The Contender — Interview With Barbara Ann Radnofsky, Democratic Candidate For U.S. Senate

U.S. Senator of Texas.

In fact, if she wins, she’ll be the first-ever Texas Democratic woman elected to the U.S. Senate.

To get it, she will have to knock out Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, a three-term Republican who Radnofsky says hasn’t been acting very Texan as of late.

At the Texas Democratic Convention in Fort Worth in June, the Houstonite pointed out that her opponent relocated her primary address to Virginia.

As a send off for the senator, Radnofsky packed a “Welcome to Virginia” tote bag whose contents included cans of Alaskan salmon, which served a reminder of Hutchison’s support of the “Bridge To Nowhere” bill authored by Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska. To view her convention speech, visit her website or <YouTube.com>.

Humor aside, Radnofsky told the Iconoclast last week that she is serious about the wasteful spending and corruption in Washington. And it would seem that she is off to a good start, being that she won the run-off to the Democratic primary by 60 percent.

Iconoclast editor-in-chief W. Leon Smith spoke with Radnofsky about her loyalties to Texans and military veterans, her views on the privatization of government and the separation of powers in the three branches, and her opponent’s falling popularity.

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ICONOCLAST: If elected to the U.S. Senate, will your loyalties lie with the Senate or with Texas? How important is institutional patriotism?

BARBARA ANN RADNOFSKY: My loyalties would be with Texans in the state of Texas. I feel strongly about that and the particular question because I think we suffer now from those who are beholden to certain institutions that are unrelated really to the needs of Texans.

ICONOCLAST: Are you concerned about the disappearance of oversight of federal governmental agencies?

RADNOFSKY: Absolutely, to a great degree.

ICONOCLAST: What would be a good fix for that?

RADNOFSKY: I think by way of example some of the key agencies responsible for safety in the workplace OSHA Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been gutted in terms of its abilities. FDA is another excellent example. This deals with our everyday safety. It is not an expensive proposition to give adequate pay and adequate enforcement powers to these agencies. It is not an intrusion on our life. It makes our lives safer, and the drugs we take safer.

ICONOCLAST: You think having a legal background would be a huge benefit in being able to put the United States back on track as far as oversight goes?

RADNOFSKY: Yes, I do think it’s an advantage to have some training in reading laws, but I will say I think its just as helpful to be an interested mother, interested teacher, interested wife I’ve had to give my kids and I have had to see my husband come home my husband is a physician, but physicians like any worker are subject to on-the-job injuries and problems, so I think living in the real world is perhaps just as useful as having a 27-year law background.

ICONOCLAST: What about th