GAMMAGE FOR GOVERNOR
Democrats have a chance on March 7 to help put a grownup back in charge of the governor’s mansion. How? By voting for Bob Gammage.

Gammage offers a distinguished background of responsible leadership and experience coupled with a forward-looking vision for the future of our state that is in marked contrast to his rivals of March and November.

I’ve known Bob Gammage for three decades, maybe more. We have not always been on the same side of every political battle, but I can tell you this for certain: he has the intellectual wherewithal, political skills, dedication and stamina to serve the people well, and he will bring those qualities to bear on the important but neglected issues that face us: school finance and property tax reform, ethics, health care, open government, working conditions, and the environment, to name but a few.

Some newspaper editorialists who have endorsed Gammage’s opponent, former Congressman Chris Bell of Houston, a genuinely good man, have done so largely on the argument that Bell would more readily cooperate with a rancorous Republican House and Senate. That’s hardly an inducement for Democrats to nominate Bell. Cooperate to what end? In repeatedly failing to enact school finance and property tax reform? In burning millions in taxpayer dollars to enact a partisan congressional redistricting scheme of doubtful legality because Tom DeLay insisted on it?

Perhaps it’s best for those editorial writers to remember that it is Republicans like Tom Craddick and Rick Perry who have turned Austin into a mirror image of D.C. partisanship and influence peddling. The last thing this state needs, or the people want, is a governor who will simply go along with the status quo. Bob Gammage, former soldier, state and federal legislator, and state supreme court and appellate court justice, knows the difference between the value of true legislative compromise and rolling over and playing dead. He has made a career of successfully working with disparate forces, but he will not sell out his principles, integrity or constituents.

For all of the positive traits that would make him a better governor than anyone else but Bob Gammage, Chris Bell has nevertheless failed to exude the confidence and excitement that Gammage brings to the campaign. Nor has he adequately explained his support while in Congress for the devastating Bush tax cuts that have led to unfathomable deficits, drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and a bank and credit card-sponsored bankruptcy bill aimed like an arrow at the heart of struggling working families and those overwhelmed by huge medical debts. If you did not know Gammage and Bell by sight, Gammage sounds like the “fresh face” with the “new ideas” in this campaign.

Bob Gammage has called on Texas Democrats to return to their progressive roots, with a focus on educational excellence, affordable prescription drugs, an increase in the state minimum wage, and strengthening campaign finance laws to subdue the “politician for sale” odor that flares our political nostrils. Gammage, a “Dirty Thirty” veteran in the fight against corrupt political machines of the past, offers a true alternative to the mess this state has become under Republican rule—a state now run by the powerful special interests as much as Washington, D.C. is run by the Jack Abramoffs and their ilk. Straight talk, integrity and solid proposals, not hidden agendas or higher ambitions, are Gammage’s stock-in-trade.

If you’re one of those people accustomed to rooting for Goliath at David’s expense, Gammage is not your guy for November. On the other hand, if you want a Democrat who has been tempered on the anvil of experience, hard work and dedication to duty, one who will not bend to undue pressure or place his own ambitions ahead of the people’s interests, then give Gammage your vote.

Ken Molberg is the former Democratic Chairman of Dallas County and longtime Texas Democratic Party leader. He also is an attorney who specializes in employment law