Political Career
Coleman was elected to his first term as a state representative in 1991 at age 29.
His district includes Downtown Houston, the Hobby Airport area, Midtown Houston, Sagemont, and the Third Ward.
Coleman has been named Texas Monthly Ten Best Legislators List on two occasions. Most recently he received the 2005 Reintegration Award presented by Eli Lilly and Company, a national award given in acknowledgment of efforts to increase services and decrease the stigma associated with mental illness. Representative Coleman has also been recognized by the Congressional Black Caucus as he was named Outstanding Black Caucus Chair for 2004 for his advocacy of voting rights of African Americans.
Representative Coleman has served as the Chair of the Legislative Study Group, a non-partisan house caucus since 2003 when he was elected to the position by more than 40 of his colleagues. In addition, Rep. Coleman is a past chair of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus. As Chairman, Rep. Coleman coordinated efforts among members of the Caucus to help preserve the Top Ten Percent Rule, which assists historically-underrepresented minority students in gaining admission to Texas' top institutions of higher learning.
Coleman is a member of the House Committee on Public Health and the Chair of the House Committee on County Affairs. He has joint authored legislation that simplified access to children's Medicaid for more than 600,000 children in Texas who were eligible for the program but were not enrolled because of bureaucratic barriers. He also helped secure an increase of $161.5 million for at-risk child care services and joint authored legislation that created the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which makes low-cost health insurance available to more than 400,00 children in working families.
Coleman authored legislation that created the Greater Southeast Management District, the Downtown Management District and the Fourth Ward and East Montrose Improvement Districts. Additionally, he sponsored legislation creating Houston's convention center hotel and expanding the convention center itself. Rep. Coleman also authored legislation allowing for the creation of a commercial and industrial development zone in Harris County, which is designed to promote economic development along the transportation corridors that link Houston-area transportation nodes.
Coleman serves on the boards of the Mid-Town Redevelopment Authority, the National Mental Health Association, and the Ensemble Theater. In 1991, Rep. Coleman founded S.M.A.R.T. Kids, an inner city youth development program. He also serves as president and CEO of Apartments for America, Inc., a non-profit affordable housing corporation.
Coleman has been an avid supporter to Houston's LGBT community since taking office; he has supported and endorsed Annise Parker and Sue Lovell. He has also been supportive of the Texas Young Democrats to which its Harris County chapter has invited him as a guest speaker.
Read more about this topic: Garnet Coleman
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or career:
“We in the South were ready for reconciliation, to be accepted as equals, to rejoin the mainstream of American political life. This yearning for what might be called political redemption was a significant factor in my successful campaign.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
““Never hug and kiss your children! Mother love may make your children’s infancy unhappy and prevent them from pursuing a career or getting married!” That’s total hogwash, of course. But it shows on extreme example of what state-of-the-art “scientific” parenting was supposed to be in early twentieth-century America. After all, that was the heyday of efficiency experts, time-and-motion studies, and the like.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)