Texas Attorney General’s Race: State of Play and Updates

March 3rd, 2014

In comparison to the Lt. Governor’s race, the Attorney General’s race is relatively straightforward: There’s a conservative favorite (State Senator Ken Paxton), the well-funded big business republican (State Senator Dan Branch), and a longshot (Railroad Commissioner Barry Smitherman). A recent poll shows Branch at 42%, Paxton at 38%, and Smitherman a distant third at 20%. But the further down the ballot you get, the less accurate polls tend to be, so take that with a grain of salt.

Ken Paxton is a solid conservative that the majority of movement conservatives in the state have gotten behind (I’d guess that support is running about 85% among state conservatives compared to 15% for Smitherman). He’s also racked up an impressive list of conservative endorsements, including Texans for Fiscal Responsibility,

And while Paxton hasn’t been formally endorsed by Ted Cruz, he is getting a lot of mileage out of the Cruz quote that he’s “a tireless conservative warrior.”

By contrast, I haven’t heard a single conservative say they’re supporting state Representative Dan Branch, who is perceived as a RINO in the David Dewhurst mold (without the record of achievement) and an ally of Texas House Speaker Joe Straus. The representative of tony Highland Park, “his main support base appears to be establishment Republicans.” He’s a business favorite and has tapped extensive fundraising resources in the Metroplex. His attempt to rebrand himself as a Tea Party conservative is pretty laughable: Says the Houston Chronicle editorial board:

a respected GOP state representative from Dallas whose moderate positions and pragmatic approaches to governance frequently align with those of Speaker Joe Straus. Running for attorney general, Branch is portraying himself as the most conservative candidate in the race (a laughable claim), a raging anti-Obaman, a tea-party firebrand and an anti-abortion crusader. We haven’t seen such an extreme re-branding effort since the late Phyllis Diller’s plastic surgeries.

And that’s from the MSM. Most conservative activists I’ve talked too are considerably less kind…

A Branch ad:

A lot of conservatives supported Barry Smitherman‘s run for Railroad Commissioner, but support for his Attorney General run is pretty thin on the ground (David Bellow and some pro-life endorsements being notable exceptions). Red State’s Erick Erickson goes so far as to call Smitherman “an establishment tool.” I think that rather overstates things, but there’s a lot of sentiment that Smitherman has overstated his resume as a Harris County prosecutor, and has tried to move up the statewide ladder too far, too fast, with too thin a resume.

A Smitherman ad:

Whoever wins the Republican nomination will face (I kid you not) Sam Houston (a trial lawyer unrelated to the hero of San Jacinto, who lost a 2008 Supreme Court race) in the general election.

Some race tidbits:

  • Wrangling over an unsuccessful Ken Paxton investment.
  • Here’s Smitherman’s attack site against Paxton. While it’s not quite as weak tea as the Chinese lawsuit bit Dewhurst tried to use against Cruz, the bag has still been seeped two or three times…
  • The man Smitherman wants to succeed as Attorney General is less than thrilled at his criticism of the way the state child support division is run. “As attorney general, I’ve elevated the Texas Child Support Division to number one in the entire nation. Under my leadership we’ve collected more than $28 billion in child support, but we also have achieved one the highest rankings in the nation for efficiency.”
  • Back in 2010, Smitherman was a big fan of smart meters.
  • Smitherman pays a blogger covering the race for consulting services. (Just for the record, I ain’t been paid nothin’ by nobody for political blogging, unless you count free soda and pizza at Ted Cruz headquarters after I endorsed him…)
  • Evidently Smitherman’s position on the death penalty isn’t quite as unwavering as he would lead you to believe.
  • Branch gets endorsed by the Houston Chronicle.

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    Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »

    The Return of Johnny Nuance

    March 2nd, 2014

    So Russia is conducting a piecemeal invasion of Ukraine.

    And the American state department’s response?

    Ah, yes, “working with Russia.” I’m sure that has Putin quaking in his boots. How are we supposed to “work with” them? By helping them carry the loot back to Russia? Can you imagine George H. W. Bush threatening to “work with Iraq on Kuwait” after Saddam invaded?

    If Russia invades another country, will we work with them some more?

    I’m sure at this point, Putin must be quaking in his boots in fear at the thought of Kerry deploying more diplomacy to his tanks. Likewise, I’m sure the people of Ukraine are deeply grateful for those C-130s filled to the brim with diplomacy we’re sending…

    Given Kerry’s repeated threats of deploying yet more diplomacy to stop Putin, it’s time to break out Iowahawk’s classic Johnny Nuance, the story of a man fighting outlaws in the old west using only diplomacy:

    Johnny Nuance! Johnny Nuance!
    From the shores of Martha’s Vineyard he rode his horse out West,
    With a treaty in his holster and a medal on his chest,
    Bringing law and justice to a wild and violent land,
    Talking was his creed and sanctions were his brand!

    It goes about as well as you would expect…

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    Posted in Democrats, Foreign Policy | 1 Comment »

    Interview With Texas Lt. Governor Candidate Jerry Patterson

    March 1st, 2014

    Friday night, I was finally able to get an interview with Texas Land Commissioner and Lt. Governor candidate Jerry Patterson, which I’d been meaning to do for quite a while. Below is a pretty close transcription of the interview (or as close as I could make it with my 45 words-a-minute fingers).

    Lawrence Person: What do you see as current Lt. Governor David Dewhurst’s biggest mistakes in office?

    Jerry Patterson: His biggest mistake is not a mistake but a shortcoming, that being having no ability to lead and motivate both voters and members of the senate. We all make mistakes, but shortcomings are more serious than mistakes.

    Lawrence Person: Likewise, what qualities or policies do you think separate you from Dan Patrick and Todd Staples?

    Jerry Patterson: Policy-wise, there’s very little difference. Between me and Dan, my story is not going to change from day to day and venue to venue. I feel no compulsion to tell you what I think you want to hear to like me.

    As for Todd, I’m a little more of a risk-taker, I’m bolder, and I’m less consultant-driven.

    Lawrence Person: What, if any, procedural changes would you make in running the Texas state senate?

    Jerry Patterson: The first thing I’m going to do is roll the tape of the evening Wendy Davis carried out her filibuster, and make sure all the Democrats who helped encourage that riot are not in charge of committees.

    I will also make it easier for the Lt. Governor to recommit bills from one committee to another.

    Lawrence Person: The Lt. Governor has tremendous influence over the composition of the Legislative Budget Board. What specific background and qualities would you seek in those you would appoint to the board?

    Jerry Patterson: They need to be fiscal conservatives, and they need to be resistant to those who blow smoke into places you don’t usually see it, and they need to have those qualities on a consistent basis.

    Lawrence Person: How did the Concealed Handgun bill come about, and how hard was getting that passed?

    Jerry Patterson: It had been attempted several times before. I sponsored it in 1993, passed it, and Gov. [Ann] Richards vetoed it. But it wasn’t a real CHL bill, it was just a referendum on whether to pass a CHL bill. In 1995, we have a new Governor, George W. Bush, who won in part because he promised to sign a CHL bill if it came to his desk. In 1995, I was sole author of SB 60, the CHL bill. It was a difficult task. We had a lot of Democratic support, and a lot of Republican opposition. It was made more difficult when Selena [the Tejano signer] was shot and killed by a deranged woman in Corpus Christi. But I told wavering legislators I would campaign against them if they did not live up to their commitment. Then I had to deal with hostile points-of-order to kill the bill. I was the chair of the conference committee, and I hired parliamentarians with a meticulous knowledge of the rules to make sure I didn’t make any mistake that would allow opponents to overturn the bill with a point-of-order. I think the final vote in the senate was about 22-8. And that included five yeas who wanted to vote no, but knew their district wouldn’t be happy.

    Lawrence Person: What do you think are the most essential actions Texas needs to take to secure the border?

    Jerry Patterson: There are several. We have to first realize that this is a three-legged stool: border security, assimilation, and immigration reform. You cannot have border security without immigration reform, and you cannot have immigration reform without border security. We have to stop birthright citizenship, we have to stop this bilingual ballot nonsense. You know what my name is on the Spanish-language ballot?

    Lawrence Person: No, what?

    Jerry Patterson: It’s Jerry Patterson. We need to do what the GOP platform calls for: biometric ID card for non-residents, no amnesty, a guest worker program with no path to citizenship. We need to focus on coyotes, narcotraffickers, terrorists, felons. That’s where our resources should be used, not chasing kitchen help.

    Lawrence Person: Any final thought or message for BattleSwarm Blog readers?

    Jerry Patterson: I’ll always be honest with you, and I won’t change what I say to get your vote.

    Thanks to Jerry Patterson and his staff for taking the time to do the interview.

    I have another interview with Lt. Governor candidate Dan Patrick which, do to technical difficulties on my part, I’m still trying to complete. Once that’s done I’ll put that up as well.

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    Posted in Border Control, Elections, Guns, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »

    Texas Lt. Governor’s Race: State of Play and Update

    February 27th, 2014

    The Lt. Governor’s race presents plenty of irony, namely in that it features incumbent Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, whose lost the 2012 Senate race to Ted Cruz, and three statewide office holders, all running as staunch conservatives, who endorsed Dewhurst over Cruz in that race.

    Dewhurst’s strengths and weaknesses are the same he displayed in that race. On the plus side, he’s run and won high-profile statewide races, he’s Independently wealthy and thus can self-fund to an extent others can’t, and he helped govern Texas during a time our prosperity, job creation and fiscal discipline have been the envy of most states. On the negative side, conservatives have long had numerous gripes about Dewhurst, complaining that he gives too much senate power to minority Democrats and gives them too many committee chairs, and that he thwarts conservatives in many ways great and small. As I wrote at the time, “Dewhurst occupies that vast gray area between a RINO (think Arlen Specter before he went The Full Benedict) and a real movement conservative.” The 2012 Senate race also showed that Dewhurst is a remarkably poor debater and off-the-cuff speaker who does not seem to think well on his feet, and losing to Cruz damaged his political reputation. His social media outreach was poor during the Senate run, but seems to have improved for this race. As in the Senate race, Dewhurst has garnered the lion’s share of business group endorsements (with Staples second), and the clear majority of newspaper endorsements (hardly a plus for most conservatives).

    State Senator Dan Patrick has a solid conservative record, but also a bit of a reputation as both a hothead and (as a former sportscaster) a something of an intellectual lightweight who has been dinged by some for poor debate performances. (I did a phone interview with Patrick that may or may not see the light of day due to a technical malfunction; in my brief interview he seemed bright, articulate, and knowledgeable about the Lt. Governor’s role in managing the senate and staffing the Legislative Budget Board.) Patrick was widely seen as a foe of Dewhurst during the 2012 Senate race, but ended up endorsing him at the last minute. Patrick is widely perceived as the primary choice of many social conservatives, and was prominent in the fight for the anti-TSA groping bill (which he sponsored) and the anti-sanctuary cities bill. The fact that both Jerry Patterson and Todd Staples have been attacking him in ads suggests he is indeed in second place behind Dewhurst. He has has been endorsed by Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, Young Conservatives of Texas, several evangelical ministers, and the late Bum Philips (Patrick was a sportscaster during the Luv Ya Blue heyday of the Houston Oilers in the late 1970s and early 1980s).

    Jerry Patterson, the incumbent Land Commissioner, came into the race with the most buzz among and support among Texas conservative insiders, but that doesn’t seem to have translated into sufficient polling popularity with voters, with Patterson sitting in fourth place in the latest poll. Patterson gets a lot of credit for having written the bill that became the Concealed Handgun License law, and received an A+ rating from the NRA (Dewhurst, Patrick and Staples all received As). Several Texas conservatives I respect are firmly in the Patterson camp. Patterson has been endorsed by Dick Armey and Ron Paul.

    Todd Staples, the incumbent Agricultural Commissioner, comes in at third place in the most recent poll, well behind Dewhurst and Patrick, despite having raised the second most money in the race behind Dewhurst. Staples also has a reputation as a solid conservative, and as a state senator penned the state defense of marriage clause. At 50 he’s the youngest of the four candidates by a decade. He’s been stressing border security, on which he did some work from the Agriculture Department. Staples has been endorsed by Nolan Ryan. and some property rights groups.

    Are the polls accurate? Hard to say. At this point in the 2012 Senate race, people were predicting a runoff between Paul Sadler and Sean Hubbard on the Democratic side, and Hubbard ended up coming in fourth behind Addie Allen and the Grady Yarbrough juggernaut.

    Whoever wins the Republican runoff (which looks very likely at this point) will face Democratic State Senator Leticia Van de Putte in the general.

    Here is a debate between all four candidates:

    Now some video ads from all four candidates. Dewhurst:

    Patrick:

    Patterson:

    Staples:

    Now some race tidbits:

  • “Between Jan. 24 and Saturday, Dewhurst raised from others nearly $1.5 million — more than twice the amount drummed up in that period by the most successful of his competitors, Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples. Staples raised $650,000.”
  • Some of Dewhurst’s trail lawyer fund are also kicking money into his anti-Dan Patrick PAC: “The anti-Patrick PAC, Texans for Accountability, received $45,000 from Beaumont’s Provost Umphrey law firm, and a combined $25,000 from two women who identified themselves as paralegals for the Houston-based Gallagher law firm, headed by Mike Gallagher, former president of the Texas Trial Lawyer’s Association.”
  • Chart of advertising buys per candidate in statewide races.
  • The North Texas Tea Party issues no endorsement in the race.
  • All four candidates appear at a forum in Sugar Land.
  • KUHF panel thinks it’s a runoff between David Dewhurst and Dan Patrick.
  • David Bellow endorses Patrick.
  • Jerry Patterson’s attacks on Patrick are amounting to very little. I think the possibility that a sports bar Patrick owned in Houston in the early 1980s might have included illegal aliens among the staff is hardly going to come as a shock to just about any Texan.
  • Speaking of Patrick, an anti-Patrick PAC can’t even get its facts straight.
  • The New York Times weighs in on the race. It’s pretty much what you would expect
  • Patrick evidently had an amusing gay marriage typo on his Twitter account.
  • A look at Patterson’s support among Second Amendment supporters.
  • Waco Tribune interviews Patterson.
  • Staples campaigns in Plano.
  • The Austin American Statesman endorses Dewhurst.

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    Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas, video | No Comments »

    Texas Governor’s Race: State of Play and Update

    February 26th, 2014

    It’s a mere six days before the March 4 primary, and I haven’t covered the various statewide races nearly as well as I would have liked. (Maybe Ukraine will refrain from blowing up this week.) So I’ll try to catch up with some statewide race update, including a summary of the current state of play for those just tuning in, as well as some race tidbits (some of which are, alas, fairly musty). First up: The Governor’s Race.

    Gregg Abbott is a better, more focused candidate with a better organization in a deep red state. Abbott has both experience running successful, high-profile statewide races, has a solid record of achievement as Attorney General, and unquestioned conservative credentials. I’ve seen Abbott work a room in person, and he’s very good at it. He has all Rick Perry’s strengths and none of his weaknesses. He came into the campaign with a hfty warchest and continues to raise money at a record pace.

    Wendy Davis, by contrast, is a photogenic white woman whose main claim to fame is her filibuster in support of unlimited late-term abortions. Davis had a fairly indifferent record as a State Senator, and called herself a Republican back in the 1990s. She has been fundraising at a more-than-respectable clip, and pulling in impressive amounts of out-of-state liberal special interest money. She probably has more enthusiasm at the liberal grassroots level than any statewide top-of-the-ticket candidate since Ann Richards. Her campaign has frequently seemed very poorly organized, and indifferent or hostile to potentially friendly reporters. Her fibs about her life story and unconvincing flip-flops on guns and late-term abortions may have hurt here with swing voters, but don’t appear to have dampened the enthusiasm of her liberal base. She’s aided in her campaign by Battleground Texas, a well-funded attempt to “turn Texas blue” by registering more Democrats.

    Obviously, Abbott is going to win the Republican nomination, and, despite her many stumbles, Davis is going to win the Democratic nomination. Abbott is going to cream her in November.

    Now some race tidbits:

  • Abbott holds an 11 point leader over Davis in the latest polls.
  • Gregg Abbott raised $2.5 million in the latest filing period, and has $30 million cash on hand.
  • In case you missed it before: Abbott outraised Davis 3-1 in January. Davis’ claimed advantage comes from counting Battleground Texas totals as her own.
  • Speaking of BattleGround Texas, did they break the law?

  • Abbott and the Texas Republican Party aren’t taking Battleground Texas efforts lying down. “Abbott…has 50 paid staff members doing grass-roots outreach.”
  • Davis’ actual campaign finance report
  • Greg Abbott on ObamaCare.
  • Ted Nugent apologizes.
  • For all her walkback on late-term abortions, it’s still the pro-abortion crowd who is giving Wendy Davis the big bucks.
  • “Wendy Davis is no Ann Richards.” To be fair, Ann Richards wasn’t really Ann Richards either, but she was a whole lot better at faking it…
  • Davis gets a New York Times Magazine profile…
  • …which the hard left complains is insufficiently sensitive to radical feminist language demands.

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    Posted in Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Texas, video | No Comments »

    Pay-for-Play Endorsements Come to Williamson County

    February 25th, 2014

    Yesterday I received a copy of The Link Letter in the mail, touting certain Republican Primary candidates and carrying ads for them. You should take these “endorsements” with several grains of salt, since they are strictly pay for play; candidates pay for ads and get endorsed. Houston has had these paid “list” newsletter endorsements for a while, but this is the first time I’ve seen them in Williamson.

    The Link Letter is an advertising flyer, nothing more. Its endorsements should not sway you any more than any other advertisement might (which is to say, little to none).

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    Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »

    LinkSwarm for February 25, 2014

    February 25th, 2014

    Another roundup of tab-clearing news, much of which got pushed aside by Ukraine updates:

  • Obama Administration admits that ObamaCare will screw small businesses. (Hat tip: Instapundit.) Why are any Republicans futzing around with any fix but full repeal?
  • Bobby Jindal: “Obamacare is giving low-income Americans fewer reasons to work.”
  • How ObamaCare is turning into the Democrats’ own forever war.
  • Two more congressional Democrats retire.
  • And that doesn’t count liberal Democratic fossil John Dingell, who’s also retiring after a mere 58 years in office.
  • And speaking of Michigan Democratic congressman, here’s how Rep. Gary Peters is trying to kill a woman with cancer:

  • Democrats in denial over ObamaCare unpopularity. Well, those who haven’t retired yet…
  • How unions and Democratic cronies looted Detroit’s pension plans.
  • Former Democratic congressman and convicted statutory rapist Mel Reynolds arrested on child pornography charges in Zimbabwe. (You might remember that Bill Clinton pardoned him on the way out the door…)
  • Deeply incompetent New Orleans Democratic Mayor Ray “Chocolate City” Nagin convicted on 20 federal corruption counts.
  • NJ’s Democratic Rep. Rob Andrews: The Washington Generals of Legislators.
  • The top special interest donors contribute to Democrats.
  • This week in the Democratic Liberal Media Complex Revolving Door.
  • There are few people liberals hate more than conservative black men.
  • Ted Cruz is winning.
  • Food prices continue to soar, yet another sign that inflation figures are significantly understated.
  • Record numbers of college graduates are living with their parents. Thanks, Obama!
  • “*Somebody* at Cover Oregon will end up going to jail.”
  • “The combination of UAW micromanagement and adversarial culture, not wages per se, is what helped to do in GM.”
  • “The UAW couldn’t even win an election it had been handed on a silver platter by management.”
  • Venezuela continues to stumble along at a repressive simmer.
  • Too bad they’re out of toilet paper.
  • Catholic priest in Venezuela beaten unconscious by socialist state thugs.
  • Michael Totten points out that Che Guevara is a murderous communist scumbag. Bonus: “Cuba’s maximum wage is less than one percent of America’s minimum wage”
  • Battle is joined between EUroskeptic UKIP and the EUrophilic Liberal-Democrats.
  • John Kerry: There’s no room in the religion of global warming for cost-benefit analysis.
  • UK Leftists want punitive taxes even if they bring in no additional revenue.
  • Detroit home-owner with an AR pattern rifle 3, stupid thugs trying to break into her home 0.
  • Portugal decriminalized all drugs 11 years ago. Result? Addiction cut in half, and “Portugal’s drug usage rates are now among the lowest of EU member states.”
  • “Diversity demands that diversity of opinion not be tolerated anymore.”
  • “Anti-male misandry, like anti-female #misogyny, is unjust and dangerous.”
  • Paying attention to the victimhood identity politics crowd, or how to murder your writing career.
  • Sarah Hoyt further dissects Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America idiocy. She touches on many of the reasons I didn’t renew my membership, the main ones being that SFWA is no longer important enough to be worth fighting for, and was certainly not worth $90 a year in dues.
  • “Human Resources has been very reluctant to respond to my complaints about being invisibly strangled by a cyborg space wizard.”
  • One more Tweet:

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    Posted in Communism, Crime, Democrats, Global Warming, Media Watch, ObamaCare, unions, video, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »

    In Which I Get Into A Twitter Fight With Keith Olbermann

    February 24th, 2014

    So word came down that Piers Morgan’s shown on CNN is ending. At which point I quipped:

    Enter Mr. Olbermann himself, who I like to imagine scanning Twitter in a darkened room while wearing an off-brand superhero costume. “Peasants? Making fun of me??? I will be avenged!”

    I don’t think I ever received replies to these two.

    RE: That public access show in Akron:

    Nothing says “up to date” like referencing a TV show that went off the air when I was four…

    Back on the subject of the Current TV lawsuit:

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    Posted in Media Watch | 1 Comment »

    Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous Ukrainian Dictators

    February 22nd, 2014

    First word came that Yanukovich had left Ukraine for various rumored destinations from Russia to Dubai. Then came word that Yanukovich was denied exit from the country.

    But the delight of the day was ordinary Ukrainians touring the abandoned Presidential vacation palace, which such amenities as:

  • A classic car collection
  • A private zoo
  • A gold toilet
  • An actual galleon (helpfully named GALLEON; this pretty much confirms what we suspected of the vast range of Mr. Yanukovich’s imagination…) floating on an artificial lake.

    • Some Tweets on the theme:

    Also, Russia has a sad.

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    Posted in Communism, Foreign Policy, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »

    Yanukovych Flees Kiev (Ukraine/Euromaidan Update for February 21, 2014)

    February 21st, 2014

    Yanukovych’s “compromise” looks more and more like a complete rout, with reports of him fleeing Kiev for his political base in Kharkiv, where reports have security forces burning documents:

    There are dark, unconfirmed mutterings of pro-Russian forces preparing “provocations” or for a partition of Ukraine. But even in Kharkiv, Euromaidan is marching.

    Tweets:

    And via Michelle Malkin’s twitter feed, here’s video of happy Ukrainians toppling statues of Lenin:

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    Posted in Communism, Foreign Policy | No Comments »

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