Houston Candidates' Statements
(The full slate and their contact info is here)
On October 14, Houston Area Move To Amend emailed these two questions to this year's candidates for City Office listed here.

1.  Do you think that corporations should have constitutional rights?
2.  Do you think that money is the equivalent of the political free speech protected by the constitution?

These question go right to the heart of what kind of future we will have in this country and should be answered to our complete satisfaction by every person who seeks to represent us in political office. Below are their unedited replies with our editorial comments in red.
Election winner in underlined blue ***. Run-off candidates in blue.
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Mayoral candidates

>> Don Cook, Member of Move To Amend
  1. I do not think that corporations should be treated as natural citizens under the US Constitution. MTA: This statement is strongly aligned with our position that corporations should not have constitutional rights.
  2. I do not think that money is the equivalent of the political free speech protected by the Constitution. MTA: This statement is strongly aligned with our position.

>> Eric Dick
  1. No.  MTA: This answer agrees with our position that corporations should not have constitutional rights.
  2. No.  MTA: This answer agrees with our position.

>> Keryl Burgess Douglas
        No reply yet

>> Charyl L. Drab
        No reply yet

>> Michael J. Fitzsimmons
        No reply yet

>> Benjamin L. Hall, III
        No reply yet

>> Derek Jenkins
        No reply yet

>> Victoria A. Lane
  1. No. MTA: This answer agrees with our position that corporations should not have constitutional rights.
  2. No. MTA: This answer agrees with our position.

>> Annise D. Parker (incumbent) ***
  1. I do not agree with the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court. I support reasonable laws that seek to limit the corrupting influence of money in politics. MTA: We applaud Mayor Parker's position on Citizens United. We hoped the Mayor would address our question of corporate 'personhood' and whether or not she believes corporations and other man-made legal 'fictions' should be granted the 'inalienable' rights given to real people by the constitution.
  2. I do not agree with the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court. I support reasonable laws that seek to limit the corrupting influence of money in politics. MTA: We applaud Mayor Parker's position on Citizens United. We believe further that legislative action alone will not be sufficient to "limit the corrupting influence of money in politics" since the Supreme Court is currently free to rule any law limiting money in politics to be unconstitutional. It is our contention that only by a constitutional amendment explicitly stating that money spent on political speech is not protected, will the "corrupting influence" be eliminated.
       


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City Council District B candidates

>> Katherine Blueford-Daniels
        No reply yet

>> Jerry Davis (incumbent)
        No reply yet

>> James Joseph
        No reply yet

>> Kenneth Perkins
  1. Corporation having rights is something we all may think about from time to time. However, it's not a great concern to most, people have rights and not places and things. However corporation are made up of people, I think there should be some sort of amendment in law. We don't want our local law enforcement to abuse us and use loop holes in the law as a tool against good people.  MTA: The fact that the courts have given constitutional rights to corporations is very troubling to very many people and numerous organizations such as Move To Amend have arisen to reverse the trend. The reason why we don't hear more of this protest is that corporations now control most of the major media which stiffels the reporting of protest-related news.
  2. For many years and even today, money is consider as a form of control. And I believe money will continue to be a tool to control elections and freedom of speech. And therefore, it's not much we can do about it, money is power and your constitutional right really no longer exist, although it's there.  MTA: Through cases like Citizens United v Federal Election Commission in 2010, the courts have broken years of precedence and now allow massive amounts of money into our electoral processes which has diminished governance through the will of the people. However, the constitution provides a mechanism to correct this situation, the amendment process as stated in Article V.
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City Council District D candidates

>> Dwight Boykins
        No reply yet
>> Keith Caldwell
        No reply yet
>> Lana Edwards
        No reply yet
>> Ivis Johnson
        No reply yet
>> Travis McGee
        No reply yet
>> Larry McKinzie
  1. No, I believe in "We The People." MTA: We do too.
  2. No, free speech is free speech, the ability to frequent what business you choose is a small element of free speech. If money was the equivalent of free speech then prostitutes and sexual-oriented businesses would be able to sell and barter near schools. MTA: We agree with the conclusion. We have no comment regarding the reasoning.

>> Georgia Doyle Provost
        No reply yet
>> N. "Assata" Richards
        No reply yet
>> Anthony Robinson
        No reply yet
>> Christina Sanders
        No reply yet
>> Demetria Smith
        No reply yet
>> Kirk White
        No reply yet
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City Council District F candidates

>> Al Hoang (incumbent)
        No reply yet
>> Richard Nguyen
  1. No.  MTA: This answer agrees with our position that corporations should not have constitutional rights.
  2. No.  MTA: This answer agrees with our position.
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City Council District G candidates
>> Oliver Pennington (incumbent)
  1. and     2.     In a telephone interview Mr Pennington, an attorney, indicated his complete acceptance of the status quo and didn't think it was his business to take a stand on the growing influence of corporations and other large-money interests on politicians when they make political decisions nor in discussing Citizens United in other terms than established law. He declined to put his position in writing.  MTA: We regret the fact that Mr Pennington shows little interest in what we believe to be the most important issue facing our country, corporations and other big-money interests using wealth to influence governmental decision making, as it diminishes the sovereignty of "We, the People" upon which our country was founded. Many of the 'rights' claimed by corporations were granted by the courts and not by elected legislative bodies.
>> Brian Taef
        No reply yet
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City Council District D candidates

>> Larry Green (incumbent)
  • (Declines to answer) MTA: We have a difficult time understanding why Mr Green declines to answer.  
  • (Declines to answer) MTA: 
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City Council At-Large Position 1 candidates

>> Stephen C. Costello
        CM Costello appreciates the information and has asked me to forward it to his political consultant for further review and comment.  Kathryn McNiel is copied above. MTA: in progress.

>> Mike "Griff" Griffin
  1. NO. MTA: This answer agrees with our position that corporations should not have constitutional rights.
  2. Money is the equivalent of the political free speech and with the supreme court  recent opinion that corporations can give as much money with out identifying  themselves makes me very concerned. MTA: We too are concerned with equating money with political free speech and the Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United allowing corporations to give unlimited amounts of money to PACs without disclosure. Our goal is to write and ratify a constitutional amendment stating that money as political speech is not protected by the First Amendment.
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City Council At-Large Position 2 candidates

>> Andrew C. Burks Jr. (incumbent)
        No reply yet

>> Brent Trebor Gordon, Member of Move To Amend
  1. No.  Constitutional rights were established for the "individual person"  not entities. MTA: This statement is strongly aligned with our position that corporations should not have constitutional rights.
  2. No.  Money mixed with politics is the root of all political evil.  It is corruption at its worst.  MTA: This statements is strongly aligned with our position.

>> Modesto (Mod) Rivera-Colon
  1. Corporations are living perpetual profit and non-profit (IRS tax exempt 501 C- 3 ) business entities (governed by their board of directors) thus they should have Constitutional Rights.  MTA: Corporations are perpetual but not living. The fact that they are governed by boards of directors should have no bearing on whether or not they should have constitutional rights.  
  2. Money is not equivalent of political free speech since some candidates may not have the sufficient funds to advertise on T.V., newspapers, magazines or have the resources to place political signs or mail push cards across the city.  MTA: This is true.

>> David Robinson
        No reply yet
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City Council At-Large Position 4 candidates

>> C.O. "Brad" Bradford (incumbent)
  1. Corporations are not human beings, thus should not have humans rights. MTA: This statement is strongly aligned with our position that corporations should not have constitutional rights.
  2. Money is not the equivalent of free speech. MTA: This statement is strongly aligned with our position.

>> Issa Dadoush
  1. In legal terms, the answer is yes.  Corporations are associations of individuals united for a special purpose.  Therefore, a                          corporation is seen as an individual in the eyes of the Law with constitutional rights. MTA: For much of the time since our nation's founding the powers of the man-made corporation were severely limited by state legislatures. Over time, these restrictions have been relaxed by judicial decree without review by the legislative branch of government.
  2. No -  money is a property and not free speech. We must place limits on money contributions to political campaigns by                       individuals, corporations, and/or unions.  We need to send a strong message that the Government of the greatest Nation in the world, the         United States of America, is NOT for sale.   MTA: This answer gets a grade of A+.  
  3. Addendum by Issa Dadoush: I share your concerns. I will support a non-binding resolution in support of constitutional amendment. MTA:  Our local goal is to have Houston City Council pass a resolution saying they support a constitutional amendment that states money is not to be construed as equal to political speech and that corporations do not have the rights given to human beings by the U.S. Constitution.