Race listed on county web site

[Lanya]

Posted on Fri, Oct. 13, 2006

IN MY OPINION
Wise County GOP likes letter-perfect candidates
By BUD KENNEDY
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

Wise County is mighty white.

And Republicans want to make sure you know it.

The local party Web site lists not only the candidates on the Nov. 7 ballot but also their race.

Surprise.

Every Republican candidate in Wise County is listed carefully as “Ethnicity: AE.”

A code at the bottom explains that “AE” stands for “American European.”

If anyone else had filed as a Republican, he would have been branded on the official party candidate list as “AA” for African-American, “H” for Hispanic, “O” for “Oriental,” “ME” for “Middle Eastern” or “IA” for “Indian-Asian.”

I don’t know why those last four are not also considered “American” to Wise County Republicans.

But I can guess.

In the county where commissioners hung a Confederate flag in the courthouse and where one former Republican nominee now patrols with the culture warriors of the Minuteman Project, race and European ancestry seem unusually important.

Nobody with the county or state party has yet explained exactly why the “AEs” are singled out in Wise County.

The county Republican chairman said he simply copied a state candidates’ questionnaire.

A state party administrator said Texas Republicans never ask anyone’s race.

The party’s state platform, sort of an official mission statement, declares in the first few lines that “equal opportunity is a right” and later specifically opposes emphasizing any differences among racial or ethnic groups.

“We favor strengthening our common American identity and loyalty,” the platform reads.

In Wise County, the party might as well insert “European” between “common” and “American.”

County party Chairman D.A. Sharpe, 67, a former Dallas church administrator who retired to Aurora, said he typed up the list himself and made up his own abbreviations.

“I just took that off the report to the state,” he said. A Jan. 2 form asked for the “ethnicity” of primary candidates, he said.

Both the primary and general-election lists were still on the Web site Friday at www.wiserepublican.org .

But the lists had been edited to remove the unneeded codes for cultures besides “AE.”

Sharpe apparently changed his codes between elections.

For 15 candidates in the March Republican primary, “AE” meant “Anglo European.”

Now, it means “American European.”

“The majority of us recognize ourselves as ‘American European,’ ” he said. “So that’s what I used.”

Just in case anyone wondered, the Web site also identifies U.S. Rep. Kay Granger of Fort Worth and state Rep. Phil King of Weatherford as “AE.”

On the other hand, if Attorney General Alberto Gonzales or U.S. Rep. Henry Bonilla somehow wound up on the Wise County ballot, they would be labeled “H.”

And pity any Asian-American Republicans in Wise County.

To their local party, they are simply an “O.”

Sarah Floerke, Texas Republican Party election administrator, compiled the candidate forms.

“I don’t think we asked any questions like that,” she said after looking over the Wise County Web site.

“We never would ask anything like that.”

I checked several other county party Web sites.

None lists candidates by race.

I called Texas party Vice Chairman Robin Armstrong for comment.

He’s a doctor from Galveston County.

He’s an “AA.”

“I don’t think race or ethnicity should be an issue to Republicans,” Armstrong said.

“It’s the Democrats who always make it an issue.”

He grew up in a Democratic family as the son of a La Marque school trustee. He joined the Republican Party in 1989 as a student at Texas A&M.

“We are all Americans first,” Armstrong said. “Ethnicity, culture and heritage are important. But not most important.

“Obviously, the delegates at the state Republican convention” — who voted for Armstrong — “didn’t consider race an issue. Most Republicans don’t make it an issue.”

Just a few Wise County AEs.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/15755574.htm

[The_Professor]

Sounds like someone just looking for something to criticize.

[Lanya]

Sounds like someone just looking for something to criticize.

_________________
I see.

Would you feel any different about this if you knew that this "AE" stuff wasn't listed on any other county website in Texas?

You have to watch to see the writing on the wall.  Be alert for signs of social ills, such as racial supremacy, white or black. 

For one thing, it shows these people have such paucity of things to be proud of that they drag around their ethnic identity and make a big deal of it, and not in a "St. Patrick's Day" parade way.   

[BT]

For one thing, it shows these people have such paucity of things to be proud of that they drag around their ethnic identity and make a big deal of it, and not in a "St. Patrick's Day" parade way. 

What makes you think these people " have such paucity of things to be proud of"? 

The article stated "County party Chairman D.A. Sharpe, 67, a former Dallas church administrator who retired to Aurora, said he typed up the list himself and made up his own abbreviations."

So how does it go from one persons actions to these people.

Isn't it prejudicial to characterize a group because of the actions of an individual?

[Plane]

  Does this remind anyone of a Reporter asking a Congressman recently about his Jewish ancestors?

    Who really needs to know?


    Is it hard to find out how many African Americans are in Congress? Or how many Catholics are on the Supreme court? How many of each flavor are NFL coaches?

    Who is doing this counting?

     Where is there a place in America where it really makes no diffrence?

[The_Professor]

I beleive we all have "antennas" up for specifics issues we are seriously concerned about. For some peoplpe, this is simply one of those. It is not just mine, that's all. All is cool, as I see it.