By David Wilfong, NDG Contributing Writer
A steep drop in temperatures led to smaller numbers, but the 2018 run of Monday Night Politics presented by the Dallas Examiner continued with its second installment on Jan. 15 at the African American Museum in Fair Park. Those who attended were treated to conversations from candidates in four races; three state representative seats and one state senator race were presented on Monday night, though many candidates were not able to attend.
In the first segment, incumbent Roberto Alonzo faced challenger Jessica Gonzalez in the race for State Representative District 104. Both candidates come to the table with a wealth of experience in the political realm. Alonzo has held the seat since 1993, while Gonzalez – clearly identifying herself as a representative of the Progressive movement within the party, was a Law Graduate fellow for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute and served both on Capitol Hill and as a White House Intern.
“We’re still fighting over redistricting from the last time that the lines were drawn,” Gonzalez said. “So we’re really going to have a fight ahead of us. Now I intend to use my background in voting rights to bring the fight to Austin. I think that we’ll have a real opportunity for us to get back some of these seats.”
She described District 104 as a very safe Democratic seat, and therefore one where the party could afford to have a “very progressive voice.”
Alonzo is counting on his experience, and cites coalition-building as one of his primary advantages. He noted that Democrats in Texas must be able to negotiate the legislative process in a Red state in order to be successful.
“In the House of Representatives we believe in coalition politics,” Alonzo said. “With the 55 Democrats, we only need 21 Republicans to elect the Speaker of the House. The reason I’m on the Calendars committee is not because I’m handsome, it’s because the Democrats helped to get the Speaker elected. We asked for committees. Part of the deal is give-and-take and we want to have our issues dealt with.”
The second slate of candidates welcomed to the stage were those running for State Representative District 109, a seat which will be open due to the retirement of State Rep. Helen Giddings.
Of the four candidates running, Deshaundra Lockhart Jones and Carl Sherman, Sr. were present at the forum. Also running are Christopher Graham and Victoria Walton. Jones and Sherman are quite familiar to each other, as they both have served as elected members of the DeSoto City Council. Jones emphasized that she is the only currently-elected official running for the office. Sherman, who has served as the mayor of DeSoto in the past, is currently working as a city manager for Hutchins.
“One of the things I like to bring is a continuation of what I’ve already brought, which is advances in technology and things that are environmentally responsible,” Jones said. “Things that also include positive health options for our individuals. The healthcare costs are rising and the things that are necessary to improve that happen to impact more than one demographic of the population. In addition to that, on the educational forefront, being able to make sure that we have what we need to have a wholesome, working pool of individuals to attract as well as incentivize the businesses to come to the Southwest region.”
Sherman pointed to education and school finance as one of his main reasons for running.
“Approximately $47 billion (of the state’s total budget) is set aside for education, and each session it seems legislators are giving less and less back to the local community” Sherman said. “We’ve gone from 58 percent, down to 38 percent. In the next two years, we’re going to add 80,000 more students to our student population across the State of Texas. That’s the size of Lancaster and DeSoto combined. So we need more resources and not less.”
In the race for State Representative District 113, only second-time candidate Rhetta Bowers was in attendance. Also running for the seat is Billy Ingram. Bowers comes from a background of broadcast journalism, but set her career aside to raise her children. She said she is now ready to focus on the issues facing the citizens of Texas. She served as Chair of the Dallas Women’s March, and ran for the seat in 2016 as well.
“I will tell you that I never planned to run for office,” Bowers said. “I truly am a community organizer and only want to make my community a better place. And it just so happened that I ended up in a life of public service just as an appointed official and working whether it was in the community with PTA boards, band booster boards and on the executive committee and just working to make our community better.”
The final race presented for the night featured Joe Bogen, a local attorney running for State Senate District 16. Billy Ingram is also running for the office, but was not in attendance on Monday night. Bogen’s legal practice has been in criminal defense, and he points out he has focused on indigent and juvenile clients. He was born in District 16 and like Gonzalez, he identifies himself as part of the new Progressive wing of the Democratic Party.
If chosen in the primary, Bogen will be facing Republican Don Huffines in the general election, a fact that was not lost on the overwhelmingly Democratic crowd. The simplest answers sometimes being the best, Bogen brought laughter and cheers from the crowd when asked by moderator Mercedes Fulbright what he would do for the district if he did not win the race. “Run again,” was his short response.
Bogen stated that in his practice he has seen the disparity in how individuals face the legal system as defendants. He recalled seeing defendants from a murder caught on camera and a police shooting get bailed out the next day, while he’s had a teenage client languish in jail from a simple possession charge.
Monday Night Politics is held every Monday from 6-8 p.m. until March 5 at the African American Museum at Fair Park. The event is always free and open to the public.
