Henry Bonilla wants you to forget he had his own nanny problems too.
On October 24, 1994 a national AP story titled "Texas Lawmaker Joins Huffington in Nanny Problems" had this interesting point to make:
Senate hopeful Michael Huffington of California isn't the only lawmaker with a nanny problem erupting close to Election Day. Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-Texas, also found himself fending off trouble Friday after reports surfaced that he employed an undocumented British worker as a nanny for almost seven years.
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In Texas, Bonilla has been a strong supporter of beefing up the Border Patrol to combat the flow of illegal aliens into the United States. In a Feb. 18 letter published in the San Antonio Express-News, Bonilla wrote: "Illegal immigrants are a tremendous drain on our society. They use our hospitals, our schools and our social services without paying the taxes to support them. "The Justice Department in April ended without prosecution a 10-month investigation of Bonilla's employment of the British nanny. Bonilla vigorously denied any wrongdoing in employing the woman from 1986 through early 1993. But he acknowledged not paying back taxes on the nanny's wages until early 1993. He refused to divulge how much he paid, saying it was a private matter.
Bonilla's hypocrisy is well documented. This is just another example of Repulican's leading with a, "do as I say not as I do" philosophy. During that same time, Bonilla scored a 48% from Americans for Better Immigration, a 17% score from the Committee on Border Control, and countless goose eggs from the American Immigration Lawyers Associations.
(Even John Courage realizes that giving money is the most important thing we can do to help Ciro in this race! Join John, and help Ciro today! - promoted by Phillip Martin)
I want to thank you again for your generous support of my campaign for the 21st Congressional District of Texas and to ask you to make another commitment of support for my friend Democrat Ciro D. Rodriguez, currently in a runoff against Republican Henry Bonilla in the 23rd Congressional District race in South Texas.
The great nationwide Democratic Party victories in the House and Senate, as well as the governorships and legislatures of a majority of states, have given us all something to celebrate, but I want you to realize that the 2006 Congressional races are not over. Here in Texas we still have one more Republican to retire and one more great Democrat to send back to Congress.
The same August re-re-redistricting that changed my CD-21 to favor the incumbent actually put Republican Congressman Henry Bonilla of CD-23 in a more precarious position. Now Ciro Rodriguez, who ably and honorably served four terms in Congress before losing his seat in the wake of DeLay's redistricting scheme, is now on the verge of beating Bonilla in a Dec. 12 runoff and returning to Congress to truly represent the people of South Texas! But he needs our help.
Bexar County commissioners have unanimously decided to move the early vote for the runoff election in TX-23 between Republican Congressman Henry Bonilla and Democratic challenger and former Congressman Ciro Rodriguez up two days. The question now, though, is if such a move is legal. From the San Antonio Express-News article titled, Bexar extends early voting for District 23; state objects:
Rodriguez on Tuesday welcomed the extension, saying: "For working families, the weekend is crucial. ... Hopefully, there shouldn't be any excuse for not coming out to vote."
Bonilla spokesman Phil Ricks, who learned about the vote from a reporter, noted: "We would be very much in favor of that."
But at the secretary of state's office, Haywood said state election law rules out early voting on Saturday and Sunday. A provision for special runoff elections says early voting must start 10 days before election day - unless it lands on the weekend or a state holiday. In either case, early voting starts on the next business day.
The rule governs special runoffs for state Senate and House posts, but Haywood said it also applies to congressional runoffs.
The article goes on to note that an extended runoff was allowed for the special election to replace Tom Delay.
Luis Vera Jr., LULAC's national general counsel, disagreed. He said that part of the election code shouldn't apply to the race in the 23rd District...
"They used that (17-day) provision because they had a (Republican) write-in candidate, because they needed more time," said Vera, a Rodriguez supporter.
"They change the rules to fit their needs."
If the new dates hold up, early voting would begin this weekend, with polls open on Saturday from 10am to 6pm, and on Sunday from 12:00pm to 6:00pm.
(Well Researched. You should take a look at why it is time to support Ciro. - promoted by Matt Glazer)
Ciro Rodriguez - Rated 100% by the NEA, indicating pro-public education votes.
Henry Bonilla - Rated 33% by the NEA, indicating anti-public education votes.
Ciro Rodriguez - Voted NO on allowing vouchers in DC schools.
Henry Bonilla - Voted YES on allowing vouchers in DC schools.
Ciro Rodriguez - Opposes requiring school prayer.
Henry Bonilla - Supports a Constitutional Amendment for school prayer.
Ciro Rodriguez - Rated 100% by APHA, indicating a pro-public health record.
Henry Bonilla - Rated 11% by APHA, indicating a anti-public health voting record.
Ciro Rodriguez - Voted YES on allowing reimportation of prescription drugs.
Henry Bonilla - Voted NO on allowing reimportation of prescription drugs.
Ciro Rodriguez - Voted NO on forbidding expanded stem cell research.
Henry Bonilla - Voted YES on forbidding expanded stem cell research.
(A refresher for those who are new to who Ciro Rodriguez the person is. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
Ciro Rodriguez is rated 100% by the NEA, indicating pro-public education, and he voted against the school voucher program which would bleed money from the public schools and for reducing class size in grades 1 to 3.
Ciro is rated 100% by APHA, indicating a pro-public health record, and he has voted for more federal funding for health coverage, against the Prescription Drug Coverage boondoggle for international pharmaceutical corporations, for allowing reimportation of safe prescription drugs from Canada, and against arbitrarily capping damages in lawsuits involving hospital and nursing home negligence.
Ciro is rated 100% by the ARA, indicating a pro-senior voting record, and he voted against privatizing Social Security, in favor of strengthening the Social Security Lockbox, and against reducing tax payments on Social Security benefits.
Ciro is rated 100% by NARAL, indicating a pro-choice voting record.
Ciro is rated 89% by SANE, indicating a pro-peace voting record.
Ciro is rated 0% by the xenophobes at FAIR, indicating he favors a non-punitive immigration policy, and he voted for extending Immigrant Residency rules, and against reporting illegal aliens who receive hospital treatment.
Good news out of TX-23. As of today, all of Ciro Rodriguez's former Democratic challengers in the open primary for TX-23 have now endorsed his campaign. Third place finisher Lukin Gilliland has offered up his northside campaign headquarters and staff.
"Henry Bonilla simply hasn't done his job to provide fresh ideas on how to protect our troops and bring an honorable peace to the war in Iraq. This runoff represents the people's chance to make changes in our Iraq policy and bring our troops home. Bonilla continues claiming to support our troops and yet he continues to send them into harm's way," said Albert Uresti.
"The Republican leadership has failed, as signaled by the November elections. Uniting the Democrats behind one democrat in this Congressional election is important so that we may continue the change of direction in our country," said Uresti.
The Urestis' endorsement is an important lynchpin in Rodriguez's plan to unite Democrats to defeat Republican Congressman Henry Bonilla. Senator Carlos Uresti represents a district that mirrors the boundaries of the 23rd Congressional District and Albert Uresti garnered the second most votes among Democrats in the special election contest that ended November 7, 2006.
Both brothers declare that Bonilla has not represented the concerns of the people of the 23rd Congressional District and believe Rodriguez provides an opportunity toward a new direction that puts people above the powerful special interests that have created a failed Republican government in Washington.
In 1999, Henry Bonilla took over an independent Political Action Committee known as the American Dream PAC. Bonilla promised to "give significant, direct financial assistance" to minority political candidates.
Under the first four years of Bonilla's supervision over the American Dream PAC, Bonilla collected $550,000.00 to fulfill his promise to help fund minority political candidates, but Bonilla gave less than $50,000 to minority candidates seeking public office. Bonilla used less than 9% of the funds collected to serve the interests which Bonilla promised to serve.
Instead, Bonilla used over twice as much money collected by this supposedly "independent" Political Action Committee (more than $100,000.00) to pay off partisan Republican Party organizations and causes, including corrupt Republican Tom DeLay's criminal defense fund. This is the same Tom DeLay who violated the Voting Rights Act to illegally gerrymander Bonilla's congressional district in a failed attempt to dilute the votes of over 100,000 Latino voters in Bonilla's district. Even the Republican-dominated Supreme Court had to reject Bonilla's gerrymandered district because DeLay and Bonilla "took away the Latinos' opportunity because Latinos were about to exercise it" against Bonilla.
Below is an update from a friend in the know down in San Antonio.
Here's the lowdown as of sometime today... DCCC people were flying into town today to tell Ciro's what's going down. If he liked it and was willing to play by the rules, fine. If not, they're gonna pack it up. I'll probably have more information on this meeting sometime later on this week.
From what I hear, the D-trip might just run this entire campaign as an independent expenditure. Let Ciro try and raise some money so he can do his own thing, but run mail, field (the real field program) and any other media stuff through the d-trip. The DCCC is bringing in a top notch field person to run their show and that'll be that. If there is one way to win this district with Ciro at the helm, this is basically the way to do it.
This story is a must read if you are curious at all to the working of the run-off in TX-23 and why things have been slow to develop. In short, if Ciro seriously wants to win the race, he's going to have to come to terms with the reality that letting his wife wield great power over his campaigns has to end. Sadly, when running in one of the largest congressional districts in the county in terms of land area, Ciro's door-to-door mantra will not win it for him in a one month campaign that spans 20+ counties.
Ciro is an amazing progressive and his heart and votes are in the right place. If we are going to win this election, we should be well advised to understand why certain people that can help (like the DCCC) are asking the questions they are before investing. Bonilla will be toast in 2008 if he's not removed next month. It's not a matter of if but rather when and by whom. And as I'm sure anyone in San Antonio can attest to, there are plenty of personalities that have various interests in outcomes either way in this run-off election.
My thoughts? I'd rather win it sooner than later and will encourage people to make use of Maxey's online tools to do so once they become available for the race. Until then, educate yourself.
Former Gov. Dolph Briscoe is with him. So is Uvalde Mayor George Garza and Helen Dutmer, a former Bexar County commissioner and San Antonio city councilwoman.
They're among 21 pols and former pols sitting on the steering committee of "Democrats for Bonilla," according to Rep. Henry Bonilla's campaign.
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Although Dutmer, who is also supporting Republican George Antuna over Democrat Joe Farias in the Texas House District 118 race, is the sole South Side politico on the list, she's not the only San Antonian.
Henry Muñoz, CEO of architectural firm Kell Muñoz and a former chairman of the Texas Department of Transportation, is also is a "Democrat for Bonilla," according to the seven-term congressman's campaign.
Texas Democrats sure seem to be pretty good at throwing their Party candidates under the bus, from the Valley Mayors to these folk to the original trial lawyers for Strayhorn.
