Speaking of Red State and Cruz, he’s one of five senate candidates promoted by Erick Erickson as worthy on your donations. (Jeff Flake of Arizona, Adam Hasner of Florida, Josh Mandel of Ohio and Don Stenberg of Nebraska are the other four.)
Hotline on Call also does a roundup following the departure of the Williamses…and fails to mention Elizabeth Ames Jones at all. I can’t say that I blame them.
Speaking of Jones, she continues her interview tour of small Texas newspapers with The Gonzales Cannon.
Today is the last day for donations to be recorded in the current fundraising quarter, so it wouldn’t be a bad time to donate to the candidate of your choice in whatever races they’re running in. I’ll report on the Senate total as soon as they’re up (expect them to start trickling out about the middle of July), but in the meantime, here are some nifty charts the FEC put up for the first quarter fundraising efforts.
Last week it was Michael Williams. This week it’s Roger Williams switching from running for the Senate to running for House District 33. I don’t know if Joe Barton’s decision to stick to the sixth had any effect on his decision or not, but it sets up a Williams vs. Williams showdown for District 33. (Although unlike Michael Williams, Roger Williams has already managed to update his website the day the switch was announced.)
The favorite for District 33? Michael Williams is the one with the heaviest conservative movement credentials, and having an outspoken, articulate black conservative in congress would be a big benefit at the national level. But Roger Williams has some significant endorsement firepower, including George H. W. and Barbara Bush, sitting Congresswoman Kay Granger, and Nolan and Ruth Ryan.
In the Senate race, I suspect Roger Williams decision will probably benefit Cruz and Leppert about equally, with Cruz picking up more of Williams voters, but potentially freeing up more donors in Leppert’s natural Metroplex base to donate to his campaign.
Now, with the Special Session adjourning, all eyes on the Senate race turn to see whether David Dewhurst jumps in or not…
Williams is a strong candidate, but he has to breathing a sigh of relief, since he won’t have to take on an entrenched, popular and well-funded incumbent…
“Tricia [Dewhurst’s wife] and I have prayed about it. I’m not here to be making any announcement; I’d rather be doing that in a couple of weeks,” Dewhurst said. “I love Texas … and for anyone going to Washington, it’s a hardship. But I just think there seems to be a lack of understanding in Washington as to how to balance budgets and treat people fairly and be civil and address entitlements.”
Dewhurst entering the race would be bad news for all the declared candidates, but probably worse for Tom Leppert than anyone else, since Dewhurst almost automatically locks up the “establishment /business” candidate slot in a runoff (or possibly wins the primary outright, if he’s willing to carpet-bomb the race with money). His jumping in might also prod State Sen. Dan Patrick to jump in as well, since there’s no love lost between the two.
The big news around Austin is that it actually rained last night, meaning our trees and lawns won’t die, fall over and blow away like so many tumbleweeds. At least not this week.
Michael Williams puts up his official statement on why he switched to the a congressional race. He also says “In only a week, we have been able to secure over $250,000 in contributions and pledges,” which is a seriously good start for a House race. His website also sports his snazzy new bow-tie logo.
The Texas Tribune’s insiders list puts up a poll of 2012 and 2014 race favorites. Use grains of salt as instructed by your spin doctor.
Dallas ISD spent $86,000 on Chick-Fil-A, proving not only that administration is wasteful, but that they have bad taste to boot.
The Ted Cruz winning streak continues, with two more key endorsements, namely Peggy Venable, Texas State Director for Americans for Prosperity, and Ernie Angelo, former RNC Committeeman.
Cruz has easily lapped his opponents in the endorsement race. Other than Roger Williams’ endorsement by former President George H. W. Bush, and the departed Michael Williams’ endorsement by Jim DeMint, I can’t think of a single high-profile endorsement for any other candidate. I don’t think Tom Leppert’s handful of pastors really counts (though getting a max donation from Roger Staubach certainly didn’t hurt).
Key endorsements aren’t worth as much winning the fundraising race, but they’re not chopped liver either. The fact that the Cruz campaign has rolled these out at a regular rate of a couple every week suggests to me that he has a fair number in his pocket, and wants to pace them out.
Saturday Rick Perry gave his speech to the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans, and he’s getting lots of rave reviews, further fueling speculation that he’ll make a Presidential run:
Carl M. Cannon on Real Clear Politics: “When he finished, the crowd rose to its feet and — in the loudest and most spontaneous demonstration of the three-day meeting — broke into a clapping chant, “‘Run, Rick, run! Run, Rick, run!'”
Roger Kimball praises his truth telling: “Conservatives do not win elections by pretending to be liberals.”
You can see why liberals, in their frustration and inability to lay a glove on him, call him “Governor Goodhair”: He looks a lot younger than his actual age of 61.
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram‘s J. R. Labbe is shocked, shocked that all the contenders for the Republican Senate nomination at the forum sounded like Republicans rather than those “courageous” tax-hikers the liberal media is always carrying water for.
You have to admire the pithy concision of this line: “State Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, would be hard to beat in a bid for U.S. Senate, according to a poll released today by state Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston.” Iconoclast is unimpressed. “Pretty much everyone I talk to scoffed at the numbers regardless of who they work for or whether they like Patrick.”
Democratic longshot Sean Hubbard makes his pitch to the Daily Kossacks on why they should support him over Ricardo Sanchez. Honestly, it’s pretty weak sauce, full of generic “I’ll be a good Senator and listen to my constituents” stuff. He also put up this missive to the Kossacks, which has more liberal talking points of the sort that will please that crowd. But it’s woefully short of what he has to do to even get on the radar. As an underfunded longshot, he pretty much has to be attacking Sanchez every single day from the left if he wants to gain even the tiniest bit of traction in the race. No one beyond hardcore political junkies have even heard of him or realize he’s running at this point. If he can’t change that he’s going to continue being Mr. Irrelevant, despite the fact that Sanchez could very well be vulnerable to a serious challenger on his left flank.
I’m linking to this piece mainly to mock it, as it looks like the text in the link above has been automatically translated into another language, and then back into English, and then posted without any editing. “Hе accepted thе credentials οf thе forums wіƖƖ contrariety depending οn thе hosting organization, bυt generally any claimant wіƖƖ margin qυеѕtіοnѕ frοm a regressive row acted bу attendees аnԁ thе panelists themselves. Each forum іѕ approaching tο final аbουt dual hours.” Even by the standards of content-scrapping linkbait zombie sites this is peculiar…
Elizabeth Ames Jones interviewed in The Jarrell Star Ledger. I’m just happy Jarrell has a newspaper, given the tragic affinity tornadoes have for the place…
Finally, one bit of non-news: We’ve been hearing for over a week that Michael Williams was getting out of the Senate race to run for the newly created Texas 33rd Congressional District, an idea buoyed by his absence from the candidate forum on Wednesday. However, Williams has not publicly confirmed or denied the information on either his website, his Facebook account, or his Twitter feed. I can understand weighing your options, but this complete silence on the issue after you’ve already sent out a fundraising solicitation for the congressional race seems a bit odd…
This would seem to address Texas Iconoclast’s first point about why Perry won’t run.
Make no mistake: If Perry jumps in, he will be a very formidable foe. Kay Baily Hutchison was supposed to beat him in the Governor’s race and he dismantled her. Texas has shown the type of economic growth the rest of the Obama-stricken nation can only envy. Though he has real baggage (the Trans-Texas Corridor, toll roads, and the Gardasil blunder all come to mind), but nothing compared to Romneycare or Obama’s disastrous handling of the economy.
Perry has the name-recognition, the executive experience, the fundraising prowess, and the instinct for the jugular necessary to win both the primary and the election. Unless Sarah Palin or Chris Christie jumps in, no one else has the national stature Perry has.
And as for the possibility of any lingering Bush fatigue, well, Bush is starting to look pretty good in retrospect, isn’t he? Bush’s worst economic month in office still beats Obama’s best.
If he gets in, I like Perry’s odds better than Romney’s. Or Obama’s.