AUSTIN -- As former Houston mayor Bill White laid out an agenda focused on education, Houston businessman Farouk Shami made some big promises.
"When I am governor, there will be jobs for everybody,” Shami pledged. "I will guarantee everybody's job. I am guaranteeing 100,000 jobs in the first two years or I will give the state $10 million."
White tempered expectations as he pointed to his record and laid out his top priorities, which include public education, higher education, and job training.
"I do not think the governor of Texas can control the national economy. I do think the governor can do what he can to prepare the workforce for the future,” White said. "I left the city of Houston with cash balances over twice what I inherited."
Shami called for a moratorium on the death penalty in Texas saying, "We have killed lots of innocent people."
White said that reaction might be too far-reaching. “Because that would disrespect the jurors in cases where the evidence is good,” he said.
White and Shami both criticized the state's Transportation Department.
"You know, we need to reform the TxDOT. They are spending $2 billion dollars. We need to fix our roads. Yes I support raising the gas (tax) a little bit,” Shami said.
“That's not where I'd start,” White responded. “We've had a really terrible obsession with toll roads -- that must end with a new governor."
"I am asking for your support to be the next governor of Texas. I'm asking for your vote. I have a track record,” White said in summation.
Shami returned to a familiar refrain: “We have a president called Barack Hussein Obama, unconventional name, unconventional growth, black president. The state is ready for a brown governor,” he said.
Whichever candidate emerges from the primary, the real question may be is Texas ready for a Democrat. The last time a Democrat won statewide office in Texas was in the early 1990s.
