:( ...
The two were set to debate immigration, a discussion presumably prompted by Riddle's public pondering of an Arizona-like bill for Texas, and we're sad to have missed what would surely have been a lively debate. Martinez Fischer chairs the Mexican American Legislative Caucus and most recently made the QueQue for presiding over MALC's hearings on the State Board of Education last week. Riddle is a past president of the Texas Tea Party of Republican Women and frequently speaks at Tea Party events. She's proud of her quotable, non-PC nature, like this recent soundbyte reported by Julian Aguilar at the Texas Tribune:
"According to Riddle, Arizona-styled immigration in Texas could be a tough sell because 'when you have people that are used to entitlements, then they like the entitlements and they want the entitlements to keep coming.'"
Unfortunately, after being re-scheduled twice, a Riddle spokesperson said her own straight talk express hit a scheduling snafu, as after tentatively confirming for today, Riddle remembered she had a morning meeting. According to Riddle spokesperson Jon English, "I think we're always open to having a debate...we've been getting a lot of calls for a lot of appearances and we try to accommodate as many as we can."
We weren't the only ones disappointed. "I felt like I had been stood up at the prom," said Martinez Fischer in a statement, who no doubt had some choice words for his opponent. For some reason, though Riddle's office claims they contacted CNN with the schedule conflict yesterday, Martinez Fischer was notified only after he had driven to Austin and been mic'd and made-up for CNN, about ten minutes prior to this morning's scheduled air time, said his spokesperson, Christina Gomez.
