(The image above of Wendy Davis is from The Huffington Post, who says they got it from Facebook. The photographer is unknown.)Yesterday I posted about Wendy Davis' troubling endorsement of a rich "blue dog" candidate for the U.S. Senate -- a candidate (David Alameel) who is worth more than $50 million dollars, has donated large sums of money to right-wing Republicans (both inside and outside of Texas), and who proudly proclaims himself to be a conservative.
At that time, I said this endorsement doesn't pass the smell test to me -- and looks like it may have been given in exchange for a significantly large campaign donation. And, at least so far, there has been no denial from either the Davis campaign or the Alameel campaign. But there may now be an even more troubling aspect to this endorsement of Alameel by Wendy Davis.
Wendy Davis sprang into national prominence last summer by making a spirited stand for women's rights with a filibuster against an onerous Republican bill that would deny the right to choice by many Texas women (by closing down most clinics in Texas that provide abortion services). Her stand for women's rights excited progressives across the country, and convinced Texas Democrats that she would make a great candidate for governor. In short, she would probably not be running for governor if not for her heroic stand on women's rights.
Now look at what she said when endorsing Alameel for senate:
Dr. Alameel is an astute and successful business leader who shares my commitment to creating good paying jobs, improving education for all our children and protecting the retirement our seniors have worked hard for and earned.
And here is what Alameel said about the endorsement:
I am honored to have the support and encouragement from my good friend, Senator Wendy Davis. Wendy knows I will work hard to make sure every Texan has a real voice in Washington and that I will bring fair and common sense leadership back to our nation’s capital.
Notice something missing from those statements? I don't see any mention of the primary issue that made Wendy Davis a viable candidate for governor -- women's rights. And that's not all. A visit to the campaign website of David Alameel shows that he is strangely silent on women's rights. In fact, the only statements on the website that could be construed as issue stands are the following statements:
I will fight to make sure corporations pay their fair share of taxes. We need fair economic policies that create jobs and income for all American families instead of just benefiting Wall Street and the super-rich.
I'm a veteran and a strong supporter of the military, but after 12 years, it's time for us to bring the troops home from Afghanistan and use the billions we are spending there to improve our economy at home by investing in good jobs, good schools And protecting Social Security and Medicare.
I will NEVER vote to cut Social Security or Medicare; and I will ALWAYS fight Wall Street attempts to weaken or privatize them.
Every child deserves the opportunity for a quality education, regardless of what neighborhood they come from.
There is a troubling absence of any statement supporting women's rights (or equal rights for anyone). And other than corporations paying their fair share of taxes, protection of Social Security and Medicare, and a rather general statement on quality education, I don't see much that shows he would support the progressive values of the Democratic Party.
So, to review: Alameel has donated to the campaigns of numerous right-wing Republicans who oppose women's rights, has not publicly stated he disagrees with those Republicans on women's rights, and is strangely silent on his website about women's rights. Frankly, he sounds like a closeted misogynist to me.
I was going to end this post on that note, but I made the mistake of visiting Wendy's own campaign website (which I had not done in a while) -- and my disappointment was compounded. On the issues page, she lists the issues that she is running on, and they are:
Education
Strong Economy
Government Accountability
Veterans
Those are very middle of the road issues -- issues that could be on a website of any candidate. Where are the progressive issues, and specifically, where is the issue of women's rights (the issue that made her a candidate for governor)? Is she following the lead of losing Democratic candidates for the past 20 years, and moving to the right?
Can't she see that Texans need a real choice -- a choice between a progressive and a conservative, and that in any race between a conservative and a conservative-lite, they will choose (as they have in the past) the real conservative? Texas voters, like any other voters, like candidates that aren't afraid to stand up for what they believe in -- which is what many thought we had in Wendy last summer.
Yesterday, I said I was disappointed. Today, I am downright worried -- worried that the Wendy Davis campaign train is starting to jump the tracks.
