Houston mayor bares fangs, declares battle readiness for 2010

Outgoing Houston Mayor Bill White energizes Texas gubernatorial race with surprise announcement.

The 2010 Texas gubernatorial race is getting more interesting. The initial focus was on a war of words between two possible Republican contenders, incumbent Governor Rick Perry and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. But last Friday, all that changed when Houston Mayor Bill White shifted gears, abandoning his initial ambition for U.S. Senate to declare his aspiration for Texas governor.

After serving three two-year terms as mayor of the USA’s fourth largest city, term-limited White, who is highly favored as the Democrats' strongest candidate, said he would consider a gubernatorial run after Tom Schieffer, the leading Democratic contender, pulled out.

But the conservative base is not taking this announcement lightly. Less than 12 hours after White’s declaration, the Republican blogs went agog with admonishment, butchering his stewardship with animosity. The opposition battered his fiscal prowess, accusing him of incurring more than $1.2 billion in operating losses and hiking long-term debt payable from property to 55%. Nonetheless, White has remained unperturbed, asking voters to beware of fear politics, such that gained precedence in the past presidential election.

The battle for Texas’ highest office is becoming a necessity if past and current events are anything to go by. Incumbent Governor Rick Perry, one of the leading detractors in health care reform, has ignored totally scary statistical figures portraying his state as the worst in some specific areas.

For instance, Texas Medical Association describes Texas as the uninsured capital of the United States with more than 5.8 million Texans – including 1.5 million children – lacking health insurance. Texas’ uninsured rate is 1.5 to 2 times the national average, thus creating significant problems in the financing and delivery of health care to all Texans. To make it worse, those who lack insurance coverage typically enjoy far-worse health status than their insured counterparts.

Similarly, Governor Perry’s nonchalant attitude towards global warming and pollution has been badly criticized by environmentalists. Texas leads the nation with more than 2,000 major sources of industrial pollution, and it has more chemical plants and oil refineries than any other state. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality issued about 1,750 fines for about $14.5 million in the recent fiscal year, the most fines since the state began levying them in 1985, and for the most money in at least 15 years. The agency credits more aggressive enforcement efforts that have prompted more than 100,000 investigations.

Consequently, a liberal candidate for Texas governor such as White remains a die-hard contender who may have stepped into the ring armed with a long list of deficiencies related to fiscal management, education, environment, health, and other significant issues to subjugate the legacy of the incumbent.

I can recall his early days and months as Houston’s major.  He got in almost blind, learning on the job while he flip-flopped with his duties, experimenting with serious issues ranging from traffic to public safety. His Safe-Clear project generated more debate than health care, while he micro-managed the Police Department like a corner store so poorly that criminals and prostitutes ran the city for a while. But this man got better, regaining articulacy in a chaotic city politics and was re-elected for a third term with massive support in 2007.

Though his ratings jumped off the roof as one of the best, White cannot stand for re-election on account of term limits; instead, he is directing his tentacles to the state’s highest office to give the GOP incumbent a tough run.

Houstonians will surely miss this man, noted dearly for his respect of diversity. His leadership response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 and Hurricane Ike in 2008 got him national recognition, while a tested proficiency in environmental protection, and affordable and sustainable energy distinguishes him from his possible gubernatorial rivals.