I've Chosen A Candidate For Governor

There are three candidates left in the Texas governor's race on the Democratic side. I'm not particularly thrilled by any of the three -- Farouk Shami (Houston businessman), Bill White (former mayor of Houston) and Felix Alvarado (educator). However, it's now 2010 and the primary is now less than three months away, so I've decided to climb on board the bandwagon of one of these candidates.

First of all, I simply cannot support hair care magnate Farouk Shami. He may be a very nice person -- I don't know. But I do know that I do not like the idea of a rich man trying to buy his way into an elected office, and Shami is a very rich man who's pledged to spend at least $10 million of his own money to get elected. Frankly, if you can't raise your campaign funds from voters, then you probably don't deserve their votes.

That leaves Bill White and Felix Alvarado (pictured). There are a couple of things about Bill White that I don't care for. First, is this belief that that all the other candidates should get out of the race and let him be the candidate. He's already ran the two best candidates out of the race (Hank Gilbert and Kinky Friedman). They both must accept responsibility for their own cowardice, but White and his supporters must accept the blame for asking or urging them to quit (or threatening).

Now it seems they are trying the same thing on Felix Alvarado. They seem to be concerned that although Alvarado has no name-recognition and virtually no campaign funds, he might get large numbers of South Texas votes just because he has a Hispanic name. This is a huge insult to Hispanic voters -- the idea that they would vote for one of their own rather than the person they thought would be best for Texas. If many of them do vote for Alvarado, it'll be because they think he's the best candidate (and that is their right).

I don't think any candidate, or his supporters, should ask another candidate to drop out of a political race. If you are truly a great candidate, you should be able to take on all comers and win. If you have to get others to drop out so you can win, then you probably shouldn't be running at all because you're not a good candidate.

The second reason I don't like Bill White is because he is an obvious "blue dog Democrat". After the fiasco the blue dogs caused over health care reform, there is no way I could vote for one of them -- regardless of what office they are running for. A lot of Texas progressive bloggers have jumped on the White bandwagon, but I have yet to hear a single one of them refer to White as a liberal or progressive.

No, the only reason they give for supporting this blue dog is that he's running on the Democratic ticket and they believe he has the best chance of winning. That's not good enough. What good will it do to elect a Democrat who will run the state like a business-oriented Republican. In fact, it may be worse than electing a Republican, because in four years we won't have the opportunity to elect a real progressive.

So that leaves me with Felix Alvarado as my candidate. I'm not sure he's a real progressive, but he couldn't be as big a blue dog as Bill White. I do like the fact that he's not rich, but is willing to take on the "big boys" (sort of a lovable Don Quixote). I also like the fact that he was not an officer in the Air Force, but retired as a Chief Master Sergeant. Then he went to a career in education (a field that's not known for making one rich). In other words, he's a working stiff like the rest of us.

That's why he says, "I am running because I know I can do better for the working-class, for our Seniors who labored throughout their lives, for our Texas Warriors who risked their lives in the combat fields and now feel abandoned by our government, having to travel several hundred miles to obtain the VA medical care which their service-related wounds and illnesses require."

At least he's talking about helping the right people -- the people who've been ignored by the conservatives who have ruled Texas for years. It's time to show conservatives to the door and kick them out (even the blue dogs), and the only chance I see of doing that is to elect Felix Alvarado.

That's why I will be marking my ballot for Felix Alvarado next March.