Texas Senate Update for February 8, 2012

Both the Senate race and the redistricting fight continue to grind on, with the primary date for the former dependent on the latter.

  • Report on the Texas Association of Business forum where Ted Cruz, David Dewhurst, Tom Leppert and Craig James all appeared.
  • Paul Burka covers it as well. Ignore the usual Burka liberal hand-wringing and there’s actually a lot of useful information here. (Hat tip: Texas Iconoclast, which has stopped updating the main page, but still puts tidbits in their sidebar.)
  • The Texas Tribune offers a handy overview of the their tax returns.
  • Cruz wins another straw poll, this one at the Tarrant County Republican Party Candidate Fair.
  • Cruz joins the chorus of those criticizing the NDAA.
  • Ted Cruz’s Q4 FEC report is up.
  • Joe Holley profiles James. The most interesting takeaway for me is learning that James has two of Rick Perry’s longtime financial supporters backing him: Houston investor Jim Lee and Dallas insurance executive Roy Bailey. And the fact that James only set up Texans for a Better America in April, after his name was already floated as a potential Senate candidate.
  • Another Perry supporter, campaign manager Rob Johnson, lands a gig working for David Dewhurst’s Super PAC “Texas Conservatives Fund” to support his Senate campaign. That’s not the only Dewhurst PAC: “Former Harris County Republican Party chairman Gary Polland and San Francisco-based political consultant Bob Wickers recently formed the Conservative Renewal PAC.”
  • The Dewhurst campaign is crying foul on Cruz hitting them over the Super PAC, pointing out Cruz’s support from the Club for Growth PAC. The Cruz campaign retorts that The Club For Growth PAC has been around for years to help various candidates, while Dewhurst’s PACs exist only to serve David Dewhurst.
  • Dewhurst was also endorsed by Texas Association of Builders’ HOMEPAC, proving that business associations continue to love Dewhurst.
  • The Texas Wildlife Association endorses Dewhurst. There’s simply no end to the non-political endorsements the Dewhurst campaign has racked up…
  • Dewhurst criticizes Obama’s war on Catholics.
  • More on The Dallas Crime rate drop on Tom Leppert’s watch. (A few weeks ago, Leppert critic Jim Schutze offered a different interpretation of the reduction in Dallas’ crime numbers.)
  • Leppert also appeared on The Mark Davis Show:

  • James calls for Eric Holder’s resignation, and says that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott should be the next U.S. Attorney General. That’s interesting, because I got the impression that Abbott was pretty close to Cruz, though I don’t think he’s formally endorsed him.
  • He’s also been hitting the airwaves.
  • James’ childhood was not all happy fun time.
  • Curt Cleaver pulled in $5,120 in Q4.
  • Even The Texas Tribune says that Democrats have no hope of winning the Senate race.
  • Speaking of which, Paul Sadler appeared on WFAA, they of the crappy video embedding:

  • Salder raised $5,000 in Q4. Granted, he didn’t join the race until December 19, but that’s still pretty poor for the Anointed Democratic Establishment Candidate.
  • Even Daniel Boone raised more money, in Q4, raising $5,401.
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