company is valued at $1 billion and employs 2,800 people. [...] In one month, Shami remembers getting a legal bill for $500,000. But generally, he estimates legal bills at close to $1 million annually. Shami said his company has many outside lawyers and an internal legal department, though he couldn't say how many people work there. "I have plenty of them, plenty of them," Shami said, laughing. "You can't do business without lawyers now."
Style: Bill White & Farouk Shami - Bill White: "Far from slick, White sticks to getting things done"
A cyclist who loves the outdoors, White sometimes wears an athletic-style watch even when he's in a suit. He shows personality with patterned or colorful ties, but his suits tend to be so big that he looks like someone who lost weight but has hung on to his old clothes. White's appearance gives the impression that he's too busy worrying about business to fuss over his clothes. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, he wore pocketed khaki shirts that made him look like a safari tour guide. But at a time when the task at hand was managing the influx of more than 200,000 refugees — work that earned White a John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award — it was no time for him to start looking like a movie star.
- Farouk Shami: "Shami's style radiates patriotism, passion"
With his slicked-back hair, impeccably tailored suits and paisley ties, Shami cuts a contrast to the ho-hum, button-down-shirt-and-jeans uniform favored by Austin Democrats. This is a man who is not afraid to wear pinstripes, prints or vibrant reds, purples and yellows, and he hasn't toned down his clothes for the campaign. [...]
Shami sees himself as something of a ladies' man. He's tried flattering female reporters by telling them they look like teenagers, and he has said he expects to do better with female voters because they have more sense.
|
