Flores – Edwards Broadcast Debates Scheduled Oct. 24-25

Congressional candidate Bill Flores will have a lot to explain when he takes to the podium to debate incumbent U.S. Representative Chet Edwards.

No less a formidable foe than “The Dallas Morning News” has taken on the chore of opposition research.

The pair will duke it out on television and radio in debates broadcast from Waco's KXXV, Channel 25, on Oct. 24, and Bryan-College Station WTAW – AM 1620 on the evening of Oct. 25. The televised debate will not be open to the public, but may be viewed on the air. In a location yet to be determined, the radio debate will be open to spectators and will be simulcast. WTAW will take written questions only from the public, either submitted at the debate or through e-mail.

This latest revelation regarding Mr. Flores' checkered history with corporate bankruptcy and negotiating with creditors is likely to be aired.

Today the Dallas “News” published a story by Dave Michaels that details how the Republican challenger led an offshore drilling company through a bankruptcy that allowed the corporation to avoid a $7.5 million debt to the U.S. Government.

Mr. Michaels referred to Mr. Flores as “The Repubican challenger who has assailed Rep. Chet Edwards for supporting taxpayer bailouts...”

In the 1992 bankruptcy, court records show, the company, which is named Marine Rig 200, Inc. and was then located at Sugarland, was allowed to satisfy a $10.5 million mortgage obligation to the U.S. Maritime Administration for a cash settlement price of only $3 million.

Said the Dallas “News” article, “On the stump, Flores insists that private companies shouldn't rely on the government for subsidies or financing. And he rails against Washington's overspending and fiscal recklessness.”

All this “could give Flores' critics an opening to undermine his anti-bailout mantra,” Mr. Michaels wrote.

“To some analysts, the deal suggests a double standard in political terms.”

According to a government professor who is a congressional scholar, Sean M Theriault of the University of Texas at Austin, “What it shows is the hypocrisy of his argument with respect to the bailout. His company probably really did need the help when they got the help, and as a consequence it became prosperous.”

At the time, Mr. Flores was vice president of the company. He personally signed the bankruptcy petition.

Said Mr. Flores of the deal he wrought with such lenders as Chase Manhattan N.A., in which that firm agreed to swap $200 million in debt for stock in Marine Rig's parent company, Marine Drilling Companies, Inc., “We didn't ask them to come in like (with) TARP or General Motors or Chrysler. We didn't ask them to give us any money. If they would have done what I proposed, they would have gotten 100 percent of everything – principle and interest and possibly made a profit.”