October 11, 2004

Witt Campaign Blasts Democrat Hochberg
on 1997 Measure Affecting Soldiers' Votes

By Mike Hailey
Capitol Inside Editor

Republican Ann Witt's campaign is firing a torpedo into the camp of State Rep. Scott Hochberg with a mail piece accusing the incumbent of voting to make it harder for American military personnel to vote when they were stationed overseas.

The mailer seizes on the Democratic incumbent's vote in support of an amendment to an elections reform bill during the regular session in 1997. Approved in the Texas House on an almost purely party line vote, the amendment clarified standards and eligibility requirements for overseas voting in state elections.

The mailer frames the upcoming race for House District 137 as a choice between Hochberg and U.S. military troops fighting for freedom across the globe.

"Mr. Hochberg's attempt to discount the votes of our military service men and women - the people who sacrifice their lives to defend Mr. Hochberg's freedom - is abhorrent," according to a letter signed by 40 retired military officers and featured in the Witt mail piece. "Any legislator attempting to diminish the impact of our service men and women's votes should be removed from office."

The mail piece - designed by Houston consultant Mark Elam and targeted for delivery early this week - is going out to Democratic voters as well as Republicans and independents in the west Houston House district. Hochberg, a member of the House since 1993, is vying for a seventh term against Witt - a longtime Republican activist - in one of the most competitive legislative races in Texas this year.

The Witt mailer includes a photograph of soldiers on tanks extending their arms into the air as if they were either waving to the camera or raising their hands to vote. It features a photo of a man in uniform identified as Lt. Col. Marc Jamison and his wife beside a quote from his parents in Sharpstown saying that their son has served his country with "honor and courage" for 16 years and is now stationed in Germany. "We cannot use similar words for our State Representative," Virginia and Sam Jamison are quoted as saying. "Scott Hochberg's attempt to discount Marc's vote is cowardly and dishonorable."

Republican Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, a former Marine who served in Vietnam, is also pictured beside a quote from him calling the vote on the amendment in question "outrageous and hypocritical."

Republicans used the same vote on the amendment by then-State Rep. Hugo Berlanga as ammunition against former Texas House member Paul Sadler in his unsuccessful bid for a Northeast Texas state Senate seat in a special election early this year. The House added the amendment to House Bill 331 in a 73-64 vote, but it was removed from the legislation in conference committee before then-Governor George W. Bush signed the bill into law. Former State Rep. Debra Danburg sponsored the bill, which had several Republican co-sponsors and bipartisan support. But Bush threatened to veto the entire measure if the amendment was still in the bill by the time it reached his desk that year.

Democrats and Republicans offer widely conflicting interpretations of what the Berlanga amendment was designed to achieve. Democrats argue that the amendment would have actually made it easier for U.S. military personnel to vote in Texas elections when they were out of the country on assignment. Berlanga, a Democrat representing Corpus Christi at the time, is an Army veteran himself. The only Democrat to vote no on the amendment was former State Rep. Bob Turner of Voss.

Several other Democrats in competitive House contests including State Reps. Robby Cook of Eagle Lake and Jim McReynolds of Lufkin and ex-Rep. Bob Glaze of Gilmer voted for the Berlanga amendment in the 1997 legislation. It's not clear at this point if their Republican opponents - Jean Killgore of Smithville, former Rep. Billy Clemons of Groveton and State Rep. Bryan Hughes of Mineola - intend to raise the issue of the 1997 vote in their bids for office this year.