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(Editor's Note: We understand that it is difficult for a candidate to honestly indicate their personal motivation for running for office. Sometimes it is based upon a set of unclear factors or it may be ambition, self-agrandizment or greed instead of more noble reasons. It could even be caused by character flaws or behavioral/emotional instability. But, since we have a responsibility to our readers to, in effect, conduct a job interview for these positions; we find it necessary to ascertain if a person would be well suited for the position or if they have any altruistic reasons at all for seeking an elected office.)
Election 2010 - El Paso's Upper Valley & Westside
State Representative District 78.
After years of a Republican Party lock on District 78; first term Democratic Party representative Joe Moody is back to continue his work in Austin. He is running unopposed but there are three candidates in the Republican Party Primary.
D
emocratic
P
rimary:
Incumbent:
State Representative Joe Moody
Endorsement
"Why I wish to (continue) to hold the Office of State Representative District 78."
"... so that I can continue my work on behalf of the neighborhoods in which I
grew up, and help to bring El Paso to its fullest potential."
Representative Moody was at the center of an electoral firestorm and power play by Candidate Dee Margo who lost his race against State Senator Eliot Shapleigh in 2006 and then took aim on Republican State Representative Dan Haggerty in 2008. Margo knocked Haggerty out of his ffice but lost to Moody in 2008.
Moody says that his first term in office went well; he was able "to pass some bills and learn alot from the leaders around me... I had two pretty good committee assignments, given my background (Moody is an attorney and was an Assistant District Attorney prior to being elected in 2008), one of them being Criminal Jurisprudence and the other Border and Inter-Govermental Affairs Committes." Both of these committes are very important to the residents of El Paso County and residents of District 78.
These committee assignments were obtained even as the Democratic Party is the minority party in Austin. Moody suggests that House Speaker Joe Straus ran as a result of the Margo power play that some say would have seen Speaker Tom Craddick keeping the Speaker's position. Moody says "Speaker Joe Straus (Republican) was electd with Democratic support in a bi-paritsan "wave of people that were tired of Tom Craddick and it was the Democrats that drove that".
Moody seems to be the right man for the job. Intelligent, assertive and dedicated.
R
epublican
P
rimary:
No Endorsements.
The three candidates of the Republican Party did not respond to our questions... sent twice.
Prepared by UVB staff.
(Photos: Brax - Valley Publishing Company)
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Editor, UpperValleyBeacon.com
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