Posts Tagged ‘Elizabeth Ames Jones’
Monday, July 18th, 2011
A few quick updates on the Texas Senate Race:
Dewhurst sounds like he’s in, to be made official “midweek.”
So also says the Denton County GOP chair…
…who will be hosting a Senate forum with Ted Cruz, Tom Leppert, Elizabeth Ames Jones, Lela Pettinger, and (presumably) Dewhurst.
Jason Embry in the Statesman joins the chorus of those saying that Cruz has the momentum in the race.
Ex-senate candidate Michael Williams Q2 fundraising report is up. He raised a respectable $550,018, which would have been better than his Q1 numbers, but still behind Cruz and Leppert. If he can transfer these funds to his congressional race (I am not a lawyer, but my impression is that he can), then he’ll go into his match with fellow Senate race dropout Roger Williams with a substantial warchest.
Tags:2012 Election, David Dewhurst, Elections, Elizabeth Ames Jones, Jason Embry, Lela Pettinger, Republicans, Ted Cruz, Texas, Texas Senate Race, Tom Leppert
Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »
Friday, July 15th, 2011
The candidates have started releasing their fundraising totals for Q2:
Ted Cruz came out on top of the fundraising quarter with $800,000.
According the the Statesman, Leppert raised $750,000 and Elizabeth Ames Jones raised $313,000.
Ricardo Sanchez raised $160,000. Which is about what you would expect the DNC’s hand-picked candidate to raise.
The FEC reports aren’t up yet, so we can’t look at the details. In truth, Cruz did a bit worse than I expected him to with all the endorsement momentum he’s been building up, and Leppert did significantly better. Jones managed to raise her quarterly fundraising totals from disastrous to merely disappointing.
Q2 is usually a slow fundraising quarter the year before an election, but both Cruz and Leppert will need to pick up the pace if Dewhurst does jump in.
A few more pieces of senate race news:
Last week Paul Burka was confidently predicting that Dewhurst would blow away the competition with his money. Now he’s wondering if Dewhurst is too complacent. “There is an enthusiasm gap in this race, and it favors Cruz.” It’s like Burka fell asleep at his desk and woke up in pain, discovering that someone had inexplicably jabbed a sharp clue into his side while he slept…
The San Antonio Express-News says that Ted Cruz has the momentum, especially compared to one “Tom Lippert.”
Elizabeth Ames Jones has announced that former GM Chairman (and fellow San Antonian) Ed Whitacre would be her campaign manager. If he brings several million dollars in campaign donations with him, this will be a brilliant move. If not? Not so much. Usually candidates like to have someone with, you known, political campaign experience running their campaign. Hiring a guy who is most famous for taking over GM right after Uncle Obama dumped a ton of taxpayer money on them probably isn’t going to vault her into first place. She also named oilmen W.A. “Tex” Moncrief Jr. and George P. Mitchell as honorary chairman.
According to Jones’ and Tom Leppert’s Facebook pages, there was supposedly a Ronald Reagan Republican Women Senate candidate forum in Houston last night, but I can’t find reports on it anywhere today…
A Sean Hubbard sighting in the local Dallas gay newspaper.
Tags:2012 Election, David Dewhurst, Ed Whitacre, Elizabeth Ames Jones, Obama Motors, Paul Burka, Ricardo Sanchez, Sean Hubbard, Ted Cruz, Texas, Texas Senate Race, Tom Leppert
Posted in Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Texas | 3 Comments »
Thursday, June 30th, 2011
Some tidbits on the race as the first half of the year comes to a close:
I was out of town for the weekend, so you’ve probably already seen news of the Texas Senatorial Forum in Houston. If not, here’s coverage.
Over on Red State, Ted Cruz calls on Republicans to to hold firm on the debt ceiling debate. And asks for campaign donations.
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.)
The Washington Times offers up a pretty competent roundup of the race.
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.
VoteVets.org, the George Soros-funded Democratic Party front group, has sent out a fundraising appeal for Ricardo Sanchez. Some lefty sorts, still bitter over Abu Ghraib, are less than enthused.
Speaking of Sanchez, Matt S. Dowling thinks he’s been so silent the last few months that he puts his face on a milk carton.
Anyone know what happened to The Race to Replace Kay Bailey Hutchison? Neither the blog nor the Twitter feed has been updated since June 2…
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.
Tags:2012 Election, Abu Ghraib, Elizabeth Ames Jones, Ricardo Sanchez, Ted Cruz, Texas, Texas Senate Race
Posted in Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »
Sunday, June 12th, 2011
Another roundup of Texas Senate race news:
Here is the video for the Republican Senatorial candidate forum I attended Wednesday:
And here’s the follow-up Q&A session they’re not showing on KRLU:
Here’s the Statesmen‘s report on the forum.
And here’s a report on the Forum from Miss Lizaface, a blogger I am unfamiliar with (linked from Texas Iconoclast).
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.”
Ted Cruz’s campaign recruits Liberty Institute President Kelly Shackelford and former Attorney General Ed Meese as Chairmen of Cruz’s statewide and nationwide Leadership teams, respectively.
Hotline on Call suggests that if Perry entered the Presidential race, it would benefit Tom Leppert most by tying down David Dewhurst and uniting moderate Republicans behind his campaign. I find their logic unpersuasive. In Texas, moderate Republicans have shown a strong ability to write checks, but not much luck in defeating high-profile, well-funded conservatives. If they were able to do that, Kay Bailey Hutchison would be governor right now…
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.
Here’s a piece on Senate candidates attending Tea Party events.
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…
Tags:2012 Election, Elections, Elizabeth Ames Jones, Michael Williams, Ricardo Sanchez, Roger Williams, Sean Hubbard, Ted Cruz, Texas, Texas Senate Race, Tom Leppert
Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, June 8th, 2011
I attended the Texas Tribune Republican Senate Candidate Forum tonight, and thought I would post a few quick impressions before I have to walk my dog.
Three of the four candidates came across as prepared, articulate, polished and effective speakers, and all four tried to portray themselves as tea party conservatives:
Ted Cruz was the most polished of the four, as you would expect of the former Texas Solicitor General. He was very good not only at making his points, but also expertly tying highlights of his career and life-story (like his work on 10th Amendment issues for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and his father fleeing Castro’s Cuba [see here for correction]) into answers without it seeming forced. His only drawbacks were that every now and then he would seem just a little bit too polished, his pitch modulations a little too calculated, and he needs to add a few touches of humor liven things up. (His one recycled Reagan anecdote isn’t going to cut it.) With Michael Williams out, I think Cruz cemented his status as both tea party favorite and frontrunner.
I have not made any secret of my doubts as to Tom Leppert‘s new-found conservative convictions, but he comes across as a very polished and prepared speaker. He says that he cut a lot of unnecessary programs as Dallas Mayor; when I get a chance, I’m going to ask his campaign for a list. If you didn’t know about his previous record, you would think him just as conservative as his compatriots. He did have a couple of weaknesses as a public speaker: shrugging and spreading his hands was his go-to move for almost every question. He also displayed a sort of nervous eye-twitch between questions, maybe because of the bright stage lights. But guess what? There are going to be a lot of bright stage lights between now and March…
Roger Williams had the most varied performance: He has an engaging, natural personality (with just the right touch of rough-hewn “old coot” country charm) and can clearly hold his own against his more polished opponents, but he went back to his “I’m a small businessman” routine two or three times too many, and too transparently. On the other hand, Williams also got the best laugh lines of the night. Referring back to an earlier question about how he’d eliminate the budget deficit in one year (he didn’t think the Ryan plan went far enough), in a question on the the EPA’s attempt to take over Texas air quality, he said “You know that 1.6 trillion I’d cut out of the deficit? The EPA would be among them.” Williams probably improved his standing the most of any candidate attending.
Elizabeth Ames Jones…look, I’m not going to sugarcoat this. Jones should get out of the race. It wasn’t her message (she made effective conservative points), it’s the fact that she was a cringingly bad public speaker tonight. I can’t tell if it’s nervousness or an actual speech impediment, but her voice sounded like it was trapped at the back of her soft palate, almost as if she had all her wisdom teeth yanked a week ago and was still getting use to her own mouth, and late in the debate she seemed to have a slight lisp. She spoke like someone who was so eager to talk that the words all tried to come out in a rush at once, causing her to stumble over herself, stop and start, and generally sound nervous; way too nervous for someone that already holds a major statewide office. She calmed down a little bit after the first couple of questions, and occasionally made good points (“I have to fight the EPA every day”), but she was far and away the weakest candidate on stage by a good measure. And her “I was down in the trenches” refrain (mostly dealing with her time in the legislature) got even tireder than Williams’ small businessman shtick. Between this and her abysmal fundraising numbers, I see no hope for Jones in this race and no reason she should continue in it. She’s doing a good job on the Railroad Commission, and she should probably stay there for the immediate future.
Not a lot of policy differences on display. All agreed not to raise taxes under any circumstances (I wondered why moderator Evan Smith didn’t ask any of them “Not even in the event of a World War with China?”), all were on-board with the Ryan plan or an even more immediate cutback in federal spending, all for greater border control measures and against amnesty, all pro-life (one of Jones’ most effective moments), all more national energy exploration, all against earmarks, all slamming Obama.
Enough for tonight. I’ll post more tomorrow if I have the time.
Tags:2012 Election, Border Controls, Economics, Elizabeth Ames Jones, Energy Policy, Evan Smith, Republicans, Roger Williams, Ted Cruz, Texas, Texas Senate Race, Texas Tribune, Tom Leppert
Posted in Austin, Border Control, Economics, Elections, Republicans, Texas | 5 Comments »
Thursday, May 12th, 2011
A smattering of senate race updates:
Iconblog is not impressed with Ricardo Sanchez’s declaration of candidacy: “Repeating standard Democratic talking points word-for-word in Texas is not a winning strategy. Sanchez completely missed an opportunity to explain his candidacy—he just defined himself as a standard-issue Democratic candidate running on the same things consultants write all over the nation.” Plus an inside joke from The Wire.
Politico’s David Catanese thinks Sanchez is a good choice that will still lose: “No matter who the GOP nominates, it’s likely that in 10 months, the Republican will still be the odds on favorite over Sanchez.”
Report on Elizabeth Ames Jones’ testimony before the House Science, Space and Technology Committee on fracking.
Tom Leppert’s statement on Obama’s latest Illegal Alien Amnesty speech. You’ve got to give the Leppert campaign credit; they’re doing the damnedest to make the most liberal candidate in the Republican field sound like the most conservative…
Tags:2012 Election, Elections, Elizabeth Ames Jones, Ricardo Sanchez, Texas, Texas Senate Race, Tom Leppert
Posted in Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 11th, 2011
A few 2012 election tidbits, on the Senate race and others.
Since I dinged them over inaccuracies in their reporting on the Texas Senate race, it seems only fair to praise Ryan Murphy and Matt Stiles for this nifty interactive map of Q1 fundraising by incumbent Texas congressmen.
2011 hasn’t been kind to Elizabeth Ames Jones thus far, but today she’ll be talking to the U.S. congress about fracking. And not the Battlestar Galactica kind.
Roger Williams sets up a separate website to slam Obama’s job on the economy and boost his own chances. This strikes me as a good move, but I think the site is a little lite on content right now; a splash page and a video are a nice start, but he should have links to more information for each of his four subheads. There’s plenty of ammunition for the charge that Obama has screwed up the economy, and the more he can put up there, the more likely voters are to consider Roger Williams’ campaign.
Speaking of Obama, he was in Texas yesterday to raise money and pander to the amnesty crowd, but was too busy to look at the areas of the state ravaged by wildfire.
Newt Gingrich will run for President. Gingrich would make an excellent Presidential contender…in 1996. Today, with Gingrich already pulling sellout moves like pandering to the ethanol lobby, I see no reason to believe he would be the best choice for President.
Tags:2012 Election, Elizabeth Ames Jones, Energy Policy, Newt Gingrich, Obama, Roger Williams, Texas, Texas Senate Race, wildfire
Posted in Border Control, Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Texas | 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
Though the aggregate FEC totals have been up for a little while, the FEC has finally put up the lists of individual contributors to examine.
Ted Cruz: The first thing that jumped out at me from Cruz’s contributors was the number of times “Crow” and “Crow Holdings” appears. For those unfamiliar with him, the late Trammell Crow (he died in 2009) was a self-made Dallas construction and real estate billionaire. Having such deep-pocketed backers in Tom Leppert’s backyard is a good sign of his ability to wage a serious, well-funded campaign statewide. He also got out-of-state funding from Chad & Julia Sweet, a Washington, D.C. power couple whose marriage was important enough to make the style section of The New York Times.
Tom Leppert: Far and away the biggest name on this list (at least for football fans) is former Dallas Cowboys Hall-of-Fame quarterback Roger Staubach, as well as his wife and two officers of The Staubach Company, the very successful real estate business he founded after retiring from football. Staubach was previously a supporter of State Senator Florence Shaprio’s abortive run, and was himself frequently rumored as a possible GOP candidate back in the 1980s. As the Cruz campaign noted, Leppert’s donations are overwhelmingly from the Dallas area.
Michael Williams: Lots of oil and gas money from around the state (which you would hope for from someone on the Texas Railroad Commission). Not as much out-of-state money as Cruz, but some, such as Patton Boggs partner Daniel Addison.
Roger Williams: Almost all in-state contributions (nothing wrong with that, if you have enough of them), an awful lot from Ft. Worth, including chain restaurateur Bobby Cox. Though Bush41 has endorsed him, he hasn’t contributed to the Roger Williams campaign.
Elzabeth Ames Jones: Mostly from San Antonio, some oil and gas money. The only thing that jumps out at me is she got a $1,000 from a bookstore owner, as it’s amazing to think that someone who owns a bookstore actually had $1,000 to give a candidate. (“How do you make a small fortune owning a bookstore? Start with a large fortune.”)
And on the Democratic side, Sean Hubbard (still the only declared Democratic candidate) has, uh, five contributors other than himself. Including what seems to be a husband and wife. And someone else with the last name “Hubbard.”
In other Senate race news:
North Texas Tea Party member Jim Bright ranks the Senate candidates from best to worst. Best: Ted Cruz and Michael Williams: “Both delivered an excellent message.” Worst: Elizabeth Ames Jones (“has the right ideas, but terrifyingly short on specifics, weak on delivery, and long on platitudes. It was a very banal speech.”) and longshot Lela Pittenger (“doesn’t seem to really grasp what we are up against. She doesn’t understand and has no concept of the fight we are in politically.”)
According to the Southern Political Report, “Former Comptroller John Sharp, who had previously said he would run for the seat, cancelled [sic] his FEC-authorized fundraising committee in February.” I guess I’ll have to stop dinging him, though he should probably take down his Facebook page.
The Race to Replace Kay Baily Hutchison (yes, a blog specifically about the race) says that Tom Leppert is a flip-flopper. He makes much of Leppert’s freindly relations with the gay community, which, to my libertarian-leaning mind, is pretty thin gruel. I’d like to know more about Leppert’s tax hikes and political donations (among other topics).
Michael Williams slams Obama for favoring lizards over Texas jobs.
All the candidates issued “we’re glad Osama is toast” statements, but I think the best was actually Roger Williams. I think it’s also the only one that mentions radical Islam.
Proof that blogging about things you’re not a domain expert in can come back to bite you. Here’s a roundup of Texas 2012 races posted May 4; judging by the author’s description, he hasn’t followed the race for the last two months, since he has John Sharp still in it, and omits Ted Cruz, who has as good a claim as anyone to being the front-runner.
Tags:2012 Election, Bush41, Dallas, Dallas Cowboys, Dunes Sagebrush Lizard, Elections, Elizabeth Ames Jones, Michael Williams, Osama bin Laden, Republicans, Roger Staubach, Roger Williams, Sean Hubbard, Ted Cruz, Texas, Texas Senate Race, Tom Leppert, Trammell Crow
Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas | 2 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 »