What are the most important issues facing district 52?
Growth. District 52—Williamson County—is the ninth fastest growing county in nation, and Round Rock is the No. 2 fastest growing city in the nation. We are definitely tackling growth issues. Overall it’s the budget deficit as a state that we will be tackling for this upcoming session.

What are your major successes?
Being able to work with people, bringing people to the table and bringing common-sense solutions to everyday problems when it comes to your pocketbook issues, driving issues and education. These issues are what keep people awake at night. I want to make sure those areas are well taken care of and well represented.

How are you different from your opponent?
I already hold an elected position. I moved to the Round Rock area 13 years ago. I have been in office since 2003, so I have proven track record. We also handled a difficult budget with the school district. We worked really well with our taxpayers, including the families who have children in school verses those who don’t have kids in school. The record speaks for itself with regards to being fiscally responsible, having transparency, and getting message out to our citizens. Professionally, I’ve worked more than two decades in state government. [In those] 20-plus years at the Texas Comptroller’s office, I became a budget efficiency expert and managed different areas of the agency in the revenue administration area.

Why are you seeking re-election?
I just finished my first term. It was very successful in delivering back to the district. We still have a lot of work to do, which I’m really excited to come back come back and represent district 52 in the House. When it comes to being fiscally honest in the upcoming budget deficit that we’re facing, reported at $18 billion, we’re at the point as leaders we cannot pick and chose what bills to pay. We have to make sure that we work on looking at the areas of investment that will be most profitable to the district and the state. Investing in education is one of the priority issues we need to look at.

How have you ensured you are representing the wishes of your constituents?
We filed more than 17 bills. As a freshman you usually pass two to three bills, but I’ve successfully passed six bills. One of them had to do with a higher education facility in the Hutto-Taylor area, where you’re going to have multiple college offerings housed. I brought home a $10 million road project to the Round Rock area, where you have the biggest explosion of growth. While I don’t sit on the appropriations [committee], I was able to secure more than $17 million specifically for this district. More than 70 percent of the legislation we filed came from constituents. It was about reaching out and listening to the people in the district and making sure they had a voice at the Capitol.

How can people make their voice heard to you?
We have a district office here very conveniently accessible to Hutto, Taylor, the rural areas and Round Rock, where a lot of the growth is. I have the capitol office open Monday through Friday. We send out newsletters, have Twitter, Facebook and different ways for people to reach us, as well as us putting out the information through all these different mediums to let people know of the activities that are going on.

When did you know you wanted to be in government?
Not really knowing I wanted to be in government, education had a big impact on me growing up in a border town. I saw the inadequacies when it came to being in a different part of Texas. As I grew up, I wanted to make sure students had a voice. When I moved to Austin in 1984 I started volunteering for civic organizations, which continued that advocacy for education. When I graduated from St. Edwards University in 2000, I had the opportunity to run for school board. It’s the perfect opportunity to serve education and know where taxpayer dollars are going. While I don’t sit on an education committee, [my service] has expanded to state, defense and veteran’s affairs, and it has broadened my horizons on how I can serve Texas better. Education still continues to be a special priority project for me.

How will your past legislative experience help or hamper you?
I had a very successful first year. It was very exciting, It was a privilege and honor to serve. I’m looking forward to coming back again because of the relationships I’ve built. I just see it as helping me further the advocacy in and the representation in District 52 and the overall issues of Texas.

What is your opinion of alternative parties, such as the Tea Party?
I think with any group of folks, they have the right to organize as long as they can get support in whatever way they see fit. It’s a democracy. Nonetheless, we have different parities that we represent. While we represent certain parties, as a public servant, we must look toward working in different areas and with different groups of people to make sure we focus on the policies that are important to people in their daily lives.

Who influenced who to run initially?
I would say it was business leaders from the Round Rock and the Hispanic community. They approached me to run for the school board, which I hadn’t entertained. I was actually looking more into city council because I was looking at government structure to see where I could serve. That’s what triggered it. They had done their homework and approached me because of the work I’d done at different civic organizations and had a background at the Texas Comptroller’s office. They saw it would be a good fit for Round Rock.