Bell sweeps Texas teachers' endorsements

The Chris Bell for Texas Senate campaign today announced that it has swept the endorsements of the Texas State Teachers Association and the Texas AFT's Committee on Political Education.

“I always tell my kids to listen to their teachers. I just hope the voters of Senate District 17 hold Texas teachers in the same regard,” said Chris Bell. “Texas teachers know firsthand what’s going on in the classrooms. They know vouchers are a cop-out.

"They know they need a raise. And they know that our tyranny of standardized testing is the tail wagging the dog. I think we need to reform our curriculum to better prepare our next generation to tackle the economic challenges of the 21St century and not just to take yet another standardized test, and I’m honored to have the support of Texas teachers in this endeavor.”

A poll conducted by Cooper and Secrest in August shows that Chris Bell has a 34-point lead over the three Republican candidates who remain clustered in a statistical tie for second place. The initial trial heat, asked of 400 likely special election voters Aug. 14-18, has Chris Bell at 42%, with Republicans Joan Huffman at 8%, Austen Furse at 5%, and Grant Harpold at 4%.

In May, an independent poll conducted for Texans for Insurance Reform found that Chris Bell has higher name identification in SD 17 than U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. The pollster, Jeff Smith of Opinion Analysts, labeled Mr. Bell the “front-runner in a very winnable contest.”

Chris Bell was an at-large Houston City Council Member from 1997 ‘til 2002, a Member of Congress from 2003 to 2005 when he lost re-election thanks to a politically motivated redistricting process led by former Rep. Tom DeLay. In 2006, Bell was the Democratic nominee for Texas Governor. An attorney, he lives in southwest Houston with his wife Alison Ayres Bell and his two sons, Atlee and Connally.

The special election to be held on Election Day, Nov. 4, will fill the vacancy created by Sen. Kyle Janek’s resignation. A runoff will follow if no candidate in the special election gets a majority of the vote.