By PAMELA ROBINSON, Register Staff Writer
Gainesville Daily Register
Gainesville —
Neil Durrance, Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress, is making the rounds in Texas District 26.
Tuesday evening, Durrance was in Gainesville at the Main Street Pub for a Cooke County citizen forum. The public was invited to express their views, concerns and to talk about local issues.
Durrance said that one of the strengths of his candidacy is his experience and his ability in working with public policy.
He also believes in a methodical and studied approach to policy and likes to see and discuss both sides of an issue and does not just vote down party lines.
“That comes from my legal training,” he noted. “I learned in my undergraduate and graduate school that to do that you have to be able to digest the policy arguments and papers and studies that go with any one subject. And of course when you do that you get a much better result.
“Some people want to take political positions not out of reason or thought, but because it just sounds good...or because that is the way the party line does it,” he said. “When that happens you have to slow them down a bit and ask, ‘Why do you believe the way you do?’ And that’s what we’re lacking in this country now — people aren’t willing to slow down and think about something before they do it.”
Durrance said that he is not a real popular guy sometimes in his own party because people sometimes see him as “going across the aisle.”
He thinks that some people just want to pigeonhole everything into one camp or the other such as conservative or not, liberal or not, Christian or not.
“When you’re working on an ‘us versus them’ all the time, you’re working on a policy of division and derision,” he said. “That has never moved this country forward...what you have to realize is it’s all of us.”
He discussed what he sees as the “professional politician.”
When you see someone voting the party line all the time, then you know that person wants to be a professional politician, Durrance said.
“When you sit there and let the party bosses tell you how to vote all the time, and pull the switch for them whenever they say ‘jump,’ then you lack the independence and you lack the courage of commitment and the dedication to your constituents.”
Durrance said that professional politicians also refuse to come out of Washington and air their positions and their views in the media and the open market.
“My opponent (U.S. Congressman Michael Burgess) has been dodging debates with me,” he said. “He finally agreed to a date, five days before the election. I think we should have at least two debates prior to early voting.
“Let’s get out there and air the views and see whose positions withstand scrutiny, and whose positions are supported by the facts and evidence and what is in the best interest of the people in this country,” he continued.
Durrance also pointed to the fact that Burgess recently voted against what’s been called the junior stimulus.
“Now he says he did it because of the deficit. What he voted against though was employment of teachers, policemen and firemen,” he continued. “So he’s voted against public safety and education once again.”
The unemployment bill was also part of that stimulus plan and Durrance said he isn’t happy with that either.
“If we can’t keep people employed, and it’s a slow recovery as it is, then we have to have some stop gap. You just can’t turn people out on the streets and let unemployment soar.”
Durrance has made it known that he decided to run for the U.S. Congressional seat in Texas District 26 because he is unhappy with the present political situation and has plans to change it.
