San Angelo Democrats' Forum Makes Splash in Statewide Media

 

SAN ANGELO TX — The forum seemed to be a showcase of visitors from the Island of Misfit Toys as 11 Texas gubernatorial candidates came to the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts in deep red Tom Green County to introduce themselves on a statewide stage.

The forum was conceived and executed by the Tom Green County Democrats and scheduled for the second-worst night in the winter for attracting a crowd. It was the same night as the College NCAA Football National Championship game between Alabama and Georgia.

Alabama won the championship, and according to Austin American-Statesman writer Ken Herman, the two winners of the San Angelo forum were the late, former Governor Mark White’s son, Andrew White, and the former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez.

White was challenged on how he was going to remain true to the state Democrats’ desire to eliminate or drastically reduce carbon use while the economic imperative in the West Texas region is for hydraulic fracturing to thrive.

White promised to find a balance between the two opposing sides.

Valdez wasn’t challenged on fracking, so she was able to wax unlimited on how well she builds consensus in a group of similar-mined people at the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office. She claimed her talent is needed, Gromer Jeffers, Jr. at The Dallas Morning News noted, because, Valdez said, “we have to stop the foolishness and the hate and the bickering."

The statewide media is wrapping the whole 2018 Democratic primary up as a race between Valdez and White. The other candidates, Statesman’s Herman noted, have little chance of winning, and so as sort of a consolation prize, he listed them.

“Grady Yarbrough, Demetria Smith, Adrian Ocegueda, Cedric Davis Sr., James Jolly Clark, Jeffrey Payne, Joe Mumbach and Tom Wakely. “

“Some interesting folks there. Look ‘em up,” he wrote.

Herman didn’t see a marked difference between the ideas of White and Valdez. The age difference is great. Valdez is 70; White, 45. The primary is March 6 and early voting begins February 20.

The event lasted 90 minutes and about 100 attended. The event highlighted San Angelo and its beautiful museum in the statewide media.

Subscribe to the LIVE! Daily

The LIVE! Daily is the "newspaper to your email" for San Angelo. Each content-packed edition has weather, the popular Top of the Email opinion and rumor mill column, news around the state of Texas, news around west Texas, the latest news stories from San Angelo LIVE!, events, and the most recent obituaries. The bottom of the email contains the most recent rants and comments. The LIVE! daily is emailed 5 days per week. On Sundays, subscribers receive the West Texas Real Estate LIVE! email.

Required

Most Recent Videos

Comments

If that is what they are selling, and we have enough fools to buy into it , then we are done and just haven't realized it yet. Maybe we will elect Oprah for president too.

It’s comments like this that distinguishes this glorified blog from real, legitimate journalism: “The forum seemed to be a showcase of visitors from the Island of Misfit Toys as 11 Texas gubernatorial candidates came to the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts in deep red Tom Green County to introduce themselves on a statewide stage.”

live, Tue, 01/09/2018 - 15:53
My metaphors are perfect. It's like they shouldn't fit in anywhere here--TCG went 72 percent for Trump. This forum should have happened in Austin or someplace "weird." Democrats pulled off a coup. That is all.

I am not a member of the Tom Green County Democrats or the Tom Green County Republicans. I do like to be informed on all the candidates. When a Republican has a Town Hall Meeting or Democrats hold a Candidate forum I would like to know when and where it will take place. I want to make the most educated decision when it comes time to vote. Was this meeting advertised to the public and I just missed it or what? Are these meeting restricted to only "Party Members"? Maybe there's more too it than what it seems. This is the second time this has happened and I'm confused. Thank you.

Folks on the right fringe have been voting straight ticket for the last thirty years. No researching the candidate to see if indeed he believes the Earth is flat. Texas is lead by folks that know how to "dumb it down" for the base.
"The Keystone pipeline is important because it allows caribou to have a warm place to mate (because for the millions of years prior to a pipeline, they never mated. Oops! Sorry. Gohmert doesn’t believe in science. Make that 4,000 years.)."
Louis Gohmert

Post a comment to this article here:

X Close