Burnt Orange Report

Bill and Bell: More Than Just an "I"

By Karl-Thomas Musselman

While reading last Friday's Statesman article on Justice Gammage's interest in the Governors race, I was interested to see a couple things. One was a reference to BOR for helping to bring that story to light.

Gammage, 67, a mediation attorney whose consideration surfaced this week on blogs, including the Democrat-oriented Burnt Orange Report, said he's weighing whether he can raise enough money to run and whether his candidacy would draw grass-roots support.

The second was some of the lines of difference that Gammage was drawing with Bell.

Gammage called Bell a likable leader who deserves credit for filing U.S. House ethics complaints against U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, last summer.

But Gammage said Bell "hasn't been able to focus public attention on much of anything else. And he can't run on that. He's not running against Tom DeLay; he's running for governor of Texas, and it's a big state. Anybody who hasn't run statewide really can't appreciate how big.

"The campaign conducted so far puts you to sleep," Gammage said. "The message is not being delivered so that anyone is listening. One thing I can do is deliver a message. I know how to wage a late-starting, under-funded campaign. Been doing that all my life."

On taxation, Gammage differs from Bell in saying that creation of a state personal income tax should be considered with other government finance options. "Everything is on the table," he said.

Gammage, a Houston native, is a former college instructor whose career includes stints in the Texas House and Senate and the U.S. House. He also served on the Third Court of Appeals in Austin and on the Texas Supreme Court.

Now, I wouldn't mind some sleep, goodness knows I havn't gotten enough of it this semester while steering the Campus Alliance to victory locally on Prop 2. While I'm supportive of Democrats running at all levels and hold out hope in even the most unlikely elections, I can only work and volunteer for so many campaigns and have little time at this point get excited about campaigns which, well, aren't very exciting. Or worse, leave me scratching my head.

Bell spokesman Jason Stanford said it was "ludicrous" that Bell is fixed on DeLay. Bell "was not afraid of Tom DeLay. He isn't afraid of Rick Perry. And he's certainly not afraid of Bob Gammage," Stanford said.

Stanford made a comparison to jockeying among Democratic presidential possibilities before the 1992 election season.

"How many Mario Cuomos have to pass on this race before we realize we've got a Bill Clinton already running?" Stanford asked.

Whoa, hold up there. Was that just a comparison of Chris Bell to Bill Clinton? Um, ok. I thought this was supposed to be the campaign that put me to sleep, not put me in tears.