Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Kay and toll roads... she is for them... even though she is pandering now...

Kay has trashed Rick for a toll road plan that is dead... the TTC... a brilliant idea really that was mischaracterized by people who either want no new roads, want higher gas taxes, or aren't smart enough to understand that there are limited resources and limited methods for paying for things... or that any road or rail project is going to use eminent domain to interrupt private land... but I digress...

Kay's record on toll roads is mixed. She has repeatedly said... and I am paraphrasing here... that she is not against toll roads, just against Rick's toll roads. Hers would somehow be better...

Kay has also taken quite a bit of money from the allegedly foreign company that was to have built the TTC... yes... that foreign company based in the San Antonio area... Zachry (link)...

AUSTIN – Kay Bailey Hutchison has railed against the Trans-Texas Corridor, but she counts one of the state’s premiere toll-road builders among her major financial contributors.

Bartell Zachry, whose San Antonio-based construction company partnered with the Spanish company Cintra to develop the multi-billion transportation project, gave Hutchison $25,000, according to a campaign finance report filed with the state.

Hutchison campaign spokeswoman Jen Baker said the senator was happy to accept money from the toll-road builder, even though she has denounced the Trans-Texas Corridor as a land grab and has pledged to curb toll-road construction if she's elected governor.

"Clearly, Zachry agrees with 60 percent of primary voters that don't have any interest in four more years of Rick Perry," said Baker, referring to Perry's 39 percent share of the vote when he won re-election in 2006 in a four-way race.

Perry campaign spokesman Mark Miner said Hutchison is being hypocritical.

"The senator criticizes the project, yet she has no hesitation taking money from the company building the project," Miner said.

Here is my theory on what happened here... Rick's TTC already got shot down... so the company that was to have built the TTC is thinking the only way to get it built is with a different governor who also believes in the project... but the new governor will be able to roll it out better than Rick did in terms of public relations. Let's face it, Rick's peeps did as bad a job on that as anyone could ever do...

Zanchry though is thinking Kay is a blank slate and she will be able to get it through because they will be much quieter about it and just build it in pieces without a lot of fanfare... that's why the company responsible for the Trans Texas Corridor is giving Kay such a large sum of money.

I wonder if this big donation has anything to do with Kay pulling down her advertisements about toll roads and replacing them with her border security commercials...

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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.