Your Oct. 16 editorial stated that Tim
Tuggey is a "lawyer-lobbyist"; he has contributed to "some
Democrats"; and he intends to file as a Republican for the Texas
State Board of Education.
Republican voters have told
me that a registered lawyer-lobbyist should never run for
public office, especially if the person has made sizeable
contributions to both parties.
According to the Federal Elections Commission, as recently as
June 30, 2009, Tuggey wrote two personal checks: $2,400 to
Democrat Congressman Chet Edwards and $1,500 to the Democratic
Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Perhaps Tuggey forgot that in Texas our two Senators, Kay Bailey
Hutchison and John Cornyn, are both Republicans.
Why did Tuggey give his personal contributions to Democrats two
months before he decided to run a race as a Republican?
Tuggey, a lawyer-lobbyist, stated that he has never practiced
before the SBOE. Is this a true statement? The newspaper needs
to ask Tuggey how many textbook publishers his firm has
represented.
I wonder if the "educators" supporting Tuggey's are the same
lobbyists and vendors who so rudely "booed" concerned parents
and students at the SBOE public hearings because they dared to
testify before my Committee on the need for back-to-basics math,
true phonics, grammar, usage, and spelling?
Finally on the issue of the new Social Studies standards that
are presently being drafted for consideration by the State Board
of Education, my disagreement is with the left-wing
writing team members who wanted to delete the biographies
of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln from kindergarten and
first grade Social Studies standards.
These same writing team members with whom I took exception
actually deleted Veterans' Day and Independence Day from
the list of important holidays that elementary children should
learn.
At every grade level and at every reference, the liberal writers
changed the words "American citizen" to "Global citizen" or
"citizen of the world."
Conservative Republicans want to make sure that our public
school children are taught about our American heritage and that
textbooks present this heritage without bias, prejudice, and
revision.
I do appreciate the San Antonio newspaper making it clear that I
am the conservative in this race.
I made my political name as a Conservative "David" who has had
the backbone and the guts to stand up against the liberal
"Goliaths" of the far left. I have never, never seen a moderate
stand up to the far left.
Ken
Mercer
Member: Texas State Board of Education
former Member: Texas State House
www.VoteKenMercer.com
