State Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, has been invited to join celebrities and Cabinet members who'll be watching the Super Bowl on TV with President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama at the White House on Sunday.
"I was one of the first Hispanic elected officials in the state of Texas to come out for then-Sen. Obama [in 2008]. I don't know why they chose me," Anchia just told me by phone. "But I'm honored."
Anchia has professional sports in his blood -- literally. His father, Julio Anchia of Miami, emigrated from his native Basque Country, an autonomous region of northern Spain, to this country as a professional Jai Alai player. "My maternal grandfather also was a pro" at Jai Alai, a fast-moving game sort of like racquetball on steroids. The younger Anchia said, "I've got it on both sides, and I would've been a third-generation professional if I'd gone that route."
Anchia doesn't have a dog in the Super Bowl 45 hunt. He's neither a Cheesehead nor a Steeler fan.
"I grew up [in Miami] when the Dolphins were winning Super Bowls in the early 1970s, and that's always been my hometown team," he said. But Anchia, a Dallas lawyer, became a big Cowboys fan in the Tony Romo era, he said.
DMN Washington Bureau Chief Todd Gillman has the rest of the details on the Obama's viewing party, which Anchia will attend, assuming flights from DFW Airport aren't cancelled Saturday:
A White House official said Friday that about 100 people are expected to join the president, including Texas state Rep. Rafael Anchia; assorted Obama friends and aides; and entertainers Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony.
Cabinet members expected to attend include Trade Ambassador Ron Kirk (a former Dallas mayor), Attorney General Eric Holder, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
Two Wisconsin mayors, from Milwaukee and Madison, will be there, along U.S. Rep. Reid Ribble, R-Wis., and Pennsylvania Sens. Pat Toomey, a Republican, and Bob Casey, a Democrat.
Source: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/02/anchia-will-join-obamas-at-whi.html
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