Posts Tagged ‘Lela Pittenger’

Texas Senate Race Update for June 11, 2012

Monday, June 11th, 2012

I put off putting up the latest Texas Senate race update until the Republican Party of Texas convention in Ft. Worth concluded. Good thing, too, since a lot of news came out of it, almost none of which was good for Dewhurst, but some of this news may be a bit old.

  • Ted Cruz appears on Fox News:

  • Dewhurst claims he wants more than five debates with Cruz. Since Dewhurst did extremely poorly in the ones he did have, color me skeptical.
  • Cruz says bring it on.
  • At least one will be on WFAA.
  • Another will be at KERA.
  • The line to take pictures with Ted Cruz at RPOTC was evidently quite long.
  • Conversely, Dewhurst was booed there.
  • And so was Rick Perry, for endorsing Dewhurst.
  • Despite that, Perry doubles down on backing Dewhurst. I don’t think this course of action will bring him joy….
  • The text of Dewhurst’s RPOTC speech.
  • More coverage of their respective speeches.
  • The Cruz campaign says it’s raised a lot more Texas contributors and small donors than Dewhurst does. While I think they’re probably correct, honesty compels me to point out that comparing Cruz’s internal June 4 donation stats with Dewhurst’s May 17 FEC stats is not an apples-to-apples comparison for many reasons, not last of which is that FEC reports only show donations over $200, so the 69 number for “donations under $250” is simply misleading. (When I pointed this out to the Cruz campaign, they noted that Dewhurst is free to release his own small-donor statistics. Which is true.)
  • Speaking of misleading, Dewhurst goes back to Communist China bit.
  • A look at the Cruz-Dewhurst fundraising numbers.
  • A look at various reasons Dewhurst couldn’t win without a runoff. Ahem: “Just about everybody bet on Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst to win outright.” yeah, Ross Ramsey, everyone except those of us who were actually paying attention to the race.
  • Dewhurst endorsed by Railroad Commissioner David Porter.
  • Craig James endorses Dewhurst. They didn’t even try to pretend Team Dewhurst didn’t write that speech…
  • On the other hand, Lela Pittenger endorsed Cruz. She only had one-third the votes James has, but 95% less baggage…
  • Another KFYO poll where Cruz is clobbering Dewhurst.
  • Dewhurst appeared on Fox News:

    Also on KTRH:

    And KTSA:

    And KCRS:

  • And as far as I can tell looking at the stats on his official page, the most people who have listened to any David Dewhurst YouTube radio interview posted in the last month is…35.
  • As previously mentioned, Grady Yarbrough has a Facebook page. And he also has a website…that currently redirects back to his Facebook page.
  • And now Grady Yarbrough has a YouTube ad:

  • Standard Democratic boilerplate. However, Yarbrough did run two statewide races as a Republican.
  • Sean Hubbard endorses Paul Sadler. “The other guy [Yarbrough] has never even filed with the Senate or FEC.”
  • New Poll: Cruz Within 9 Points of Dewhurst

    Monday, May 21st, 2012

    According to the UT/Texas Tribune Poll released today, David Dewhurst is at 40% and Ted Cruz is at 31%. In April, the same poll had Dewhurst 38%, Cruz 26%. In January, it was Dewhurst 36%, Cruz 8%. So Dewhurst has gone from an 18 point lead to a 12 point lead to a 9 point lead. And this during the same period Dewhurst has been spending more than $1 million a week on the race, much of it in negative advertising aimed at Cruz. That would explain why Dewhurst felt compelled to drop another $6 of his own money into the race.

    The poll also shows that all Tom Lepeprt’s spending has done is allow him to solidify his grip on third: he’s at 17%. Craig James languishes within the statistical range of Lela Peitinger and Glenn Addison.

    Right now the race is exactly where the Cruz team wanted it to be: heading for a runoff between Dewhurst and Cruz.

    Texas Senate Race Update for February 23, 2012

    Thursday, February 23rd, 2012

    Trying to catch back up with the Senate race after my trip, so some of this may be slightly old news:

  • The biggest recent news in the Senate race is the newest Texas Tribune/UT poll that shows David Dewhurst leading the race at 38%, but with Ted Cruz up to 27%. Tom Leppert and Craig James are tied way back in third place at 7% each, an outcome that must be discouraging for the Leppert team, given that he’s been running for over a year and James has only been running for two months. Glenn Addison and Lela Pittenger are the only other candidates to get any support at all at 1% each. However, the margin of error is ±5%. Full results in PDF form here.
  • Dewhurst managed to pull in big bucks from a big donor in Washington. A big democratic donor. “He was doing what he always does: reaching across the aisle. He’s not a Washington insider yet, and he’s already a Washington insider. No wonder the Texas press has so often labeled him ‘bipartisan’…This is a critical race for the Tea Party and for conservatives across the country. If Dewhurst wins, we’ll have yet another squish on our hands – and a squish who is only too eager to rub elbows with the liberal establishment.” (Hat tip: Must Read Texas.)
  • This Kate Alexander piece in the Austin-American Statesman is pretty interesting, not so much for the information there (BattleSwarm readers will find very little I haven’t already covered), but for the approach. Overall the piece is probably mildly negative on Cruz, but not unfairly negative. Unlike, say, certain of Robert T. Garrett’s pieces in The Dallas Morning News, the issues she raises are generally real and non-trivial, though not ones that most conservatives will find of burning importance.
  • Cruz womps the field in a survey of the North Texas Tea Party.
  • Cruz appeared on KYFO in Lubbock.
  • The Dewhurst campaign attacks Cruz for “not supporting Sen. John Cornyn for Republican Senate Whip.”

    Cruz has previously told reporters it’s more important to elect Senators who would pledge fealty to a divisive challenge to GOP leadership than it is for Republicans to regain its U.S. Senate majority this year. Cruz’s glaring lack of support for Sen. Cornyn, who’s now responsible for Republican efforts to retake that majority, effectively puts Cruz’s personal ambition and interests above conservative attempts to organize and stop the Obama agenda.

    So Dewhurst is attacking Cruz for actually wanting to enact conservative ideas rather than just paying lip-service to it while toeing the Republican establishment line. Got it. (Maybe someone on Team Dewhurst might want to take a look at this.)

  • Cruz elaborates on the subject.
  • Establishment vs. the Tea Party.
  • Dewhurst appeared on KCRS:

  • There was another candidate forum that David Dewhurst skipped. Attendees included Cruz, Tom Leppert, Craig James, Glenn Addison, Lela Pittenger, and…Andrew Castanuela? Did no one inform the organizers never filed for the Republican primary?
  • Scott Haddock interviews Tom Leppert Part 1 and Part 2.
  • The Texas Tribune did an interview with Craig James:

  • Glenn Addison gets a profile by the Houston Chronicle‘s Joe Holley. Addison’s evident friendliness with the John Birch society (yes, it’s still around) is not a plus in my book. I am gratified to see that Holley, who I dinged heavily, correctly lists both the number of candidates for each party, as well as their names.
  • That same TT/UT poll shows the Democratic side of the race virtually tied, with Sean Hubbard at 12%, Paul Sadler, Daniel Boone, and Addie D. Allen all tied at 10%, and John Morton (who the Democrats kicked off the ballot two months ago) at 3%. That’s good news for Hubbard (frontrunner again!) and Allen (whose campaign might be charitably called “low-key”), and bad news for anointed Democratic establishment candidate Sadler and “Gene Kelly 2.0” Boone. But the margin of error for Democrats is even higher at ±6%, so it’s still anyone’s race at this point.
  • Democrat Addie D. Allen now has a website (though it just has the GoDaddy parking page for now) and a Twitter feed.
  • University of Texas Democrats endorse Paul Sadler. That should be good for an extra five, maybe even six votes, easy…
  • Daniel Boone appeared before the Llano Tea Party, which I think makes him the first Democratic senate candidate to take up the repeated Tea Party offers for Democrats to speak. Good for him.
  • Pro-tip for Boone: Most people put the newest content at the top of their blog, not the oldest.
  • As far as I can tell, Craig James, Charles Holcomb, Ben Gambini, Joe Agris and Addie D. Allen have not filed Q4 reports with the FEC. Maybe none of them conducted any fundraising in the quarter.
  • Texas Senate Race Update for January 25, 2012

    Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

    Time for another update. And since none of the Republicans liked the Keystone Pipeline decision, or Obama’s State of the Union address, I’m not going to list each individual reaction here.

  • Ted Cruz endorsed by the national Tea Party Express.
  • A roundup piece from the Ft. Worth Star Telegram, in which we learn that the academics that MSM reporters usually go to for consensus wisdom say that Tea Party influence is on the wane. Imagine my shock.
  • Mark Davis of WBAP talks to Michael Quinn Sullivan of Empower Texas about both the Texas redistricting decision and the senate race:

  • Robert T. Garrett of The Dallas Morning News reports that David Dewhurst pledged to serve only two terms in the Senate if elected. As Garrett notes, Ted Cruz and Tom Leppert have also pledged to support term limits. Also, since I have been fairly critical of Garrett’s reporting on the race, I should point out that there seems to be neither errors nor sneers in this piece.
  • Somehow I overlooked this Garrett piece from 12 days ago where Craig James admits to taking “insignificant” amounts from boosters in his SMU days.
  • Also in the DSM, John David Terrance Stutz notes that David Dewhurst is preparing a state senate agenda that just happens to dovetail nicely with his U.S. senate race themes. Including “the potential negative repercussions of Obamacare and Sharia law.”
  • Another poll done for the David Dewhurst campaign comes to the startling conclusion that the David Dewhurst campaign is awesome. As I previously discussed, the partial results of secret polls leaked to the media without full disclosure of the complete results, including the questions asked, the sample size, the screening criteria, etc., is essentially meaningless spin. In fact, I just sent a query off pollster Michael Baselice asking for that information. I’ll let you know if I get a reply…
  • Glenn Addison calls Cruz, Dewhurst, and Leppert flaming moderates.
  • Addison also gets a nice profile over at KXAN.
  • Addison also announced he would be attending the Texas Republican Assembly Biennial Endorsing Convention at the Southwest Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth on Saturday, January 28.
  • Addison also announced he would be at the East Texas Conservative candidate forum in Tyler Friday, January 27. Say what you will about Addison, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a longshot candidate keep up such a hectic schedule.
  • Democrat Jason Gibson has updated his website. Slightly.
  • Lela Pittenger raised $13,159 in Q4.
  • Ben Gambini doesn’t seem to have a website yet, but he does have a Facebook page. Judging from the graphic he put up there, he seems to be running mostly as a social conservative.
  • Democrat Addie Dainell Allen also has a Facebook page, where she seems to be going by Addie D. Allen.
  • Still can’t find campaign web presences for Dr. Joe Agris or Charles Holcomb.
  • Via email, longshot, non-filed Democratic candidate Virgil Bierschwale indicated he could not afford the filing fee, and thus is out of the race.
  • Via email, longshot, non-filed Democratic candidate Stanley Garza indicated he was giving up his campaign for 2012. Which brings up the question: Will he return that $1 of unspent campaign contributions?
  • All the above updates have also been made on my page linking all the candidate’s websites.

    An Example Of What’s Wrong With Journalism These Days

    Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

    This Houston Chronicle piece by Joe Holley is an example of why so many people are dissatisfied with the job the legacy media is doing of reporting events.

    In covering the American Jewish Committee/World Affairs Council of Houston senate candidate forum on foreign policy I mentioned previously, we have a news story that is demonstrably deficient in several areas:

  • You get told who wasn’t there (Craig James, Paul Sadler, and Lt. Governor Chupacabra), and even how many of each flavor were there (“six Republicans, three Democrats and one Libertarian”), but the article itself only lists five of those ten. That would be the very first “W” of the “Five Ws and an H,” assuming they still teach that at journalism school. (Maybe they’re replaced it with another class on “Reporting Social Justice.”)
  • However, because I’m so Old School, I actually went out and got a list of who attended the forum from the AJC: Republicans Ted Cruz, Tom Leppert, Glenn Addison, Lela Pittinger, Charles Holcomb, and Ben Gambini (yes, an actual Ben Gambini sighting!), Democrats Daniel Boone and Jason Gibson, Libertarian Jon Roland, and independent candidate Mike Champion. So it turns out that even the summary of candidate affiliations was wrong.
  • In an article on a foreign policy forum that runs just shy of 500 words, a grand total of 96 of them actually dealt with the candidate’s foreign policy views, and even those are essentially free of concrete information. Let’s repost those parts in their entirety:

    Cruz also said that “President Obama has been the most anti-Israel president this nation has ever seen.”

    [snip]

    Leppert emphasized his experience as an international businessman familiar with issues of currency and international trade.

    [snip]

    Cruz and Leppert were the only two candidates who were able to respond with practiced ease to a series of sophisticated questions dealing with world affairs, ranging from Israel’s response to the Iranian nuclear threat to whether the United States should help bail out faltering European economies. Most of the others on the stage seemed unfamiliar with even the most basic foreign-policy issues.

    That’s it. That’s the extent of coverage of the candidates’ foreign policy views in a forum dedicated to that very subject. We are no wiser as to what any candidate thinks of our troops levels in Afghanistan, what our relations with Pakistan should be, whether we should help topple the Assad regime in Syria, how to counter an increasingly bold China, or whether we should use military force to prevent the Islamic Republic of Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Were those topics covered? We don’t know, as Holley and the Chronicle do not deign to tell us.

  • Instead of giving the candidates’ actual views, Holley merely gives us his dismissive analysis of eight of the ten candidates, telling us they are “unfamiliar with even the most basic foreign-policy issues” without bothering to provide a single example of this ignorance.
  • The rest of the piece consists of horse race analysis, noting Dewhurst’s absence, audience attendance figures, and an interview with a random forum attendee. All of which would have been fine in a longer piece.
  • Joe Holley and/or his editor have missed a chance to actually inform their readers. I have a hard time thinking of a blogger who couldn’t have done a better job.

    Williamson County Senate Forum Today (Wednesday, January 4, 11 AM)

    Wednesday, January 4th, 2012

    I’m not sure if I mentioned this before, but there will be a Senate Forum put on by the Williamson County Republican Women today starting at 11 AM:

    Wednesday, January 4, 2012
    11:00 Registration
    11:15 Buffet Opens
    11:30 Forum

    Meeting Location: Williamson Conference Center
    (behind the Wingate Hotel at I-35 and 79)
    1209 North I-35
    Round Rock, TX 78664

    MAP

    Meeting Cost: $16 member/$20 non-member

    Ted Cruz, Tom Leppert, Glenn Addison and Lela Pittenger will be attending. David Dewhurst will be ducking.

    Websites of the 2012 Texas Senate Candidates

    Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

    Here’s an updated list of the declared 2012 Texas senate candidate’s websites, along with any subsidiary pages that change frequently (in-the-news, press releases, etc.), along with their Facebook pages, Twitter feeds, and FEC fundraising report pages, plus any additional pages worth noting. (For example, Tom Leppert’s website provides links to his LinkedIn page, and his YouTube and Flickr streams, so I have included those here.) I’ve also tried to be flexible; Ted Cruz doesn’t have links for separate YouTube or Flickr sites, so I’ve included similar pages on his campaign page.

    Consider this a one-stop research stop for lazy efficient journalists and bloggers (as well as a handy cheat-cheat for myself, since I’ve been doing extensive coverage of the race).

    Where candidates have sign-up splash screens, I have omitted those to go straight to the website (or, for Facebook links, their wall).

    Websites for 2012 Republican Senate Runoff Candidates

    Ted Cruz

  • Ted Cruz Website
  • Ted Cruz Facebook Page
  • Ted Cruz Twitter Feed
  • Ted Cruz FEC Page
  • David Dewhurst

  • David Dewhurst Website
  • David Dewhurst Facebook Page
  • David Dewhurst Twitter Feed (Note that the old Dewhurst4Texas feed is no longer active)
  • David Dewhurst YouTube Feed
  • David Dewhurst Flickr Photostream
  • The Official Lieutenant Governor’s Page
  • David Dewhurst’s FEC Page
  • Websites for 2012 Democratic Senate Runoff Candidates

    Paul Sadler

  • Paul Sadler Website
  • Paul Sadler Facebook Page
  • Paul Sadler Twitter Feed
  • Paul Sadler FEC Page
  • Grady Yarbrough

  • Grady Yarbrough’s Facebook Page
  • Websites for 2012 Republican Senate Candidates Who Missed the Runoff

    Tom Leppert

  • Tom Leppert Website
  • Tom Leppert Facebook page
  • Tom Leppert Twitter Feed
  • Tom Leppert LinkedIn page
  • Tom Leppert Flickr Photostream
  • Tom Leppert YouTube channel
  • Tom Leppert FEC Page
  • Craig James

  • Craig James Website
  • Craig James News
  • Craig James Media
  • Craig James Twitter Feed
  • Craig James Facebook
  • Glenn Addison

  • Glenn Addison Website
  • Glenn Addison Twitter Feed
  • Glenn Addison Facebook Page
  • Glenn Addison FEC Page
  • Lela Pittenger

  • Lela Pittenger Website
  • Lela Pittenger Facebook Page
  • Lela Pittenger Twitter Feed
  • Lela Pittenger FEC Page
  • Curt Cleaver

  • Curt Cleaver Website
  • Curt Cleaver Facebook page
  • Curt Cleaver Twitter Feed
  • Curt Cleaver Vimeo Page
  • Curt Cleaver FEC Page
  • Ben Gambini

  • Ben Gambini Facebook
  • Dr. Joe Agris

    No website yet.

    Republican Dropouts

    Declared Republican candidates who have dropped out of the race:

  • Elizabeth Ames Jones: Dropped out November 8, 2011.
  • Michael Williams: Dropped out June 17, 2011.
  • Roger Williams: Dropped out June 28, 2011.
  • Andrew Castanuela: Emailed December 21, 2011 saying he was running as an independent write-in candidate.
  • Charles Holcomb: Dropped out March 7, 2012.
  • Websites for 2012 Democratic Senate Candidates Who Missed the Runoff

    Addie D. Allen (AKA Addie Dainell Allen)

  • Addie D. Allen Website
  • Addie D. Allen Facebook page
  • Addie D. Allen Twitter Feed
  • Sean Hubbard

  • Sean Hubbard Website
  • Sean Hubbard Facebook Page
  • Sean Hubbard Twitter Feed
  • Sean Hubbard YouTube Feed
  • Sean Hubbard FEC Page
  • Democratic Dropouts

    Declared Democratic candidates who have dropped out of the race:

  • Ricardo Sanchez: Dropped out December 16, 2011.
  • Jason A. Gibson: Dropped out February 2, 2012.
  • Stanley Garza: Sent an email January 20, 2012 saying he was giving up his 2012 campaign.
  • Virgil Bierschwale: Sent an email January 25, 2012 saying he couldn’t afford the filing fee.
  • Daniel Boone: Switched to Congressional race March 7, 2012.
  • Democratic candidates whose names briefly appeared on the offical list of Texas Democratic Senate candidates, but which have since been removed, with no explanation given:

  • Eric Roberson
  • John Morton
  • Others

  • Libertarian Jon Roland
  • Independent Mike Champion
  • Texas Senate Race Update for December 22, 2011

    Thursday, December 22nd, 2011

    Like everyone else, political wonks are taking off for Christmas, so just a few tiny bits of Senate race news:

  • Tom Leppert appeared on the Janet Mefferd Show:

  • With Ricardo Sanchez out of the race, Texas Democrats face a Latino problem.
  • So how do you write up a summary of the Senate race, and manage to list every Democrat in the race except Sean Hubbard, and every Republican in the race except Glenn Addison and Lela Pittenger, and misspell Curt Cleaver’s name to boot? Did the Wichita Falls Times Record News let all their fact checkers take the week off for Christmas?
  • Of all the declared longshots who failed to file for the race I queried as to their intentions, only Andrew Castanuela wrote to say he was pursuing a campaign as a write-in candidate, which seems a fairly futile course of action for someone whose last name is not Murkowski.
  • Ted Cruz turns 41 today. Happy birthday, Ted!
  • Texas Senate Race Update for December 15, 2011

    Thursday, December 15th, 2011

    The big news in the Senate race is a change to the filing deadlines:

  • According to Blue Dot Blues, “the new filing period for all candidates from precinct chair to U.S. President has been extended to 6:00 pm on Monday, December 19th.” Plus “once maps are finalized following the Supreme Court hearing in mid-January, there will be a new filing period for all primary ballot races.”
  • Heh. The truth about Craig James and those hookers.
  • Another non-fan at Fox Sports.
  • Ted Cruz appears on Coffee and Markets.
  • Tom Leppert was on KWEL today, but I can’t find a direct link to the show.
  • Lela Pittenger’s name now appears on the list of Republican candidates who have filed for the Senate race.
  • Facebook likes Ted Cruz’s use of Facebook. Feel free to go on Facebook and Like Facebook’s like of Ted Cruz using Facebook. (Hat tip: The Right Side of Austin.)
  • Where’s Ricardo Sanchez? But now he has a while longer to decide…
  • David Dewhurst racks up another pro-life endorsement. Honestly, I’d never heard of The Heidi Group before, but I’m not as tied into the pro-life movement as some.
  • Texas Senate Race Update for November 5, 2011

    Saturday, November 5th, 2011

    I suppose I should do these updates some day other than Friday night Saturday morning, since few people read them then or over the weekend, but it’s been a busy week…

  • Mario Loyola discusses Ted Cruz and his father Rafael as part of a longer story on the Cuban exile experience in America, the widespread Cuban opposition to the Batista regime, and how Castro betrayed the revolution to impose Communism. And he delivers such a complete and utter bitchslapping of The Dallas Morning News that I have to quote the last few paragraphs:

    Cubans here and there have had to endure the calamities of the Revolution alone. Conservatives in America reached out to us and supported us, and our parents found solace in their enmity to Communism. But they weren’t really with us either, because they had no idea how awful Fidel Castro really was. It simply isn’t within the comprehension of any American that someone could actually choose to be as evil as Castro. The sheer depravity of his crimes against the Cuban people helped to keep the depredations of his rule a secret hiding in plain sight, where only other Cubans could see them.

    It’s no surprise that liberal papers such as the Dallas Morning News now think they’re in some position to judge which families are truly exiles and which aren’t. It was liberal papers — particularly the New York Times — that originally built Castro up into an international hero and persisted in romanticizing him long after he offered Cuba’s young men to the Kremlin as a Third World army. It was liberal papers that blamed the U.S. embargo for the economic catastrophe into which Castro plunged Cuba. It was liberal newspapers that helped to occlude the unspeakable daily abuses of Castro’s regime beneath the fantasy of a romantic nationalist who was bravely willing to stand up to imperialism.

    “There is power,” the Dallas Morning News tells us, “in linking your past and your future to this unending struggle [against Fidel]. But because the fathers of both these men [Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio] migrated several years before the revolution, as is now clear, the link is at best a stretch. In the case of Cruz, the situation is even more complicated because his father originally supported Castro.” What utter nonsense. It would be offensive if the editors actually had any idea what they were talking about. No Cuban exile would for a second say that the Rubio and Cruz families were any less exile than anyone else. All of our families lost their homeland. That some were already here when it happened is irrelevant — nobody meant to forsake Cuba by coming here. We lost Cuba because Castro took it from us, from all of us, born and unborn, both here and back there.

    Among Cuban-Americans, having been an early supporter of Castro in no way diminishes your anti-Communist credentials. On the contrary, it is the typical story for almost every family. Virtually all of our families opposed the dictatorship of Batista. Virtually all of our families believed Castro’s rhetoric of democracy and liberty. The first thing everyone hated about him was his evident relish in betraying his most ardent supporters. That was the first of many very personal reasons he would give us to hate him, reasons that only we can really understand.

    What makes us exiles is not merely the fact that our families can’t go back to Cuba. It is that Castro wantonly ruined the land that our families grew up in, the land of our forefathers, and now that land exists only in the fading black-and-white pictures and memories of the happy childhoods of a generation that is dying now. Compared with that, what possible difference could it make that our grandparents arrived one year and not another? Senator Rubio didn’t know exactly what year his father first got here because it doesn’t matter.

    Still, I can’t say that I’m terribly surprised by the Dallas Morning News’s display of presumptuousness and ignorance. The editors are decent people, and if they knew even 5 percent of what I know about the Revolution and its exiles, I’m sure they would be deeply ashamed of what they’ve written. But they don’t and they never will — Castro has already seen to that.

    Read the whole thing.

  • Speaking of people that Mario Loyola just made look like petty, misinformed idiots, The Dallas Morning News‘s Robert T. Garrett (who we talked about last week) covers Cruz’s accusations of MSM outlets like The Dallas Morning News targeting conservative Hispanics. Tune in next week for Garrett reporting on Cruz’s complaints about Garrett’s reporting on Cruz’s complaints. Presumably from the inside of a mirror box.
  • The Ted Cruz campaign has challenged David Dewhurst to five one-on-one Lincoln-Douglas debates (and the King Street Patriots were quick to agree to host at least one). This is a smart way for Cruz to help break further away from Tom Leppert and Elizabeth Ames Jones, and turn the race into a two man contest between him and Dewhurst…which is why Dewhurst would be foolish to take Cruz up on the offer. And, indeed, he does not seem so inclined.
  • ABC News notices the hit pieces on conservative Hispanic politicians in this interview with Cruz:

    video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

  • New Revolution Now emailed to say that Cruz won the straw poll at the Tuesday’s Texarkana senate forum. The total results were:
    • Ted Cruz: 54%
    • Glenn Addison: 21%
    • Lela Pittenger: 20%
    • Andrew Castanuela: 5%
    • David Dewhurst: <1%
  • Speaking of polls, this David Catanese Politico piece says that Dewhurst’s “internal poll” has Dewhurst at 50%, Leppert at 9%, and Cruz at 6%. I’m sure it does.
  • The Texas Tribune says “Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is running a state version of a Rose Garden strategy.” As indeed he is.
  • Tom Leppert unveils a second TV ad.
  • I get the distinct impression that someone at D magazine doesn’t like Leppert. They also evidently don’t like using anything that’s actually funny in their “comedy.”
  • Report on the Clear Lake Tea Party Rally, where Herman Cain and Lela Pittenger spoke, along with Apostle Claver of Raging Elephants.
  • This page on possible Senate race takeover targets had the Texas race down at 21st (i.e., not bloody likely), and had this to say: “Ricardo Sanchez hasn’t made the impact the local Democrats hoped he would.” Indeed.
  • Evidently all tuckered out from his 18-minute interview October 23, Sanchez seems to have returned to hibernation this week.
  • Other than appearing in that poll and turning 55 on October 29, Elizabeth Ames Jones doesn’t seem to have been much more active than Sanchez. Hey, here’s an idea: They’re both from San Antonio. Why not meet each other for a weekly debate? Nothing else they’re doing seems to be attracting donations or attention, and both need to bone up on their public speaking skills…