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I attended the Center for Politics and Governance Forum today (Thurs., Nov. 6th, 08') at UT, Austin. Below are some of my notes from the speakers and panelists, as well as comments from audience members, and some of my own.
I interviewed Houston Mayor Bill White and found him to be refreshing to speak with. Personable, compassionate, genuine, and he wants to make things happen. Bill gave a speech that was down-to-earth just before I spoke with him. He had a great line about true leaders, that leaders "have a responsibility to inspire people to want to get involved in the process and (political) system. To inspire them to want to do the right thing". He talked about education and how's it's everyone's responsiblity while explaining how he and his wife visited highschool drop-outs in their homes to help them get back into school. White also talked about a a very successful 6 week summer education program he and his wife started during the summer to help students stay educated instead of getting in trouble during their summer off.
During my brief intereview with Mayor White, I asked him if he's going to run for state office, and he said "most likely". I than asked Governor or Senator? And he didn't answer that question, but did go into detail about a number of important issues in the state of TX, especially Energy.
I very much enjoyed White's speech and speaking with him one-on-one. No ego, genuine, and it was clear that he means business.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst:
While commenting about Obama's Presidential victory, Dewhurst said "Presidential elections are about reactions to the past and vision for the future"... I agree!
Dewhurst said "greed went rampant" while talking about our Economy, and added that "even Greenspan apologized for not providing enough oversight to the market".
Dewhurst was proud about his role in championing Education and committed to "continue to raise teacher's salaries and end teaching to the TAKS tests". Dewhurst also talked about Health Care, commenting that we spend too much money on Health Care in the US, the 2nd most of any country, adding "but I'm not recommending Universal Health Care".
Dewhurst gave a very safe speech, covering Edu, Health Care, and the Economy.
A number of audience members privately commented to me that it was one of the most boring speeches they've ever heard...one woman said "it's amazing that he can speak for over 20 minutes and say nothing". I wouldn't go that far, but he certainly didn't say anything groundbreaking. And being that it was our "keynote", I would have enjoyed something more captivating.
TX State Rep Sylvester Turner was on a panel and contrast to my comments above on Dewhurst, he was a real crowd-pleaser...Turner said he's running for the Speaker's race and he received a great applause from the audience when he compared the changing political climate in TX to a "cool breeze coming from the North East to TX"...the crowd loved this analogy, explaining how the cool air is mixing with the "hot air of TX" to turn it a cool blue.
TX Sen. Kirk Watson got the crowd laughing with his comment "we had two hurricanes in TX, Ike and Lehman Brothers". Watson also talked about how critical redrawing of the Congressional lines will be in 2010. Watson joked that the agreement before the last TX legislative session was to "stop the diversions", but that the lege still had over $1.6B of diversions, a 15% increase from the previous session! Watson also said Climate Change needs to be an issue, that "TX is the #1 state in the country producing Carbon".
Sen. Florence Shapiro talked about Education alot...and then talked about Education a little more, and then talked about Education some more to wrap it up.
TX State Rep Scott Hochberg, who also said he's running for Speaker, commented on how the Speaker's performance needs to be improved.
One of the panelists said that "70% of unmarried women in TX voted for Obama".
Burka made the comment that "the average age of the Republican Party has gone from age 42 to 56 in recent years".
The panel was asked if Gov Rick Perry is really running for reelection...and most said "he says he is, and I do believe he's honest"...but it was clear that they have their doubts. But they all felt that Kay Bailey Hutchison is running.
TX Monthly's Paul Burka commented on Kay Bailey Hutchison saying that "Kay is typically risk averse. But she did vote for the bailout and for SChip, so it'll be interesting to see how Perry uses that against her if they run head-to-head"...Burka went on to say "this would be a tough, bitter fight. Does Kay have the stomach for a tough/bitter fight? Maybe. Does Rick? Yes".
Bryan Eppstein, TX based Republican consultant and pollster gave a few poll#'s showing that Kay Baily is beating Perry...and commented that "Kay Bailey will win against Perry"...Burka was not so sure.
While talking about state-wide races and "up-and-coming Dems", Kelly Fero throughout Donna Howard's name, and a few folks in the audience immediately clapped.
The big topics were the speaker's race and the Gov's race.
Burka recommended that Mayor Bill White should run for US Senator and not Gov (Kay Bailey's open position, assuming she runs for Gov).
Best,
David Kobierowski
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