Should response workers rely on the Government's and BP's idea of safety? Or, should a response worker be allowed to wear a respirator in those situations where the worker, but not government or industry, believes the respirator is needed? The U.S. Government's "Guidance" for protecting the BP disaster workers is defective. It contains a defect regarding voluntary worker use of respirators. The guidelines assume an individual worker is wrong in wanting a health-protective respirator in situations others decide there's no inhalation hazard.

The "Guidance" says an employer "may" (not "should", not "shall) permit voluntary respiratory protection.

How quickly the government forgets the effects of bad risk analysis and safety decisions. Failure to encourage additional safety judgment of the workers on the job got us to this problem in the first place!

Reliance on the government's and BP's idea of safety is a mindset echoed by the Texas Attorney General in the 2 weeks after the Gulf disaster. On May 3, AG Greg Abbott held a press conference announcing BP, as of May 3, had made "all the right actions and all the right comments".

Now, the government admits studies on adverse health effects from oil spills, based on oil tanker disaster "may underestimate the health effects associated with the Deepwater Horizon."

The Government has conceded the "unprecedented" magnitude and duration of the response. And, the Guidance is clear: the Government has "incomplete understanding" about human health toxicity from large amounts of dispersant, mixture of large amounts of crude oil, combustion products and dispersants and cumulative effects over time. The bottom line on human health toxicity, written even as more oil spills from the site: knowledge is "incomplete and still evolving." As new oil still spills and requires response, the Government and BP should acknowledge: companies can make mistakes in risk assessment. The worker on site who seeks additional safeguards may be right, instead of the government and industry deciding no risk. Instead, the government proposes to provide "odor reducing" but not "health protective" respirators as the "only situation where voluntary use may be helpful."

Workers should be allowed to wear protective respirators and not be denied the ability to protect their health by BP or our government.  Please join me in signing this petition to encourage President Obama to prevent BP from making health decisions for the workers who are cleaning up their mess.

Now that momentum has swung our way, we need your help! We seek to raise $200,000 by the end of June, the most important 6 month reporting deadline of the campaign. The report will be scrutinized carefully as an indicator of whether we can afford our planned direct voter contact. Here's how to donate: click here and donate online or send your mail in contribution to P.O. Box 55968  Houston, Texas.  77255.

The campaign season is shifting into high gear, and what better way to kick off the summer and our march to November 2 than with a front page Dallas Morning News profile of Barbara Ann.  The profile, entitled "Barbara Ann Radnofsky Turns Trademark Intensity to Attorney General Race" is a perfect opportunity to let your friends know about our candidate for Texas Attorney General.  Please send this front page article to your friends and contacts all across Texas.

And, let your  friends know that they will have an opportunity to meet Barbara Ann on Wednesday, June 9 at a Dallas-area fundraising event from 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. at Trintity Hall (5321 East Mockingbird Lane).

Even if you can't attend, we encourage you to send a donation to support the event, the campaign, and help us as face a critical fundraising deadline on June 30 for our six month reporting; this reporting will be heavily scrutinized.

The DMN article is already gaining much attention and with your help more people across Texas will have the chance to read and learn about Barbara Ann.  They'll learn about Barbara Ann as a person, a candidate, and what kind of Attorney General the people can expect when they elect the first woman in Texas history to hold the office.

As we approach June 30, we must continue to spread the word and raise money for the campaign.With your donation, we can make sure that we have the resources needed to tell the people about Barbara Ann.  Please donate today so that the people of Texas can make an educated decision when they cast their ballot.

On May 3, Texas Attorney General Abbott held a press conference, announcing  BP has made "all the right actions and all the right comments" but that the Attorney General's office would be watching to "ensure that BP's action lives up to its current words."  Our press release highlights BP's recent confident claims concerning containment offshore and ability to solve massive oil leaks.  The Texas Attorney General's claimed role in "ensuring" BP lives up to its promises is worth analysis. 

BP has a track record of not living up to their promises.  OSHA fined BP another $80 million last September for not living up to their promise to make necessary repairs to the Texas City facility within the four year time frame they agreed to in their plea agreement with OSHA stemming from the March 2005 Texas City disaster.

While Attorney General Abbott claims a record of environmental enforcement success, his record reveals the opposite.  The Texas Attorney General chose to characterize the famous ASARCO case and the enforcement action as "successful" in page 4 of his formal, filed pleading to the EPA. He claimed "as a result of the settlement, ASARCO will spend $1.8 billion remediating 80 hazardous waste sites in 19 states." The amount allocated for the El Paso smelter: $52 million. Sen. Eliot Shapleigh of El Paso provided detailed, publicly released information on the inadequacies of the settlement.  In his letter to the Mr. Abbott, Senator Shapleigh explained in detail why the $52 million wouldn't nearly cover the $250 million estimated cost of remediating the main site, let alone the related damage.

During this current crisis, Attorney General Abbott has been too quick to rationalize the actions of BP.  His job is not to protect catastrophe-prone companies.  Mr. Abbott should retract his foolish comments.

Endorsement & Press

Today, the Latino Labor Leadership Council of Southeast Texas endorsed Barbara Ann Radnofsky for Texas Attorney General.  President Steven Flores stated, "In recognition for her steadfast approach to her duties as one of the 'Best Lawyers in America', her experiences as a mediator and arbitrator for over thirty years, and her deep connection to her community through teaching and service work, we are proud to endorse Barbara Ann for this prestigious office. As advocates for fairness and equality for all working people in Texas and throughout our nation, our community continuously seeks someone we can put our trust in and be proud to call our own.  By this endorsement, we embrace her knowledge of the Law; her successful experiences in the courtroom; as a certified mediator and arbitrator in a wide field of issues, and as a good neighbor." 

In addition to endorsement news, the last few days have been packed full of issues and news that affect Texas.  Barbara Ann has been responding with op-eds and press releases about her positions on the most current issues.  Please check out her Rio Grande Guardian op-ed about Abbott's failure to advocate for a VA hospital south of San Antonio and her comments in the Texas Tribune about the unconstitutionality of the Arizona immigration law.

In a seperate press release, Barbara Ann analyzed the revisions to the Arizona immigration law and its expected use for voter intimidation. On May 3, we highlighted an award winning law review article that provides accounting and legal proof of the unconstitutionality of the Texas margin tax. Barbara Ann called on the Attorney General to withdraw his inaccurate opinion which enabled this income tax to be levied without the constitutionally required vote of the people.

1.     Set a realistic goal.

2.    Target all of your friends from rolodex, Christmas card lists, business relations, organizations.  Target these individuals for an exact amount that you are willing to ask them to give toward your fundraising goal by your deadline.

3.    Calling:  Try to have four elements to your call

a.    Why BAR is running.  Convey this campaign’s passion for the good works that an effective Texas Attorney General can achieve.  Please see the website, including “Why AG”, “Why Barbara Ann” and other issue sheets.

b.    Why BAR will Win. 

c.    Make a specific “Ask.”  Ask for your target amount.  If your friend can’t afford the target, of course we are happy to accept any amount.  Please let them know our quarter deadline.

d.    Follow up and obtain the donation.

4.    Follow-up is a critical step in the fundraising process to make sure that all of the pledges you have received are given by your deadline.  If someone makes a pledge you should drop them an email or a letter thanking them for their pledge and also mentioning your deadline that you have established.   Please, continue to communicate with your pledges by email, phone or fax until the money is received.  Please keep up posted; let us know how we can help.

HOW TO DONATE
   
1.    Donate online via the website at www.BarbaraAnn2010.com

2.    To track your progress, you (or we) can even set up your own personal fundraising page.  Just log on at Act Blue  click on the “Create a Page” link.  Or ask us to do it for you.

3.    Or you can ask your contacts to send a check to:  Barbara Ann Radnofsky Campaign Fund, P.O. Box 55968 Houston, TX  77255.

Everybody has 15 minutes of fame, and it appears the incumbent Texas Attorney General is using up his time. And, it appears that his lawsuit against health care reform was his ticket to an invitation to appear on Sean Hannity's Fox News program.

When the incumbent Attorney General was interviewed by Sean Hannity, he wasn't challenged to defend his use of taxpayer dollars to pursue a legal loser of a case.  When Barbara Ann challenges him on the issue he immediately goes negative with personal attacks.

You know it's a race when the incumbent goes negative, attacking his challenger more than 7 months out. We are pleased he's worried about his job. Your donation of $1,500, $150, $15 will send a loud message to Attorney General Abbott that Texans are ready for his 15 minutes to come to an end.

Attorney General Abbott has fallen into a pattern of pursuing losing litigation to try to lock up his base for future political ambitions.  Barbara Ann highlights the Attorney General's inconsistencies and politically motivated use of the court system with press releases on EPA, Americans with Disabilities Act, health care reform, insurance and utility regulation, the unconstitutional margin tax, redistricting, and consumer protection.  She has listed his deficiencies and the power of the Attorney General to fight fraud and protect insurance and utility consumers.  She explained the Attorney General's primary role in enabling Tom Delay's mid-decade redistricting and unconstitutional margin income tax.

Please help us on this last day of quarter one of 2010. Barbara Ann will continue to press hard on the issues but we need your support to keep up the pressure.  We know that Mr. Abbot is using up his 15 minutes and he doesn't like being pressured.  He would rather talk issues with Sean Hannity than his opponent. Mr. Abbott's 15 minutes are up and it's time for an Attorney General who wants to work to protect the people of Texas.  Please donate $1,500, $150, or $15 today.  

We stated that Attorney General Abbott was engaged in headline-seeking behavior with his health care reform lawsuit. While Mr. Abbott continues to pursue the media limelight at the expense of the people of Texas, Barbara Ann will continue to talk about the issues. Please help us continue to build a campaign that is rich with issues and reasoned debates.

You know it's a race! Incumbent Attorney General Abbott can't stand opposition. Accused this week of hypocrisy on inconsistent positions, Mr. Abbott lashed out with front page generic insults claiming Barbara Ann hasn't a grasp of issues. When Barbara Ann publicly disagrees with Attorney General Abbott, it can't be an honest disagreement; his reply is she lacks a grasp of issues.

Barbara Ann will continue to be his toughest opposition.  Knowing that, under pressure, he will continue to unravel over the next 7 months of concentrated opposition, your donation of $1,000, $500, $250, $100, $50, or $25 will allow us to turn up the heat on Attorney General Abbott.

Since the general campaign began, we highlighted his incorrect claims in his EPA lawsuit, his losing litigation against application of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and his hypocrisy of collecting money from a personal injury lawsuit while advocating for massive tort reform in Texas.  And, most recently, we quickly responded to his headline-seeking lawsuit against health care reform. We described his successful advocacy for Texas Attorney General managed childrens' health care as an option. This advocacy followed the Texas Attorney General's long time embrace of federal mandates which he enforced against certain Texas parents required to make medical child support payments.

We've only exposed a small fraction of Attorney General Abbott's hypocritical behavior, and the people of Texas deserve to know the real Attorney General Abbott. Help us continue the research into the incumbent Attorney General's inconsistencies. Please donate today.

Our work lead to this week's coverage (Dallas Morning News, Forbes.com, Texas Public Radio (show #500), Huffington Post, Burnt Orange Report, Houston PBS). We now know that Attorney General Abbott doesn't respond well to intense opposition, so we must keep up the pressure.  Barbara Ann called on Attorney General Abbott to a debate on the issues in January.  He still hasn't responded, but Barbara Ann will continue to campaign on the issues. Your donation of $1,000, $500, $250, $100, $50, or $25 will allow us to wage a fierce campaign that Mr. Abbott is not prepared to handle.

Help us publicize our calls for a reasoned debate on the issues of the day, so we can have an energized, informed public wanting to vote in November. We're looking to you for help.

Even though AG Abbott recently lost a Texas Supreme Court decision regarding open records, he has a responsibility to ensure that transparency prevails over abuses meant to thwart the public's right to know. The public's right to know is the cornerstone of our democracy.

Barbara Ann authored an op-ed outlining ways that the AG should ensure that our system of open records prevails in light of this recent decision. Her suggestions for ensuring we promote open records have been on her campaign website since last year.

The end of the primary (early voting ends on Friday, February 26 and the primary is on Tuesday, March 2) is closing in on us and the kick off to the general election is right around the corner. As a campaign, we pledge to continue to address the issues that are important and critical to our future.

To celebrate Barbara Ann's victory and get ready for the general election, we will be gathering on March 2, 2010. If you live in Houston, we encourage you to come celebrate our entry into the general election at Maria Selma's, 1617 Richmond Avenue on Tuesday, March 2 at 7:00 p.m. featuring MECA folkloric dancers from 8:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

We've already been hitting Attorney General Abbott on his failures but when the primary is officially over, we will be intensifying our efforts. Texans need to know that Attorney General Abbott has been more concerned about his image to try to advance his political career than he is about doing his job to protect Texans.

CALLING ALL SURROGATES
Texas is a huge state. As you can imagine, we get scheduling requests from all over and we're disappointed when Barbara Ann can't attend them all. But, we work to make sure she is represented with surrogates. Over the last week, while Barbara Ann was in Central Texas and Houston, we had volunteer surrogates attend events in Midland, Livingston, Millican, Glen Rose, Mont Belvieu, Grandbury, Bastrop, and New Boston.

We have a diverse group who have helped the campaign, and we're looking for more great supporters who want to sign up to be a part of our volunteer surrogate team. In the comments section, let us know that you want to be a BAR surrogate.

In addition to signing up to be a surrogate, becoming part of our volunteer team will sign you up for a weekly email from our volunteer coordinator. It's called Mission: Raise the BAR and our weekly volunteer tasks range from sending out emails, to forwarding articles about the campaign, to posting on Facebook, to getting people out to the polls. These are all small ways you can get engaged and make a difference.

Pleased to Report

Since Barbara Ann began her campaign for Texas Attorney General, she has raised over $619,000 and was honored to raise over $330,000 for the last reporting period.   Your early and continued support allowed us to prevent a primary challenger and we are picking up momentum as we head into 2010. Thank you for your generous support.

From the beginning, Barbara Ann has campaigned to be the People's Lawyer.  Our incumbent Attorney General has abandoned the people in order to pursue his own political agenda. With your continued support, Texas will restore the office of the Attorney General back to the people. 

Tejano Democrats Endorse Barbara Ann

Barbara Ann has been building an impressive list of supporters. Her first major organizational endorsement in 2010 came over the weekend from the state Tejano Democrats.

The Tejano Democrats endorsement is vital in this day of Texas state leadership's attempts to deny our shared heritage.  The State Board of Education's successful efforts for preliminary curriculum standards would teach as history the rallying cries of the Heritage Foundation and the Moral Majority.  The Board majority would intentionally exclude the historic significance of the GI Forum in promoting respect for veterans and the civil rights and education roles of LULAC and MALDEF.

This is a gross politicization of education as the Governor refuses Texas participation in Race to the Top funding applications.   Where is the Attorney General speaking out about these injustices? He is silent. The Attorney General is protecting and promoting himself, pursuing his own political agenda instead of doing his job and protecting Texas.  He claims great power to sue for federal funds for Texas but has never exercised this power in the areas where Texas has remained a net donor in our federal tax dollars.

Unopposed
Barbara Ann is unopposed in the primary.  Now there's no distraction from revealing that the Attorney General is protecting and promoting himself, pursuing his own political agenda instead of doing his job and protecting Texas. Thank you to everyone who aided in this strategic effort.

We raised more than $60,000 in the last 10 days of the reporting period.  Thank you to the generous supporters who helped us surpass our goal of raising $50,000 in 10 days.

Debate Challenge
Our first challenge to our Republican opponent's ill-considered threats to congressional leaders concerning horse-trading on a bill not yet out of conference committee met with a concession that Mr. Abbott's due process and vague constitutional claims were not his to make. In a challenge to debate, BAR also pointed to the Attorney General's mistaken claims as to the meanings of Supreme Court precedent and his abandonment of claims.

Contradictory AG Claims
The Attorney General's claims of litigation successes were each contradicted by one of his former employees who also aspires to his office, and predicted the Attorney General would be moving on to a different office.

The media covered each of these controversies, as well as BAR's challenge to her opponent to a debate.

Here is some of the coverage:

    * Dallas Morning News
    * Huffington Post
    * Legal News Line
    * Legal News Line
    * Texas Public Radio (Show #489 features Mr. Abbott in segment 1 and BAR in segment 2)

General Abbott filed for re-election today.  We are pleased to finally have an opponent even if that opponent may have a different name come November.

We wanted you to have a copy of the just issued press release to read BAR's statement and celebrate the true kick off of the campaign.

BAR prepared her statement below before receiving Cruz's statement which we happily quoted.   The title of Cruz's statement: "Dominoes Falling: Now What?"

To a great campaign,

Katie Floyd
Campaign Manager
Barbara Ann Radnofsky for Texas Attorney General

For Immediate Release
Press Release

Barbara Ann Radnofsky's Statement Regarding Attorney General Abbott Filing for Re-election

Houston, Texas.  December 22, 2009.  Barbara Ann Radnofsky, Democratic candidate for Texas Attorney General, filed to be on the ballot on December 3, 2009.  She was the first Democratic candidate to file at Texas Democratic Party Headquarters on the first day of filing.

In response to the news that Attorney General Abbott had filed for reelection, Radnofsky stated:

"The voters will have a clear choice in November between a woman who wants to be the People's Lawyer and a man who wants to move on to something else.  I'm prepared to safeguard all Texans from fraud and crimes whether committed with a computer or a tire iron." 

Standing in the wings is Ted Cruz, former employee of the Attorney General, who insists that there is a "strong possibility" that "dominoes will fall this spring".  This afternoon, Cruz stated that he believes Senator Hutchison's expressed intention to resign and that General Abbott will move on.  According to Cruz, there remains "a substantial possibility" that Cruz will be the Republican nominee for Attorney General.

During her 30 year legal career, Barbara Ann has represented retirees, life-saving doctors, blood banks, children burned by lighters, families of murder victims, unfairly treated businesses: a wide variety of persons entitled to protection. Barbara Ann graduated with honors from the University of Houston and the University Of Texas School Of Law.   She was honored as the Outstanding Young Lawyer of Texas in 1988 and for the past 17 years she has been listed in, "Best Lawyers in America".

Prior to 2006, she was a partner at the law firm of Vinson and Elkins in Houston, where she served as head of the Alternate Dispute Resolution Section.  She was the first woman at Vinson and Elkins to have children as an associate and later attain partnership.  Texas never has had a woman Attorney General. 

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Media Contact:Katie Floyd - Office: 713-357-3360; katie.floyd@radnofsky.com