Letter to Editor: Pete Sessions short-changes voters

From Dallas Morning News comes this letter to the editor in response to Pete Sessions' plan for Kay Bailey Hutchison to hold onto her seat in the Senate while running for Governor: Sessions short-changing voters

First, politicians must take a chance and relinquish their current seats while having a viable and attractive platform to run for an higher office. While running for a new office and holding a current office, they are short-changing the electorate that voted for them.

Second, Pete Sessions fears the loss of a Senate seat due to a special election should Kay Bailey Hutchison vacate her Senate seat. Again we see partisan politics trump statesmanship and the will of the electorate.

He works for us -- not the other way around.

Pete Sessions advises Kay Bailey Hutchison to stay in Senate

According to Gromer Jeffers of Dallas Morning News, Pete Sessions is advising Kay Bailey Hutchison to keep her Senate seat while running for Governor.

His thinking is that if she beats Perry and becomes Governor, she could appoint her own replacement in the Senate. But if she resigns to run, we'd have a special election where a Democrat might have a chance at the seat.

"The people of Texas don't need that kind of fight," Mr. Sessions said of a special election.

In my opinion, it might be seen as a bit underhanded if Kay Bailey Hutchison did such a thing; she has a strong "likeability" thing going for her, and draws votes from both major political parties. That edge would pretty much evaporate if she were to play the "politics as usual" game by appointing her own successor.

Pete Sessions hires three new aides

Excerpt from Politico:

Sessions, the incoming chairman of the committee, has hired Elizabeth Verrill, who served as a regional finance director for Sen. John McCain, to head the NRCC's finance operations...

Sessions has also tapped Bob Honold to head the NRCC's incumbent retention efforts for a second consecutive cycle. Honold is a former director of public affairs at CTIA-The Wireless Association and is a veteran of GOP House campaigns.

John Randall, meanwhile, will handle new media for the NRCC. Randall was previously the online communications manager at the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

"Pete Sessions: Lost in Oak Cliff" by Steve Blow

Dallas Morning News columnist Steve Blow picked up the Oak Cliff story and wrote about it on his blog today: Pete Sessions: Lost in Oak Cliff

Steve Blow says, "If someone finds U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions wandering lost in his district, please give him directions." He then goes on to publish the Oak Cliff portion of Sessions' district neighbood articles.

In the comments section of the blog, Steve Blow posted this email he received from Sessions' Communication Director Emily Davis, who explains

We paid to have our new website pages populated and they obviously copied and pasted the wrong information together (eek!). Thanks for the heads up - I just made the quick fix in our website system.

Emily

Note to Congress: if there's money in the budget for "populating websites," how 'bout paying it to neighborhood associations to write their own articles? You'd have to adhere to a word limit to keep overzealous neighborhood association presidents from bragging too much about their little corners of Dallas, but at least the articles would be authentic and geographically correct.

Pete Sessions votes against auto industry loan

From Congress.Org:

The House passed H.R. 7321, to authorize financial assistance to eligible automobile manufacturers, by a recorded vote of 237 ayes to 170 noes with 1 voting "present", Roll No. 690.

Pete Sessions was among the House members who voted against the bill, in what turned out to be pretty much of a standard party-line vote. Only 32 Republicans voted in favor of the bill, with 20 Democrats crossing party lines to vote against it.

One Republican voted "present," and the "not voting" members consisted of 11 Democrats and 15 Republicans.

Pete Sessions: "He doesn't know the territory"

A Sessions Watcher in Oak Cliff alerted me to this page on Pete Sessions' website, where he summarizes key neighborhoods in his district.

The section on Oak Cliff is so far off-the-mark you'd swear he's never set foot in this part of the District. I took this screen shot for posterity (click image to view full size):


Oak Cliff residents will be surprised to know these "facts" about their part of town...

Oak Cliff

Oak Cliff’s estimated population is 280,000, and Oak Cliff includes the popular “M-Streets” and Lakewood neighborhoods. On March 17, 1903, voters in Oak Cliff approved annexation to the city of Dallas. Little known about Oak Cliff is that it was home to the Southland Ice Company, what would later become the first 7-Eleven Convenience Store. Oak Cliff also contains The Sixth Floor Museum, the memorial site of John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963.

Good grief! Okay, let's start with the "M" streets. While Oak Cliff does have some streets that start with the letter "M," the "popular" M-street district is around Upper Greenville Avenue. That area of Dallas is north of downtown, about 10 miles from Oak Cliff!

Oak Cliff does have Lake Cliff Park, but that's not Lakewood. Lakewood is in East Dallas around...y'know...the lake. White Rock Lake, which is nowhere near Oak Cliff.

Pete Sessions gets partial credit for including two actual facts about Oak Cliff, the fact that it was annexed in 1903, and that "it was home to the Southland Ice Company, what would later become the first 7-Eleven Convenience Store." True. The first 7-11 was at 12th and Edgefield. The building still stands, and is now home to LULAC.

But then he screws it up by mentioning the Sixth Floor Museum. D'oh! Pete, that's in an area of Dallas known as "downtown." The Sixth Floor Museum isn't in Pete Sessions' district, anyway. The Sixth Floor Museum is in TX-30, Eddie Bernice Johnson's district.

Reminds me of the patter song in "The Music Man" where all the salesmen talk about knowing the territory:

1st Salesman
Ya can talk, ya can talk, ya can bicker, ya can talk...
ya can talk all ya want but is different than it was.

Charlie
No it ain't, no it ain't, but you gotta know the territory...

2nd Salesman
Now he doesn't know the territory

1st Salesman
Doesn't know the territory?!?

3rd Salesman
What's the fellow's line?

2nd Salesman
Never worries 'bout his line

1st Salesman
Never worries 'bout his line?!?...

...Charlie
He's a fake, and he doesn't know the territory...

Another PETE PAC loss in Ohio

Ohio Republican Steve Stivers (OH-15) was the recipient of $10,000 from Pete Sessions' notorious Vegas strip club fundraiser. He was in a close race against Democratic candidate Mary Jo Kilroy, a race too close to call on election night.

Yesterday, the absentee and provisional ballots were finally counted, and Mary Jo Kilroy emerged as the clear winner, with 2,311 more votes than Stivers. The margin gave her more than the number of votes necessary to avoid a recount.

Kilroy's win gives OH-15 a Democratic representative for the first time in 42 years.

The Ohio Delegation now has a majority of Democrats, with 10 Democrats and 8 Republicans.

An interesting side note to this contest is that in November, with the race still undecided, both candidates went to the orientation for new members of Congress, promising that whichever one of them lost would reimburse the government for their expenses.