News Release
Independent Texans * IndyTexans.org
For Immediate Release Contact: Linda Curtis
October 19, 2010 512-535-0989
Anti-Corridor Leaders Say: Rep. Tim Kleinschmidt Lying About Role in Trans-Texas Corridor Defeat
Two key anti-Trans-Texas Corridor leaders, Terri Hall of Texas TURF and Linda Curtis of Independent Texans, said today that State Representative Tim Kleinschmidt in District 17 (Bastrop, Burleson, Colorado, Fayette, Lee and Brazos counties) is lying about introducing legislation that led to the defeat of the Trans-Texas Corridor. His claim, in a live debate with opponent Pati Jacobs held on Bastrop Access Television last Thursday was, “I was a co-author of the bill that did away with the Trans-Texas Corridor.”(At 13:17 minutes) A mass mailer distributed from his campaign claims, “I co-authored legislation to abolish the TTC and soon after the Texas Department of Transportation announced it was ending all plans to proceed with the project.” The Bill, HB 1253, not only failed to pass, it didn’t even get a hearing. The real TTC repeal bill was introduced by Rep. David Leibowitz (D-San Antonio) and was supported by key anti-Corridor Republicans, including Rep. Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham).
Linda Curtis is a founder of Independent Texans, which helped to coordinate efforts of the anti-Corridor movement, and assisted Carole Strayhorn in bringing the Corridor issue to light in her independent candidacy aimed at Rick Perry in 2006. Curtis said, “’Tim Kleinschmidt might as well take credit for the sun coming up in the morning just because his rooster crowed. The bill he filed never got a vote of a single legislator. And he’s trying the same kind of trickery now in the dispute over our groundwater by calling on the six Perry appointees on the Texas Water Development Board to ‘mediate’ the dispute, after Perry received a $251,000 contribution from the Vice-Chair of the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority. What this tells me is that Mr. Kleinschmidt must be in deep trouble to put out such scurrilous claims. Independent voters, who will likely decide this race, are sickened by the dangerous games these people are playing on something so vital as water.”
Terri Hall, who led much of the citizen’s lobbying on the Corridor in the 2007 and 2009 Texas legislative sessions said, “There is no way that Rep. Tim Kleinschmidt can make any serious claim whatsoever to stopping the Trans-Texas Corridor. The bill he’s talking about, HB 1253, was authored by Bohac and introduced on February 12. Kleinschmidt didn’t even sign on to it until April 23rd, and if he really supported a repeal, he signed on to the wrong bill! This one was all but dead by the time he signed on. It never had a hearing. He could have signed on to the onto Leibowitz’ repeal bill, HB 11 — the one that was moving — as many other Republicans did like Lois Kolkhorst, Wayne Christian, and others. Leibowitz, Kolkhorst and others, eventually HB 11 attached to a bill (despite being stuck in committee) that passed the House, but that ultimately failed final passage in both chambers.”
The Kleinschmidt mailers referred to in this release are scanned and and can be accessed by following the links below.
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