AMY GOODMAN: Welcome to Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman.

It’s a big day today. It’s called Super Tuesday, with primaries throughout the South and in Oregon. And we’re going to be talking about two of those biggest primaries: Texas and Florida. Then we’re going to the daughter of former Governor Ann Richards, and we’ll be talking about what’s going on in that state in terms of the Christian Coalition. Finally, we’ll be joined by New York Congressmember Charles Rangel, who has been opposing the strict Helms-Burton bill that’s going to be signed at 10:00 this morning by President Clinton. And if anyone doesn’t think that President Clinton is campaigning, think again. Let’s not forget that today, one of the big primary states is Florida, and a new Mason-Dixon poll finds 52% of likely Republican voters in Florida support Dole. Publisher Steve Forbes follows with 17%. Pat Buchanan is below that with 13%. And it looks like President Clinton, in looking at Florida, is trying very much to get new appreciation from Cuban exiles, who generally vote Republican. We’ll be talking about the significance of that with a Florida resident, as well as the congressman.

But before we do all that, we’re going to Texas, one of the biggest states, extremely significant when it comes to these primaries. Larry Bensky, our national affairs correspondent, is down in Texas. Texas, an interesting state, has some interesting figures. I was just looking at a recent New Republic article that talks about Texas as having the fourth-highest poverty rate in the country. One-fifth of its people are below poverty, with especially large numbers of poor children and immigrants. In AFDC and Medicaid payments, Texas routinely ranks 48th in the nation. In state spending per capita, it’s last in the country. And in terms of prison spending, after an eight-year, $2 billion debt finance building binge, Texas has one of the biggest prison systems in the world. Joining us to talk about the Texas primary and its significance is Larry Bensky.

Larry, are you there?

LARRY BENSKY: Hello, Amy. Yes, I am.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s nice to hear you in our Houston studios at KPFT.

LARRY BENSKY: Yes, I’m back here at KPFT, one of KPFA and KPFB and WBAI and KPFK and WPFW — these are the Pacifica stations.

AMY GOODMAN: And we welcome them all, by the way, to Democracy Now! and thank all the listeners who’ve been calling in and writing to our email sites, giving us suggestions, giving us headlines from their papers. And we encourage you to keep on doing that. We’re giving you the — we’ll be giving you the email address at the end of the show. So, Larry, what’s happening in Texas?

LARRY BENSKY: Well, Amy, it’s interesting that you led off by talking about the poverty and all the poverty in this state, and it’s really quite visible. I’ve been, as you know, in Southeast Texas for the last few days, in the area around Beaumont and Galveston, and that’s very much still a part of the South. When you go to the poor side of town, which is, of course, the same thing as saying the African American side of town or the Latino side of town, you see people living as they lived 40 or 50 years ago in Mississippi and Alabama, in very, very ramshackle housing, very, very poor public transportation, run-down public facilities like schools and parks. It’s clear that the two-tier economy, which we see so much in the rest of the United States, is especially visible in the rural areas, but even in the urban areas, on what is literally in Beaumont, Texas, the other side of the tracks, where people are living in obvious and visible poverty.

AMY GOODMAN: Why don’t you introduce our guest that we have on the line with us from Texas, someone who knows well the political climate there and has decided to challenge it?

LARRY BENSKY: Yes, it’s a great pleasure to have with us today on Democracy Now!, Amy, Geraldine Sam, who is running for Congress today. She’s on the ballot here in Texas, where we are having a statewide primary, not only for the presidential race on the Republican side, but also to decide who will be running in the various Democratic and Republican contests in the Senate, in Congress and in the local races, as well. Geraldine Sam is a school teacher, an elementary school teacher in La Marque, Texas, which is next to Galveston. It’s part of the very large 9th Congressional District, which has — how many square miles does it have, Geraldine Sam? Somebody told me some amazing figure.

GERALDINE SAM: Oh, wow! It’s huge. We’ve driven it so much right now that, I mean, it’s just a huge district. We drive over at least about 200 miles almost every other day, covering the whole district.

LARRY BENSKY: Well, I can tell you that it is huge. It’s at least 100 miles long at its widest part. It goes from the suburbs of the city of Houston all the way to the Louisiana border. Beaumont is the largest city in the district, but it has 114,000 people. Congressional districts in the United States now have something like 550,000 people in them. So the rest of the 400,000 people are somewhere around the district. Geraldine Sam, in addition to being a candidate for Congress, when she’s not doing that, she’s an elementary school teacher. She is a mother of four children, a single mother. She is someone who has had not an easy life herself. She’s definitely a working-class person who’s worked her way up to the place she now is, and is trying to work her way up even further into the United States Congress. Should she win the nomination in the 9th Congressional District, she’ll be running against one of the most conservative Republicans in Congress, and that’s Steve Stockman, who replaced Jack Brooks. Many listeners may remember him, the crusty, cigar-smoking member, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, who was in Congress, until he was defeated, for 42 years. Geraldine Sam, let’s go back to what Amy Goodman started asking about before, the question of poverty and social inequality in Texas. How do you see this in your district?

GERALDINE SAM: Absolutely. One of the problems that we have in the 9th Congressional District is the 9th Congressional District is one of those areas where you have a lot of, a lot of poverty. You have a lot of people that — we have a lot of problems with water, air pollution and so many other things that are affecting the quality of life in the 9th Congressional District. You have many people here that can’t read nor write, and you have some that — some that can, but, you know, most of them, you’re having a problem with in that area. It’s a very diverse area, never a dull moment.

LARRY BENSKY: Well, how have things changed in your lifetime? You’re a woman, I think it’s safe to say somewhere in her mid-forties. Is that correct?

GERALDINE SAM: Right, 44.

LARRY BENSKY: Forty-four, OK, that’s even more precise.

GERALDINE SAM: Proud to be 44.

LARRY BENSKY: OK, proud to be 44.

GERALDINE SAM: Yeah.

LARRY BENSKY: And you’ve lived in the area where you now teach and work —

GERALDINE SAM: Right.

LARRY BENSKY: — your entire life. How have things changed as this state has grown from more and more a Democratic-majority state to a more and more Republican majority? Some people say that that’s just been changing a label, that the politicians have always been conservative politicians. They used to call themselves Democrats, they now call themselves Republicans, and it really doesn’t make any difference. Is that true? How do you see it?

GERALDINE SAM: Well, I feel that right now there is a game of a perception of fairness. We’ve been taught all of our lives that life is fair, and you’re going to be fair with other people. And as we’ve been on the campaign trail and throughout my lifetime, I found out that life is really not fair. And the election process is not fair.

AMY GOODMAN: In what way is it unfair?

LARRY BENSKY: Why not?

GERALDINE SAM: Well, even with us, with the campaign, we’ve sent in editorials. I mean, not editorials, but we’ve sent in —

LARRY BENSKY: Opinion pieces.

GERALDINE SAM: — endorsements to the papers and never had them published in the papers. So far, they wanted to just harp on my opponent as being a front-runner, and yet and still, they ignored the fact that two years ago I ran, and we had 33% of the vote two years ago, and so that gave us automatically name recognition. Whether we had the money or not, that gave us name ID. And so, those facts were ignored. So there’s a lot of unfairness that played in this election.

AMY GOODMAN: Geraldine Sam, can we talk about money for a second?

GERALDINE SAM: Sure.

AMY GOODMAN: Can we talk about how you get your money? For example —

GERALDINE SAM: Sure.

AMY GOODMAN: — is the Democratic Party giving your money? Are they seeing Steve Stockman, as one of the most conservative candidates, one of the key targets in Congress? And groups like EMILYs List, for example, that give women candidates money around the country?

GERALDINE SAM: Well, EMILYs List and — we were endorsed by the National Women’s Political Caucus. And, unfortunately, we didn’t actually aggressively go after EMILYs List money. I think that we went after them a little bit later. But we are — it’s just really a difficult, difficult situation, because when the Democratic Party have — let me see. How can — I’m trying to say this. The Democratic Party has a tendency to anoint someone, OK, that they feel is the right person for the district. And unfortunately, the person that they anointed for this race is not the person or the choice of the people. I am.

LARRY BENSKY: Well, let me just answer that, Amy, in a way. I’ll give you some statistics. Geraldine Sam, whom we’re talking to here, is going to spend, as I understand it, less than $15,000 in her primary campaign. Is that approximately correct?

GERALDINE SAM: That’s correct.

LARRY BENSKY: And the man who has been anointed, as Geraldine Sam says, as the front-runner says he’s going to spend something around $300,000 in this primary season. And then there is another man in the race who’s self-financing his campaign, and he apparently is going to spend something like a quarter of a million dollars, $250,000. So she’s being outspent by 10 to one or better in this primary season.

GERALDINE SAM: That’s correct.

AMY GOODMAN: Is the issue of militias coming up? Steve Stockman is known as one who has close ties to militias.

GERALDINE SAM: Oh, absolutely. The people in the 9th Congressional District want a congressperson that is not totally consumed by the issue of the militias, and one that they can be proud of. And right now they’re really, truly concerned about a congressperson that has that kind of close ties to an organization that is racially motivated.

AMY GOODMAN: How closely tied is he?

GERALDINE SAM: From what we’re gathering with the media, he’s very closely tied, has been at some functions that they’ve held, sold some of his material at some of those functions. So, very closely tied, from what we’re gathering.

LARRY BENSKY: The incident, Amy, that brought Steve Stockman’s ties to the militia out was when he received a fax the day of the Oklahoma City bombing from some of the people who were tipping him off about it, a fax that he promptly turned over to the Justice Department. But the question was raised: Why is Steve Stockman, of all the people in the United States, getting a communication from militias on a day like this? I spoke to some Christian Coalition activists yesterday, Geraldine Sam, in Beaumont, the largest city in the district, and they were telling me that they believe Steve Stockman accurately reflects the anger in society against delinquency, against crime, against the loss of moral values, and they thought that they had, again, a winning candidate. If you’re nominated, how are you going to counter their arguments?

GERALDINE SAM: Well, we’re going to counter it, because, number one, I am an educator and have been out in the forefront. And so, you’re going to find that Geraldine Sam is one that has worked with the people, and we’re going to — he’s going to have to show that he has — what he has truly done, not just by saying it. He’s going to have to definitely show where he’s not involved, because we’re all Americans, and I think that it’s time that race no longer be a part or an issue in any race. But again, that’s one of those problems that we’re having to face today. And I’m hoping that at least my lifetime, or my children’s lifetime, that we’ll have an America that is not so conscious of the race issue.

AMY GOODMAN: And again —

LARRY BENSKY: Amy, I wanted to point out to you, Amy, and also to the other listeners, that the district we’re talking about is a traditionally Democratic district. It’s a very heavily working-class district. There’s a lot of union activity. It’s an oil mine, an oil well district, a lot of refineries and people who work in them, and shipping and things like that. It’s traditionally been very heavily unionized. And the unions can be expected, can’t they, Geraldine Sam, to get behind the eventual Democratic winner of this primary and serve as foot soldiers, precinct walkers, etc.?

GERALDINE SAM: Right. And one of the things that we’re — with our campaign that has made it so successful is because we have a lot of grassroots people that are working with the campaign. Many of them don’t have a lot of money to provide to us, but they are giving us the foot, the — you know, the footwork, the grassroots. And we have a very diverse group of people that are working with us — Blacks, whites, Hispanic, Asians. We have just a little bit of everyone, so we have a melting pot that’s supporting our candidacy. And again, we don’t have the money, but we have the grassroots support. And that’s even what gave us our 33% two years ago, even when people thought that a lot of it was anti-Brooks support, but much of it was Geraldine Sam support.

AMY GOODMAN: Geraldine Sam, what about voter registration drives? How intensively is the Democratic Party trying to register more Democratic voters? You know, I’m asking because about a week ago we interviewed Loretta Ross, who is from the Center for Human Rights Education — 

GERALDINE SAM: Right.

AMY GOODMAN: — Atlanta, Georgia, and she was complaining that the Democratic Party never took the candidate who opposed Newt Gingrich seriously, or put any effort into helping him in his battle there. And I’m just wondering how seriously the Democratic Party is focusing on Steve Stockman. I mean, when you have a candidate that has only won once, that is the key time to go after him. After he has won the second time, he is more likely to stay in Congress. You know, his percentage points go way up there. How seriously is the Democratic Party trying to get more Democrats on the voter polls — voter rolls?

GERALDINE SAM: Well, let me say this, that the Democratic Party is going to have to step up, because the Steve Stockman people have — they’ve been on the radio airwaves. Their people stay on the radio airwaves. They stay in the editorial section writing letters to the editor. They’re always using any form of media that they can. And I think that that’s where they’ve outbeat everyone. Wasn’t the amount of money that they used, but it was the resources that they used, and that was much of the media. And they’re always writing letters to the editor. You’ll find all of those in your newspapers between here and Beaumont and Port Arthur, where they’re writing in support of him or writing about an issue that that he might — for instance, the Kinsey list or something, I thought that was just — I couldn’t see even where my congressman was going on that issue of the Kinsey report. But —

LARRY BENSKY: Let me explain that, if I could —

GERALDINE SAM: Yeah.

LARRY BENSKY: — because it’s kind of an interesting side light to the kind of mentality that we get on the far right these days. One of the resolutions that Steve Stockman introduced into Congress — and by the way, he’s had no bill that he’s introduced this year get any further than committee — was H.R. 2749, which is a bill to determine if Alfred Kinsey’s Sexual Behavior in the Human Male and Female is the result of any fraud or criminal wrongdoing. Now, when you talk to some people about this on the Christian right, which I have down here, they say that they believe that the whole question of sex education in schools is part of a basic humanist plot to defeat the word of God and take biblical orientation away from the population of the United States. And Steve Stockman wanted an investigation into this, what, 40- or 50-year-old scientific text to determine if it was part of this conspiracy. That’s what this is all about.

AMY GOODMAN: So — well —

LARRY BENSKY: You’re speechless, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: Larry, we’re going to have to wrap up, but I wanted to get from you just a thumbnail sketch of what you think is going to happen today in Texas, and whether George Bush Jr. has been playing any key role in the Republican primary in Texas.

LARRY BENSKY: Well, the Republican primary in Texas is not a very happening thing, because, of course, Bob Dole is presumed to be the front-runner, is going to take many delegates, if he doesn’t get them all. I think much more interesting is the kind of race that Geraldine Sam is involved in. If she or someone else in that district does not get 50% in today’s voting, there will be a runoff on April 9th. And that’s true for the Democratic nomination for senator for whoever’s going to face Phil Gramm, as well. Equally interesting, Amy — and this is something that people around the United States don’t know — as the balloting ends tonight in every precinct in Texas, Democrats and Republicans, separately, gather for precinct caucuses, at which point they introduce resolutions that they want their state committee to bring to the national convention. This is where the Christian right has really been organizing — and you can talk about this with Cecile Richards in a few minutes — to see if they can get anti-abortion resolutions, pro-school prayer resolutions, home schooling resolutions — and, who knows, Kinsey report resolutions —

GERALDINE SAM: Yeah.

LARRY BENSKY: — introduced into the national platform.

GERALDINE SAM: Resolutions on a little bit of everything. Trust me, I’ve been there, how we say — 

LARRY BENSKY: And so —

GERALDINE SAM: — “been there and done that right.”

LARRY BENSKY: Right. And so, these resolutions will then be part of an ongoing ideological debate within the Republican Party. Now, of course, very few people turn up for these precinct caucuses. And so, the Christian right, if they can turn out five, 10, 20 people per precinct, can carry that precinct — 

GERALDINE SAM: That’s correct.

LARRY BENSKY: — in these positions, even if the people in the district wouldn’t vote for it in a million years.

GERALDINE SAM: That’s correct.

AMY GOODMAN: Larry, on that note, and Geraldine Sam, we want to thank you both very much for joining us. Geraldine Sam, a kindergarten teacher and mother, African American Democratic candidate for the 9th Congressional District in Texas. She hopes to

LARRY BENSKY: We’ll have the result of that — 

AMY GOODMAN: — unseat Steve Stockman.

LARRY BENSKY: I’m sorry, Amy. I was going to say we’ll have the result of that race and much more tomorrow morning.

AMY GOODMAN: That’s right. And Larry Bensky, Pacifica’s national affairs correspondent, thanks for joining us from Houston. You’re listening to Democracy Now! Up next, Cecile Richards. She’s the daughter of Ann Richards, coming up.