https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/1999-01-29/521084/

On the Lege

Boxed Out

January 29, 1999, News

He may be one of the most senior members of the Texas Senate, but Austin's state Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos will not be heading any committees this session. The committee appointments, made by Lt. Gov. Rick Perry, reflected the Republican majority in the Senate, with seven of the 12 committee chairs going to members of the GOP. Not surprisingly, chairmanships of the most important committees, including finance, economic development, education, and natural resources, all went to Republicans. Barrientos will be on the powerful finance committee as well as the natural resources and nominations committees. He will also be on the special committee on electric utility restructuring, which will examine if, and how, the state will move toward opening the state's electric system to competition. The issue is particularly important to Austin, because the city owns its own electric utility. --R.B.

Stating the Obvious

No surprises in Gov. George Bush's state of the state speech on Wednesday: The details of the speech, including Bush's plans for a property tax cut and increased spending on public education were reported in all of the state's major papers on Wednesday morning. The 30-minute-long speech included Bush's standard presidential aspirations disclaimer: "The big answer is I really don't know yet." But while Bush continues to be coy about his presidential plans, he sure sounded like a candidate on the stump. Discussing the state's budget surplus, he said legislators can "either view it as a distraction, or seize it as an opportunity to show what limited and constructive government looks like. We can show Washington how to handle a budget surplus."--R.B.

I'm Telling Mom

Although they were praying for abortion to be outlawed, the 500 or so who rallied at the Capitol on Saturday admitted they would settle -- for now -- for passage of a state law requiring doctors to notify a pregnant girl's parents before performing a requested abortion.

Carrying red, white, and blue balloons along with hundreds of signs reading "Protect our Daughters" and "Restore Parental Rights," the anti-abortion contingent marched down Congress Avenue and assembled at the Capitol, where members of the Christian Coalition, Texans United for Life, and other like-minded organizations marked the 26th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion in the United States, by calling on Texas lawmakers to pass Senate Bill 30, which would limit minors' access to abortion. Similar measures have been proposed in the House (see story at left).

The Senate legislation, proposed by Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, has undergone three previous -- and unsuccessful -- incarnations. Two years ago, the bill died in committee near the end of the legislative session. But local abortion foes say they are hopeful that the resurrected bill will pass this session. Joe Pojman, executive director of Greater Austin Right to Life, said he believes "the votes are there" in the House and Senate for the parental notification measures to pass. Although the legislation would require a doctor to inform the parents of a minor requesting an abortion at least 48 hours before the surgery, it contains what Pojman called a "judicial bypass," which would allow the minor to go before a judge and prove that she was mature enough to make the decision on her own, or that she would be endangered if her parents found out, as in cases of abuse.

But Kate McLaughlin, executive director of the Texas Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (TARAL), said the judicial bypass amounted to little more than a smokescreen for abortion opponents' long-term goal: To reduce the number of abortions in Texas. "The legal system is terrifying to all of us as adults. How do we expect our young people to feel comfortable there?" McLaughlin said. "The reality is, if [a young woman] can't talk to her parents, she won't go to the judge, either." Besides, McLaughlin said, statistics show the majority of girls already include a parent in the decision to have an abortion. This legislation "is going for a very small segment of the population," she said. "The objective of everyone who backs these bills is to end abortion, period." --E.C.B.

The Latino Imperative

Call it a preemptive strike. Vice President Al Gore knows he will need lots of Latino votes if he is going to win the job now held by his boss, Bill Clinton. In an effort to win those voters, Gore has snatched an operative from the backyard of Texas Gov. George W. Bush. Earlier this month, Gore named San Antonio lawyer Jose Villarreal, 45, as his campaign treasurer.

Villarreal, a veteran of two presidential campaigns (he headed Michael Dukakis' Texas campaign in Texas in 1988 and was a deputy campaign manager for Clinton in 1992), has worked on Latino voting issues for 13 years, including a stint as a voting rights lawyer and political organizer. Villarreal downplays his credentials as a Latino activist, saying they were "obviously not a negative" in his selection. Craig Smith, campaign manager for the Gore 2000 campaign, was somewhat more direct. "The most rapidly growing sector of the voting population are the Hispanics," said Smith. "Any candidate who ignores the Hispanic vote in this country does so at their peril." --R.B.

Ending Favoritism

State representative Lon Burnam (D-Fort Worth) seized the opportunity Monday to boost the profile of a bill (HB 198) that would prohibit public universities from giving preferential treatment to the relatives of university alumni.

Burnam -- joined by faculty and student representatives -- sat on a panel at the third in a series of four town hall forums sponsored by the University of Texas' Anti-Racist Organizing Committee (AROC) on Monday. The meeting drew about 100 people to discuss solutions to the problem of low minority enrollment and faculty recruitment at UT in the post-Hopwood era.

Burnam admitted that HB 198 is "weak" but called the measure symbolically valuable in the battle to promote diversity at state colleges and universities. "This legislation is really a small piece in the puzzle of stopping institutionalized racism," said Burnam, adding that many children of alumni and donors admitted to Texas universities are upper middle-class and white. "Throughout the history of our state's school systems we've had a white, male, upper middle-class affirmative action program," Burnam said.

No independent studies have documented the effects (or even confirmed the existence) of alumni preferences at UT or other public universities in Texas, but Burnam said that favoritism may be implicit and based on case-by-case consideration of letters of recommendation, and correspondence from parents. Students at the meeting Monday requested an independent investigation of the alleged alumni preferences. Students also asked for an immediate reinstatement of the university's affirmative action admissions and recruitment programs, which were dismantled in response to the Hopwood decision in 1996. While agreeing in theory to both student requests, UT President Larry Faulkner didn't make any promises.

The final town hall meeting will be held Monday, March 8, at 7pm in the Presidential Lobby at the Texas Union on the UT campus. --E.C.B.