ROBINSON E-MAIL IS CRITICAL OF BELL FOR SMOKING POT

City Councilman Carroll Robinson has turned up the heat in the Democratic
primary runoff for the 25th Congressional District, circulating e-mail
about opponent Chris Bell's previous acknowledgment of youthful marijuana use.

In an e-mail sent to 13,000 potential voters in the district in south
Harris County and north Fort Bend County, Robinson cites an article in
which Bell admitted smoking marijuana in college.

"Chris Bell is an admitted user of illegal drugs," the e-mail states,
adding other allegations against Bell.

Bell said the e-mail demonstrates Robinson's frustration as the
second-place candidate with an April 9 runoff nearing.

In the March 12 primary, Bell received 36 percent to 27 percent for
Robinson as they eliminated two other candidates and advanced to the runoff.

The other candidates, former state Rep. Paul Colbert and Houston lawyer
Stephen King, are expected to endorse Bell today.

"How desperate can a campaign be when it wants to talk about something that
happened more than than 20 years ago and has absolutely nothing to do with
anything?" Bell, 42, asked Tuesday. "This is a man who wanted to sign a
clean campaign promise, and he stoops to this."

Robinson, 40, said he has never used illegal drugs and does not drink
alcoholic beverages.

Robinson said there is nothing wrong with pointing out facts Bell has admitted.

"I want everybody to know the truth relative to the candidate running for
Congress, and I think that's an important piece of information people ought
to know," he said.

Bell made his admission in the Feb. 18, 2001, edition of the weekly Houston
Press. Bell, then a City Council colleague of Robinson's, had announced
intentions to run for mayor, a race he eventually lost.

The article stated, "Bell says he saw little of the student drug scene,
never used psychedelics and admits to smoking marijuana `maybe four times.' "

Admissions of drug use have been a slippery slope for many baby boomer
politicians who came of age as drugs became common on college campuses.

Former President Clinton and former Vice President Al Gore admitted to drug
use in their earlier years. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich confessed to
smoking marijuana in graduate school, and said there was nothing wrong with
it then because it was simply "a sign" of being "alive" during the 1960s.

University of Houston political science professor Richard Murray said that
in many cases, voters appreciate the honesty of a candidate who admits
youthful indiscretions rather than lying about them.

When Clinton made the now-famous assertion that he smoked but didn't inhale
marijuana as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University, Murray said he did
local opinion polling that indicated area voters weren't turned off by the
disclosure.

"It didn't have a lot of punch back then, and I doubt it does now," Murray
said. "The public is very forgiving of misdemeanors like DWI or smoking
marijuana when it happened as a youth."

Bob Stein, dean of social sciences at Rice University, agreed. But he said
Robinson, who is black, may be bringing up the drug-use issue in a bid for
black votes.

"Drugs are a scourge of the African-American community, more than in the
white community, so this could be a targeted message," Stein said.

Analysts say that to win the runoff, Robinson will need more than the 65
percent of the black vote he got in the first round March 12.

And Bell, who is white, expects to continue getting some black support
because he has the endorsement of Lee Brown, Houston's first black mayor.

Besides the marijuana admission, Robinson's e-mail also brings up issues
used against Bell in his failed mayoral bid.

Among them were Bell's receiving an award from the Harris County Republican
Party for supporting a municipal property-tax cut two years ago, and the
temporary suspension of his law license for failure to pay State Bar of
Texas dues.

Bell's law firm -- Beirne Maynard & Parsons -- took responsibility for the
oversight and subsequently paid the dues, allowing Bell's license to be
reactivated.

"We knew from the first day after the election that Carroll would go
negative, and it looks like he has," Bell said. "I guess he has to."