Donna Welles

The first person I ever voted for was Ron Kirk in the Democratic Primary for Texas Sentator. He won the party nomination but lost the Senate race to John Cornyn- more about this below.

Awesome things about Ron Kirk:

• He was the first African American Mayor of Dallas. During his tenure as mayor, Kirk earned the reputation of being a coalition-builder, managing to keep the always-tumultuous Dallas City Council and Dallas School Board together. Under his leadership, he proposed the “Dallas Plan,” a vision for the next 25 years, which included the controversial Trinity River Project, a $246 million plan that called for constructing a network of parks and highways in the flood plain of the Trinity River. Under his leadership he also pushed the construction of the American Airlines Center, whose opening he oversaw in 2002.
• ‘94 Worked for Ann Richards as Texas Secratary of State.
• Graduated from UT Law and is now a very successful lawyer and lobbyist for Texas Energy Holdings LP
• ‘04 was in the running for DNC chair

This is the letter I wrote him a while ago and he wrote me back!

Mr. Kirk,

Hello. My name is Donna Welles and i know you are a very busy man but
I wanted to write and tell you how sorry I was and still am that you
did not win the senatorial election a few years ago.

You were the first person I ever voted for. I worked on Mark Strama’s
campaign a few summers ago and I got to talk to Molly, a woman who
worked on your fundraising team. She told me you went to LBJ High
School. I did too!!

Every time I read about something Cornyn does I get frustrated,
knowing that it could have been you there doing so well. I looked you
up on wikipedia.org and it said you worked for Vinson and Elkins. I
simply wanted to write to thank you for trying and to tell you that it
just broke my heart when you lost. I hope so much that you and your
family are well.

His Response:

Donna – thank you for your very kind note, and your efforts on my behalf.  hearing from friends/suppporters like validates my decision to run for the US Senate. keep the faith and please continue to be involved.

fyi – i am from Austin and attended Austin Public schools, but graduated from John H. Reagan H.S.   thanks for your note.  rk

Final Thoughts- I just never read anything bad about Ron Kirk. He’s obviously a capable public official or he couldn’t have been elected mayor of Dallas. Dallas is notorious for being conservative and corrupt. As JFK said when he landed there, “We’re entering nut country.” My uncle worked as a lawyer in Dallas while Kirk was the mayor and said the city had never been better run. John Cornyn, the guy who won the seat, is about as disgusting as the Republicans get. Kirk’s race got lost in Tony Sanchez’s run for Governor. Sanchez spent more than anyone ever had but still lost the race because his oil roots made his motives suspect to Democratic voters.

Hello All,

Donna here. I am in the process of figureing out where I want to go to law school. If anyone has any thoughts, I’d love to hear them.

I’ve attached a spreadsheet that shows all of the schools in the top 100 that I think would fit me right now. I’ve included their rank nationally. I have several criteria.

I want to work for the government when I get out of law school, I don’t want to work for a law firm at all. At some point I would like to work with NGO’s or PAC’s. Remember I speak Russian and like to travel and just want to serve my country and its people the best way I can.

Criteria:

1) I would like somewhere not in a big, fun city because I get distracted and want to go explore. So not NYC, not San Fransisco or Boston or anywhere I’m going to feel bad about missing out on while I’m studying.

2) God Bless them, but the Californians just drove me nuts. And by the same token I think I would rather stay in the south or midwest so I don’t have to deal with culture shock while I am studying. I don’t want to be the most conservative person in the room while at the same time being the most liberal of my classmates at UT. I think I need to be around conservatives so I am reminded why I am not one and I can’t get rid of this hatred of organic food and sushi. Also, I would like to learn how conservatives think so it is easier to outthink them. Also, I’m tired of people not caring about football.

3) I would rather have somewhere cold than really hot, but that’s not that big of a deal.

4) I am very seriously thinking about doing a joint degree, ie JD/MA in Public Affairs or Russian Studies. Maybe a JD/MBA.

-> I don’t know how much a graduate degree in Russian would help me. I already speak the language, lived there for a year, and wrote my honors thesis on current Russian politics. Although it seems like the Rand Foundation and places like that want you to have a graduate degree if you want to do research for them. Maybe I could learn another langauge besides Russian like Ukranian or continue studying Polish.

-> My dad went to the LBJ school and he’s been telling me I should do a Public Affairs degree if I want to work for the government. Indiana University has a Public Interest program that ranked higher than the LBJ school and it is especially good at non-profits. Indiana also has one of the best Lingustics programs in the country. And I have family there.

-> An MBA is appealing to me because I like how it would diversify my resume. It seems like you can do anything you want if you have a JD/MBA. I like the idea of learning how the private sector operates. I understand that they usally want you to have a few years experience in business before getting your MBA by itself. Does anyone know if that applies equally to a JD/MBA program? The websites say that it isn’t mandatory so I don’t know.  

5) I am seriously thinking about going to Tulane so I can be in New Orleans and watch it rebuild.

Schools I am most interested in are:

(In no particular order)

-Alabama

-Indiana

-Maryland

-Texas

-Tulane

-Georgetown, GW, American U

And less so in:

-South Carolina

-Wisc-Madison

-Iowa

-Vanderbilt

-UVA

Thank you so much for your time.

Yours,

Donna Welles