Desis For Texas Endorses Chris Bell, Democratic Candidate For Governor

As a native Houstonian, I am proud to write our 'blog announcement about endorsing Congressman Chris Bell for Governor of Texas in 2006. Our board was happy to unanimously vote for Chris, and we're thrilled to see that he's continuing his service to The Lone Star State.

Since I've been in Houston, Congressman Bell has been a voice of responsibility, prudence and good sense. I remember watching the news when I first went to college, and seeing him campaign for the City Council elections. Right there, in that first bid for public service, were the seeds of what grew into his political ethos. He was telling Houstonians about how their government needed to be more efficient, more transparent, more honest about how they were spending the tax revenues and more accountable to the people. He demonstrated that we could have a better, stronger and more progressive city government without having to raise taxes, and in fact, by cutting them. He also authored legislation that made it more difficult for former municipal employees and servants to parlay their service into lucrative lobbying contracts, lining their pockets with monies exacted from hard-working Houstonians. I had never seen a politician talk that talk, much less walk that walk. At the time, I was just beginning to question my involvement in the Republican party, and I remember thinking that if this is what Democrats were like, perhaps I should switch parties.

Congressman Bell's legacy to the Houston City Council was a stronger, more efficient, more transparent and more progressive city government with property taxes. This legacy parlayed itself into his mayoral campaign, where once again, he astounded the city by backing out of a run-off race, and endorsing Lee Brown. Rather than put the city through a divisive three-way run-off, Congressman Bell decided to back out and serve elsewhere.

This brings us to Congress. As a Congressman, Chris Bell's prescience and vision led him to found the Port Security Caucus, long before it was popularly known that porous borders and insecure ports of entry constitute a terrifying national security risk. Recognising that his district, the former Texas 25th, was a diverse district, Congressman Bell made every effort possible to be available to his constituents and to address their wide variety of concerns. I remember seeing him at the Mahatma Gandhi Community Centre in 2004, addressing the audience about the richness of America's melting pot. I remember scanning Yahoo! News and seeing stories about Congressman Bell taking a Congressional junket to Mumbai, as part of the Congressional India Caucus.

His legacy as a Congressman was a committment to national security, diplomacy, peace-building, international development, civil rights and most importantly, ethical and transparent government. It's impossible to pigeonhole his ideological beliefs simply because of the fact that he's above that. When Bell discusses issues and their solutions, he's truly discussing issues and their solutions, and partisan gamesmanship has nothing to do with it. Although Washington and Austin may be more polarized than ever before, the rest of the country isn't. Most of us are more interested in solutions than we are in smashing the opposition, and it is we who should elect Chris Bell to represent us. The initial seeds that began so long ago in Houston have now grown into what Congressman Bell calls The New Mainstream.

The New Mainstream is comprised of people who think that when there are complex problems, we have to innovate, make tough decisions and be willing to go beyond the politics of soundbytes. The New Mainstream is about using issues as a way of bringing people together rather than keeping them apart. Very few things in politics have a black and white answer, and those usually involve body-counts. If we want to solve a problem, rather than keeping it alive for political gain, we have to be able to cross the aisles and work together. The New Mainstream is about recognising what we've done til now that's good, keeping it, discarding what hasn't worked, and being willing to move towards new ideas.

The New Mainstream is reform in the truest sense of the word: it's about redrawing lines to include rather than exclude.

Desis For Texas is proud to endorse a man of Chris Bell's vision, character, integrity and commitment to service. We've seen his dedication to his constituents in the past, and know that he'll bring that regard to the entire state as Governor. We are happy to be part of The New Mainstream.

Dheeraj