Democratic Congressman Chris Bell loses primary in Texas

[NewJerseyDem]

You can thank Maxine Waters for this. DeLay and Waters seem to have common goals now.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory/2441339

Al Green's win in the Democratic primary race for the new 9th Congressional District seat had his supporters feeling good and the candidate himself even better.

"We are optimistic," Green said before the victory was declared. "We had our people out in the field. We had our people on the phone. We had our people in cars and trucks."

As his supporters trickled into the election party at the Hilton Hotel Southwest tonight, they took note of the lopsided early results and praised their candidate and the pleasant sunny day.

"The best thing we had was the weather," said Demetrius J. Matthews, a consultant to Green's campaign. "The thing with African American voters is you have to be able to get them to the polls."

[Dookus]

1. Huh?

Maxine Waters isn't mentioned in this article. And I really, really, REALLY doubt she has the same agenda as Tom Delay.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

3. No kidding. NewJerseyDem must have misread the post.

[NewJerseyDem]

7. Maxine Waters donated to Al Green's campaign

Waters, Bennie Thompson, and Jesse Jackson, Jr. decided to support Al Green's primary challenge against Chris Bell. Bell was thrown into a heavily black district as party of TOM DeLAY'S power grab that tried to divide the democratic party racially in Texas and throw out rural white democrats.

The party should be uniting around all of our incumbents in Texas as a show of defiance against Tom DeLay. It was his plan to try to oust every white democrat in Texas and in the process tear the democratic party apart by forcing primaries against our incumbents. However, Waters, Thompson, and Jackson decided they didn't care about the party. They wanted Green to get into congress because he is black. That is racism by my standards.

I understand the desire to get more minorities into congress. And I'm willing to effectively pack black voters into districts so that we get more african-american members of congress. This causes other districts to become less democratic because those black voters are heavily democratic. However, under the circumstances we should put aside racial issues and unite the party against Tom DeLay and the republican thugs in Congress.

This is no different than the few minority democratic legislators who supported the redistricting plan because they might get another black congressman.

Bell is a loyal democrat. His voting record is pretty liberal. The ONLY reason why Waters and others supported Green was because of his race.

Also, I don't like Sheila Jackson-Lee very much after this because she stayed neutral on the issue but she should have endorsed Bell which would have helped him very much. However, I must say that I have great respect for Eddie Bernice Johnson because she supported Bell.

[ctex]

14. and so did Gary Polland, former head of the Harris County Republican party

And, Gary Polland is not one of those rare moderate-to-liberal Republicans. Gary was famous were requiring all Republican candidates in Harris County, TX to pass his ultra-right litmus test in return for party endorsement.

Green was endorsed by several right wing Republicans in his run against Bell which has raised questions as to just what kind of Democrat Green is.

[Alenne]

17. And so did Bell

From the link above, last paragraph.

"Green's supporters in the black community complained of a double standard because Bell had also accepted money from prominent Republican donors."


I think that should call into question what kind of Democrats they both are.

[Freddie Stubbs]

26. Bell's not really the incumbent

He currently represents the 25th district. This elections was for the 9th district. So it was technically an open seat.

[BlueEyedSon]

2. What's your point, NJ Dem?

[Mel]

4. Maybe this is it?

I don't think it makes Maxine like Delay but I did find this story. :shrug:

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2416735
Democrats Green, Bell get influential campaign help

By JOHN WILLIAMS
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle Political Writer

VOTERS' GUIDE 2004
Get a handle on the candidates with our interactive voters' guide.
Two candidates in the Democratic primary for the 9th Congressional District called on influential Capitol Hill interests to help their campaigns Monday.

Former Houston Justice of the Peace Al Green got support from U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., former chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus. She gave him a $5,000 check from the caucus' political action committee during a noon news conference at a south Houston early voting location.

Later Monday night, Waters' husband, Sidney Williams, hosted a fund-raiser for Green at the Warwick Hotel. </snip>

[Dookus]

5. so she endorsed a different Democrat?

What's wrong with that?

[Mel]

6. didn't say anything was

just thought that might be what NJD was referring too. I didn't know Maxine had endorsed a different Democrat so I thought others here might not either. :shrug:

[Dookus]

11. sorry...

I didn't mean to imply YOU thought there was anything wrong.

This is one of those impossible situations. Now Delay is supposedly working toward electing MORE African-Americans, and we're supposed to condemn it.

It's just too hard to keep up these days.

[NewJerseyDem]

12. DeLay is trying to gerrymander, illegally, Texas

And the Democratic party should stay united against his attempts to expand his majority in Texas and throw out our incumbents. Yet, some members of the CBC went along with that just because they wanted another black congressman. This is no better than how some democratic legislators in Texas, like Ron Wilson, supported the redistricting in order to elect more minorities. Fortunately, Wilson appears to have lost his primary because his mostly African-American constituents wouldn't go along with that.

[NewJerseyDem]

8. Because this is Texas

DeLay wanted this to happen. He wanted to get rid of every Anglo democrat in Texas and throw out our incumbents. Waters is apparently willing to accept this because of one candidate's race. That is unacceptable.

I have a number of issues with Waters, such as how she didn't clap for Ben Chandler when he was sworn in, but this just adds to my distaste for her.

[shance]

24. Hellew? Have you ever heard of a thing called UNIFIED STRATEGY??

That was the stupidest move Maxine Waters could have made, due to the Titanic-sized situation facing the Dems.

When Dems do this, they further squander and divide the party because of their own selfish, limited reasons.

Its choices like this that make me say we as Democrats will fully get what we deserve if we dont keep the big picture in mind.

Its not wrong for Maxine Waters to want to support this guy - but there is a time to

KNOW WHEN TO HOLD AND KNOW WHEN TO FOLD*******

They cost us a seat. Tom Delay, with a newly inscribed notch on his pistol, is having a scotch and a cuban cigar right now.

[dolstein]

9. All part of Delay's strategy to put a black face on the TX Demo. Party

If Tom Delay has his way, there won't be a single white Democratic officeholder in the state. Obviously, I don't have a problem with voters in a predominantly African American district choosing to elect an African American representative. What I do have a problem with, however, is deliberately diluting Democratic voting strength by packing as many Democratic voters into as few districts as possible. This was the strategy pursued by the Bush Sr. Justice Department, which used the Voting Rights Act as a weapon in redistricting battles by insisting that states draw "majority minority" districts whenever possible. The end result, as we've seen, is a handful of overwhelmingly Democratic districts and a much larger number of Republican leaning districts. This is one of the reasons why the Democrats lost control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

[bluestateguy]

10. "Hot Tub" Tom DeLay's strategy

Make the Democratic party the "colored people's party", so that white people will not want to identify with a party led by non-whites. Then the Republicans can be the "white people's party".

Typical Republican divide and conquer strategy: divide America in half and then take the bigger half, the white half.

[Onlooker]

13. Dems don't need a majority of white voters

In many cases, if one out of five white people vote for the Dem and there's a proportionate turnout of black and Latino voters, the Dems will win. I think Repugs have dominated white voting for a number of years, but a lot of white people are liberal and nonracist ... even in Texas, I would guess.

[w4rma]

15. I don't think you understand the situation in Texas, Onlooker.

The GOP redistricted a whole bunch of white incumbants out of their seats to try to turn the Democratic Party into the Latinos and Blacks only Party. The Democratic Party needs folks of all ethnicities to represent us.

[Onlooker]

16. You're probably right

I still think of Texas as being capable of electing an Ann Richards to office. Maybe those times are past.

[Dr Fate]

18. Chris Bell? Gutarist & background singer for "Big Star??"...

...70's glam rock band of "That 70's Show" theme fame??

This guy gets around...

[dolstein]

19. That Chris Bell died many years ago

Now he truly IS the cosmos . . .

[Dr Fate]

20. Ha!

Good one! I've never heard his solo record- but I have the 2 Big Stars's on vinyl...

[Enraged_Ape]

22. That was my first thought!!

Glad to see another one who remembers Big Star, and the tragic Chris Bell.

[schultzee]

21. I lived in Texas 3 years and hated it. I hate it more because of *

[lostnfound]

23. What do you have against Waters? Bell is good, maybe Green will be too?

I blame the redistricting. Should be plenty of room for these guys were it not for the gerrymandering.

[NewJerseyDem]

25. Waters and Thompson acted without class also

They apparently high fived one another on the House floor on Wednesday to celebrate Green's victory. It is just wrong to gloat about the victory when a good, loyal democratic congressman was just thrown out of office.

Also, Jesse Jackson, Jr. defended Green's run by saying it was a "historic oppurtunity" to elect another African-American to congress. Yeah, the fact that we may lose 5 or so seats is also a historic oppurtunity for republicans to push democrats closer towards permanent minority status in the House of Representatives.

Also, these members of the CBC are complete hypocrits because they blasted some democratic congressman for not supporting incumbents Cynthia McKinney and Earl Hilliard in their primary battles in 2002, but now they find it perfectly acceptable to work to throw out an incumbent this time.

[Alenne]

27. Maybe if the party had been loyal to those Democrats

maybe the CBC members would have been more loyal here. They are just playing by the rules everyone else plays by.