Texas Senate Race Update for April 20, 2012

Q1 reports trickle out and Team Dewhurst attack websites start popping up like mushrooms:

  • Ted Cruz has accused David Dewhurst of helping use gimmicks to balance the state budget because, well, gimmicks have been used to balance the state budget.
  • Here’s James Bernsen of the Cruz campaign making the case that Dewhurst employed accounting gimmicks and increased state budgets an aggregate of $25 billion for the 2004–2011 period. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to bring you some expert opinion on how how balanced the Texas budget has been, what Dewhurst’s role in the budget has been, etc.
  • I’ve already reported the gross numbers, but here’s Cruz’s Q1 fundraising report. Cash on hand was $3.25 million.
  • Cruz has new ad up touting the Mojave desert cross case:

  • MSM members still seem to be baffled that Cruz is a Hispanic who’s not a liberal.
  • Rick Perry formally endorses Dewhurst:

    Before he had sort-of endorsed Dewhurst in an offhand way on the Presidential campaign trail; this is the real deal. It certainly helps Dewhurst, but the language is a bit tepid, “I’m a loyal supporter” rather than “David Dewhurst is awesome and is far and away the best man in the race.” (Hat tip: The Weekly Standard.)

  • Dewhurst’s Q1 FEC report is up. Just shy of $3.2 million cash on hand, or slightly less than Cruz. Presumably Dewhurst could start pouring millions in self-funding into his campaign at any moment. So why hasn’t he? Is he already assuming he’s going to be in a runoff and will carpet-bomb the race with dough then? (I’ll try to look through Dewhurst’s report more thoroughly when I have time.)
  • Robert T. Garrett of The Dallas Morning News sums up the fund race.
  • Team Dewhurst strikes back at Dewbious with their own attack website, The Real Ted Cruz, which seems to be all about the Chinese business case. I still think it’s pretty weak sauce, but I must admit that the Photoshoping of Cruz’s face onto Chinese currency is a nice touch…
  • The Cruz response to the Chinese client issue.
  • Dewhurst has also put up a parody Cruz Pintrest site. Remember the Saturday Night Live 2.0 cast, the one after the entire original cast quit but before they promoted Eddie Murphy? Yeah, it’s not quite that funny.
  • KYFO has a poll asking which Senate candidate you support. So far Cruz is creaming the rest of the field.
  • Dewhurst pushes for repeal of the death tax.
  • Tom Leppert says he’s made several million dollars worth of ad buys.
  • Garrett is also reporting that Craig James had “$525,000 in cash as of March 31, and most of it’s probably money he can use before the May 29 primary, because he himself accounted for three-quarters of his campaign’s $1 million haul.” James’ FEC report isn’t up yet, and I don’t see it linked from James website.
  • James appeared before the Clear Lake Tea Party:

    If you watch all 24 minutes of that, congratulations! You have even more dedication to covering this race than I do…

  • Glenn Addison talks about the environment in Corpus Christi.
  • Addison also raised $19,111 in Q1.
  • Longshot Curt Cleaver raised all of $390 in Q1.
  • Democrat Paul Sadler finally starts to look like the Democratic frontrunner, having raised $72,800 this quarter, including $17,500 in union money. That won’t keep Cruz or Dewhurst up at night, but it may be enough to finish off Sean Hubbard. Lots of contributions from his home base in Henderson, a few from Austin, not much from the rest of the state. (One $500 contribution is from Austin political consultant G. K. Sprinkle, who I knew slightly back in the 1990s when she got a few science fiction stories published.)
  • And you know you’re doomed when even the Dallas Morning News calls your race “Quixotic”.
  • Sean Hubbard picked up the endorsement of the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas Hubbard has been pursuing the endorsements of the gay rights community hard, so this isn’t a surprise, but compared to a lot of other Democratic special interest groups (blacks, Hispanics, unions, government employees (but I repeat myself), etc.) there just aren’t that many votes there.
  • There are supposedly two candidates (David B. Collins and Victoria Ann Zabaras) running for the Green Party nomination for the Senate race. Neither seems to have bothered to put up a website.
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