[PAA-Discuss] Fwd: PAC seeks to unseat Republicans who opposed school vouchers

[S Gonzales]

this is disgusting - for those of you who attended the Grassroots training workshop at UH, this is exactly what rep Hochberg and the ladies represented on the state of education panel were discussing... 
 
 the 30+ year school teacher on the panel, stated in her personal opinion that school vouchers will be the beginning of the end for public education in our state and our country. 

TOM BLACKWELL   PAC seeks to unseat Republicans who opposed school vouchers
  
 02/08/2006
 http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8FKSAIO0.html
 
 
 A political action committee gave nearly $700,000 last month to the Republican
 primary opponents of five state House members who fought school voucher
 proposals during last year's legislative session.
 
 James Leininger, a prominent supporter of school vouchers, was the only
 contributor during the latest reporting period to the Texas Republican
 Legislative Campaign Committee, according to reports to the Texas Ethics
 Commission.
 
 Using taxpayer dollars to pay for private-school tuition has been a perennially
 contentious issue for public school advocates, but it is gaining momentum among
 Republican leaders, including Gov. Rick Perry.
 
 Leininger, a San Antonio businessman, gave the political action committee
 $500,000 and pledged $250,000 more, The Dallas Morning News reported in its
 Wednesday editions. Leininger also made direct donations to some of the
 challengers.
 
 The political action committee made in-kind contributions of advertising and
 mailings to primary opponents of Reps. Carter Casteel, R-New Braunfels; Tommy
 Merritt, R-Longview; Roy Blake Jr., R-Nacogdoches; Delwin Jones, R-Lubbock; and
 Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth.
 
 The donations amounted to $182,911 for Nathan Macias, an opponent of Casteel;
 $166,528 for Mark Williams, an opponent of Merritt; $160,668 for Wayne
 Christian, an opponent of Blake; $130,158 for Van Wilson, an opponent of Jones;
 and $50,385 for Chris Hatley, an opponent to Geren.
 
 Bill Crocker of Austin, one of the state's two members of the Republican
 National Committee, said he founded the Texas Republican Legislative Campaign
 Committee in October to go after "liberal Republicans" in the Legislature.
 
 The committee has endorsed opponents of the five targeted Republican incumbents,
 who Crocker said have been "betraying the very Republicans who put them in
 office."
 
 Casteel said she was looking out for taxpayers when she opposed a pilot voucher
 program that Leininger supported.
 
 "Those voucher dollars have to be accounted for, and that bill didn't provide
 for that," she told The Dallas Morning News.
 
 Casteel said the donations to beat her were "a little bit daunting," but that
 she wouldn't back down.
 
 "My mother would be rolling in her grave if she thought I was intimidated by
 someone who is trying to buy a (House) seat," she said.
 
 Adam Bell, political director for Macias, who is challenging Casteel, said
 Macias "is his own man," regardless of the donations.
 
 "They're implying that my candidate is owned, that he's beholden to doing
 whatever Dr. Leininger wants. That is not the case," Bell said.
 
 The donations averaged out to $138,000 for each challenger.
 
 Bryan Eppstein, a Republican political consultant from Fort Worth, said the
 average House candidate's primary campaign costs $75,000 to $150,000 in suburban
 and urban markets. Rural campaigns can cost more, from $100,000 to $200,000 per
 candidate, he said.


		
---------------------------------
Brings words and photos together (easily) with
 PhotoMail  - it's free and works with Yahoo! Mail.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://paa-tx.org/pipermail/discuss_paa-tx.org/attachments/20060208/6a5973e5/attachment.htm>