THE CYPRESS TIMES EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH DEBRA MEDINA
“We’ve got to be better at judging people by the fruit of their lives, rather than the rhetoric of their words.” - Debra Medina, Republican candidate for Governor of Texas.
The political landscape is currently inhabited by a strong-willed female conservative who is ready to buck the system, dropkick conventional wisdom, and stand up against the tired old status quo in politics even if that means taking on her own Republican Party. No, it’s not “Sarah Barracuda”. That candidate is Texan Debra Medina whose "take no prisoners" attitude in wanting to serve the people of Texas just might earn her the moniker of “Debra Bobcat”.
In a crowded field of candidates seeking the Republican nomination for Governor, the little known Debra Medina will stand “David-like” against two “Goliaths” in incumbent Governor Rick Perry and popular U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. The fact that she is out-gunned, out-manned and out-financed by these two political powerhouses is not lost on Medina, nor does it deter her.
“Our history is filled with people who won by standing on their beliefs and principles,” say Medina, who cites Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan as the type of Republicans that best personify her own beliefs and the ideals for which she is fighting.
Medina, the former Head of the Wharton County Republican party, believes that somewhere along the line we, as a people, have turned to following personalities rather than ideals. Medina dealt with this issue over five years ago when members of the Wharton County Republican Party Executive Committee began to display apathy. Medina said then, “Our loyalty is not to a collection of people or personalities.”
“I am a Republican because of an allegiance to a set of ideals,” says Medina. “We’ve got to be better at judging people by the fruit of their lives, rather than the rhetoric of their words. My walk matches the talk. It’s important that our walk be consistent with our talk.”
Medina is concerned that the Republic for which we stand is beginning to slip away, “We need to restore our Republic, and not act on public opinion.”
Debra Medina says that all too often our leaders, including Perry and Hutchison, have been either unable or unwilling to make the tough decisions. Currently Popularity triumphs over Public Service. Medina says, “The two presumptive candidates (Perry and Hutchison) have proven they won’t stand up.”
Debra Medina, a longtime nurse who started her own business, Prudentia, Inc., which specializes in helping patients save money by improving medical billing procedures, says her number one hot-button issue is the need to eliminate the state property tax. She does not want to change it or reduce it, she wants to abolish it.
Medina says there is a way to shield Texas from the crumbling U.S. economy. Much of it involves the property tax. Likening the tax to an unbalanced load on the back of a pack mule, Medina says, “Property tax creates a poorly loaded burden on our economy. We need to get rid of property taxes.” Medina goes on to say, “If we eliminated our property tax and did a revenue neutral sales tax, net personal income would go up $1.5 to $3 billion in the first year.” How big of a sales tax increase would this cause? None, if Medina has her way.
“If we tax real property value (via a sales tax) at the time of its sale we could actually lower the sales tax to 5.5%,” says Medina. Medina has already launched a petition drive to build a coalition to draft, write and sponsor such legislation for the 2011 Legislative Session in Texas.
It may seem a waste of time for another Republican to enter the race, and counter-productive, too in light of the reports coming from the last Legislative session, and from a Governor Perry, who seems to have suddenly found his long-lost conservatism. After all, State Senators, State Reps, and the “Gov” himself have been everywhere anyone would listen ballyhooing the $8 billion dollar surplus that the State of Texas now enjoys. So, what’s the problem?
According to Medina, the problem is that there is no surplus of $8 billion dollars and that, in fact, there is an “outstanding bonded debt of $27.5 billion as of the end of 2008.” Medina gets those numbers from the State of Texas Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (see Chart on page 34). While the numbers are not yet in on this year’s Legislative Session, the Special Session allotted another $2 billion in the same type of bonded debt to The Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT).
Rather than considering the State of Texas to be on strong economic ground Medina says, “I would argue that we have doubled the cost of healthcare and doubled spending.”
Medina is fully aware that she is the little fish in this race, but she vows to fight on. “The challenge,” says Medina “is to get the message out. We’ll never have the dollars that Kay or Rick have.” To that end Medina is running a good old-fashioned grass roots campaign made up of a primarily volunteer staff. She is also taking advantage of all the “New Media” on the Internet from Facebook, to Twitter, to forums, to Meet Up groups.
Medina actually seems to like running her campaign as guerilla warfare, and while she realizes the necessity for political donations she says, “I would rather people keep their money for their families than to be asking them to give to a political campaign.”
How many times have you heard a candidate say that? Limited Government, Lower Taxes, Less Spending – that’s what Debra Medina calls a Big “R” Republican.
To learn more about Debra Medina and her campaign for Governor visit her website at: MedinaForTexas.com
You can also follow Medina’s campaign on:
The Candidate In Her Own Words -
This interview originally ran in July of 2009. With the GOP primary just around the corner we have decided to run it again - Publisher
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