Monday, October 19, 2009

Prop 11... both Rick and Kay are for it...

Kelley Shannon gives a pretty good run down of the Prop 11 debate (link). Excerpt follows...

With early voting beginning Monday, Gov. Rick Perry is on the same side as the Texas Farm Bureau and his Republican primary opponent, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, in promoting the proposition even though the Farm Bureau and Perry have been at odds over private property rights in connection with Perry's now-dead plan to build a Trans-Texas Corridor toll road across the state.

For Perry, it's a chance to cast himself as a protector of private property before the March primary.

"I hope you'll work with us. We're going to be very actively engaged in drawing attention to Proposition 11," Perry told the Texas Association of Realtors last week. He said the proposed amendment would require public "ownership, use and enjoyment" of property.

"So they can't turn and hand it over to somebody in the private sector," he said.

Look for Perry to campaign for the proposition this coming week.

Hutchison also plans to promote it at campaign events. She recently won the farm bureau's endorsement after opposing Perry's Trans-Texas Corridor, which would have seized private farm and ranch land for government use. Prop 11 wouldn't stop governments from seizing property for public roads.

Hutchison said Prop 11 is an important step toward protecting private property rights and "is the beginning of Texas' badly needed eminent domain reform that I will help finish as governor."

Ironically... opposing Prop 11 is Terri Hall and TURF, the anti Trans Texas Corridor group. Their opposition to this is basically that it doesn't go far enough. That may be the case, but they are further marginalizing themselves as a narrow collection of nutty fringe activists with a media megaphone that is way too big relative to their actual size and influence.

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Hey now, campaign characters. Be nice. I know a lot of you on both sides, so I don't want any overly foul language, personal attacks on anyone other than the candidates themselves, or other party fouls. I will moderate the heck out of you if you start breaking the bounds of civility.