10.15.08
HD-52: The choice is clear
The Taylor Daily Press has a Q & A with the 3 vying for [the] District 52 seat. It’s has many of the same questions the candidates have been answering throughout the campaign, but there are a two answers from the Q & A that shine a light on the choice between Diana Maldonado and her opponent Bryan Daniel. The two questions deal with how they would handle two particular state agencies.
TxDOT
Maldonado said additional funding for TxDOT may be appropriate, but the department needs further oversight.
“I think it should be approached with a lot of apprehension based on the failed leadership and failed policies. I think there will definitely be more input and questions before we can move forward on that,” she said.
Simmons said giving TxDOT any additional funding would be a bad move.
“It looks like they’re using a lot of money for promoting the Trans-Texas Corridor. The citizens groups have a lot of questions about the sources of the money and never get straight answers,” she said. “We suspect the federal department of transportation is giving them money.”
To Daniel, new leadership at the Texas Department of Transportation encourages him to believe that the embattled agency may be back on track, he said. He supports a suggested $1.5 billion cash infusion for the department, provided that the new leadership show that it can spend taxpayers’ money wisely.
“Let’s remember, we’ve got a new chairman — new leadership — and she’s not had time to address everything,” he said.
[…]
Texas Residential Construction Commission
Simmons said the TRCC should be abolished.
“I tend to believe in deregulation,” she said. “I would say it is the consumer’s responsibility to make sure their home is built right.”
Daniel said the government agency needs a serious overhaul, but should only be abolished if it appears like the only tenable solution.
“If it can’t be fixed, lets not put them on life support and prop them up, that’s done too much in government,” he said.
Maldonado strictly wants the agency abolished.
“It’s not serving homeowners, it’s serving homebuilders,” she said. “Basically all a person needs is $25 and then they can become a builder with no accountability.”
The candidate’s answers to these two questions highlight perfectly one of the main differences between Democratic candidate Diana Maldonado and her GOP opponent Bryan Daniel. In both cases Maldonado wants to bring better protection for taxpayers and consumers, and her opponent is more concerned with protecting the stat quo. The status quo being a Rick Perry GOP political hack at TxDOT and Daniel’s biggest campaign contributor Bob Perry’s “builder protection agency”, the TRCC.
For Daniel to already be proclaiming TxDOT fixed, saying the “new leadership… encourages him to believe that the embattled agency may be back on track”, is ridiculous, and points to how out of touch he is on this issue with voters in HD-52. But it also shows that he will be a rubberstamp for whatever the current state GOP leadershop wants. They haven’t even finished the Sunset Commission review, which will be done during the next legislative session, and he’s virtually giving them a pass. Maldonado’s call for further oversight is obviously what’s needed at TxDOT and the voters of HD-52 know it as well.
On the TRCC he’s willing to overhaul the agency but only abolish as a last resort. The TRCC is the infamous agency that was setup by the GOP in Texas Legislature once they took over the majority in both chambers, as a sop to it’s biggest contributor - Bob Perry. It’s been maligned ever since and serves no purpose whatsoever for the home buyers, other than make it harder for them to get redress for their shoddily built homes. The folks who believe government is the problem - Republicans - setup this extremely problematic agency of government. A self-fulfilling prophecy some might say. Democrats know bad GOP government and Maldonado knows this agency needs to go, again as do voters in HD-52.
These are two examples of the stark differences between Diana Maldonado and her opponent. Daniel is for more of the same, which will actually make things worse. Maldonado is for sweeping out the status quo and bringing in new leadeship. That’s the kind of change we need. Accountability comes in November.