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November 16, 2007

A letter from Walker Hines

Ashley and I both received this in our email last night from State Rep 95 candidate Walker Hines, and I am posting it with his permission.

Whether or not I vote for him (at this point I am still on the fence), I think it displays a lot of character for a person to personally reach out like this to two people who have trashed him publicly in the fashion that Ashley and I and our commenters sometimes do.

It was personal contact from Percy Marchand that eventually led to me supporting him in the primary, and I do think it's important that there be continual dialog between a representative and his or her constituents.

I'm also willing to post anything that Una Anderson has to say if she wants to write me. My address is in the "About Ray" link over there on right.

Ashley and Ray,
Although I never respond to your blogs primarily due to time constraints and the vast misinformation and straight up lies by many of the posters, I do read your blogs and want to address and clarify a couple of points and major differences between my opponent and I. I think you will be very pleasantly surprised by my voting record and most importantly, accessibility while in office. Lets make sure you and the other bloggers have the facts straight about Una Anderson: She was endorsed LABI whom has also contributed over $20k to her campaign. LABI is all conservative big business that opposes workers compensation, collective bargaining, the minimum wage, expanded health care, environmental regulation, labor organization and just about every single democratic principle. They met with me for over an hour and after interviewing both candidates chose Una as the most pro-business candidate. She also won the endorsement of All Children Matter, a political organization dedicated to school choice and in favor of private school vouchers. They also interviewed me. I do NOT support private school vouchers. According to Una's campaign finance reports, Ned Diefenthal, a member of the Louisiana Committee For a Republican Majority, contributed $5k to Una's campaign. In the interest of full disclosure (I'm not trying to spin you 100% my way but I do want to provide an explanation) I have also received some money from members of the LCRM, however these are merely friends of my parents, nothing more or less. I've never met any of them in person. I know you and everyone else in the blogosphere thinks I'm just some spoiled brat that doesn't understand nor relate to anyone outside of my socio-economic status. I challenge you to give me a chance. Your perception of me is completely incorrect. I'm a down-to-earth, honest, and direct person. Ashley, you should have witnessed that when someone mistakenly wrote your address down on my sign list. My opponent is an elitist. She's completely removed from the people she governs. I'm also willing to bet she's not reading bloggers comments nor giving you any time of the day. I can take criticism. I want to be a public servant because I want to give back to my community. I feel a moral obligation to give every underprivileged child the comforts that I was provided growing up. I would not be here today if it wasn't for my loving, stable family. Due to a poor economic and education system, many do not have unconditional love and stability in the home. I will do everything in my power to prove to others that I have never overlooked where I came from and why I am where I am today. I spent a lot of time to write this e-mail and am seeking your support and endorsement. You will be pleasantly surprised by my passion, personality, background, and voting record. Unlike my opponent who tells you whatever you want to hear, I will never sacrifice my principles for popularity. I'm a progressive Democrat who believes in the Catholic values of social justice. Please work with me.

Sincerely,

Walker Hines

Candidate For State Representative, District 95

Posted by ray at November 16, 2007 2:20 PM |
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Comments

I must comment.

How can Hines criticize Una for getting endorsements that he was seeking? It's like saying "Hey, I didn't get this endorsement...so these guys suck" (along the lines of accusing me of corruption and unethical behavior after I didn't give him the endorsement he wanted.)

You would be surprised at how connected and involved Una is throughout the entire community. She was even a coach in one of the Hollygrove area parks. Mr. Hines involvement with the "disadvantaged" is limited to vague references to work he "did" in other states.

Mr. Hines has consistently said whatever he thinks his audience wants to hear. A robocall I recorded today plays one of his robocalls to Republicans claiming how conservative he is. Yet he comes onto your blogs and claims to be a progressive Democrat.

He also claims how independent of his father he and his campaign are, but constantly references his father, his father's connections, and the money his father's friends gave him just because of his father.

Before you choose "anybody but" - make sure you know who that anybody is really about.

I will say this, anytime the campaign you run is based on attacking your opponent, it says a lot about your qualifications as a candidate.

Posted by: Percy Marchand at November 16, 2007 6:34 PM

Now let me tell you something about Walker Hines that just confirmed my vote against him. I came home today to TWO (not ONE, but TWO) messages on my answering machine trashing Una Anderson and hamming up the TP story about Una and Stan Barre's accusations from some two weeks ago. There was absolutely no identifying ownership of these messages. They were, for all intents and purposes, anonymous. But it's clear that whoever made these calls is working for the Hines campaign. Who else would make such calls? Now, I'm an Una Anderson supporter (and have declared this previously), but I didn't have anything against Walker Hines until these phone messages. I find them to be the lowest kind of smear politics: anonymous phone messages that go directly negative on a particular candidate on innuendo. It's pathetic.

And what is this voting "record" he speaks of? How can someone who has never held elective office lay claim to a voting "record."

And I'll tell you one more thing about that email Walker Hines sent and which is posted here: his grammar sucks. I could forgive a few mistakes and typos, but his email is rife with errors of all kinds. That's reason enough not to vote for him.

Posted by: huckupchuck at November 16, 2007 7:44 PM

Can I write in Percy?

Posted by: ashley at November 16, 2007 8:35 PM

Ah, I love the smell of burning bullshit in the morning. I'm glad I don't have to choose between those two but how can you vote for someone who writes an email that consists of run-on sentences and one epic paragraph. The humanity, the bad grammar.

I've also heard about the targeted phone calls and I know how the Perfesser feels about robo-calls. All I can say is that I'm glad I don't live in that district. Good luck in making up your mind, Ray.

Posted by: Adrastos at November 16, 2007 10:10 PM

Can I write in Percy?

We could write in Percy for Council-At-Large, too, for that matter.

Posted by: Ray at November 16, 2007 10:17 PM

Foo. I asked about write-ins. They told me only in a primary, not the runoff.

So I abstained. I honestly couldn't pull either lever.

Posted by: ashley at November 17, 2007 4:55 PM

I did Buddy/Una/Laurie/JC. Then I went home and took another shower.

Posted by: Ray at November 17, 2007 4:57 PM

Percy just called my house. Not a robot, not a pre-recorded machine. Why didn't he win? I would be in a much better mood today if he had.

Posted by: Karen at November 17, 2007 6:12 PM

Congrats, Walker. Do us right.

Posted by: ashley at November 18, 2007 12:27 AM

All right, Captain Silverspoon, you made it in. But let's step up the grammar a little bit, eh? "Differences between my opponent and I"??? I couldn't make it past your first sentence.

Posted by: johnjohn at November 18, 2007 1:18 AM

Seriously, I'm kind of glad I'm still registered as an absentee voter in Florida. I'm still shaking my head at the amount of mudslinging and crap I've read in the T-P, in my mail, and online in the past month.

Posted by: Cait at November 20, 2007 11:49 AM

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