John Courage Wins SA City Council

San Antonio experienced a change in direction Saturday night when the election results were posted. Ron Nirenberg’s mayoral win over Ivy Taylor and John Courage’s win over a traditional conservative, Marco Barros, in the most conservative council district in the city go a long way toward effecting that change. The election cycle knocked out several incumbents and replaced them with more progressive leaders.

John Courage is a military veteran, a public school teacher with nearly 30 years of service and a longtime progressive activist who has worked for decades to bring accountability to local and state government. Courage was a strong supporter of Bernie Sanders and won the endorsement of Our Revolution, the political organization formed by Sanders and activists connected by his presidential bid.

Our Revolution San Antonio (ORSA)—a local group of volunteers—endorsed Courage and recommended him to the national Our Revolution organization, which accepted our local recommendation and posted it on the national website. ORSA endorsed Courage after he and other council candidates made presentations to ORSA about their platforms and requested endorsement. The local organization pitched in to help contact prospective voters for months and that effort paid off.

I'll bet the folks in District 9 found it refreshing to hear John say, “There’s no such thing as a liberal streetlight or a conservative pothole.” What Barros seemed to overlook when he declared that he would win District 9 handily because we are a “very conservative” district is this: listening to the voters and learning what their issues are is more important the wearing a label such as “conservative” or “liberal”.

Unlike Barros and much of the local media Our Revolution San Antonio was not shocked by the results of the runoff.  Only those not on the ground knocking on doors were surprised.  ORSA endorsed Courage, not because he claimed to be liberal or conservative, but because he and his team put together a transparent, service-oriented campaign that focused on communicating with and serving voters. 

ORSA’s mission is to engage citizens to participate in local governance as activists as well as to recruit and support progressive candidates to fill positions as party precinct chairs, city and county commissions, school boards, city council and county commissioners court.  Progressives want progress, to get things done in a democratic environment where we all are respected as stakeholders who are entitled to accessible government, an opinion and a vote.

John Courage and others like him are the beginning of a new day in representative government.  Keep in mind that Courage will take votes that affect all of San Antonio, not just District 9, and he will help shape a new City Council that hopefully will move toward a better, more representative government.  We encourage other citizens who share these progressive values to get engaged with Our Revolution or other organizations that have been awakened by the deterioration of our government, to start making a difference where you live.

Our Revolution San Antonio is the regional umbrella for people in the city and all the surrounding counties who believe in the principals that Bernie Sanders ran on during the 2016 primary. We support universal healthcare, tuition free public universities and a $15 minimum wage among other principals. If you believe in similar principals we invite you to contact us through our Facebook page Our Revolution: San Antonio Area.

Donna Campbell evading questions like "the Artful Dodger"

Meet Donna “the Artful Dodger” Campbell, who thinks she’s won the Texas Senate seat in District 25 just because she beat Jeff Wentworth. I call her “the Artful Dodger” because she’s made a habit of dodging questions from columnists at this newspaper and others.

Campbell dodges opportunities for voters to get to know her at non-partisan events when her opponent John Courage will be in attendance, like the San Antonio CRS, a realtors group, Rotary Clubs, and others. She’s been invited by League of Women Voters groups on Wimberley and San Marcos but has failed to even be respectful enough to respond to them.

With so many opportunities dodged you’ve got to wonder if she’s hiding her ignorance of the needs of the district. Is she hiding the fact that she’s as inarticulate as the video of the editorial board interview shows her to be? Is she hiding her elitist views such as school vouchers, which only cover a quarter of the cost of private school tuition, will somehow give poor people a choice in where to send their children to school. Or could it be all of the above?

John Courage has been interviewed by newspapers around the district, he’s attended non-partisan events and even attended a TEA Party meeting. I’m voting for John Courage for Texas Senate because he listens to everyone.

TEA Party candidate in SD25 afraid to face voters

Who’s afraid of John Courage in Senate District 25? Donna Campbell, that’s who. After watching Courage and Campbell being interviewed by the San Antonio Express News editorial board for an hour I can understand why she doesn’t want to be seen in the same room as Courage. She’s both clueless and inarticulate; most of her responses were TEA Party rhetoric without specifics.

With nearly half a million voters in Senate District 25 yet to hear from Campbell she’s only been seen at TEA Party events and cowering at the homes of existing supporters. Campbell won’t accept invitations to be interviewed by opinion writers for the major newspapers in the district. When she and Courage have been invited to non-partisan candidate forums she has refused the invitation which means those organizations won’t let Courage address their members either because they don’t want to be seen as partisan. When voters ask her questions she doesn’t want to respond to on her Facebook page she bans them.

John Courage recognizes that Texas per pupil funding for education is near the bottom in the U.S. causing overcrowded classrooms in which there aren’t even enough desks for the students. Campbell’s solution is to violate the Texas Constitution and provide half the per student funds to pay part of the tuition at religious schools.

Campbell should be very afraid to be seen in the same venue as John Courage but voters should demand it.