Conscience guides old hand in House to cheerleader proposal

08:53 PM CDT on Sunday, April 3, 2005

By KAREN BROOKS / The Dallas Morning News

AUSTIN – Houston Democrat Al Edwards greets everyone with a twinkle and a jovial, "Heyyyy, baby!" as he strolls by on the floor of the Texas House or in the Capitol's hallways. His affectionate, familiar voice brings smiles to the faces of women and men, lawmakers and staffers, co-workers and friends.

Associated Press

State Rep. Al Edwards, D-Houston, may be best known for bringing Juneteenth to the masses.

And then he throws them all for a loop.

After the "Heyyyy, baby" fades into the echoes under the dome, not a single soul can tell you what this 26-year veteran of the Texas House will do next.

"I'll never forget, when I first got elected, he gave me a piece of advice," said fellow Houston Rep. Harold Dutton, a Democrat. "He said, 'Harold, don't take advice from anybody.' "

Mr. Edwards appears to have taken his own advice. He follows no one but his own conscience.

To a political novice, Mr. Edwards doesn't stand out. He's chairman of one of the least controversial House committees, Rules and Resolutions. He's signed on as a co-author on several bills but filed only a dozen himself this session. He's soft-spoken and friendly and is not prone to outbursts.

But Mr. Edwards, 68, often uses his legislation to make statements – and not necessarily to affect policy.

He has advocated cutting drug dealers' fingers off and asked that prison guards be allowed to spank inmates.

"I do what I think is right, and I let the chips fall where they may," he said. "Just see what happens."

A civil rights activist and friend of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, he and fellow Houston Democrat Rodney Ellis, a state senator, fought for years for a statue on the Capitol grounds commemorating the end of slavery.

Now he's getting criticism from other black House members because the statue is going to look just like him.

Known throughout the nation as the man who brought Juneteenth to the masses, he pushed against fellow black Texans who preferred not to publicly address June 19, 1865, when Texas received word that slavery had ended.

But despite all that, Mr. Edwards has made more headlines and given more interviews in the last 10 days than he has in the last 20 years.

His proposed restrictions on the way high school cheerleaders dance have landed him a spot on the conservative talk show The O'Reilly Factor next week.

This isn't the first time he's culled his legislative agenda from his self-described conservative morals.

Mr. Edwards has backed prayer in schools and pushed to let human-services workers recommend to mothers on welfare that they take their children to church.

Owner of a real-estate business, an ordained minister and a tennis player, Mr. Edwards has long been an advocate for minorities.

He spoke at the memorial for Gary Graham, a black man in Houston executed for a 1980 murder he maintained he did not commit.

He stood up for the Rodney King rioters in Los Angeles, blaming the resulting 55 deaths on the cops who beat Mr. King up and the all-white jury who let them walk.

And he has vigorously defended affirmative action, once denouncing "evil Republicans" who sought to end it.

Adherence to such Democratic principles, though, doesn't mean he can be reliably pigeonholed. He was the only Democrat to support the House's tax and school-finance bills.

In 2000, as chairman of the Democratic National Committee's Black Caucus, he spoke at the party's national convention. Three years later, he blew into the committee's offices to defend his decision to support the first Republican Texas House speaker in 130 years, Tom Craddick.

Later that year, he refused to go to Ardmore, Okla., with his fellow Democrats to stall congressional redistricting, although he didn't support the GOP effort.

And while voters kicked some of his fellow black House Democrats out of office for sticking with the House leadership, Mr. Edwards sailed to re-election in 2004, drawing no opponent.

In fact, he rarely sees a primary or general election challenge, and when he does, he walks away with about 70 percent of the vote.

"I know I take care of my district, and if my district says they don't want me, fine, so be it," he said. "I just do what I have to do, and I don't even worry about it."

E-mail kmbrooks@dallasnews.com