Posted on 02/13/2004 4:57:55 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
McALLEN — It didn’t take long for the race for congressional District 25 to get ugly.
With just 12 days left before early voting starts for the March primary, Democratic candidate Leticia Hinojosa has launched an inquiry into the voting record of U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, whom she faces in the March 9 election.
Doggett was the only Texas Democrat to vote against the budget approved in February 2003 in the U.S. House of Representatives, Hinojosa said.
The bill included $2 million in funding for Driscoll Children’s Hospital in McAllen and $500,000 for the South Texas Community College’s Milagro Center for Migrant Health in McAllen, according to Hinojosa. “He voted for almost $1 million in federal funds to study the migration patterns of birds from Canada but voted against a $2 million congressional grant for Driscoll’s Children’s Hospital in McAllen,” Hinojosa said. Doggett did not return repeated phone calls from The Monitor, but issued a written statement in response to Hinojosa’s statements.
“Her diatribe demonstrates that desperation breeds distortion,” Doggett wrote. “Rejected by one group after another, such as the United Farm Workers and the South Texas Organization of Police, she has now downgraded to character assassination. Unable herself to offer any experience in the legislative process and facing rejection by those who know her best, she will find that her new smear approach works as poorly as the rest of her campaign.”
Hinojosa, a former judge who resigned from the 139th state District Court in January in order to run for Congress, said she’s been doing research on Doggett’s voting record.
“He himself brought up the Milagro Center in a speech he gave to the heart association,” Hinojosa said. “He called it a ‘miracle center’ and I thought that was ironic considering he voted against funding for it. If it were up to him we would not have had the necessary funding.”
Hinojosa said Doggett also voted against funding for colonias.
“Fortunately with regards to colonia bill — $20 million for waste and water disposal systems in colonias — it passed by an overwhelming majority of both Democrats and Republicans,” Hinojosa said. “Doggett was the only Democratic congressman from the state of Texas voting against it.”
Doggett said Hinojosa doesn’t know what she is doing. “I didn’t get 100-percent ratings from the Catholic Social Justice Lobby, the American Public Health Association, and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and an ‘A’ from the Children’s Defense Fund by voting against children, colonias, and social justice,” Doggett wrote. “I defy her to find any such vote where these were the sole issues.
“In fact, I am a sponsor of two bills designed specifically to aid the colonias and recently received a letter of appreciation from the National Association of Children’s Hospitals,” Doggett wrote.
Hinojosa said she wants an explanation as to why Doggett voted the way he did.
“I think he needs to explain to the constituents that he’s seeking to represent why his voting record doesn’t reflect issues that are very important to us like our colonias and children’s health care,” Hinojosa said. Doggett’s statement criticized Hinojosa for spending time with a small group of insiders and said she was chosen to advance Republican Tom DeLay’s plan to remove him from office.
“As for her attack on me, Congressmen (Ruben) Hinojosa, (Ciro) Rodriguez, and (Solomon) Ortiz for voting in favor of monies for migratory birds, I think she needs to spend a little more time along the Rio Grande,” Doggett wrote. “Some of us believe that the World Birding Center is an asset that can add to tourism and provide much needed jobs for our area — apparently she thinks it’s just for the birds.”
Dr. Ramiro Casso of McAllen, one of the founders of the El Milagro Health Clinic, said he thinks Hinojosa is confused.
“She’s confusing El Milagro Clinic with a grant that Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. worked on — there’s a Dr. Mary Lou DeLeon Saintz, she’s the one we contacted a couple of years back — and we were working on a grant between Georgetown University’s School of Nursing and us down here at STCC,” Casso said. “The grant was for an allied nursing program to treat migrant farm workers because some of our farm workers from the Valley apparently migrate over there to that area and they wanted to follow them over there and so on. “And Dr. Saintz unfortunately named it the Milagros Project,” Casso said. “But it has nothing to do with El Milagro Clinic.”
Casso, a Doggett supporter, said he didn’t know why Doggett voted against the funding for the Milagros Project.
“He may have voted against it probably because it was conflicting with something else,” Casso said. “If Doggett voted against anything to help poor people or help farm workers, it wouldn’t very typical for him to do that,” Casso said. “He’s got a consistent record of helping the underprivileged for helping with health care, helping children with health insurance — all of those things. If that’s what she’s claiming, she’s got those two program completely confused.”
Alma Walzer covers Hidalgo County government and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4422.
Don't think so, Lloyd
Drilled some gas wells in a community like this once. Didn't know it was there until we went to stake the first well - had to buy some lots from the lawyer promoting it for the surface locations.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.