Texas Senate Race Update for June 29, 2012

Just over a month until the runoff, and the ObamaCare decision seems to have energized the Ted Cruz campaign:

  • The Cruz campaign announced that they crushed their $200,000 fundraising goal tied to their “Knockout punch to ObamaCare” pitch, including over 500 contributions within 24 hours of the Supreme Court upholding ObamaCare.
  • They’ve also been dinging David Dewhurst for his failure to sign a pledge to repeal ObamaCare.
  • Even though I’ve endorsed Ted Cruz, I think it only fair to point out that Dewhurst has, in fact, constantly stated that he’s in favor of repealing ObamaCare pretty much since he joined the Senate race. (I even used the Wayback machine to verify it.) However, Cruz has been more fervent and articulate in campaigning against ObamaCare, making the phrase “repeal every syllable of every word of Obamacare” one of his stock talking points from the very beginning of his campaign. He’s also discussed the 10th Amendment reasons why ObamaCare is unconstitutional, something that I don’t recall Dewhurst doing. (Dewhurst has mentioned the 10th Amendment in support of the Texas Voter ID law.)
  • Cruz’s worry (which I think is legitimate) is that Dewhurst might be willing to compromise on ObamaCare. And I could easily see Dewhurst signing on with some “Group of 14” (or whatever) to needlessly save ObamaCare despite a Republican House, Senate, and White House, rather than push for full repeal.
  • Which is why this rings a little hollow to me:

    But unlike some of Dewhurst’s other ads, at least that one probably won’t cost him votes…

  • Here’s the video of last week’s Cruz-Dewhurst debate:

  • Dewhurst ducks again.
  • Cruz also dinged Dewhurst for deceptively edited the answer to question on the Chinese tire issue Dewhurst never seems to tire of flogging.
  • The Dewhurst campaign is pointing to this Cruz appearance on the Dan Patrick show as evidence Cruz is a hothead:

    34 minutes? No time to listen tonight…

  • And here’s still another journalist opining that the mid-Summer runoff date will mean. Memo to the MSM: IT’S TEXAS! IT’S HOT! WE’RE FREAKING USE TO IT!
  • Grady Yarbrough and Paul Sadler also debated last week. Yarbrough said he supported a border wall, saying that the Berlin Wall was effective. Hmmm, I don’t think I would have made that analogy…
  • Speaking of things I’m not watching tonight, here’s KERA’s embeddable video of the Democratic debate:

    Watch The Texas Debates: Race for U.S. Senate, Democrats on PBS. See more from KERA Specials.

  • More on the Democratic debate. Another summary. My summary of those two summaries: Yarbrough wants a border wall and legal pot, and Sadler is against both of those. Sadler does actually say the national debt is too high.
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    One Response to “Texas Senate Race Update for June 29, 2012”

    1. […] Ted Cruz has long been a fervent opponent of both ObamaCare and illegal alien amnesty, but has always been more fervently against ObamaCare, proclaiming that we should “repeal every syllable of every word of Obamacare” as one of his stock talking points from the very beginning of his campaign. […]

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