Richard Greene, former Arlington mayor and appointee of President George W.
Bush as regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency, wrote a piece outlining the current Texas State Reps. for districts 92 and 94, why he feels they are corrupt, and who would be better suited for the positions. Here is a link to the article:Local control is at stake in important Texas House races.
Mr. Greene does admit to residing in district 94 and supporting the opposition, but I believe he fell short in almost every other area of the article. Opinion pieces are about finding support from those who believe as you do, while informing and swaying the opinions of those that do not. I believe Mr. Greene completely missed his target audience and failed to connect with anyone that isn't accustomed to over dramatization and fluff.
While I assume he was trying to reach the common citizen and voter, he used phrases to describe the incumbent like "outside forces determined to usurp the core principles of home rule" and political banter like "crucial to our system of representative democracy" as if the current office holders were trying to take the system hostage, which painted them as foreigners coming unto power they only wanted to use for evil. I do believe that currently the political system is run by money, and the rich few get to bully the lesser many, but simply pointing it out without giving proper information on how to help fix the problem is called whining.
Mr. Greene does mention the challengers to the incumbent, but offers so little in the way of information about them, or their platforms, that I was left wondering why he bothered mentioning them at all. His jumble of single line paragraphs would have almost been better served as a full slam piece of the current office holders Rep. Jonathan Stickland in District 92 and Rep. Tony Tinderholt in District 94.
Mr. Greene sites why he is adamantly against these two men, and mentions who he is indeed voting for, though the best he had to offer in the way of representing them as better choices was in reference to challenger Andy Piel of District 94, "I believe his lifetime of public and volunteer service in our community
provides experience and insight far exceeding that of the incumbent." Public and volunteer service is a rather broad statement. Was Mr. Piel a file clerk at the court house, and gave soup to the needy? Was he a philanthropist and award winning political author? I don't have a clue what makes him anymore or less qualified than his opponent by the end of the article.
Mr. Greene chose his target audience and wording very poorly in my opinion. Using the word "they" in reference to the public, over and again, as if he was above us or separate from the public really drove the final nail in this piece for me. If he had brought the challengers into a brighter light instead of bashing the incumbents pasts transgressions I might have remembered their names for more than a few seconds, but all I really left with was another poor taste for current small town Texas politics.
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