Burnt Orange Report

A Defense of Sylvester Turner

By Byron LaMasters

Political consultant Marc Campos (who includes Sylvester Turner on his client list) offers a defense of Sylvester Turner:

Everyone's favorite state Dem legislator, Sylvester Turner (Houston), is getting a lot of email play of late. Late last week, word surfaced that Turner would make an appearance on a national TV talk show that is hosted by one of those looney conservatives. Someone then opined over the internet that maybe Sly was fixing to make the party switcheroo on national TV - become a GOPer. Turner's trusted media advisor then put out an email explaining Turner's scheduled TV appearance - he's supposed to talk about state legislative matters.

When you step back and look at the entire situation, there was no justification to suggest that Sylvester would jump to the other side. Yeah, there have been a couple of questionable votes or non-votes or voting machine snafus. Yeah, he's the Speaker Pro Tem, selected by a highly partisan GOP House Speaker. Yeah, he missed the bus to Ardmore - but some in the health care community are glad he stayed and worked on their funding issues as a member of the budget conference committee. All in all he has a pretty impressive Dem voting record.

Now Dem activists - particularly those from the Houston area, and particularly those from the Anglo and Latino persuasion - conveniently forget another factor, selective memory loss. When Sylvester put his impressive Dem Party credentials up for review when he ran for Mayor of the City of Houston in 2003, Anglo, Latino, and Gay/Lesbian Dems said "get lost pal". Dems failed to show up for him when he wanted help, yet these same Dems want him to act like their kind of Dem. It does not work that way. Wasn't it less than two months ago that the State Dem Party Chair released a statement praising Turner for his legislative heroics? If the Chair got it wrong on Turner, lay some wood on him. Nope, of course not. That would be called fair play.

How about starting rumors about GOPers, like did you hear that top local GOP leaders met over the weekend at a Houston downtown law office to devise a strategy for Tom DeLay to gracefully give up his leadership position? Now Dems, isn't this rumor better than Sylvester jumping ship?

I get the point here, but the very reason that many Democrats said "get lost" when Turner asked for their help in his mayoral bid is due to his serving in the Craddick leadership team. I've been tough on Sylvester Turner because of his work with the Craddick leadership, and his frequent bizarre explainations for certain votes and decisions. I will continue to be critical of Sylvester Turner and other Democrats when I see fit, but as anyone who knows me or reads this blog, would certainly know that I always save my harshest wrath for GOPers like Tom DeLay.