Editor’s note: To date there has been no Democratic town hall meeting comparable to what the Republicans organized and publicized. If one is planned, the Daily Progress will cover it and bring its readers those candidates views.
By Kelly Young
kyoung@jacksonvilleprogress.com
Approximately 40 Republicans gathered Tuesday evening at the Cherokee County Republican Party Headquarters to take part in a town hall meeting hosted by state representative-hopeful Brian Walker. Walker addressed the small crowd and then opened the meeting up for a question-and-answer session.
Walker said his goal as a politician is to bring conservatism back to all levels of government.
“The Republican Party is the party of conservatism, and as long as I continue to be a part of it, I am going to fight to make it even more conservative than it already is. I believe strongly in the idea, as Thomas Jefferson put it, that the government that governs best is the government that governs least,” Walker said. “We have too many politicians today who run for election saying they are conservative, and then they go to Austin and vote like liberals. We have to demand that our politicians do what they say they are going to do at the end of the day.”
According to Walker, since he began campaigning in East Texas, he has been amazed by the number of rural people who call themselves Democrats, but who espouse Republican beliefs.
“If you go issue by issue and talk with these people about their political ideology regarding illegal immigration, taxes, government spending and other issues, they are really Republicans and they don’t even realize it. A lot of Democrats don’t get it that the Democratic Party left them a long time ago,” he said.
Walker compared political parties to pickup trucks. He said if the values of your party have changed, it’s probably time to change parties.
“In East Texas everybody has a pickup truck that they believe is the best one — you’ve got the Chevy people; you’ve got the Dodge people; and you’ve got the Ford people — and usually what Daddy drove is what you drive,” Walker said. “Listen, if you are a Ford person, and Ford started putting rubber band engines in their pickup trucks, would you still drive a Ford? Absolutely not. If the Republican Party became liberal, I wouldn’t be a Republican any more, and I think that’s something that a lot of East Texas Democrats need to consider.”
Calling the current state of Texas politics “insane,” Walker said the citizens will continue to get the same results as long as the same people remain in public office. He said the three things most lacking right now in state government are leadership skills, integrity and conservative principles.
“We hear all the time about politicians claiming to be great leaders and to have integrity. I hear it so often that I am utterly convinced that most of the politicians don’t even know what those words mean,” he said. “The word ‘integrity’ comes from the word ‘integer,’ which comes word the word ‘one,’ and it means being the same person under all circumstances, no matter who you are talking to. It’s not talking to Republicans and tell them you are a Republican and then turning to the Democrats and telling them you are a proud Democrat — that is not integrity.”
Walker accused his opponent Chuck Hopson of blatantly lying in his advertising by claiming that Walker supports a 34 percent sales tax rate. He also defended his own advertising, much of which has focused on what he calls the “duplicity of Chuck Hopson.”
Among his many pieces of campaign literature, Walker has distributed a creative piece of propaganda called Chuck Hopson’s Liberal Government Cookbook, which includes recipes such as Flip-Flopping Illegal Immigration Pancakes and Dereliction of Duty Donuts.
“He (Hopson) has sent out mail pieces that are patently false, and where I come from that’s called lying. That type of deception has no place in politics. I’ve been told that I have been too negative towards him, but all I have done is point out the times he has said one thing to the voters and then gone to Austin and done the exact opposite,” Walker said. “Everything we run about Chuck Hopson is cited specifically so that you can go look it up yourself and see the truth. You will find in Chuck Hopson’s mail that he doesn’t cite anything.”
According to Walker, he is proud to share a Republican ticket with John McCain and Sarah Palin. He advocated voting straight ticket Republican, at all levels of government, saying that “we need to send a message to the Democrats that their socialist agenda is wrong for this country.”
Several other republican candidates seeking office in the November elections also spoke during Wednesday’s gathering. Daniel Boone Childs, seeking to serve as district judge, and Linda Little, running for tax assessor-collector, each took some time to explain their goals for the offices they are running for. Katherine Pinotti, Republican hopeful for commissioner of Precinct 3, was present at the meeting but did not speak.
Childs called his opponent, incumbent Dwight Phifer, a part-time judge.
“We are paying a full-time salary for a part-time judge, and the people deserve better. In the last three months, I have yet to be at the courthouse after 2:30 p.m. when he is still in the building,” Childs said. “We currently have a judge on the bench who does not allow the district clerk to file family law cases in his court. He talks about how much he has cleaned up his docket, but the truth is that many cases aren’t being filed on his docket that should be. During the years he has been in office, he has refused to file thousands of family law cases in his court — and those cases are important to people.”
During his four years working as the county’s court-at-law judge, Childs said he has proven that he is a judge for the people.
The county’s current assistant auditor, Linda Little, said she has nuts-and-bolts knowledge of the tax office which would serve her well as tax assessor-collector.
“I have been working in the auditor’s office for 14 years, and in that time, very few of the improvement recommendations that I have written for that office have ever been implemented. When you elect me, you will be getting a business woman who is going to be making a lot of changes in that department,” she said. “I am going to be implementing all those procedures that I have been pleading with the current tax assessor-collector for the last 14 years to make.”
Walker has been recently been endorsed by Dr. James Dobson of Focus on the Family, the Eagle Forum and Governor Mike Huckabee — adding to a list of endorsements that already includes Texas Right to Life and Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, and others.
“Those people and groups would not have endorsed Brian if he weren’t the true conservative in this race. Those endorsements say a lot about what kind of man he is,” said Nate Lambert, Walker’s political manager. “Brian is one of the hardest-working candidates that I have ever worked for, and he has been incredibly busy lately. Brian goes on walks, he makes phone calls and he visits businesses because he really wants this job.”
