A Response to my Dear Friends at the Statesman

by: Glen Maxey

Mon Feb 25, 2008 at 03:47 AM CST

On that front, I think we need to clarify some issues raised in the Statesman's editorial, beginning with a large, rather obvious, factual error in the opening of their editorial.

It would not be too surprising to see a Republican make a run against Spears, 61, but none is running for the office this year.

Pardon me?  You'd think the editorial writer would read the news section of their own newspaper or check out this nifty webpage on the Austin American Statesman.

You'll see there that the local Ron Paul for President chairman, former candidate for State Representative in District 50, and leader of the folks who opposed creation of the Travis County Hospital District, Don Zimmerman, is filed and running as the Republican candidate for Tax Assessor-Collector.

Instead, the challenger is a fellow Democrat, former state representative and political consultant, Glen Maxey, 55.

Well that's wrong, too. My birthday was Saturday so I'm 56. But that's an error that I won't raise too much of a fuss about.

Maxey has tried hard to explain just what it is beyond personal ambition that prompted him to run against Spears.

It's not too hard to explain if one just tried a simple check of my campaign website. There you can read about my reasons for running based upon serious concerns on Voter Registration, Collecting Delinquent Taxes, and on Voter Protection. If I was after personal ambition, I think I'd be running for something a bit more glamorous than Tax Assessor.

Maxey asserted that Spears was too harsh in seizing the homes of the poor in East Austin to satisfy unpaid taxes, but that isn't true. The foreclosures were filed largely against absentee owners.

Spears says she's not foreclosed on a single homestead in her time in office.   Check out this website (it would be her office's official site).

You can look through the last year's foreclosure sales. Those who are redeemable for 24 months are those that are homesteads. I found a bunch during the last year. I don't know how Spears defines "homestead", but the law is pretty clear: You own it and reside in it to file for a homestead exemption.

A simple data match I did between the voter list and the property rolls, shows that over 5% of the folks in East Austin who own a home and are registered to vote at that same location don't have a basic homestead exemption. An activist leader would be finding out why that many folks are missing this benefit. And an active Tax Assessor would be educating them about obtaining it.

A true active leader would show up for more than 12% of the meetings since 2000 of the Travis County Appraisal District Board meetings.  An active leader would be leading the conversation about what we need to do locally and at the Legislature to deal with inequities in appraisal policy.

Then he made a stink over some voter registration problems that appear now to have been resolved. It was the kind of administrative hiccup offices, public or private, occasionally experience.

A stink over some voter registration problems?   It's stunning that the editorial board of the Statesman would dismiss denial of the right to vote of even a single voter, much less the thousands in question.    

First, there was the purging of thousands of voters in the debacle of comparing the state voter list with the local one maintained by Spears' office. When it was discovered that many were inaccurately purged, Ms. Spears decided that these voters needed to register to vote all over again. Thankfully, lots have.  

However, there are still many voters who were not notified of this bureaucratic mishap. Through no fault of their own, they are no longer registered after meeting all requirements. Ms. Spears seems to shrug her shoulders and blame the voters.  Sorry, that's not good enough when dealing with the constitutional right to vote.  She knows who was purged by the "system". She should have added them back on the rolls. I expect there are going to be some angry voters after this election.

Secondly, it has been discovered that over 1000 people who voted in the 2004 General Election were purged the month after the election. Over 225 people who voted in the 2006 General Election were purged one month after voting. These folks, once again, did what they were supposed to do, yet are no longer registered. And the American Statesman editorial writer blow this off as an "administrative hiccup"?  The right to vote is sacred.  It's not a hiccup.

Most recently, Maxey said Spears favors requiring voters to prove their citizenship when they register to vote. Again, this is a manufactured problem because the decision on that lies with the Legislature, not the tax assessor-collector. Republicans have pushed hard to require photo identification at the polls, when it's actually time to vote. We doubt the identification law needs to be any stricter whether at registration or the polls.

So last session we have a raging battle at the Legislature about  voter ID and proof of citizenship. It's pushed by the Republicans and led by Paul Bettencourt, the Tax Assessor Collector and Voter Registrar from Harris County. Nelda Spears is no where to be seen.

The Elections Committee of the House of Representatives has a public hearing on Voter Registration issues last month. Testimony is invited and every Voter Registrar in the top 5 counties is invited and appears... except for Travis County.

Nelda Spears says being involved in a basic discussion about limiting the right to vote is not her job. It seems like most other Voter Registrars in the state disagree, whether on one side or the other.  But the Travis County Voter Registrar is silent.

When asked by the press why she didn't appear, she was pretty blunt.   She stated that she saw nothing wrong with those bills-that she'd read them. She seems to have missed a whole national debate and arguments made in a US Supreme Court case as recently as last month. Briefs by every major civil liberties, voting rights, and minority rights organization in our country were filed saying that picture ID for voting discriminates against the poor, minorities and the elderly.  

Spears thought it not a big deal to have a picture ID (until, I suppose, somebody clued her in the next day).

But the most offensive part of this whole narrative is that when this conversation became public, Spears backtracked and said she wasn't talking about voter ID at all (she was), but was only agreeing that we need to prove citizenship before voting.  

Here's her position, posted on her own website:

"I support having citizens show some kind of evidence of their citizenship at the time they register to vote. My recent comments were about HB 626."

And her statement at a forum last month.

"People have to check that box that says they're a citizen. We have a lot of people moving here from other countries. We need something, some way...I don't know what it is... to make sure they're all citizens when they register to vote."

-Nelda Wells Spears, Forum at Capitol Area Democratic Women, January 10, 2008

Spears may think it's not a big deal to "prove citizenship".  But even Republicans at the Legislature recoiled at HB 626. The ONLY way to prove citizenship is to show a certified birth certificate or valid passport when attempting to register to vote. The first costs $22. The latter costs $99. This requirement is nothing but a modern-day poll tax. Period.

And while Spears may think it's OK to single out "people moving here from other countries" (who might that be?),  the only way to prove citizenship is to make everyone go through this extraordinary step. It's racial profiling to register to vote, pure and simple.  And it would be the end of voter registration drives in minority and student precincts.  

I'm proud that 25,000+ UT students are registered to vote in Austin.I've assisted student groups in making that happen. How many would be registered if they had to have a certified birth certificate in their possession to fill out a card? Even if they own one, it won't be in their backpack in Austin.

Maxey's accusations that Spears suppresses minority voters is ironic given his demonstrable disdain for East Austin residents. Frank Ortega, a member of the State Democratic Executive Committee, says that when Maxey was directing the party's coordinated campaign in 2006, he budgeted no money to turn out East Austin voters. Money was put into the East Austin initiative only after Ortega and others confronted party leaders about the slight.

Frank Ortega is totally talking out of his hat. I wasn't running the party's coordinated campaign in 2006.  The coordinated campaign was run and money budgeted by the Chair of the Party, Chris Elliott. The Director in charge was Sandra Ramos. The East Austin Initiative was led by County Attorney David Escamilla, a large committee, and with two staffers assigned to East Austin (Rudy Malveaux, now Spears campaign manager, and Gloria Gonzalez, wife of Albert Gonzales who's running for County Commissioner Pct. 3 in western Travis County). I had NO role in budgets or in targeting or making any decisions about money for East Austin. It wasn't in my job description.

Maxey's resume is not that impressive...

Here's my resume. I'm mighty proud of it.  Here's a snippet:

- Teacher of migrant kids.
- Legislative aide to two great Senators, Kent Caperton and Oscar Mauzy
- Participant in over 100 campaigns at all levels and all positions.
- State Representative for 6 terms
- Leader in creating the Children's Health Insurance Program
- Author of nationally recognized disability legislation and HIV and Hepitis C policy
- Leader of reform of the Rules of the House (heralded by the Austin American Statesman)
- Ethics reform leader (Praised in an editorial in the Austin American Statesman)
- A founder of AIDS Services of Austin and the Texas AIDS Network.
- Openly gay, and proud of it and the work I've done for the GLBT community.

Many Democrats believe it's time for a change.  Time for ending the culture of passivity in this office. Here's a list of the community groups and Democratic Clubs have endorsed my campaign for Tax Assessor-Collector:

• Austin Chronicle
• The Daily Texan
• Austin Progressive Coalition
• Central Austin Democrats
• University Democrats
• Democracy for America
• Latinos for Texas
• Capital Area Asian American Democrats
• Capital City Young Democrats
• Austin Gay & Lesbian Political Caucus
• Stonewall Democrats
• Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund
• South Austin Democrats

The lack of an official endorsement from the Statesman is not what concerns me in this campaign- elections have rarely turned upon it, and certainly not any of mine. What concerns me is the dismissive attitude given towards those whose rights are being threatened in our community by an office which has lost the energy needed to stand up for homeowners, voters, and the average taxpayer.

My entire campaign has been about changing that attitude. And I look forward to receiving the Statesman's endorsement this fall when I'm the Democratic nominee against Republican Don Zimmerman.