Posts Tagged ‘Craig James’

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Texas Senate Race Update for April 26. 2012

Thursday, April 26th, 2012

We’re a little more than a month out from the elections, and the rhetorical blows are already raining down among the candidates:

  • The Dewhurst campaign doubles down on the Communist Chinese attack:

    The Dewhurst campaign also says the longer piece will be available to watch on Hulu “in exchange for viewing an entire program on Hulu without commercials.” I must admit that the idea of using hulu in this way for a political campaign never occurred to me. We’ll see if it’s cost effective…

  • The Cruz campaign hit Dewhurst for working with liberals to kill conservative legislation in the Texas Senate, the wage tax/income tax, his moderate tendencies, and for raising money from PACs that have supported liberal causes like ObamaCare and Cap-and-Trade.
  • Cruz gets profiled by the liberal Texas Observer. Though it covers everything you would expect it to cover, it’s actually a lot less of a hit piece than I expected it to be. And I didn’t know that Cruz was a pallbearer at William Rehnquist’s funeral. However, I think there’s one factual error (albeit one I’m sure the Cruz campaign won’t go out of their way top correct): As far as I know, Cruz has not been endorsed by Sen. Marco Rubio.
  • Tom Leppert calls his opponents “empty suits”:

    Craig James has to feel pleased that Leppert feels he’s worth of being attacked.

  • The Dewhurst campaign took time out of their busy Cruz-attack schedule to swat Leppert over the ad: “‘Tom Leppert is probably just using the same kind of creative math that got him into trouble when he raised property taxes and ran up Dallas debt,’ said Dewhurst spokesman Enrique Marquez.” Ouch!
  • Leppert picked up a passel of religious conservative endorsements.
  • Leppert appeared on KFYO in Lubbock.
  • Leppert will be visiting San Angelo on Friday.
  • Some behind the scenes tidbits on the Houston Chronicle‘s editorial board interviews with Cruz and Leppert. While it’s not the huge negative an endorsement by the Austin American-Statesman is, I’m not sure the Chron‘s endorsement is a net plus for a Republican candidate these days. (20 years ago it was.)
  • Craig James raised just over $1 million, but three-quarters of that was his own money.
  • The ground war has already started, as I got my first Cruz direct mail flyer yesterday.
  • A look at the air war. Interesting how Peggy Fikac calls Jim DeMint an “arch-conservative.” I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that she’s never labeled anyone an “arch-liberal” in print.
  • Trial lawyer and withdrawn democratic candidate Jason Gibson raised $25,980 between December 19 and when he dropped out February 2. I say “raised,” but every single donation he received was from himself…
  • Lela Pittenger raised $10,976 in Q1.
  • No Q1 FEC report up yet for Sean Hubbard or Addie D. Allen.

    • Tags:, , , , , , , , , , ,
    Posted in Elections, ObamaCare, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »

    Texas Senate Race Update for April 20, 2012

    Friday, April 20th, 2012

    Q1 reports trickle out and Team Dewhurst attack websites start popping up like mushrooms:

  • Ted Cruz has accused David Dewhurst of helping use gimmicks to balance the state budget because, well, gimmicks have been used to balance the state budget.
  • Here’s James Bernsen of the Cruz campaign making the case that Dewhurst employed accounting gimmicks and increased state budgets an aggregate of $25 billion for the 2004–2011 period. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to bring you some expert opinion on how how balanced the Texas budget has been, what Dewhurst’s role in the budget has been, etc.
  • I’ve already reported the gross numbers, but here’s Cruz’s Q1 fundraising report. Cash on hand was $3.25 million.
  • Cruz has new ad up touting the Mojave desert cross case:

  • MSM members still seem to be baffled that Cruz is a Hispanic who’s not a liberal.
  • Rick Perry formally endorses Dewhurst:

    Before he had sort-of endorsed Dewhurst in an offhand way on the Presidential campaign trail; this is the real deal. It certainly helps Dewhurst, but the language is a bit tepid, “I’m a loyal supporter” rather than “David Dewhurst is awesome and is far and away the best man in the race.” (Hat tip: The Weekly Standard.)

  • Dewhurst’s Q1 FEC report is up. Just shy of $3.2 million cash on hand, or slightly less than Cruz. Presumably Dewhurst could start pouring millions in self-funding into his campaign at any moment. So why hasn’t he? Is he already assuming he’s going to be in a runoff and will carpet-bomb the race with dough then? (I’ll try to look through Dewhurst’s report more thoroughly when I have time.)
  • Robert T. Garrett of The Dallas Morning News sums up the fund race.
  • Team Dewhurst strikes back at Dewbious with their own attack website, The Real Ted Cruz, which seems to be all about the Chinese business case. I still think it’s pretty weak sauce, but I must admit that the Photoshoping of Cruz’s face onto Chinese currency is a nice touch…
  • The Cruz response to the Chinese client issue.
  • Dewhurst has also put up a parody Cruz Pintrest site. Remember the Saturday Night Live 2.0 cast, the one after the entire original cast quit but before they promoted Eddie Murphy? Yeah, it’s not quite that funny.
  • KYFO has a poll asking which Senate candidate you support. So far Cruz is creaming the rest of the field.
  • Dewhurst pushes for repeal of the death tax.
  • Tom Leppert says he’s made several million dollars worth of ad buys.
  • Garrett is also reporting that Craig James had “$525,000 in cash as of March 31, and most of it’s probably money he can use before the May 29 primary, because he himself accounted for three-quarters of his campaign’s $1 million haul.” James’ FEC report isn’t up yet, and I don’t see it linked from James website.
  • James appeared before the Clear Lake Tea Party:

    If you watch all 24 minutes of that, congratulations! You have even more dedication to covering this race than I do…

  • Glenn Addison talks about the environment in Corpus Christi.
  • Addison also raised $19,111 in Q1.
  • Longshot Curt Cleaver raised all of $390 in Q1.
  • Democrat Paul Sadler finally starts to look like the Democratic frontrunner, having raised $72,800 this quarter, including $17,500 in union money. That won’t keep Cruz or Dewhurst up at night, but it may be enough to finish off Sean Hubbard. Lots of contributions from his home base in Henderson, a few from Austin, not much from the rest of the state. (One $500 contribution is from Austin political consultant G. K. Sprinkle, who I knew slightly back in the 1990s when she got a few science fiction stories published.)
  • And you know you’re doomed when even the Dallas Morning News calls your race “Quixotic”.
  • Sean Hubbard picked up the endorsement of the Stonewall Democrats of Dallas Hubbard has been pursuing the endorsements of the gay rights community hard, so this isn’t a surprise, but compared to a lot of other Democratic special interest groups (blacks, Hispanics, unions, government employees (but I repeat myself), etc.) there just aren’t that many votes there.
  • There are supposedly two candidates (David B. Collins and Victoria Ann Zabaras) running for the Green Party nomination for the Senate race. Neither seems to have bothered to put up a website.

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

    Roundup of Senate Debate Coverage

    Tuesday, April 17th, 2012

    Here’s a roundup of coverage of the Texas Senate candidate debate I liveblogged on Friday:

  • Tom Benning at the Dallas Morning News also live-blogged the debate. His write-up is more coherent but less comprehensive or colorful than my own.
  • KERA has some more extended quotes from the debate.
  • The Texas Tribune/Houston Chronicle piece. I think Tom Leppert was admonishing the media more than the candidates.
  • “Dewhurst plays Pinata.”
  • The Ft. Worth Star Telegram story.
  • Big Jolly ranked the debate Leppert, Dewhurst, Cruz, James. He notices the pauses before Dewhurst’s answers, but doesn’t seem to notice the ones in the middle of them, the rambling nature of his answers, or the times he looked absolutely lost in mid-argument. I’m sure Tea Party activists across the state will also take exception to his defense of Dewhurst for not attending “every podunk forum.”
  • Eric Erickson over at RedState (someone far more critical of Dewhurst than myself) had no problem with Cruz’s attacks.
  • Fellow RedStater Susan Cloud liked Leppert the best, and thought Cruz’s “hyper-aggressive attacks” harmed him.
  • Pondering Penguin liked Cruz, who she’s endorsed.
  • WFAA grades the debate:

  • I’ve been looking to see if someone uploaded the debate to YouTube, but so far all I’ve been able to find is Craig James’ closing statement:

  • Twitter feed for the #belodebate. Keep scrolling if you want to read them all…
  • There’s some chatter on Twitter that Cruz’s comment that the Dallas Morning News had “retracted” the story about Cruz hiding the date his father fled from Cuba was wrong. Well, here’s what Robnert T. Garrett said in the DMN: “CLARIFICATION: On some occasions since 2005, Ted Cruz has publicly mentioned the date of his father’s departure from Cuba and even the fact he fought on the same side as Fidel Castro. However, in the past two months, the newspaper found no instances in which he offered audiences any clues that his father was a pre-Castro exile.” That sounds pretty darn close to a retraction to me, even if they didn’t use the word “retraction.”

    • Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
    Posted in Border Control, Elections, Media Watch, ObamaCare, Republicans, Texas, video | No Comments »

    Liveblog of the April 13, 2012 Texas Senate Debate

    Friday, April 13th, 2012

    Well, I’ve already been distracted by shiny objects, so I guess I’ll close this out. David Dewhurst was a very poor candidate tonight, and he better hope that not too many Republican voters were watching…

    Leppert doesn’t excite the base (with some reason), but he doesn’t make a lot of mistakes either. You can see why he’s hanging around, but a Republican primary doesn’t play to his strengths.

    To win, Cruz has to take the fight to Dewhurst, but in tonight’s debate he did it in a way that seemed too programmed and strident. Leppert’s “I’m not a lawyer” line may be a transparent dig at Cruz, but it still comes across as more subtle than some of Cruz’s attacks on Dewhurst. Cruz needs to pull back a little, be a bit less programmed, and a bit more spontaneous.

    This debate left a lot to be desired from an organizational standpoint. I appreciate a full hour without commercial interruptions, but the “Here are some polling numbers, how can you possibly oppose them” questions were dumb even by the very slack standards of liberal MSM journalism.

    Cruz didn’t win the debate, but Dewhurst certainly lost it. He got worse as the night went on. No wonder he avoids debates. He doesn’t think well on his feet, and he wasn’t prepared for some very obvious questions.

    All three of the other candidates had both good and bad moments. Cruz is a good debater, but, as I’ve said before, his decision to always go back to his stock answers was a mistake. He did well on the Cuba question, but I think he would have done better answering the questions straight without always trying to use them to attack Dewhurst

    James probably raised his stock more than the others by simply being no worse than Leppert or Cruz. His final speech tried to cram too much in too hard.

    Leppert was polished, and came across as reasonable, but his answers tended to allude to positions that were too detailed to cover in the debate format.

    James: Apartment boy eviction notice mayonnaise sandwich life story. (Impassioned speech, a little strong.)

    Cruz: Attacks Dewhurst. “We need strong conservatives.” Record of conservative.

    Leppert: Attacks Dewhurst, attacks Cruz.

    Dewhurst: Most conservative Lt. Gov. (Big pause.) Life story. (He’s gotten worse as the debate has gone on.)

    Slater brings up the budget-cutting question on Dewhurst. Shouldn’t you cut it in good times.
    Dewhurst: Cut state spending. I cut state spending 2003, 11, 12, 13.
    (Man, even I’m wincing in sympathy for Dewhurst on this.)
    Dewhurst: General revenue decline 10.7%

    Asking Cruz the Cuba dictator question.
    Cruz: Knocks the question out of the park. DMN retracted.

    Hmmm. Washington Mutual question for Leppert.
    Leppert: (Very slightly rattled, but recovers quickly.) WAMU’s problems were already in place, and mandated. (Then dances away for his businessman shtick.)

    SA reporter on gay civil unions. (Clip of James opposing gay marriage.)
    James: All of us will be accountable to God. I do support marriage between a man and woman.
    SA Reporter: You’re letting your faith get in the way of (following some liberal poll)
    James (doesn’t back down)

    Leppert to Dewhurst: You raised more lobbyist money than Nancy Pelosi and (didn’t catch), (And…was there an actual question.)
    Dewhurst: Rambling answer “I’ve always done what is right”???????

    Cruz To Leppert: Dewhurst wage tax? Did Dewhurst cut or increase the budget?
    Leppert: I might as well let you ask the question to Dewhurst. (knives Cruz about his career as a lawyer) To you business is academic, to me it’s a living.
    Dewhurst: I have always opposed a state income tax. The facts are wrong. Fed vs. Texas dollars.

    James to Cruz: Why didn’t you support Santorum.
    Cruz: Santorum is a great conservative. But I wanted to let the voters decide. We need strong conservatives to take the Senate.

    Dewhurst just had a senior moment asking whether Craig James would support Cornyn.
    James: I’ll support anyone who supports the constitution and the 10 Commandments. (But he would support Cornyn.)
    Cruz: I said it would be premature of me, but DeMint, Rand Paul, Pat Toomey all support me.

    Candidates ask other candidates questions.

    Reporter: 85% love this cherry-picked issue!
    Leppert: Don’t invite the government in. (Then talks about how the government manages various sub-issues.)
    Cruz: I don’t support then as mandates from the government. TAANSTAFL. Every mandate drives up the cost of health care to buy votes. (Cruz was about to hit a home run, and then went back to the European Dewhurst hit, and turned it into a triple.)
    Dewhurst: I’m running for the senate, my opponents are running against David Dewhurst. We got the best stuff, but we can do better. (An ideologically incoherent answer.)

    Austin reporter: Here are all the ways that ObamCare is awesome via this narrowly tailored polls.
    James: 26 year olds love those provisions because Obama has destroyed the economy. (straddle)
    Dewhurst: Democrats talk about more services. Improve health care outcomes and save money. (Revenge of the Vagues.) Ummm, uhhhh. Look at the cost.

    James: Opposes the wall, supports sending troops to the border. Wall is not practical, (Oppose his answer, but I give him points for floating an answer that swims against conservative consensus.)
    Dewhurst: Supports wall in some spots, but not all. Triple border patrol, a job program for returning vets. (?)
    Leppert: (Ducks wall issue) Secure borders, put accountability in the system. Ask border guys what they need. Washington should supply the tools they want. (Don’t think that’s workable answer.)

    Border wall question: Do you support?
    Cruz: Yes. Triple border patrol. Opposed to amnesty. (Then the attack on Dewhurst.)
    Dewhurst: I’ve always opposed amnesty. Cutting in line is wrong. (This concise format does not favor Dewhurst.)
    Cruz: Dewhurst assigned bills to liberal democratic committee chairman. Washington plays this game all the time.

    James: If an employer doesn’t want tor provide it, they shouldn’t be forced to. (The I’m a businessman schtick)
    Reporter: (Liberal talking points on how mandated contraceptives are awesome)
    James: It’s about freedom. And Democrats want us to talk about contraceptives rather than jobs.
    Dewhurst: Opposes, talks about all the doctors he’s talked to, relatives, etc. Comes across even more scripted than Cruz.

    Dewhurst: I’ve always supported, uh, permissive, free market alternatives

    Cruz: No on contraception, violates religious freedom, is unconstitutional. (Cruz does have a tendency to go to his standard answers, which he does at the end here.)

    San Antonio reporter: Contraception mandate.
    Leppert: “The government was trumping individual freedom.”
    Reporter: Required to mandate?
    Leppert: No. Let patients and doctors make decisions.

    James: Leave it to the military. (James is very good in this shorter format.)
    James: Need major entitlement reform. MSAs, “This is working for middle class.” (sic)

    Cruz: Fundamental entitlement reform, defense reform. (Then back to his points on Dewhurst increasing the Texas budget.)
    Dewhurst: I’ve cut it 7-8 times, billions and billions of dollars, inflation + population growth.

    Leppert: Rely on our armed forces, get congress out of it. Not questions here, detailed proposals.

    Dewhurst: Opposed to the cuts Obama has proposed. Reform procurement.
    So far the candidates are clashing more with the panelists than each other.
    Dewhurst isn’t great, but so far he’s not awful.

    Screw you, panelist, or the yes or no question. You suck
    Panelist: Deficit. Cut defense? (no hands)
    Cruz: Pork yes, defense no.
    Poor job running the panel.

    Mod: 1 minute answer, 30 second rebuttal.

    Leppert: Why not debate? But the issue is a distraction.

    Mod: Why haven’t you shown up?
    David: I’ve shown up at a half dozen (Actually bout 3-LP) I have my campaign to run.

    James: “Put me in an awkward position. It was unethical. I agree conceptual with Ted, because David hasn’t been showing up.”

    Back to the Cruz text message before the debate.
    Cruz: “I’m glad Craig got my text. Lt. Gov has chosen to skip 32 candidate forums. Leppert, James, and I attended. Not rigging.”

    #belodebate on Twitter.

    Just starting. Starting the debate with mention of the Cruz-James text issue.

    Just waiting for the debate to start.

    Tonight I’ll be liveblogging the debate between Ted Cruz, David Dewhurst, Tom Leppert, and Craig James at 7 PM.

    Tags:, , , , , , , ,
    Posted in Elections, Media Watch, Republicans, Texas | 3 Comments »

    Texas Senate Race Update for April 12, 2012

    Thursday, April 12th, 2012

    Reminder: I will be liveblogging the Texas Senate debate here tomorrow at 7 PM. Feel free to drop by for insightful commentary, snarky asides, and no doubt a veritable cavalcade of deeply embarrassing typos.

    Now this week’s Senate race news:

  • Ted Cruz decries Obama’s understanding of the constitution over at NRO.
  • The Hill picks up on the Ted Cruz-Marco Rubio comparison.
  • Ted Cruz picks up the endorsement of…Pat Boone? Actually it’s in his role as spokesman of the 60 Plus Association. Like Dewhurst’s many business association endorsements, it won’t hurt, but I don’t actually see it swaying anyone’s vote. Unless hipsters suddenly made Pat Boone cool while I wasn’t looking…

  • The Cruz campaign also rolled out a new website to attack Dewhurst with, http://www.dewbious.com/. No new revelations there if you’ve been following the campaign closely.
  • The Houston Chronicle profiles David Dewhurst. Honestly, it’s less interesting for the Dewhurst coverage than the usual liberal MSM talking points scattered throughout, including the classic “or like Perry, whose budget called for cuts to public education that some have labeled extreme.” And by cuts he means “increase” and by “some” he means “all my fellow liberal reporters.”
  • The Dewhurst camp dings, quite properly, Cruz-supporter Dick Armey’s reference to Dewhurst being backed by “Daddy’s money.” Dewhurst’s father died when he was three, and Dewhurst spent time in the Air Force and the CIA before making his own fortune in the oil industry. Armey owes Dewhurst an apology, but Cruz does not; receiving someone’s endorsement does not make you responsible for their every dumb statement.
  • Dewhurst agrees to one more candidate forum on May 3, featuring Cruz, Tom Leppert, Craig James and Democrats Paul Sadler and Sean Hubbard.
  • State of play piece in the Houston Chronicle.
  • Dewhurst unveils a new radio ad featuring Mike Huckabee:

  • Tom Leppert unveils a new TV ad:

  • The Texas Tribune notes that Leppert attacked Cruz and Dewhurst, but not Craig James. Well, duh. Why should the guy in third place attack the guy in fourth place?
  • Craig James blasts Cruz for suggesting to him (via text message) he bring up Dewhurst’s constant debate ducking at tomorrow’s debate. A rare misstep for Cruz.
  • Glenn Addison complains about not being included in the debate.

    • Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
    Posted in Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Texas, video | 1 Comment »

    Liveblogging the Texas Senate Debate Friday, April 13, 7 PM

    Wednesday, April 11th, 2012

    I’m livebloggiong the debate here.

    This is announcement that I will be attempting to liveblog the Texas Senate debate happening this Friday, April 13, at 7 PM CDT.

    Some of the things I’ll be looking at most keenly:

  • David Dewhurst’s performance: As the only one of the four major Republican candidates I haven’t interviewed, I’m interested in seeing how Dewhurst performs; several commentator’s dinged him for slow, hesitant answers the last time he attended one of these.
  • Ted Cruz hitting Dewhurst over the Payroll Tax: I’m hoping a lively exchange between the two may clarify the “was Dewhurst proposing a state income tax or not” question.
  • Whether Dewhurst will try to ding Cruz over his law firm work for a Chinese company (weak sauce) or work for George Soros by other members of the firm (non-existent sauce).
  • Will anyone bring up Leppert playing footsies with ACORN and gay rights organizations while he was mayor of Dallas? Or, for that matter, anything concerning his record as mayor?
  • Will Craig James bring up more policy specifics than he has before? Not any area of strength for the James campaign so far.

    • As for Senate debate drinking games, sip every time:

  • James says “real street.”
  • Cruz says “proven conservative.”
  • Leppert or Dewhurst says “businessman.”
  • Anyone but Cruz says “I’m not a lawyer…”

    • Chug when:

  • James uses a football metaphor.
  • Leppert says “I don’t speak in 30 second sound bites.”
  • Cruz or Dewhurst mentions their fathers.

    • Tags:, , , , , , , , , ,
    Posted in Elections, Media Watch, Republicans, Texas | 3 Comments »

    Texas Senate Race Update for April 5, 2012

    Thursday, April 5th, 2012

    Expect things to be a little slow for the Easter weekend:

  • Ted Cruz appeared on Fox 26 in Houston:

  • Cruz got attacked by Progress Texas for advertising on Rush Limbaugh. So Cruz reaches conservative listeners and gets liberals to attack him, so it’s a Win-Win situation for him…
  • Cruz’s father Rafael Cruz will appear at a Tea Party rally April 16.
  • The Weekly Standard takes a look at the race.
  • The Houston Chronicle looks at the social media front.
  • David Dewhurst plops down $608,000 for a media ad buy.
  • Hotline-on-Call pulls the “Cruz won’t necessarily back Sen. John Cornyn for Whip” story out of the freezer and pops it in the microwave.
  • You know how Craig James claimed that Walmart heir Alice Walton was supporting him? Yeah, not so much. Walton is backing Dewhurst.
  • Democratic candidate Addie D. Allen visited Lubbock.
  • She also appeared in Amarillo. So she’s already more active on the campaign trail than Ricardo Sanchez was…

    • Tags:, , , , , , , ,
    Posted in Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Texas, Uncategorized | No Comments »

    Texas Senate Race Update for March 29, 2012

    Thursday, March 29th, 2012
  • Ted Cruz won the endorsement of Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, which is a terrific pickup for him. He joins Jim DeMint and Rand Paul among sitting conservative Republican senators who have endorsed Cruz.
  • Cruz appeared (again) on the Mark Levin show:

  • Cruz will also be at a King Street Patriots rally in Houston on April 3.
  • Another week, another batch of business group endorsements for David Dewhurst, this time from the Independent Bankers Association of Texas…
  • …as well as the Texas Apartment Association…
  • …and the the Texas Society of Professional Engineers (probably more popular than bankers or apartment owners).
  • Rice University political scientist Mark P. Jones says that David Dewhurst is a moderate by Republican standards: “Frequently used his powers of agenda control to help pass legislation opposed by the most conservative members of the Republican delegation. In addition, the best estimate of Dewhurst’s location along the liberal-conservative continuum which dominates voting in the Texas Senate suggests he is significantly less conservative than approximately one-third of the Republican delegation, particularly conservative outliers Brian Birdwell of Granbury and Dan Patrick of Houston….for Republicans located in the party’s centrist and moderate conservative wings, Dewhurst is likely to be ‘just right.'” It’s an interesting statistical analysis, and conforms to my own opinion of Dewhurst: Not a RINO, but not a true movement conservative, either.
  • The Dewhurst campaign is being more than a bit silly (again) in trying to link Cruz to George Soros because some of the other 1,300 lawyers at the same international law firm have done work for Soros. I’ve already debunked this. It’s actually fairly embarrassing that they’re still trying to make this argument.
  • Tom Leppert was endorsed by Dallas County Commissioner Maurine Dickey.
  • Craig James picks up a deep-pocketed backer in Walmart heir Alice Walton.
  • Both James and Cruz get some love in this Wall Street Journal piece.
  • Let’s give James props for putting this on his Facebook page, since it did make me smile:

  • There’s going to be a televised Senate debate April 13.
  • KERA interviewed the four candidates:

  • Want to watch a 38 minute interview with Democratic candidate Paul Sadler? Me neither, but I run a full-service blog:

    A Conversation with Paul Sadler from texastribune on Vimeo.

    • Tags:, , , , , , , , ,
    Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »

    Interview With Texas Senate Candidate Craig James

    Wednesday, March 28th, 2012

    After much back and forth with his campaign trying to find a date, I was finally able to interview Texas Senate candidate Craig James on March 21 at the Rudy’s on South 360 here in Austin. This was, alas, not an ideal atmosphere for an interview (it got better when one of his staffers asked Rudy’s to turn off their piped in music for the area, which is something I should have thought of asking for), and the first part of the interview makes it hard to hear. After the first question, I stopped the camera and moved it closer to James so you can hear his answers, so the audio gets much better about 1:35 in, though I seem to have cut off the top of his head in the process. So let me apologize in advance for the less-than-sterling sound and video quality for various parts of the interview, but the vast majority of the interview is intelligible. I filmed this with my Mino Flip camera and did a light edit in iMovie, so the crappiness is 100% my fault (or that of the environment it was filmed in).

    Thoughts:

  • James is a very confident, well-spoken and personable speaker with a lot of natural charisma. He seems to get the big picture of the conservative agenda (a constitutionally limited government, and a commitment to free markets) and obviously comes from a social conservative background.
  • I like that he would eliminate the Department of Education, but it’s a bit hard to square with his emphasis on vocational training in the second part of the answer. It’s not that I disagree that it’s a good idea, it’s just that after the elimination of the Department of Education, I don’t see any viable (or proper) role for such fine-grained educational policy control at the federal level.
  • I’m not particularly interested in the Texas Tech question that starts part 2, but since it’s the most famous controversy he’s been involved in, the interview would have felt incomplete without it.
  • There are a couple of interesting admissions I give him credit for: admitting that Texans for a Better Tomorrow was created as a vehicle for him to explore a role in politics, and admitting that he would root for the New England Patriots (for whom he played in the NFL) were they to meet the Cowboys in the Superbowl, a brave position that’s obviously not pandering to his constituents.
  • I didn’t like the vagueness of his positions beyond a few policy specifics, and the fact he tried to straddle both sides of some issues (such as PIPA/SOPA in the second half of the interview). Both Ted Cruz and Tom Leppert were occasionally vague on some points, but James is already sounding awfully vague for someone who hasn’t ever held elective office.
  • The low-point of the interview (about 3:15 into the second part) was finding out that James has never heard of the Posse Comitatus Act. This is not an obscure statute, it’s one of the fundamental laws governing the limitations of using federal troops. I would expect not only anyone with an interest in politics to at least have heard of the Posse Comitatus act, I would actually expect the same of anyone with a basic college education.

    • I’d like to thank Craig James for taking time out of his busy schedule to speak with me, and his staff for their assistance in setting up the interview.

    Now I’ve interviewed all the major Republican Senate candidates but David Dewhurst. If his campaign would get in touch with me to set a convenient date in the next few weeks, I’d like to correct that oversight…

    Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
    Posted in Austin, Border Control, Budget, Crime, Economics, Elections, Republicans, Texas, video | 2 Comments »

    Texas Senate Race Update for March 23, 2012

    Friday, March 23rd, 2012

    Wednesday night I finally got a chance to interview Craig James, so I hope to have the video of that up next week (though I have to warn you in advance that the technical quality is not as good as it could be, as the location (the Rudy’s on south 360) was less than ideal for filming, sound-wise). I also hope (if he has the time) to post an email mini-interview with Ted Cruz specifically focused on the Supreme Court taking up the ObamaCare case.

  • Ted Cruz picks up the endorsement of the Republican Liberty Caucus.
  • Cruz also got a generally fair and balanced piece on his arguing of cases before the Supreme Court by Kate Alexander in the Austin-American Statesman. Of all the MSM reporters covering the race, so far I’d say she’s doing the best job, something I never thought I would say about someone at the Statesman…
  • He also appeared on the Mark Levin Show.
  • He also produced a TV ad that offers a subset of last week’s radio ad:

  • National Journal says the Cruz ad buy on Fox News is $222,000.
  • Craig James joins the chorus of those complaining about Dewhurst ducking debates.
  • And the one upcoming debate Dewhurst is not ducking? Turns out one of the hosts is backing a Dewhurst SuperPac That’s some might fine objective journalism you’ve got going on there, Lou…
  • Big Jolly is impressed with Dewhurst and Tom Leppert’s campaigns.
  • Leppert campaigned in Longview.
  • Leppert appeared on the “Dr. Carol Show” (I’m assuming it’s this one, which seems to be out of Austin, and not the “Holistic Veterinarian”):

  • Craig James gets a Texas Monthly profile. It’s an interesting piece.
  • The Houston Chronicle‘s Joe Holley also speaks with James.
  • Glenn Addison campaigns in Lubbock.
  • The Wall Street Journal offers up a surprisingly bland and insight-free snapshot of the race. Like the mashed potatoes on your cafeteria tray, it’s strictly filler.
  • Paul Sadler, Addie Dainell Allen and Grady Yarbrough all appeared at a debate in Dallas, the details of which, alas, are hidden behind the Dallas Morning News paywall. But where was Sean Hubbard?

    • Tags:, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
    Posted in Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »

    « Older Entries
    Newer Entries »