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Thursday, October 13, 2005

TX-10: Ted Ankrum Running Against Culture of Corruption

Posted by Bob Brigham

In 2004, Michael McCaul won the Texas 10th Congressional District, spending almost $3 million even though he was unopposed. As a freshman congressman in a corrupt Republican Party, his 2006 re-election campaign will be the time his is most vulnerable. This year, he isn't going to run unopposed. Democrat Ted Ankrum is challenging Congressman McCaul and has first hand knowledge of Tom DeLay's Culture of Corruption:

I have personal experience of Tom Delay's abuse of power. I was in charge of Environmental Compliance at NASA Hq. in Washington, DC in 1989, when I directed Johnson Space Center to use a type of equipment that would not damage the Earth's ozone layer in their project to replace the giant centralized air conditioning equipment, there. I promptly got a call from Tom Delay, who asked me to rescind that direction so that a business crony could bid on the contract with equipment that used a chemical banned by the Montreal Treaty to save the Earth's ozone layer. I refused. He called my then-boss, Dr. Howard Robbins, the Associate Administrator for Management, to overrule me. Howard said it was my call. For the next two weeks, I received nearly daily calls from a Delay staffer insisting that I change my mind, and my boss got calls from Tom Delay asking for my removal. It didn't stop until I asked the staffer if he wanted to read about it in the Washington Post. I succeeded in standing up to Tom Delay, then, because he wasn't the House Majority Leader. I wouldn't have stood a chance, last month. I'm running for many reasons, not the least of them being the culture of abuse of power among the current Congressional Leadership.

Could get interesting.

Posted at 04:45 PM in 2006 Elections - House, Culture of Corruption, Texas | Technorati

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Comments

I was in Austin recently-- and on the way to Crawford to see Cindy Sheehan, I passed through the 10th CD, one of the DeLay gerrymandered districts that carved Democratic Austin up and divided it among 3 GOP districts. Texas State house district 50 is very similar to McCaul's district. And a fighting progressive, Mark Strama defeated a reactionary Republican incumbent, Jack Stick last year. Once head of Texas' Rock the Vote Strama is smart and charismatic, idealistic and, in terms of his constituents needs, pragmatic. I don't know Ankrum but I do know the area can be won by a progressive. If Ankrum runs as a Republican-lite DLC candidate, the seat will stay in GOP hands. If he stands up against Bush's and the GOP's corporate fascism, he can beat McCaul (son-in-law, by the way of the founder of Clear Channel, the right-wing propaganda conglomerate).

Posted by: DownWithTyranny at October 13, 2005 08:39 PM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

A little background, last year, no Democrat filed for the seat. A write in candidate, Lorenzo Sadun ran as the Democratic Write-In candidate and received around a dozen points. The Libertarian got about twice as much, but still, I think McCaul went away with 65%+. It was one of the new districts created in the DeLay redistricting, not very friendly at all, and connects Austin to Houston.

Ankrum is actually a really impressive speaker, he came to a UT Dems meeting last month. Granted his website is kinda crazy last I saw, with a stance on EVERY issue. I'm glad he's running, but I don't really think it's one anyone in Texas is expecting anything out of.

Posted by: Karl-T at October 14, 2005 12:11 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment

God I love it when nobody gives you a chance. So McCaul won with 65 against nobody. That means there is a crowd of 35% that won't vote for him this time either. So we're 16 points away from victory. Crap that is a big hill-sure not all 35 are going to vote Dem but it would be nice if Republibot got less than 50%.

He does need some web help but he is way ahead of Sadun.

Posted by: Bill Section 147 at October 14, 2005 01:30 AM | Permalink | Edit Comment | Delete Comment