Thursday, January 28, 2010

Kay bashes Rick on teen pregnancy rates...

Paul Burka is revealing the campaign press releases every day, and he posted a strange one from Kay's peeps (link). Excerpt follows...

Hutchison

The daily blast from the Hutchison campaign includes this discussion:

Texas had the 4th highest teen pregnancy rate in the country in 2005, according to a new study. That’s up one notch from 5th highest in 2000, according to new data from the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights and is a leading source of data on abortion-related trends. Overall, the group reported a 3 percent increase in the nation’s teen pregnancy rate in 2006, a year after reaching its lowest point in three decades.

KBH’s daily release frequently carries bits of bad news about Texas. Yesterday’s selection was about rising employment. The unstated message, of course, is that these things are happening on Rick Perry’s watch. I don’t think that trumpeting bad news about Texas is very smart. When things go badly for Texas, they don’t just happen to Rick Perry. They happen to all of us.

Nor do I think that it was wise to bring up the teen pregnancy data. The immediate question that comes to mind is, What do you propose to do about it? A debate is coming up on Thursday, and a very good question to ask is, “Senator Hutchison, you have expressed concern that Texas has the fourth highest teen pregnancy rate in the country. Do you support the state’s policy of abstinence-based sex education or would you favor sex education that provides students with information about birth control and sexually transmitted diseases?”

Why is Kay's team bringing up teen pregnancy rates? That just smacks of tearing down Texas for no good reason. This is obviously a cultural and socio economic issue... Texas has 4 or 5 of the top 10 biggest urban centers in the country... Texas also has a huge area near the border that is heavily Hispanic... those are huge drivers of teen pregnancy, and there is not much anyone can do to change those realities in a short period of time...

I don't think this is a wise attack for Kay's peeps. Tearing down Texas on things the governor has almost nothing to do with just looks petty and nitpicky... and as Paul Burka stated Kay has not offered any solutions. Would she hand out condoms in schools? Teach kids about birth control pills in 7th grade? Yeah those are going to be popular...

What are Kay's ideas to solve this alleged problem?

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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.