Tuesday, February 12, 2008

TEXAS LEGISLATIVE SURVEY OF CANDIDATES FOR 81ST DISTRICT

We had 100% participation in the illegal immigration survey by the candidates for the position of State Representative for the 81st District. Each was gracious and very concerned about the problems faced by our cities and state because of illegal immigration. Upon our review of the survey results, we believe a person looking at the results should be aware that there are problems in acquiring and accurate and objective interpretation of the survey findings. We found that an experienced legislator, familiar with the process of passing bills, would of necessity reply to some questions differently than other candidates thereby placing him in an unfair position. We could also see where the candidate with the most legal experience might choose to not respond to a question involving a bill that may have been designed to create a Superior Court challenge. Consequently, Concerned Citizens Coalition chooses not to assign grades to the candidates based on the numerical value of the response. We do believe this survey is an important tool that can be used to create local discussion and increase our education of the candidates’ positions on illegal immigration bills that might be presented to our state legislature at the next session.

The candidates were instructed that these questions came from bills that were attempted in the last session of the Texas State Legislature and that, if they were to be reintroduced in the coming session, we were interested in hearing how they might handle them so that we might educate our members. These were their instructions.

The list labeled “LEVELS OF SUPPORT” below indicates levels of support for an idea, with 1 being the lowest level and each number thereafter indicating a higher level of support for an idea. Below each idea you will see these numbers listed. Please circle a number to indicate your level of support.

LEVELS OF SUPPORT

1 = I would vote for this if it came to the floor

2 = I would try to influence my colleagues to vote for this

3 = I would try to get this out of committee with a favorable recommendation

4 = I would co-sponsor this as legislation

5 = I would co-author this as legislation

6 = I would introduce this as the main author

The ideas run the gamut, from those deliberately designed to provoke a court challenge and a Supreme Court decision, to those that an ordinary Texan would wonder why it was not already on the books many, many years ago. Or indedd, why it needs to be vergalized at all since it is just ordinary common sense. So, if you are ambivalent, or if you oppose the idea, don’t circle anything.


So, below are the bills attempted in the last session of the Texas Legislature and the candidates’ responses. Let’s take a look at what is being considered by our lawmakers, find out why they’re considering specific actions, and comment to let them know what you think about it.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Ewhhhhh! I've got some strange stuff appearing on here. Those of you who access this before I get it fixed, please excuse it. In the meantime, it's not showing up on my editor. ????? I'm going to have to go find somebody who knows more about computers than me.

Anonymous said...

Randy Rives looks like the best candidate to back.

Unknown said...

I haven't decided yet. Randy looks like a go-getter. Buddy has the experience and broke with Craddick last session but I worry about his health. Tryon Lewis looks good and he's out to protect our water. We're going to need that. And everyone seems to like Jesse Gore. The situation in Austin worries me a great deal.

Anonymous said...

What situation in Austin?

Anonymous said...

I don't know who to vote for. They seem to be all the same except for the highway deal. I was going to vote for Tryon Lewis, but if he's going to support toll roads and by that, he supports this merger deal, I won't be voting for him.