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White skips primary talk and guns straight for Perry
Fact-checking the Democratic debate
PoliTex blog: From North Texas to D.C., our insiders take you beyond the usual rhetoric 
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FORT WORTH -- One of the few things on which the state's two top Democratic candidates for governor agreed Monday, during their first and likely only debate, is that it's time for change in Texas.
Former Houston Mayor Bill White and Houston hair-care magnate Farouk Shami say that Republican leaders have been in charge of Texas for too long -- more than 15 years -- and that a Democrat can make vast improvements in areas that affect Texans, from jobs to education."I believe Texans ... are tired of strife and partisanship ... and I can provide a change," White said. "This race ... is going to be about Texas' future. We need a governor who will work for the future of all the residents of our state."Shami said that he's not a politician but that he believes he can make the state better than it is today."People want a change, a major change," he said. "Thank God we finally have a president called Barack Hussein Obama. ... The state is ready for a brown governor named Farouk Shami."The two answered questions for an hour in front of an audience of about 40 people during the KERA-produced debate, which the Star-Telegram co-sponsored. They had numerous sharp disagreements, most notably on border security and whether Texas should consider a moratorium on the death penalty.Former mayorWhite, the son of school teachers, said education and the economy are among his priorities. He said he does not support using school vouchers and instead, "if there's a failing school, we ought to improve those schools." Overall, he said, the state needs to invest more in Texas' schools."We need to have Texas workers have the skills they need to compete," he said. "We're not doing that under Gov. Perry. ... Our dropout rates are some of the highest in the nation ... and that's not acceptable."White, who has dealt with environmental problems in Houston, which has many chemical plants, said he does not support a moratorium on natural gas drilling in areas such as the Barnett Shale -- a step for which state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, has called."If someone is not polluting, we will not shut down a clean source of fuel ... because someone else had excessive [pollution]," White said, adding that there's no reason why elevated benzene levels should be found at any drill site. "There should be heavy fines and that [company with elevated levels] should be shut down. ... I don't like one-size-fits-all rules from the government."As for jobs in Texas, White said, "I do not think the governor of Texas has control over the global economy. ... I think the governor can do what we can to prepare our work force for the future." In a stark contrast with Shami, White said he would not support a moratorium on the death penalty in Texas because that "would disrespect the criminal justice system," from the judges to the lawyers to the jurors involved in those cases.BusinessmanCalling himself an innovator who can provide jobs, Shami said he will take a $1-a-year salary and guaranteed that if he can't bring 100,000 jobs to Texas in his first two years as governor, then he would resign and pay the state $10 million.
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