POSTED: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 - 9:53pm
UPDATED: Friday, October 22, 2010 - 10:03pm
He is the last Democrat among East Texas state legislators, and Republicans want to see him gone.
And a tough new ad is running against Representative Jim McReynolds aimed at doing just that.
Republican James White, a public school teacher from Woodville, is running against the conservative Democrat from District 12…a conservative Democrat who obviously, isn’t conservative enough.
Jim McReynolds is a longtime state representative, being first elected in District 12 in 1997.
While his politics are to the right in the Democratic Party, he is a perennial target by Republicans.
This year, it is teacher Jim White, who in the new political ad, charges that McReynolds is soft on illegal immigration, even voting for voting rights for illegals.
Since that is in and of itself, not legal, it is presumed he’s talking about the voter ID bill that McReynolds opposed.
“He voted against photo ID,” White says, “which is saying you favor removing any precautions to insure that someone is a qualified voter.”
But is that a bit of a stretch?
“Oh no, no…” he proclaimed, “it is supporting voting rights for people who are not here legally.”
McReynolds says that is such a stretch as to be completely untrue. We spoke to him earlier this evening, but technical difficulties have made that recording unavailable. But he told us the ad is desperate, it’s wrong and it’s misleading.
“He also voted for people to show up at the polls with their foreign issued photo ID,” White told us.
That bill actually had nothing to do with voting, but was concerned with legal immigrants getting driver’s licenses, which they need. It allowed them to use a foreign ID for identification.”
It seems obvious though, that however this race turns out, District 12 will be represented by a conservative, either with a D or an R.