[AGL] Debate

[Igor Loving]

Different format, same stump speeches
By JOHN MORITZ, ANNA M. TINSLEY and AMAN BATHEJA
Star-Telegram Staff Writers

POOL PHOTO/SMILEY N. POOL
Gov. Rick Perry addresses the debate panel Friday as challengers Chris Bell, 
Kinky Friedman and Carole Keeton Strayhorn wait their turn.
More photos
DALLAS -- The four leading candidates for governor clawed for attention 
Friday night, with each staking out contrasting views on how to combat 
illegal immigration, improve Texas' public schools and change the ethical 
climate in Austin.

There were few surprises, and despite some spirited sparring and 
entertaining moments, no apparent knockout punches were delivered.

Republican incumbent Rick Perry, seeking to become the first Texas governor 
to serve 10 consecutive years in the state's highest elected office, 
absorbed most of the punishment. But independent Kinky Friedman was also 
hammered for his use of remarks that some have found racially insensitive.

"Everybody's ganging up on me," the singer-songwriter-entertainer said at 
one point. Friedman said the others were tackling him because he's the one 
carrying the ball, rather than Perry, whom he described as still being on 
the sidelines. He added another of his stock stump speech quips in which he 
breaks down the word politics: "Poli means more than one. Ticks are 
bloodsucking parasites."

The hourlong debate in a Dallas television studio owned by the Belo Corp. 
was the first and only gubernatorial debate in the 2006 campaign. And it had 
to compete with Friday night football, the baseball playoffs and the 
prime-time TV lineup, as well as the partying in advance of today's 
Texas-Oklahoma football game.

Independent Carole Keeton Strayhorn stumbled over two questions from the 
four journalists on the panel -- who the newly elected president of Mexico 
is, and how long unemployment benefits last.

But Democrat Chris Bell, still struggling to unite his party's base around 
his first statewide political race, aced his pop quiz, correctly stating 
1836 as the year the Alamo fell and knowing that Texas has no term limits 
for governor.

"That's why Texans should be horrified," he deadpanned, pointing out that 
Perry has not ruled out running again in 2010 if he wins Nov. 7.

The candidate with the most votes wins; getting a majority is not necessary.

Familiar territory

Each of the candidates emphasized themes they've been testing on the 
campaign trail for much of the past year and earlier.

Strayhorn, a two-term Republican state comptroller who severed her party 
ties in January, hammered at Perry's ambitious Trans-Texas Corridor, a 
planned network of toll roads, freeways and rail lines designed to ease 
urban and suburban congestion.

She called it a "$184 billion boondoggle," saying it would uproot countless 
acres of farmland and leave motorists at the mercy of the Spanish-owned 
company that won the contract to run it.

"I will, first of all, bust that contract," she said.

Perry swung back just as hard, arguing that without a state-of-the-art 
transportation system, the Texas economy would collapse.

"Our population is going to double by 2040," he said. "We're going to have 
to build transportation infrastructure in this state."

Friedman stuck to his theme of being the anti-politician who's not afraid to 
speak his mind.

"You can't be afraid of offending people," he said.

But the others pounced on Friedman's recent description of some Hurricane 
Katrina evacuees as "thugs and crackheads" and for using the N-word in a 
decades-old comedy routine.

"Mr. Friedman, words matter," Perry said. "Using that terminology, whether 
it's on stage or in the Governor's Mansion, is unacceptable."

Plans and precedents

Bell reminded voters that during his single term in Congress he filed the 
ethics complaint that set in motion the events that led to House Republican 
Leader Tom DeLay's resignation He vowed to end the "high-stakes nature" of 
standardized tests in public schools.

Friedman said he would treat the border as if it were under martial law to 
control illegal immigration.

"Whatever it takes," he said. And he vowed to crack down on companies that 
hire undocumented immigrants. "If we find an employer [repeatedly] hiring 
illegals ... we sock them with a $25,000 fine."

Perry reminded viewers that the state's economy is humming, and that he 
pushed through a school finance plan designed to lower property taxes.

"Texas is on the right track," he said.

Strayhorn countered that the tax cut approved by the Legislature was 
"paltry."

Bell appeared to get the quickest, most tangible bounce after the debate.

Houston trial lawyer John O'Quinn, who helped the state win its $17.3 
billion settlement with the nation's tobacco companies in the late 1990s, 
said Bell's performance helped persuade him to make a seven-figure 
contribution to the Democrat's cash-starved campaign.

"He's not going to lose because he lacks the resources," O'Quinn said. Asked 
how much he planned to give, he added: "A lot -- more than $1 million."

On the issues, in their own words

Immigration

Bell: You have to talk about what you're going to do about the 12 million 
people who are already here. Does anyone seriously believe we can deport 12 
million people when we couldn't even successfully evacuate New Orleans?

Friedman: I want 10,000 National Guardsmen down there now. Then we would 
print taxpayer ID cards, let the illegals that are here ... buy the card, we 
do a criminal background check, and they can work in Texas. And if we find 
an employer hiring an illegal after that, we sock him with a $25,000 fine.

Perry: We will do everything that we need to do and can do in this state 
until Washington understands that you cannot have national security, you 
cannot have an immigration program, until you have border security.

Strayhorn: I want the Texas Rangers to be in charge ... protect our ports, 
our borders and our critical infrastructure, and that will stop the illegal 
immigration. And then we will implement a fair, legal immigration program.

Property taxes

Bell: Businesses need to be paying their fair share. There's still over $1.5 
billion in new loopholes, and only 1 out of every 8 businesses here in the 
state of Texas is paying their fair share.

Friedman: I've advocated legalizing casino gambling to create a permanent 
revenue stream that will pay for education every year. We invented Texas 
hold 'em here, [but] we can't even play it. All the money is pouring out of 
state.

Perry: It is indisputable that there is a $15.5 billion property tax 
reduction over the next three years. Everyone knows that is a fact.

Strayhorn: How the governor can continue to say that's a $2,000 property tax 
cut .... Have you been to the mailbox lately? It's not a $2,000 property tax 
cut this year or next year or the year after. At best it's $52 this year, 
and that's one more Coca-Cola out of the vending machine. We need to tell 
Texans the truth. It's a paltry property tax cut that goes poof.

Schools

Bell: Look at the dropout rate. We have the highest in the entire country. 
We get an F on that. Look at college readiness. Every study says it's down. 
We get an F on that. We have some of the lowest SAT scores in the entire 
country. We get an F on that. Right now we are failing our kids.

Friedman: I think No Child Left Behind has failed. And I think the only way 
we're going to get to the bottom and solve the education problem is to leave 
one governor behind.

Perry: I think our public schools are doing a fabulous job. In the last five 
years we had a 20 percent increase in the number of kids going to college. 
We're preparing the skilled work force for the future of the state with what 
we're doing in our public schools, and I'm proud of it.

Strayhorn: First I was a public school teacher, and I'm going to put 
education and our children first. We're going to take care of our underpaid, 
unappreciated teachers.

TAKS

Bell: If we're going to improve public school education here in the state of 
Texas, then we're going to cease our dependency on high-stakes standardized 
testing. It is destroying the curriculum at public schools all across the 
state of Texas.

Friedman: The TAKS test has just got to go. It doesn't educate the kids. It 
penalizes special-ed kids. It gives everybody a nervous breakdown, and 
they're not sure whether the Civil War took place here or in Europe because 
it wasn't on the test.

Trans-Texas Corridor

Bell: In 2001 Carole Strayhorn recommended that TxDOT build more toll roads, 
and, boy, did Rick Perry take that advice. Now we're faced with the 
Trans-Texas Corridor. It is an absolute disaster and causing all sorts of 
anger all across the state. It's the biggest land grab in our state's 
history.

Perry: It has been debated I don't know how many legislative sessions. ... 
The bottom line is that the people have not only voted and sent a clear 
message of how we're going to build infrastructure in the state of Texas. We 
will see as a state that we can continue our economy in this state. If we 
don't build transportation infrastructure, people will no longer live here.

Strayhorn: I'm going to blast the Trans-Texas catastrophe right off the 
bureaucratic books. It is a $184 billion boondoggle -- a secret contract 
with a foreign company granting over a half-million acres of Texans' 
property. I will get out my veto pen on any dollars going to Trans-Texas 
catastrophe.

Debate highlights, lowlights

DALLAS -- Some irreverent moments from Friday night's debate:

Dressed to thrill: Independent Kinky Friedman didn't disappoint -- he came 
dressed in his trademark black outfit, complete with cowboy hat, and had a 
cigar (unlit) in hand. Republican incumbent Rick Perry and Democrat Chris 
Bell appeared in business suits and blue power ties. Carole Keeton Strayhorn 
wore a bright salmon-colored blazer.

Flunking the test: Strayhorn got thrown when asked to name the new president 
of Mexico. She knew he won by a slim margin. She knew Mexico is important. 
But she didn't know the name of President-elect Felipe Calderon.

Passing the test: Bell scored bonus points when he correctly answered that 
the Alamo fell in 1836.

Sounds as if he knew the answer: When asked what the electric bill was in 
August at the Governor's Mansion, Perry answered $4,000-$5,000, reminding 
viewers that it's a big house. Enterprising reporters will try to find out 
the bill first thing next week.

Best excuse for not knowing the answer: Friedman quibbled with panelist 
Wayne Slater of The Dallas Morning News when Slater said the candidate 
doesn't know the basics of Texas government. "I don't use the Internet," 
Friedman said. "I think it's the work of Satan."

Best comeback: "Who raised you? I was raised by a black lady in Houston, 
Texas. ... She taught me Jesus Christ was color blind. ... I'm not a racist. 
I'm a realist." That was Friedman's response to Slater, who asked about 
accusations that Friedman has made racist comments about blacks.

Quickest spin: Perry's camp set up a live blog during the debate to 
immediately counter other candidates' "disinformation." Bell's campaign also 
set up a blog.

Biggest debate prop: An 8-foot-tall Rick Perry kissing a large smoke stack 
sat outside the Dallas studio where the debate was held. Grassroots group 
Downwinders at Risk put it there.

By the numbers

5 Number of seconds the broadcast was delayed before airing on TV.

2 Number of film crews on hand shooting documentaries on this year's 
governor's race. One is entirely about Friedman.

1 Number of candidates locked out of the debate; Libertarian James Werner 
was not allowed to participate.

2 Number of candidates Perry seems to think are in the race; he portrayed 
the Nov. 7 vote as a contest between him and Bell.

-- Star-Telegram staff

Post-debate spin

After the debate, each candidate spoke separately to the media about his or 
her performance. Some highlights:

Democrat Chris Bell

"I accomplished what we set out to do, to speak directly to the voters of 
Texans and lay out why they should vote for Chris Bell," he said. He took 
issue with how Gov. Rick Perry, during his closing remarks, blamed the 
Washington establishment for doing nothing on immigration. "When I was in 
Congress, I never heard from him [Perry]. I never heard a word from him on 
immigration," Bell said.

Independent Kinky Friedman

"It's like a pop quiz. They're vomiting up things they thought people wanted 
to hear," he said. "I'm still voting for myself."

"Texas is who's getting screwed right now. ... It wasn't me ... who put the 
train in the ditch ... but we're all passengers."

Republican Gov. Rick Perry

Perry's campaign spokesman Robert Black, rather than Perry, spoke to 
reporters and faced tough questions. "The governor said what he had to say 
in the debate," said Black, who later added that Perry was on his way back 
to Austin. Perry "won the debate decisively," Black said.

Independent Carole Keeton Strayhorn

"I believe the people of Texas won the debate tonight," she said. "They were 
tuning in, looking for straight talk. What they got [from Perry] was double 
talk." Regarding not answering questions on unemployment or knowing who 
Mexico's president-elect is, she said, "I just blanked."


Charlie Loving