Rep. Gene Green
Let’s get this round of interviews off with a strong start with a visit with Rep. Gene Green, who has been a fixture in local politics for a long time. First elected to Congress in 1992, Rep. Green was elected to the State House in 1972 and to the Senate in 1985. Rep. Green is a Democratic Senior Whip who serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. He’s a UH grad and a union man, and many of his former staffers and interns have gone on to political careers of their own. Here’s what we talked about:
I now have the Yahoo! audio player enabled as a plugin for my blog (thanks, Greg Wythe!) and it works a little differently. Basically, as long as this is the top audio file on my index page, you ought to see a “Play” control button next to the link above. If not, or later this week when I have another interview published, simply clicking the link ought to play the audio via the player. If something goes wrong as can happen when implementing something new, let me know. You can always right-click to save the MP3 file to your computer.
You can still find a list of all interviews I did for this primary cycle, plus other related information, on my 2012 Harris County Primary Elections page and my 2012 Texas Primary Elections page, which I now need to update to include fall candidate information. And since I haven’t mentioned it since the last interview, you can also follow this blog by liking its Facebook page.
I think it will be interesting how Green approaches the upcoming changes to the Democratic national platform that will include marriage equality. Green has stated unequivocally that he does not support marriage equality and that he cannot “evolve” on the issue. Mix that with his vote against repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and it looks like there are some major parts of the platform he is not aligned with.
Gene Green is aligned with the people who continuously, enthusiastically and reliably vote for him every two years. District 29 is proud of our Congressman and we thank him for representing the values of our district.
I have known Gene and Helen Green since he first ran for the legislature in late 71 leading up to the May 72 primary. You will not find two finer folk who have made it a mission to be among their constituents and to serve them in a responsive manner…and trust me on that because wherever Gene has served, no one had better constituency services. There’s also a matter of deeply held personal beliefs and being in tune with your district. Again, looking at election results, Gene has pretty well served the needs, wants and desires of the overwhlming majority of his constituents and done so as a proud Democrat. I somehow doubt that his disagreement with a plank in the platform – which is usally forgotten the day after being approved – except by activists – is going to cause him the least bit of electoral harm. He’s not the first and I am certain he will not be the last who votes in a manner that sometimes is not to my liking, but I know he is a reliable Democratic vote and understands that the name of the game is getting elected and re elected and helping the party reach 218 members in the House.
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