Posts Tagged ‘Michael Williams’

Oh Deer

Friday, July 27th, 2012

Ted Cruz staffer Joshua Perry recently tweeted that he had hit a deer. (Both his car and the deer were fine.) I quipped that he should hope it was a Dewhurst-voting deer. He replied he thought it was for Sadler. But there are so many other possibilities:

  • It was a Grady Yarbrough deer, disoriented from suddenly being thrust from the safety of obscurity, out into the bright onrushing headlights.
  • It was a Sean Hubbard deer, which had spent the last two months wandering around despondently without purpose, before finally deciding to put itself out of its misery.
  • It was a Craig James deer, sure it could make it across the road, but only made in 3% of the way before it got hit.
  • It was a Ricardo Sanchez deer, which just stepped out into the road before realizing that it didn’t have the energy to get to the other side.
  • It was a Joe Agris deer, who felt its mission was accomplished simply by stepping out onto the road.
  • It was a Michael Williams deer, which suddenly decided it wanted to be on another road.
  • It was a Roger Williams deer, which was just following the Michael Williams deer.
  • In summary: I’ve been following the Texas Senate race too damn long!

    Post-Primary Election Roundup

    Thursday, May 31st, 2012

    Numerous nuggets of non-Senate race information and observation on Tuesday’s election:

  • Two years ago, Michael Williams and Elizabeth Ames Jones were both on the Railroad Commission. Sixteen months ago they were serious U.S. Senate candidates. Now each has missed the runoff for their respective down-ballot races, U.S. CD 25 and Texas SD 25, respectively. (Donna Campbell made the runoff with Jeff Wentworth for SD25.) Evidently the Railroad Commission is a poor stepping stone to higher or lower office. Or at least for the 25th District of anything…
  • Tuesday was a bloodbath for Straus’ committee chairmen. The last attempt to oust the moderate Straus failed, but expect a much stronger effort in 2013.
  • Straus particular failed to oust conservative black Republican James White, despite extensive efforts.
  • Funny how, after gambling interests made a big investment in Straus, that Proposition 3 on the Democratic ballot was about legalizing casino gambling.
  • Democrat Silvestre Reyes was the only incumbent U.S. Congressman to be defeated last night.
  • Trial lawyers tried to steal some legislative races in Texas by running candidates in Republican races. They failed.
  • And speaking of trial lawyers, you might want to familiarize yourself with the many faces of Steve Mostyn, all of which are losers.
  • Tea Party influence was clearly evident in Metroplex races.
  • As I predicted, Sylvia Romo was no match for Lloyd Doggett’s 18-wheeler full of money.
  • Daniel Boone lost the Dem U.S. 21 race. Maybe he should have stayed in the Senate race…
  • Williams Switches from CD33 to CD25 Race. No, the OTHER Williams.

    Thursday, March 8th, 2012

    I wonder if Michael Williams is thinking about swearing out a stalking complaint against Roger Williams.

    First Michael Williams dropped out of the Senate race to run for the newly created Congressional District 33 on June 17th. Then, a week later, Roger Williams did the same. Then at the end of July, Michael Williams switched from the District 33 race to the District 25 race. Now, in the wake of the redistricting decision, ensuring that 33 is going to be a “minority opportunity” district, Roger Williams is following Michael’s lead again, announcing that he’s switching from the District 33 to District 25 as well, which means we’re finally going to get that Williams vs. Williams showdown.

    I’ve made my feelings about district-shopping and carpetbagger bids clear before. Roger Williams’ home of Weatherford is smack dab in District 12, currently represented by Republican incumbent Kay Granger. I can certainly understand not wanting to take on an entrenched Republican incumbent, but that still doesn’t justify district shopping.

    That said, I think either Williams would make a solid Republican Representative.

    Michael Williams Switches Races (Again)

    Saturday, July 30th, 2011

    First Michael Williams announced he was dropping out of the Senate race to run for the newly created House District 33. Then, a few weeks after that, Roger Williams announces he’s doing the same, setting up a Williams vs. Williams showdown for House District 33. Yesterday, Michael Williams announced he was switching races to District 25, currently held by Lloyd Doggett, but which has been redistricted to be a mostly rural/suburban district running from just south of Ft. Worth all the way down to incorporate parts of Travis and Hayes counties.

    Here’s an interactive map of the new Texas congressional districts for 2012.

    Not sure how I feel about the switch. Certainly both Williamses struck me as conservative enough to represent Texas, and there would be lots of benefits to having another bright, articulate black conservative in the House. But I’m not wild about carpetbagger bids; no one should move to a new district just to get elected (legislators specifically gerrymandered out of their old districts just to get rid of them excepted).

    Williams Switches from Senate to District 33 Congressional Race. No, the OTHER Williams.

    Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

    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…

    Rep. Joe Barton to Run for Re-Election in 6th Congressional District

    Monday, June 27th, 2011

    Rep. Joe Barton is sticking to the sixth congressional district. That’s good news for Michael Williams, since Barton was rumored to be thinking about running in the newly created 33rd Congressional District, where Williams is running after dropping his Senate bid.

    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…

    Ted Cruz Picks Up Two More Endorsements

    Tuesday, June 21st, 2011

    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.

    Michael Williams Makes His Congressional Run Official

    Saturday, June 18th, 2011

    “Former Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams announced Friday night that he will run for the new U.S. House District 33 — which stretches from Arlington to Parker County — instead of the U.S. Senate.”

    This move has been in the works for a couple of weeks now, but it’s good to see it made official. (Though he still needs to update his web page.)

    The Washington Post Discovers Ted Cruz

    Friday, June 17th, 2011

    Washington Post writer Aaron Blake pays serious attention to Ted Cruz, and his role as Tea Party favorite. It’s a decent write-up for an out-of-state MSM outlet playing catch-up, but there are several statements about which I have at least some minor quibbles.

    For example, take this sentence

    That’s because he’s emerging as a potential top-tier candidate in the Lone Star state race, posing a real tea party threat to better-funded candidates in what should be one of the most expensive primary races in the country.

    There’s two things wrong with that sentence:

    1. Cruz isn’t “a potential top-tier candidate,” he’s arguably already the frontrunner.
    2. Saying that he’s “posing a real tea party threat to better-funded candidates” suggests that there are, in fact, better-funded candidates. Leppert only has more money on hand thanks to a $1.6 million loan (discounting loans, in Q1 Leppert pulled in slightly over $1 million, and Cruz pulled in slightly under $1 million), and even then the rest of Leppert’s fundraising relied heavily on max contributions from a limited number of Dallas-area donors. So Cruz is about as well-funded as anyone in the race right now. (Would Lt. Governor David Dewhurst change that if he jumped into the race? If he really wanted to commit a substantial portion of his personal fortune (consistently rumored, without verifiable attribution, to be around $200 million), yes it would.)

    Likewise his suggestion that Leppert is one of the “big boys” (outside of Dallas, his profile is no bigger than Cruz’s) seems misguided.

    Then there’s this:

    Dewhurst is the prohibitive favorite if he gets in, and Leppert has made a big splash early with his fundraising. But many conservatives aren’t waiting for Dewhurst—choosing instead to rally around Cruz.

    I think “prohibitive favorite” overstates the case a bit (I would use “formidable”), but the idea that conservatives have ever “waited” on Dewhurst is off-base.

    As so many other Republican politicians do, Dewhurst occupies that vast gray area between a RINO (think Arlen Specter before he went The Full Benedict) and a real movement conservative. The phrase “a self-described ‘George Bush Republican'” appears, unsourced, in his Wikipedia entry (and thus is automatically suspect), and sums up the feelings of many conservatives towards Dewhurst. He ran as a conservative, and mostly governed as a conservative, but every now and then he would go off on Big Government tangents that would infuriate proponents of limited government. Despite this, outside the state, Dewhurst is regarded as something of an “arch-conservative” for shepherding through the (constitutionally-required) 2003 redistricting.

    I wouldn’t go so far as to compare him to Charlie Crist (as some have), but there’s been real dissatisfaction with Dewhurst among movement conservatives, and it came to the fore with this year’s legislative sessions, where, despite having controlling majorities in both House and Senate, conservative Republicans found their agenda being thwarted in many ways great and small by Dewhurst in the Senate and Speaker Joe Straus in the House. Hence state senator (and possible U.S. Senate candidate) Dan Patrick’s lashing out at Dewhurst for thwarting his anti-TSA goping bill. Dewhurst managed to get the big things done (i.e., getting a budget passed without a tax hike), but there’s a sense among conservatives that he could have gotten a lot more conservative bills passed if he really wanted to, and that he “left money on the table” in the game of legislative poker by compromising when he didn’t have to

    So it’s not at all surprising that Dewhurst is viewed as a stanch conservative when viewed from inside the Beltway; by Washington, D.C. standards he is. But there’s a widespread sense among Texas conservatives that they should be able to elect a full-bore movement conservative to replace Kay Bailey Hutchison, and that David Dewhurst isn’t that guy. There was a good deal of debate over whether Ted Cruz or Michael Williams was the preferred choice; with Williams getting out of the race to run for a House seat, the issue has been resolved in Cruz’s favor, as indicated by his impressive array of endorsements.

    Still, those quibbles aside, the WaPo piece is a pretty solid look at Cruz, and is well worth reading for those following the Texas Senate Race.

    (In the future, Brooks might want to run this sort of piece by Jennifer Rubin, who has a lot better grasp of the nuances of conservative politics than most MSM observers.)

    Texas Senate Race Updates for June 15, 2011

    Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

    A few Senate race updates. Ted Cruz is turning a very good week into a very good month:

  • First off, Cruz gets some serious love from George Will.
  • Cruz also appeared on Fox Business News:

  • The Houston Chronicle rounds up news of Cruz’s recent successes.
  • Did you know that Tom Leppert compared himself to Obama, and his city-owned hotel plan to the stimulus, to a group of Young Democrats in 2009? He also answered a questionnaire for them during his Mayoral campaign.
  • A little bird passed me the flyer for a Michael Williams fundraising event for his Congressional campaign today at noon at The Coronado Club in Houston. Word is that he’s waiting until the District 33 lines are finalized by the legislature before officially dropping his Senatorial bid.
  • Roger Williams will address a Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans this weekend. As will Michael Williams (assuming he doesn’t drop out as part of refocusing on that Congressional campaign). As will Rick Perry. Hmmm, seems like quite the event. I may need to go next year, since it’s closer and cheaper than CPAC. Plus New Orleans beats the hell out of DC any day…