Austin American Statesman endorses Mrs. Chavez-Thompson

The editorial board of the Austin American Statesman has clearly endorsed Mrs. Linda Chavez-Thompson for the democratic nomination for Lt. Governor. The article states the decision is based on which of the three candidates can do the most for the democratic ticket this November. Mrs. Chavez-Thompson is running against former Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle and Austin deli owner Marc Katz. None of the three candidates has very much legislative experience. In fact, Mrs. Chavez-Thompson and Mr. Katz have none. Mr. Earle did serve as the House Representative for the Travis county district from 1973 – 1977 before being elected as the Travis county District Attorney in 1976. The article did not state whether this was in the U.S. or state House, however a little investigation revealed it was at the State House level.

The lack of legislative experience aside, the Austin American Statesman’s editorial board believes Mrs. Chavez-Thompson is the best candidate based on her “admirable life story.” At 10 years old, Mrs. Chavez-Thompson was working in a west Texas cotton field for 10 cents per hour. The article states, “[s]he dropped out of school in the ninth grade — never to return — to help support her family.” We’ll come back to this statement a little later. From there, she became a secretary for a Lubbock laborers union where she would eventually work her way up to Executive Vice-President of the AFL-CIO, from which she retired in 2007.

The Statesman’s board believes that her upbringing and ultimate success will give her first hand knowledge of the state’s everyday citizens and hardships faced by them.

The article falls short on evidence to back up its claim for Mrs. Chavez-Thompson. While it true, her upbringing will bring a point of view most likely lost on the other candidates, the article freely admits (in a roundabout way) her current proposals are not up to par, stating “If nominated, we look for her to come up with a more impressive list of proposals than she is now offering.” Why would you hope that someone would come up with more impressive proposals later rather than what her and the other candidates are offering now? The article also states she is concerned with the deregulation of tuition in our state’s universities. It fails to mention why a women so concerned with education would not find the time in her long and successful career to never even complete high school. As mentioned above, the articles states she dropped out of school in the ninth grade, “never to return” to support her family. As a side point, I found the order of phrases in that sentence interesting. I think it is interesting that the put the words “never to return” in the middle of the sentence as opposed to the end where it would have more impact, just my opinion.

In the end, I don’t feel the Statesman gave me enough information to make an informed decision on the matter. Having a tough childhood and still being successful is admirable and deserves recognition but I don’t believe it qualifies someone to hold, arguably, the most powerful position in our state government.