NO REAL WINNERS IN THIS COIN TOSS

SO WILL YOU CHOOSE for governor the fellow who bullied the state trooper or
the guy whose S&L laundered drug money?

The investment of many millions of dollars by each of those campaigners, to
tell us over and over about his opponent's flaws and frailties, has been so
effective that whichever one of them wins it, far too many voters will be
left feeling like losers.

A story in Friday's Chronicle bore the encouraging news that these two
major-party candidates for the state's top office had completed the
negative stage of their race and are starting the final sprint.

This is the part where each tries desperately to convince people --
especially those of us who are fed up with the whole name-calling,
record-bashing mess -- that he is a nice guy who deserves to get the most
votes.

No one will touch Tulia A bit of irony struck me in the piece that ran
right under the front-page election story about the governor's race. It
reported the ACLU was filing suit alleging racism in a drug bust that took
place a couple of years ago in Hearne. The ACLU compares this situation to
the mess the preceding year in Tulia, where numerous arrests and
convictions were based upon the word of a lone itinerant undercover officer
working for a narcotics task force.

That investigation continues wreaking havoc in Tulia. It resulted in
numerous ongoing lawsuits and investigations and even changes in state law
and policy. And, judging by what is happening in other places, like Hearne,
Tulia was but the first domino to fall.

Earlier in the campaign I called the camps of both Rick Perry and Tony
Sanchez to ask about 13 people from that Tulia bust who remain in prison,
despite how the investigation has been discredited. It is a disgraceful
injustice that these people still are locked up. It is scandalous.

The PR people for Perry and Sanchez danced around the issue with trite
political phrases, making it clear that both candidates wanted to avoid
addressing the Tulia mess.

You may want to just flip a coin.

Speaking of mudslinging, it isn't just the governor's race that's setting
records. Look at the contest for the 25th Congressional District seat:
Technical Risks Inc., a local insurance company formerly owned by
Republican candidate Tom Reiser, sued to get Democrat candidate Chris Bell
to pull a couple of TV ads critical of Reiser's work with the company. This
happened Thursday, the day after Bell demanded that Reiser apologize for a
commercial that said Bell had been reprimanded for sexual harassment, which
Bell denied.

Heads or tails.

Candidates who run unopposed are left to their own devices to stir up
controversy. Some manage quite well. Like Brazoria County Justice of the
Peace Matt Zepeda, a Republican. He got caught on tape a few months ago
bad-mouthing inmates at the city jail in Pearland, using obscenities and
racial slurs.

Pearland city officials have asked for an investigation. So even though
Zepeda has his re-election in the bag, there is a possibility the State
Commission on Judicial Conduct could seek his removal.

One race this go-round with no candidates and very few mudballs is the
$808.6 million HISD bond issue. A couple of women pushing to get this
passed are longtime school board member and current president Laurie
Bricker and former school board president Paula Arnold.

Interesting conflicts Well, a recent story in the Chronicle by Lori
Rodriguez pointed out that Bricker's husband, Jeff Bricker, is partner in a
firm that was awarded a $1.67 million contract from the 1998 bond package.
A communications firm owned by Arnold got paid at least $760,000.

Keep a tight grip on that coin.

Topping everything off for this election, the polls will have a new
electronic system for us to learn. It is supposed to make counting more
accurate so voters can decide the winners instead of having the Supreme
Court do it.

Just four more days. We can make it.