A tale of two Orlandos

Orlando Sanchez, speaking last week in a Statesman article about the statewide ambitions of Houston Mayor Bill White, who beat him soundly in the 2003 runoff:

He doesn’t discount him but suggests White has gotten a free ride in his hometown.

Lately, Sanchez has questioned a lack of promised light-rail construction under White, a failure to add council seats in response to Latino population growth and White’s decision not to fill a vacant council seat until a May election.

Emphasis mine. Here was Orlando back when he was running against White:

Former City Councilman Orlando Sanchez on Wednesday became the only major mayoral candidate to oppose a Nov. 4 transit referendum, claiming the rail portion of Metro’s plan won’t reduce traffic congestion.

Sanchez announced his position two days after City Councilman Michael Berry, who had been the only announced rail opponent among major candidates for Houston mayor, dropped his mayoral aspirations amid sagging polls to run for another council seat.

“We need a 100 percent plan, not a 1 percent solution plan,” Sanchez said in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon.

The reference was to a road-oriented plan being developed by the Houston-Galveston Area Council, which it calls a 100 percent solution and which Sanchez supports.

Well, hey, at least he eventually wound up on the right side of the issue. In that article, Sanchez said he’d support rail if the referendum passed. I don’t know about you, but I cannot recall a single instance since then in which he’s publicly addressed the topic. Even in the two years of Sanchez’s tenure as an elected official, during which time his opinion presumably would have meant something, he’s had nothing to say about light rail. Admittedly, he’s had nothing to say about much of anything else, either, but still. As such, I trust you’ll forgive me if I don’t put any stock in his criticism of Mayor White for being insufficiently pro-rail expansion.

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