Houston Blogs: InFocus

It's become clear through this debate - this is not a traditional choice for Democratic voters.  Bill White knows the issues.  Farouk Shami has a vision, but seems unclear on the details of both policy and practice in Texas government.  It isn't right or wrong, just a different choice on March 2.

Shami's promised a job for every Texan and to soon open two factories building solar panels - plus to give $10 Million back to Texas if he can't add 100,000 jobs in two years.   What do you make of that?  It is hard to understand how a Governor could out everyone to work, if that is what he means.

13 minutes in - Farouk Shami has to be prodded repeatedly to address specific issues.  He is new at this and it shows.  The questions are getting at specific parts of specific issues and while he is good at the big stuff - he is struggling at times to get the specifics.

The TV crew just showed us the set during a test.  First impression - both look comfortable in front of the cameras - but the set is one the most interesting I've ever seen for a debate.  I assure you it's not coming to you live from a bar, but it looks like they could be one corner of a barbecue joint.

 

It is certainly a change from the pale wooden walls on City Council chambers where White appeared for the last 6 years.

LIVE Blog from Democratic gubernatorial debate

We are at the studios of KTVT & KTXA in Fort Worth.  It may be rainy at home, but it is cold and windy up here.  The media room (very small) is packed.  Both candidates are apparently doing run throughs right now inside the studios. Debate starts in 22 minutes.

Truth Test: "Thanks Governor Perry"

Our second attempt at online Truth Testing campaign ads, the latest the Perry ad that started running today (January 7).  Enjoy.

AP Article Including KBH Comment:

Perry launches ad highlighting state economy

Details of a new television campaign ad from Republican Gov.

Rick Perry, who is seeking re-election:

TITLE: "Working for Us."

LENGTH: 30 seconds.

AIRING: Starts Tuesday statewide.

SCRIPT:

Man in hardware store: "Thanks, Governor Perry, for cutting taxes for 40,000 small businesses. Every bit helps."

A real estate agent, posting a "sold" sign outside a house:

"The nation's top five housing markets are in Texas. Thanks,

Governor Perry."

Different man in another hardware store: "Thanks, Governor, for

standing up to Washington and fighting for Texas. For protecting

Main Street, not Wall Street."

Narrator: "To keep taxes low, Governor Rick Perry supports a

two-thirds vote of the legislature before taxes can be raised.

"No Texas governor has cut more taxes, or vetoed more wasteful

spending. Governor Rick Perry."

KEY IMAGES: Perry, wearing a coat over a denim shirt, is seen

leaning over a tractor, chatting with a man. Then, the ad jumps to

three different small business owners -- a man in a bustling store,

a real estate agent outside a newly sold house, and another man in

a hardware store -- to relay their messages. Various headlines flash

across the bottom of the screen as they talk. As the narrator

starts to talk, the scene moves back to Perry, now in shirtsleeves

and a tie. First, he's laughing with folks over coffee in a cafe,

then shaking hands in a warehouse and again at a construction site.

A close-up of Perry's face fills the screen as the narrator wraps

up and ends with the campaign logo flashing across the screen.

ANALYSIS: The ad uses images that have won Perry two full terms

as governor: the down-home country boy -- a man who dresses the

same, thinks the same and stays in touch with the average Texan. It

generally works for him. Unlike the tone of this campaign so far,

it's a feel-good piece, highlighting a state economy that's in

decent shape compared to other parts of the country.

While Perry did sign legislation that cut taxes for thousands of

small business owners, it's come at a cost. The business tax is not

generating the money it was supposed to and the state will face a

multibillion deficit because of it. The business tax he cut is the

same one he established a few years earlier.

And while Perry did fight Washington in rejecting a portion of

President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package, the state used

billions of the federal aid to balance the state budget, avoiding a

possible financial disaster.

THE OTHER SIDE'S 2 CENTS: "After Rick Perry's nine-year record

of increasing spending, expanding the size of government and

getting bailed out by the Obama stimulus, its clear Texas needs a

new governor like Kay Bailey Hutchison who will get about the

business of laying the foundation to keep Texas strong 20 years

from now," said Hutchison spokeswoman Jennifer Baker.

------

Analysis by April Castro, Associated Press Writer.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Truth Meter Goes Online, KBH Up First

To try something new and embrace the future, I am taking our campaign Truth Tests online.  We're keeping it in video form - but giving you a little more analysis from the campaigns and experts across the state.  Let me know what you think.

Links:

Senator Hutchison Press Release

Governor Perry Reaction Press Release

TexPIRG Press Release

Senator Hutchison Transportation Plan

Texas Tribune Ad Analysis

Winning The Dropout Battle in Houston

HISD admits at least 19% of its students don’t finish high school.   When outside groups count, it could be as high as 38%.  Think about that for a second – that means in your freshman high school yearbook - you, the kid on the left or the kid on the right didn’t graduate.  I live in Houston and I have three little girls.  We’re trying to decide where to send our kids for school and this is a serious issue for me.   How can HISD educate the ones who stay while fighting a struggle to keep so many kids in class.

When HISD announced it was hiring a new superintendent, I thought there has to be a way to look at the challenge he is facing with dropouts.  So tonight we start – not by parading the problems, but looking at solutions.  Not the one thing that works everywhere, but a few things that make small differences.

I asked a few educational experts around town – Robert Sadler at Children at Risk was very generous with time and knowledge – for ideas of what’s working to keep kids in school.  Our pieces aren’t a comprehensive look at the problem – they’re snapshots of 3 programs making a difference one kid at a time.

We look at Project Grad tonight, a former Reagan HS student who’s now the school’s principal and trying to keep kids in class and a really unique charter school, Pro-Vision, on Thursday.  We end the week sitting down with HISD’s new superintendent – Dr. Terry Grier.

The one thing that comes through in all three pieces is that one on one attention works.  Roynell Young at Pro-Vision charter school says you have to prove to young men and women that they matter.  It’s what he does so well.  It’s what Project Grad does.  It is part of what Connie Berger is doing at Reagan High. 

I had fun spending time with 3 groups of people who are making a difference in Houston – not in some cliché sense, but one by one winning victories to keep kids in school.  That makes a difference.

I look forward to speaking with Dr. Grier.  The biggest question for him is how his new district can give one on one attention to 200,000 students?  They can’t – so how does he plan to make it work.

I hope you will join us for the pieces this week at 6.  Hopefully they will be posted here if you miss them.  Let me know what you think.  You can find me at ted.oberg@abc.com.

Dancing With the Presidential Stars

There is a lot of news coming from both sides of the border in advance of Obama's visit here:

- The US named 3 cartels drug kingpins - easing the way to take their money.
- The US named a new border czar.
- The US is pledging more cooperation and calls President Calderon - heroic & courageous.

- Mexico says violence is down on the border 26% in 2009.
- Mexico uncovered a huge and dangerous weapons cache two days before the visit.
- The Mayor of Ciudad Juarez agrees to have a newly trained police force up and running by year's end.
- Mexico's President Felipe Calderon & his US Ambassador diplomatically but firmly push the US to reinstate the assault weapons ban.

They're all attention grabbing. They all seem to go in the right direction towards slowing the violence, but what's left to do today?

A large and very international press contingent has converged on Mexico City for this meeting. There are hundreds - if not more - US government employees here to make sure it goes well. In the end the two Presidents will be together for about 90 minutes.

And while this meeting is light on time - it is heavy on symbolism. In choosing to hold this meeting in Mexico City, the Obama White House says it is sending a clear signal of respect and admiration for what Felipe Calderon is doing. President Bush visited Mexico - most recently then-President Vicente Fox's ranch. He never came to Mexico City.

The events are highly choreographed today. In order to avoid making nightmarish traffic here in Mexico City even worse and avoid what is clearly a security challenge - Obama is flying from the airport to a military base nearby and then taking a short drive to Los Pinos, the Mexican White House.

There will be a brief welcoming ceremony and troop review and then a 90 minute meeting between the two Presidents. Afterwards a press conference with the two men is expected to have 4 total questions - two from Mexican media - 2 from US reporters - all of them pre-selected. Not exactly expansive, but again don't let the brief time get in the way of the symbolism here.

The US is clearly accepting a role in solving this crisis. Every article on the meeting this morning talks about shared responsibility. It plays well here in Mexico - we'll see what happens at home.

Eating the Dusty Plastic Sundae

Every once in a while you pop into a restaurant and there’s a tray of desserts - ice cream sundaes, rich chocolate cakes, flan – your favorites sitting right there waiting for you.  But then as you sit and wait, those deserts sit and wait and the ice cream never melts.  They’re plastic – and in a lot of cases, not dusted very often.  They look great from a far, but are far from good close up.  I thought about that while in Mexico covering Spring Break this week.

It is a legitimate story and there are legitimate travel concerns for Spring Breakers this year.  But more than anything else what I hear from colleagues, my family and even a Spring Breaker or two is how lucky I am to be there.  I am.  The weather is certainly nicer in Cancun than it was in Houston this week and being at the beach is always better than being at the office.  But it’s not a real dessert – it’s the dusty sundae.

If you ever want to feel old –I’m 36 – go to Spring Break as an adult.  No matter how much I thought I could fit in, I think every college student figured I was an inch away from coating my nose with zinc oxide and hiking up the black knee socks.  There were many students gracious enough to stop the party long enough to tell me how they were dealing with the travel warnings in Mexico and nervous parents back home.  One guy even stopped me to tell me how much he wanted to be in TV – asked about an internship and just as I was about to feel valuable – he asked me if he could carry some of our gear in exchange for help getting past the nightclub’s doorman.  I couldn’t help feeling a lot out of place. The next day a young woman was nice enough to ask if I was a pediatrician – don’t know why.  She just knew I was way too old for to be here for fun.

I am not complaining.  This is a great assignment and I hope the pieces we are sending back help put the Mexican travel warnings in some perspective. (You can see them here.)

But, as the father of 3 little girls, I never want to go back to Spring Break.  I will happily send my daughters for their moment in the debaucherous sun – but the thought of one of them or their friends swilling cheap vodka from a bottle on the beach and spitting it into the mouth of a random young man (I saw someone's else sweet daughter do that on the beach in Cancun) is a little more than a daddy can bear.

No thanks. That really is the dusty sundae.  When my kids are old enough - I’ll stay home and have a real sundae with my wife.