Short Cuts: Episode VI 
Family Values
AS IF TEXAS Democrats didn’t have enough trouble, the state party is losing one chairman (incumbent Bill White) and not getting another (uncandidate Cecile Richards, daughter of Ann) because both wanted to spend more time with their families. White, who describes himself as “not all that partisan—I prefer to find common ground instead of snipe,” stemmed the tide of Democratic defections to the GOP and reduced the party’s debt to the lowest point in a decade. After White announced his departure in late April, Richards announced her interest in the job and just as quickly changed her mind after her family advised her against taking it, including ex-governor Mom; she will stay on as executive director of the Texas Freedom Network, a nonpartisan group that keeps a close eye on the Religious Right. White, meanwhile, will focus on his duties as chairman of Frontera Resources, a worldwide drilling and exploration company he founded along with former U.S. senator Lloyd Bentsen and former Conoco CEO Dino Nicandros, and as president of Wedge Group International, a Houston investment firm. Currently the only announced candidate to succeed White is Molly Beth Malcolm of Texarkana, a grass roots party worker who defected from the GOP. Molly Beth who?
My Library
