For Thompson
Democrats should promote someone to the Senate who has earned respect in Austin.
It isn’t hard to argue that the Texas Republican Party has an ethics problem. The attorney general has been indicted for fraud. The agriculture commissioner spent taxpayer bucks to get a “Jesus Shot.” The land commissioner spent $1 million paying ex-workers for not suing over their terminations.
As Harris County Democrats move to replace state Sen. Rodney Ellis in the race for Senate District 13, we can’t help but feel like they’ve looked at the Republicans’ mess and decided they want in on the action.
The leading candidate for the position is state Rep. Borris Miles, a man whose name has become synonymous with dirty politics.
In 2008 he was indicted (and later acquitted) for deadly conduct in a bizarre scenario that had him accused of crashing a holiday party at the St. Regis Hotel flashing a gun, threatening the host, and forcibly kissing a married woman on the mouth. In 2010, he had a constable call on him for illegal electioneering. Last year he tussled with a public safety officer after trying to force his way into a private dining room at an Austin restaurant. He went for years without revealing his personal business interests in violation of state law, and failed to maintain a proper certificate of occupancy for his cigar bar, Our Legends, a popular hangout for politicians and the politically connected.
Those political connections seem to come easily for Miles. As the owner of an insurance agency, the state representative has had contracts with the Houston Independent School District, Houston Community College and the city of Houston.
Miles told the Houston Chronicle editorial board that he earned these contracts before his election to public office in 2006. Legal or otherwise, the fact that a state representative’s private company is underwritten by taxpayerfunded institutions perpetuates the image that elected officials have an insider track to the public trough. That image of impropriety is only underscored by the fact that, while selling insurance to the school district, he maintained a business relationship with the husband of one HISD board member and arranged vacations to Costa Rica for another board member under the pretense of studying medical treatment for teachers in the Central American nation.
Is this really the behavior that Democrats want to reward? Is this the image that they want to promote? We hope not.
We also wouldn’t reward former City Controller Ron Green, who has thrown his hat into the ring. Green has been weighed down by unpaid taxes that reach into the six-figures. Despite that problem, Green is capable of discussing the issues and was the only candidate during an editorial board meeting to bring up the challenge of Houston’s public pensions.
However, we endorse state Rep. Senfronia Thompson for Senate District 13, which stretches from northeast Houston to Fort Bend County.
Mrs. T, as she is known, was first elected to the House in 1972, and since then she has become a moral force in Austin. The longestserving woman or African-American in Texas legislative history, Thompson has made it her personal duty to defend the “little dogs” of our state by raising the minimum wage, passing a hate-crime bill to protect gays and lesbians, requiring insurers to cover women’s health, supporting rape victims and preventing racial profiling.
Texas Monthly has described Mrs. T as a “guardian angel of the process,” standing at the front of the House chamber during debate to check over proposed amendments and ensure that nobody tries to pull a fast one.
This is the sort of experience and dedication that Texas Democrats should want to see in the Senate. To hear Thompson describe it, she already has a successful record in that upper house, having worked to soothe Republican knee-jerk opposition to an equal-pay bill supported by then-state Sen. Wendy Davis.
Miles told the editorial board that he can be abrasive because, “I demand respect.” But respect isn’t won through demands — it is earned through hard work. Thompson’s years in Austin have earned her more respect than just about any other politician in Texas today. She deserves the support of the 95 precinct chairs in District 13 when they vote on Saturday.