A few quick updates for things too important to sit on over the weekend:
Posts Tagged ‘Elections’
Texas Senate Race Update for December 16, 2011
Friday, December 16th, 2011Texas Senate Race Update for December 15, 2011
Thursday, December 15th, 2011The big news in the Senate race is a change to the filing deadlines:
Craig James: Not Universally Loved
Wednesday, December 14th, 2011I know this may comes as a shock to some of you, seeing as how I occasionally write about sports for my other blog, but I don’t have cable, and thus have no first-hand experience of Craig James’ ESPN broadcasting prowess.
However, news of James’ possible Senate candidacy has been racing around the worlds of both politics and sports, and from the commentary there, I think it safe to assert that James is not universally loved:
The same liberal bitterness over any public Republican figure? Maybe, but I’m not getting that vibe reading the comments. And hard-core liberals don’t usually hang out at Big Government.
More James news:
Craig James to Jump Into Republican Senate Race?
Tuesday, December 13th, 2011So says The Dallas Morning News, citing “sources close to his developing campaign.”
I don’t know why he would. I don’t see a lot of running room (no pun intended), it will be very hard to raise money, it’s been a long time since James was top of the football heap, and ESPN analyst is probably not a high-enough profile job for the requisite level of fame you’d need to win the race jumping in this late. And he’s not nearly rich enough to self-fund like David Dewhurst (unless the pre-death penalty SMU football program was even more generous with athlete payouts than we’ve been lead to realize).
If he does get in, he probably hurts Tom Leppert the most, due to the same geographic base in the Metroplex.
Where’s Ricardo? (Plus: A New Democratic Challenger Appears)
Monday, December 12th, 2011There’s some news on the Democratic side of the Texas Senate race.
First of all, the name of the DNC’s handpicked candidate, Ricardo Sanchez, does not appear on the list of candidates who have filed for the Texas Senate race.
Well, the deadline is Thursday. No worries. Assuming he wants to run, there’s plenty of time for Sanchez to file for the race.
But what if he doesn’t?
After all, even before his house burned down, there was precious little evidence Sanchez was really interested in running for the Senate. His fundraising is abysmal, his media appearances are rare, his campaign stops even rarer (Ted Cruz and Glenn Addison do more campaigning in a day than Sanchez manages in a month), his social media footprint miniscule, and his buzz factor is non-existent.
Other signs of the moribund nature of Sanchez’s campaign: DSCC chair Patty Murray drawing audible laughs when asked about Democratic chances in Texas. “After being initially hailed as a pick-up opportunity, Texas is off the radar for Democrats. DSCC executive director Guy Cecil suggested as much last month. Murray didn’t even mention Ricardo Sanchez’s name.”
Sanchez peaked when he announced for the race. Ever since then it’s been a long, painful slog, with his only reward the prospect of being slaughtered by Ted Cruz or David Dewhurst in the general election. Is there a serious non-partisan observer anywhere who looks at Sanchez’s dismal campaign and thinks he can win?
Is this how Sanchez pictured his retirement? He seems for all the world like someone just going through the motions.
However, there is one Democratic candidate who has filed for the U.S. Senate race: Daniel Boone! I believe Texans will be favorably impressed with his trackin’ and bear-killin’ skills, and thus might be willing to overlook his Missouri residency and the fact the he’s been dead 191 years.
Sadly for Democrats, the “rippin’est, roarin’est, fightin’est man the frontier ever knew” is not the one running, but rather a retired Air Force Lt. Colonel (which sets up a nice “flyboy vs. grunt” inter-service rivalry if Sanchez does run).
He has a website and a Facebook page. His campaign platform is vague Democratic boilerplate.
But a famous namesake isn’t enough to overcome Ricardo Sanchez, right?
Think again.
Remember Gene Kelly? The perennial office-seeker whose only notable attribute was the name of the famous dancing movie star? He won the 2000 Democratic primary runoff for this very Senate seat (then occupied by Kay Baily Hutchison) over former state legislator Charles Gandy with 58.43% of the vote.
Want to guess what Kelly’s background was?
Would you believe retired Air Force Colonel?
It would be tempting to use the “history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce” line, but here the first time was farce.
If Sanchez declines the race, I would say that Boone automatically becomes the frontrunner. And so far Sanchez has run such a lackluster campaign that high name recognition (even misrecognition) might be enough to beat him…
Dewhurst Contributions: A Lot of Money from Fulbright & Jaworski
Tuesday, December 6th, 2011It takes a while for the FEC to put up the list of individual donations (even longer than putting up the summary reports), so I didn’t think to check out David Dewhurst’s individual contributions until this week. One thing that jumped out at me from the report was just how many donations he got from lawyers at Fulbright & Jaworski.
Fulbright & Jaworski ranked 52 overall on the Vault list of the top 100 law firms in the U.S., and fourth in the energy sector. The Jaworksi in the name comes from Watergate prosecutor Leon Jaworski. They’re headquartered in Houston but have offices worldwide. They’re generally considered one of the three biggest law firms in Houston, the other two being Baker Botts and Vinson & Elkins.
From the FEC, here are the donations Dewhurst received from Fulbright & Jaworski employees for his senate race (presented in the same format provided by the FEC, both for authenticity, and because I’m too lazy to reformat them):
I actually offer this up as more of a data point than a “gotcha.” While some Fulbright & Jaworski lawyers have been involved in liberal causes (like representing detained terrorists at Guantanamo Bay), 71% of their political donations have gone to Republicans. Fulbright & Jaworski seems to have done a lot of work for Dewhurst’s company Falcon Seaboard. (The Howard Wolf listed above is actually a retired partner for Fulbright & Jaworsk, as he’s currently President and Acting Chairman of Falcon Seaboard, has been appointed to several state boards, and is one of Dewhurst’s closest confidants.) Indeed, Dewhurst’s ties to the company are so extensive that he was he was willing to do this video taking about how awesome they are:
(I was also surprised to find an old high school classmate in the same video…)
Texas Senate Race Update for November 29, 2011
Tuesday, November 29th, 2011Ricardo Sanchez’s House Burns Down
Friday, November 18th, 2011Democratic Senate frontrunner Ricardo Sanchez had pretty horrible Veteran’s Day, as a fire destroyed his San Antonio home.
The article linked above states that arson investigators (pace the video) have ruled out foul play.
I would like to formally extend my condolences to Sanchez and his family for the tragic loss, and relief that everyone got out of the house safely.
I actually had an inkling of this early in the week, since I had some Google search hits on “Ricardo Sanchez fire,” but was unable to find anything in the news when I searched then, just a tweet linking to a dead Facebook page. In fact, there doesn’t seem to have been anything findable by Google News until yesterday. Either major San Antonio news sources were unbelievably slow in covering an important story about a major public figure, or Google isn’t picking them up for some reason.
Dewhurst, Cruz Trade Social Conservative Endorsements
Monday, November 14th, 2011Big senate race news on the endorsement front:
First, Texas Right to Life PAC endorses David Dewhurst. That’s a very good pickup for him, as he has not exactly been overwhelmed with conservative endorsements. I’m sure the Ted Cruz campaign is not happy that Dewhurst snagged this one. (Also not happy: ex-senate candidate Elizabeth Ames Jones, now running for the state senate from District 25…where they endorsed rival Donna Campbell for the same seat the same week Jones (who has repeatedly stressed her pro-life credentials) got into the race…)
Then, in short order, the Cruz campaigned fired back with an endorsement from Focus on the Family founder Dr. James Dobson.
Of the two, I have to rank the Dewhurst endorsement as the better pickup, mainly because his conservative endorsements for this race have been thin on the ground.
Can Dewhurst snag more conservative endorsements? Maybe. He’s been endorsed by groups like the NRA and Texans for Lawsuit Reform in the past…but that was when he was running against Democrats as Lt. Governor. Such groups may decide that Cruz is the better alternative, or pass on endorsing anyone before the primary.