By Shelley Kofler, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-882255.mp3
Dallas – Democrat Farouk Shami is campaigning for governor in North Texas, promising to create 100-thousand jobs in the state. KERA's Shelley Kofler reports the millionaire businessman from Houston is ignoring pundits who say Shami can't win.
The movers and shakers within Texas's Democratic Party have lined up behind three-term Houston Mayor Bill White. They can't imagine any of White's six primary opponents giving him any real competition. But that doesn't seem to phase the only competing Democrat with more money than White: 67- year old Farouk Shami.
Shami: Politicians have ruined our economy. We need to get them out of office.
Tuesday, at a reception in Dallas' Fair Park neighborhood, Shami reminded he's beaten the odds before. Born on the West Bank, raised in the U.S., Shami turned his last $71 dollars into the multi-million dollar hair products business that markets BioSilk and the popular CHI flat irons.
Now, with Texas unemployment topping eight percent, Shami zeroes in on what may be the election's most important bread-and-butter issue- jobs.
Shami: I guarantee I will create 100,000 jobs in the first two years as governor. If not I will give the state $10 million.
As if to underscore his job-creating credentials, Shami has announced his company is opening two new plants in poverty stricken neighborhoods. He believes creating manufacturing jobs in poor communities is a key to growing the Texas economy.
By the end of the year Shami says he will open a solar panel plant in El Paso with about 100 workers. By the end of next month Shami promises to hire at least another 100 at a new hair products plant in Houston's struggling fifth ward.
Shami: Those people are suffering. Unemployment is so high it could be 30 to 40 percent. It's a group of about 150,000 African Americans, and their streets have not been fixed. It is a shame for the city of Houston and the mayor of Houston to have such a poor area
That last reference is a slap at opponent Bill White. Shami claims White as mayor ignored Houston's poor neighborhoods. White's campaign says the mayor improved blighted areas and was re-elected twice by big margins because he represented all of Houston.
Though a lot of influential Democrats have their money on White, Shami is traveling the state, airing ads and putting up a fight.