Posts Tagged ‘David Dewhurst’
Thursday, May 19th, 2011
My main computer is still in the shop, so here’s another roundup of brief updates…
Erick Erickson at RedState tears into David Dewhurst six ways to Sunday, actually comparing him to Florida’s turncoat governor Charlie Crist. That’s got to sting…
Man living his life as 350 pound bed-wetting adult baby by choice is doing it on your tax dollar. Bonus: Threatens to kill himself if the government takes away his checky-wecky. I think we have a new poster boy for the welfare state…
Obama proves once again that, when it comes to the Middle East, he has no idea what the hell he’s doing.
Tags:David Dewhurst, Israel, LinkSwarm, Obama, Welfare State
Posted in Foreign Policy, Republicans, Welfare State | No Comments »
Friday, May 6th, 2011
A small LinkSwarm for a lazy Friday:
Mickey Kaus: “Why do these Democrats tell pollsters that immigrants are a burden because they ‘take our jobs’? Maybe because they do. Just a thought.”
The New York Times gets the Texas Senate Race, well, not quite right. “So far, only Republicans have declared in the Senate race.” False. Political neophyte Sean Hubbard has declared for the Democratic nomination, and has been filing his campaign financing reports with the FEC. “At least seven Republicans are vying for the seat being vacated by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.” Technically true but incomplete; there are five declared major candidates (Ted Cruz, Tom Leppert, Michael Williams, Roger Williams, and Elizabeth Ames Jones), three declared longshot candidates (Glenn Addison, Andrew Castanuela, and Lela Pettinger), one withdrawn candidate who filed her wind-down report with the FEC (Florence Shapiro) and one undeclared potential frontrunner (David Dewhurst). Saying “At least seven” makes me wonder exactly who you’re counting…
The Race to Replace KBH on Senate candidate Twitter antagonists. “Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite them/And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so on ad infinitum…”
From the same source we also learn that Leppert asked for, and received, the endorsement of the far-left SEIU.
More on Leppert’s SEIU support from the horse-mouth, SEIU Texas political coordinator Shannon Perez in the lefty Dallas Observer:
“The Republican primary voters of the state of Texas need to know the truth about Tom Leppert.
When he first ran for Mayor, as a moderate and a supporter of working men and women, he was pro-SEIU, pro-public employees organizing, pro-collective bargaining.
So committed to these ideals was Tom, that he vigorously pursued SEIU’s endorsement.
So committed to these ideals was Tom, that he came to our union organizing launch in the Water Department — encouraging folks to join SEIU. So committed to these ideals was Tom, he frequently threw on an SEIU T-shirt and came to our union hall…Tom even signed an SEIU membership card!
Tom, Tom, Tom, it makes it hard to take your Second-Coming-of-Ronald-Reagan rhetoric seriously when stuff like this keeps tumbling out of your closet. Is it too late for you to switch to the Democratic Primary? You’ve already got a huge lead over Sean Hubbard…
Tags:2012 Election, Andrew Castanuela, David Dewhurst, Elizabeth Ames Jones, Florence Shapiro, Glenn Addison, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Lela Pettinger, Michael Williams, New York Times, Roger Williams, Sean Hubbard, SEIU, Shannon Perez, Ted Cruz, Texas, Texas Senate Race, Tom Leppert
Posted in Border Control, Democrats, Elections, Texas, unions | 4 Comments »
Thursday, May 5th, 2011
This press release from the Ted Cruz campaign (penned by J2Strategies consultant Jason Johnson) on those Q1 Texas Senate Race fundraising totals makes interesting reading. The classic lawyer advice is “If the facts are on your side, pound the facts.” And since the facts seems very much on Cruz’s side, Johnson pounds them relentlessly and effectively. It’s not that the document is free of spin (it is, after all, a campaign press release), but that the spin which is there is made far more effective by the remorseless logic of the underlying numbers presented and the understated (indeed, respectful) nature of the comparisons made with Cruz’s opponent’s.
A few high-points, taken straight from the press release:
“Cruz raised more than $1 million in 10 weeks, for an average of over $100,000 a week. The campaign received more than 1,100 contributions from over 900 unique individuals in 122 Texas cities and 37 States”
“The Cruz campaign raised $1,012,885 and has $965,153 cash on hand.”
“Almost all the money [Tom] Leppert raised is from the City of Dallas — a remarkable 78%.”
“[Elizabeth Ames] Jones experienced a very challenging fundraising quarter. It is hard to formulate a scenario wherein Jones is able to compete statewide.”
The press release takes particular aim at Michael Williams and Tom Leppert, perceiving (correctly, I think) that they are Cruz’s most serious rivals among declared candidates:
Cruz vs. Michael Williams
Michael Williams is the only candidate who is seriously attempting to contest Ted for the support of (1) conservative leaders, (2) grassroots activists, and (3) Tea Party leaders. But Michael Williams failed to raise sufficient funds to be able to compete in a statewide primary, especially against multiple candidates who have the ability to self-finance.
In Q1: Cruz out-raised Michael Williams by a ratio of 2.5:1. $1,012,885 to $414,119
In Q1: Cruz’s cash on hand is nearly four times Michael Williams’s cash on hand. $895,153 to $237,210 (less current debts)
In Q1: Cruz received over three times the contributions as Michael Williams (3.3:1.). Cruz: 1,147 Contributions; Michael Williams: 343 Contributions.
In Q1: Cruz received donations from 122 Texas cities, compared to Michael Williams’s 70.
In Q1: Cruz received donations from 37 States, compared to Michael Williams’s 16.
On Facebook, Cruz has 57,293 supporters, compared to Michael Williams’s 7,896
The summary points make further comparisons with Michael Williams:
In the “sub-primary” to determine the strongest conservative candidate in the race, Cruz is in by far the strongest position. Indeed, numerous national conservative commentators and grassroots leaders publicly (1) expressed concern that Michael Williams could not raise enough funds to run a credible statewide campaign against a deep-pocketed self-funder, and (2) stated that they would choose between Cruz and Michael Williams based in significant part on who could raise the most money to run a strong conservative campaign. Nevertheless, Michael Williams was only able to raise just over $400,000, and in Q1 Cruz raised 2 1/2 times as much.
In order to mount a credible statewide campaign in the Republican Primary, a candidate will need at least $5,000,000 to $10,000,000 to communicate with voters from January 2012 through Election Day. Michael Williams is not on a path to raise those funds.
To be sure, a candidate with significant name identification among primary voters could conceivably compete with less than $10,000,000. However, multiple statewide polls have demonstrated that none of the current candidates has substantial name ID. Indeed, despite Michael Williams’s having served in a down-ballot elected position for many years, he and Cruz are statistically tied in statewide name ID. With the exception of Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, voters simply do not know any of the candidates, and it will take serious financial resources to change that in a state as large as Texas.
In addition to dinging Leppert for his narrow fundraising base, in this press release we also see the beginnings of the “Tom Leppert is a RINO” attack I’ve been anticipating ever since the Dallas Mayor threw his hat into the ring:
Politically, Leppert’s record as Mayor of Dallas is demonstrably out of step with the values of the Texas primary voters. Indeed, it is difficult to see a credible path for a moderate-to-liberal Mayor of Dallas to win a statewide Republican primary in Texas.
I’ve been communicating with the Cruz campaign, and recently sent off some questions for the candidate, and hope to put up his answers in the near future.
Ten months out from the primary, there’s still a lot of race left. Michael Williams has time to right his ship, David Dewhurst has time to decide whether to get in or stay out, and events can undermine even the best-run campaign. But at this point Cruz and Leppert have to be considered the front-runners.
Tags:2012 Election, David Dewhurst, Elizabeth Ames Jones, Michael Williams, Republicans, Ted Cruz, Texas, Texas Senate Race, Tom Leppert
Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, April 27th, 2011
The FEC finally has fundraising totals for all the major declared candidates in the 2012 Texas Senate race. Ranked from most to least, they are:
- Tom Leppert: Raised $2,690,081 (including a $1,600,000 loan) and still has $2,592,219 on hand
- Ted Cruz: Raised $1,013,060 (including a $70,000 loan) and has $965,153 on hand
- Roger Williams: Raised $598,470 (including a $250,000 loan) and has $1,250,300 on hand
- Michael Williams: Raised $418,619 (including $132,160 in loans) and has $369,369 on hand
- Elizabeth Ames Jones: Raised $122,185 and has $128,541 on hand
Despite later starts than their opponents, Leppert and Cruz are clearly setting the pace here. Both seem to be raising money and campaigning hard, and Cruz has generated a significant swell of grass-roots enthusiasm. If they can keep this up, both will be serious contenders to make the runoff in March, with or without Lt. Governor David Dewhurst entering the race.
Roger Williams has raised enough to stay in the game, but despite the endorsement of former President George H. W. Bush (a legendary rainmaker with a well-oiled fundraising machine), there’s no sign that the Bush dynasty has put the full force of their fundraising prowess behind him. He’ll need to knock out Leppert (or Dewhurst, if he runs) to make the runoff, and so far he shows no signs of doing it.
Michael Williams has also raised enough to stay in the game, and probably has grassroots enthusiasm second only to Cruz, but he needs to pick up the pace if he wants to remain competitive. The current pace isn’t going to get it done, and he can’t make the runoff unless Cruz slips.
Ever since I posted on Elizabeth Ames Jones’ paltry fundraising efforts, I’ve been trying to figure out a reason for her to stay in the race. I haven’t come up with one. If there’s any significant enthusiasm for her campaign out among Texas Republicans, it takes more sensitive scientific instruments than I possess to measure. I don’t see her candidacy filling any sort of ideological void, and the sort of people who would vote for her solely based on her sex are not the same people who vote in a Republican primary. While there’s a lot of time left in the campaign, unless she can figure out how to make some serious noise (say, launching a series of non-stop attacks on Leppert for being a secret RINO) she should probably get out of the race.
A few other fundraising tidbits gleaned from the FEC reports:
Sean Hubbard, thus far the only declared Democratic candidate, raised $6,511.
Among the longshots, Andrew Castanuela ($262) and Lela Pettinger ($150) are hardly setting the world on fire, but Magnolia funeral home-owner Glenn Addison (who’s running on a social conservative platform) managed to pull in $20,432 (even if $6,877 was in loans), or about one sixth what Jones, a statewide office holder who has been running for about a year, pulled in over the same period of time. For someone with no real chance of winning the nomination, that’s pretty impressive. Mr. Addison won’t be the next U.S. Senator from Texas, but he might do very well in a local race should he choose to run for one in 2014.
Tags:2012 Election, David Dewhurst, Elizabeth Ames Jones, Glenn Addison, Michael Williams, RINO, Roger Williams, Sean Hubbard, Ted Cruz, Texas, Texas Senate Race, Tom Leppert
Posted in Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Texas | 7 Comments »
Thursday, April 21st, 2011
FEC Reports for the Texas Senate Race continue to be posted for the fundraising period of January 1—March 31. (Indeed, they’re being posted so slowly that I wonder if a single arthritic temp is doing all the data entry.) The reports of Ted Cruz (over $1 million announced) and Michael Williams (over half a million announced) are not up yet, Tom Leppert’s $2,690,081 ($1.6 million of which was Leppert’s personal loan to his own campaign) was already announced, and Roger Williams raised $598,470.
But Elizabeth Ames Jones’ report is finally up, and it’s disastrous: $122,185. Raising less than one-quarter what the other major declared candidates have in the same period of time isn’t going to get the job done. Moreover, it’s a major step back from her previous 2010 fundraising total of $989,765.
Jones already had the most difficult path to victory of the major declared candidates, a path some were already saying was non-existent. Ted Cruz and Michael Williams were battling in the Tea Party Primary for the movement conservative vote, while Tom Leppert and Roger Williams are competing for the “who gets the establishment nod if David Dewhurst skips the race” slot. Jones, on the other hand, has, what? Unless she can magically pick up a disproportionate share of the woman’s vote (which seems doubtful), it’s impossible to see how she remains competitive when she’s been so heavily outgunned in the fundraising arms race. I’m far from an insider, but as far as I can tell, the groundswell for a Jones candidacy has been all but non-existent.
There’s a long way yet to go before the primary, but unless Jones can, at a minimum, quadruple her fundraising totals in the second quarter, she’s toast. She made be toast already.
Tags:2012 Election, David Dewhurst, Elizabeth Ames Jones, FEC, fundraising, Michael Williams, Roger Williams, Ted Cruz, Texas, Texas Senate Race, Tom Leppert
Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, April 13th, 2011
(I know, tired meme is tired. But I just like saying “Facebook Boogaloo.”)
It being the second decade of the 21st century and all, it occurs to me that merely providing links to the individual candidates blogs is probably insufficient to keep up with their latest statements. So, in the interest of providing myself a handy cheat sheet informing my readers of the latest developments, here are the major candidates’ Facebook pages (plus that of the undeclared Dewhurst):
Ted Cruz
David Dewhurst
Elizabeth Ames Jones
Tom Leppert
Michael Williams
Roger Williams
Oh, and in case you think numbers of Facebook fans are a serious measure of popularity 11 months before an election (I don’t), here are the number of “likes” for each candidate’s respective pages:
Ted Cruz: 57,128
David Dewhurst: 21,320
Elizabeth Ames Jones: 8,018
Tom Leppert: 1,268
Michael Williams: 7,871
Roger Williams: 6,191
Now some more race tidbits:
According to an interview with him, Lt. Governor David Dewhurst may not run for the Senate in 2012, opting instead to run for Governor in 2014.
Interview with Michael Williams at GOP-Is-For-Me. (Psst: Michael: Twitter and Facebook are fine and all, but I shouldn’t have to go past the News/Blog page of your website to find this.)
And speaking of Michael Williams, he raised $500,000 in the first quarter of this year, significantly behind what Cruz and Leppert have announced they’ve raised.
Some musing from the new Texas Iconclast blog on what those numbers mean.
Tags:2012 Election, David Dewhurst, Elections, Elizabeth Ames Jones, Facebook, Michael Williams, Roger Williams, Ted Cruz, Texas, Texas Senate Race, Tom Leppert
Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 12th, 2011
Note: A more detailed and up-to-date list of Texas Senate Candidate Websites can be found here.
For today’s 2012 Texas Senate Race coverage, I thought I would provide a handy list of all the candidate’s own websites (listed alphabetically).
Websites for 2012 Republican Senate Candidates
Ted Cruz
David Dewhurst has not announced he’s running yet, so here’s his official Lieutenant Governor’s page
Elizabeth Ames Jones
Tom Leppert
Michael Williams
Roger Williams
Since I’m trying to provide a complete lineup, here are some very, very longshots that have declared for the Republican primary:
Glenn Addison
Andrew Castanuela
Lela Pittenger
I’ve seen reports that a Nick Latham is running (he declared in 2009), but it’s hard to take him seriously as even a longshot candidate when all the links on his website are 404.
Websites for 2012 Democratic Senate Candidates
Through diligent research, I have finally found an actual, declared candidate for the Democratic nomination. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you your de facto Democratic Senate front-runner, Sean Hubbard. Yes, it’s a Facebook page. I was able to reach Hubbard by email, and he says he’s just waiting for the domain transfer for his actual campaign website to go through. To his credit, that Facebook page has been updated recently, which puts him one up on John Sharp. (Actually, it appears that a few other people have finally posted encouragement on Sharp’s Facebook page, although Sharp himself still hasn’t posted in more than a year.) One problem facing Hubbard is that Texas voters might be a little hesitant to vote for someone who looks like he still gets carded trying to buy a beer…
As for other Democratic Senate candidates, I sent email to Sharp to see if he was running and received no reply. I emailed Chet Edwards today, but there hasn’t been much time for him to get back to me. I see Chris Bell’s name being bandied about, but his law firm doesn’t have an e-mail address for him, and it seems rude to bug him by phone.
Supposedly there’s a transsexual bodybuilder named Chris Tina Bruce running as an independent, but I can’t find a campaign website. Given the paucity of Democratic candidates, I’m not sure why Bruce doesn’t just declare for the Democratic primary, as the field is wide open…
And finally a dollop of Senate race tidbits:
Ted Cruz says he has raised (extend Dr. Evil pinkie) one MILLION dollars for his campaign.
Tom Leppert says he’s raised $2.6 million…but that includes a $1.6 million loan from himself to his campaign.
Ted Cruz gets some serious love from The Weekly Standard.
Tags:2012 Election, Andrew Castanuela, Chris Bell, David Dewhurst, Elizabeth Ames Jones, Glen Addison, John Sharp, Lela Pittenger, Michael Williams, Republicans, Roger Williams, Sean Hubbard, Ted Cruz, Texas, Texas Senate Race, Tom Leppert
Posted in Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Texas | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, February 8th, 2011
From Rick Perry vs. The World comes this dandy video roundup of various Republican contenders for the 2012 Senate race. I hope to have time to watch all of them sometime today…
Tags:David Dewhurst, Elizabeth Ames Jones, Michael Williams, Roger Williams, Ted Cruz, Texas, Texas Senate Race, Tom Leppert
Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 26th, 2011
A few Texas 2012 Senate Race updates:
Evan Van Ness of Rick Perry vs. The World says that people shouldn’t hand the race to David Dewhurst just yet.
The Texas Tribune will be interviewing Michael Williams from 7:30–9 AM on Thursday, January 27 at The Austin Club at 110 E. Ninth Street. I won’t be able to make it, but interested readers should go to that page to RSVP. The page also says that people should RSVP by “Thursday, Jan 27, 2011 – 1 p.m.,” which suggests that certain of their readers are in possession of a 1.21 gigawatt 1981 DeLorean…
Elizabeth Ames Jones “kicked off” her campaign in Dallas yesterday, despite having announced she was running (and raising money) back in 2009, as noted yesterday. For some reason she’s scrubbed a previous fundraising press release off her website, but since Google still has the cache, here it is for posterity:
Press Releases
Elizabeth Ames Jones Reports $563,000 Raised Since Announcing For The U.S Senate
AUSTIN, TX – Elizabeth Ames Jones’ U.S. Senate campaign today announced fundraising numbers for the 2nd Quarter of 2009. The report filed with the FEC shows that $356,000 was raised between April 1st and June 30th. The campaign has raised more than $563,000 since Commissioner Jones filed to run for the U.S. Senate and the campaign has $443,000 on hand at the close of the quarter.
“We are very pleased with the 2nd Quarter filing. We not only met, but exceeded our goals and have demonstrated growing support from around Texas. This is further proof that Texans know Elizabeth Ames Jones has the steady leadership needed to be their next U.S. Senator. Her conservative message is clearly resonating with people and this is just the beginning,” stated Alicia Collins, Campaign Manager.
Last month the Jones campaign announced that Governor and Mrs. William P. Clements will serve as the Honorary Chairmen for Commissioner Jones’ U.S. Senate campaign and Secretary and Mrs. Robert Mosbacher will serve as Honorary Chairman of the Campaign Finance Committee.
Texas Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones, 52, was elected to the Texas Legislature in a landslide upset victory in 2000. In 2005, she was appointed by Governor Rick Perry to a vacancy on the Texas Railroad Commission and was overwhelmingly elected to serve a six-year term in 2006. Her energy commentaries have been published in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and other major newspapers. Jones is a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.
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Posted on Tuesday, July 14, 2009 by Project BIG fish
The Southern Political Report offers up a roundup of the race with mostly familiar names, but brings up one on the Democratic side I hadn’t heard before: State Rep. Rafael Anchia of Dallas. He seems to have a pretty typical Hispanic Democrat resume, with significant work on illegal alien issues. Oh, he also wants to tax your plastic bags. Can he be nominated? Well, it’s not like the rest of the Democrats are setting the field on fire, and, unlike John Sharp, he seems to be able to keep a website up and running…
Tags:David Dewhurst, Elizabeth Ames Jones, John Sharp, Michael Williams, Rafael Anchia, Roger Williams, Texas Senate Race
Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »