Democratic candidate for Governor Chris Bell may have represented a Houston district in the House of Representatives, but he knows the area around SMU well.
Bell grew up in Highland Park and graduated from Highland Park High School. Accordingly, Bell said he spent many days of his childhood on and around the SMU campus.
“I played pick-up basketball in the old Dedman gym many weekends,” Bell said, adding that the SMU basketball players of his era were his sports heroes.
Bell doesn’t have that kind of free time now as he heads into the final month of his Democratic primary campaign. For nearly all of 2005, it looked like Bell would be the only serious candidate running until Bob Gammage threw his hat in the ring.
The two have since faced off in many debates and gatherings across the state as the March 7 primary nears. Their meetings make it clear that the two don’t disagree on the major issues — they both instead save their vitriol for Governor Rick Perry.
“People want change — we find ourselves in a low point in history,” Bell said of the mood he finds in the people as he travels the state.
“If we’re going to release the greatness of this state, then we need to turn Texas around,” Bell said.
Reforming public schools is top priority for Bell, from the way schools are financed to all aspects of education. When asked about Perry’s solution, Bell said that it is “rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.”
According to Bell, the franchise tax must be extended to all businesses. This would be a large source of income that could be used to help fund schools and “wouldn’t hurt the business climate.”
Bell said that the state should not forget about its role in funding higher education. He said that the state must end tuition deregulation and restart the Texas Tomorrow Fund, a program that allowed parents to lock in current tuition rates for their children years before they were to attend college.
“You take any category and we aren’t meeting those needs,” Bell said.
Bell believes this issue will help him be competitive in a general election — even one that could feature four serious candidates.
“Before, it was a situation where you have to get a lot of Republicans to crossover,” Bell said. His campaign has a strategy of targeting the most loyal base and then going after the moderate independent voter — this, he says, should be enough to win in November.
“There is a base of 38 to 40 percent that always votes Democratic, and if you get some independents, then you can be very competitive,” Bell said.
When asked about his low levels of campaign cash, Bell said his campaign is phase oriented and isn’t expecting any serious amounts of money until he wins the Democratic nomination.
“Money isn’t everything, but you obviously need to have it to get out your message.”
The Bell campaign was in Dallas yesterday for a debate with Gammage, which was streamed online through TV station WFAA’s website, but has no announced plans to be in the Dallas area for a campaign event in the immediate future.
