10.19.06
Austin Chronicle Endorses Mary Beth Harrell (TX-31)
Here’s the link to all their endorsements. They also endorse Chris Bell, David Van Os, Barbara Ann Radnofsky, Lloyd Doggett, Ted Ankrum, John Courage, to name a few:
Williamson County
U.S. Representative, Dist. 31: Mary Beth Harrell
Our city limits do indeed stretch into Williamson Co., and as of 2000, almost 12,000 Austin residents lived in this district (and six years later, even more do now). Sadly, those neighbors are receiving incompetent, knee-jerk representation in Congress. John Carter is a loyal servant to Pres. Bush’s failed policies, readily employs the tired phrase “cut and run” to anyone who opposes the Iraq War (he’s never served a day in the military), and has staunchly refused to debate his election opponents. Indeed, he says that anyone wanting to debate him must “earn” that right by demonstrating “credibility.” Apparently, in Carter’s eyes, Democrat Mary Beth Harrell’s years as a military wife, and her current status as the mother of an Iraq War soldier, doesn’t give her this credibility. It’s time to end that kind of arrogance. Harrell, an attorney, has focused her campaign on a sensible exit strategy from Bush’s war that involves not “cutting and running” but replacing our troops with a true international peacekeeping force and setting “achievable” benchmarks for the Iraqi government. On other issues: She opposes Rick Perry’s fantasy, the Trans Texas Corridor, which will devastate rural citizens of this Williamson-to-Erath County district; she’ll promote alternative energy, while Carter owns millions of dollars in oil company stock, has consistently supported oil industry priorities, and according to the League of Conservation voters has a career pro-environment voting record of only 2%. She supports controlling federal spending (including ending no-bid contracts), while Carter comically claims to be a fiscal conservative while pumping billions into the war and earmarks for a seventh Fort Hood gym (when the troops really need body armor and health care). This Fort Hood-centered district would be better served by someone intimately familiar with military needs instead of a functionary for a failed administration.