Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Chet Edwards - “We now have the momentum in this campaign.”



Waco – Representative Chet Edwards told cheering campaign workers, Vets For Chet and a national network television news crew he will release an in-house poll today. “We won't release the numbers until tomorrow,” he said, but he predicted the poll will show he is gaining on his challenger following release of a poll that showed Bill Flores leading by 19 points.

At a campaign headquarters rally under hot tv lights, he proclaimed, “...We now have the momentum in this campaign. We're still the underdog...but I've been the underdog before and I like it. I think Mr. Flores on his trip back to Washington to drag his sack around to get some of that Washington money may have measured the drapes for his office a little too soon.”
He reminded his well-wishers, most of whom have been active in his campaigns for a generation, that a previous challenger, State Representative Arlene Wohlgemuth of Burleson, “who redrew this district” following the census of 2000, failed to unseat him in a bitterly contested race in which he lost the support of Ft. Hood and Killeen after that territory had been gerrymandered out of his district.

Mr. Edwards similarly mentioned his underdog status when opposed by oil tycoon Van Taylor, “a man who said he would pay any price for the votes it would take to eliminate me from the House of Representatives.” His remark was met with thunderous cheers and applause.

The 10-term congressman decried the Flores campaign proposal to privatize veterans health care, saying the first thing to go would be post traumatic stress disorder treatment, head trauma and blind rehabilitative programs at the Waco VA Medical Center, a facility he fought hard to keep open with the help of every major veterans service organization that represents disabled and injured veterans.

“We're fighting against a man whose first proposal is opposed by every major vets group in America,” he said of Bill Flores' proposal to “ration health care to America's heroes.”

McLennan County Veterans Service Office Bill Mohon told the throng of more than a hundred gathered in the sweltering heat of the evening sun, “He has answered it couldn't be done in exactly that way, but never did he say it can't be done,” when it comes to fighting for veterans priorities in budgetary matters.

Mr. Edwards is Chairman of the House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs, Military Construction and Quality of Military Life.

He is a multi-term member of the Water Resources Committee and high in the Democratic Party's seniority list, something frowned upon by conservative Republicans who support Bill Flores, a Houston oil executive with 9th generation ties to Panhandle ranching and the former President of the Texas A&M Alumni Association. Numbers tallied among Flores supporters show they are strongly in favor of term limits for Congressmen and Senators.div>

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