Posts Tagged ‘Wendy Davis’
Friday, September 19th, 2014
Well, if Wendy Davis was hoping the Rio Grande Valley debate would help her catch up to Greg Abbott, she probably should have worked to have a voice other than the pre-programmed monotone she used. She also loses points for the lack of discipline at having answers that extended beyond her allotted time (which I commend the debate hosts for strictly enforcing), and then continuing to talk rudely over their attempts to shut her off.
Abbott won by a comfortable margin. Davis wins points for actually knowing the Mexican Water Treaty of 1944, but loses even more points for flat out lying about Republicans wanting to repeal the Voting Rights Act of 1964, as opposed to ending the preclearence requirements.
I doubt terribly many minds were changed by the debate, except possibly those of donors who previously thought Davis might be worth giving more money to…
Tags:2014 Election, 2014 Governor's Race, debate, Greg Abbott, Rio Grande Valley, Texas, Wendy Davis
Posted in Border Control, Crime, Elections, Texas | No Comments »
Friday, September 12th, 2014
Reporting on the Wendy Davis campaign at this point is like reporting on the Titanic 80% of the way into the sinking (“And there goes the second smokestack under the waves!”). But someone has to write a first draft of those epic failures for the historical record, so let’s press on…
Right now polls show Greg Abbott up a comfortable 18 points over Davis, 54% to 36%.
It’s gotten so bad that the Davis campaign “leaked” one of those ridiculous, can’t remotely trust them “internal polls” that shows her a mere 8 points behind Abbott, 38% to his 46%. You know it’s bad when you can’t even pretend to be winning in your own fantasy land poll.
Also, the Abbott campaign filed an ethics complaint against the Davis campaign for using her campaign funds to attend a book signing in New York City. (I wonder if her New York City signing had the same strict conditions as her Austin signing.) Since Davis did have one fundraising event on the trip, I doubt the complaint will succeed legally, but it does further the Abbott campaign’s picture of Davis as a woman who has more supporters in New York and California than in Texas.
The big question at this point is: What’s the floor for how poorly Wendy Davis can do in the general election? I think she can drop below the 39.96% Tony Sanchez garnered in 2002. I don’t see her eclipsing the pitiful low-mark of Garry Mauro’s 31.18% in 1998, much less Chris Bell’s 29.79% in the 4-way Perry-Bell-Strayhorn-Friedman race in 2006. Davis has garnered a lot more fawning media attention than Sanchez ever got, and didn’t have the bruising primary fight Sanchez had against Dan Morales, much less one where her opponent ended up endorsing the Republican nominee, as Morales did. On the other hand, Davis doesn’t have $60 million of her own money to spend on her campaign the way Sanchez did.
Tags:2014 Election, 2014 Governor's Race, Chris Bell, Elections, Greg Abbott, Tony Sanchez, Wendy Davis
Posted in Elections, Texas | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 10th, 2014
Wendy Davis is signing at Austin book store Bookpeople tomorrow (September 11, 2014) at 12:30 PM. (Bookpeople, if you haven’t been there, is a nice independent bookstore that has all kinds of authors in for signings, not just liberal politicians, and Rick Perry signed there in 2008.)
The signing itself is not odd, it’s the conditions for the signing that are odd:
EVENT GUIDELINES
This event is a SIGNING only. Senator Davis will not give a public talk.
Tickets are required to join the signing line.
Tickets are available to purchase in-store and via bookpeople.com
Tickets cost as much as the price of one copy of Forgetting to Be Afraid plus tax.
Each ticket grants access to the signing line for ONE person and will be exchanged for ONE signed copy of Forgetting to Be Afraid at the signing table the day of the event.
There is a limit of one ticket/book per person.
The line for the signing will form first come, first served the day of the event.
Books will not be personalized.
Photos will not be allowed at the signing table.
No memorabilia will be signed at this event.
No talk, no photos, no personalization. It’s like it’s a privilege to be in the same room as her. And if I know Bookpeople, plenty of autographed copies will be available the next day for purchase, sans ticket.
I know for a fact that such rules were not in place for signings there by Neil Gaiman or Neal Stephenson (both of whom, I’d estimate, are considerably more famous that Wendy Davis). Indeed, the “no personalization/no photo” rules were not even in place for Hillary Clinton’s signing there.
Why does a failing gubernatorial candidate merit more high-and-mighty treatment than a former Secretary of State, First Lady and losing Presidential candidate?
If I had to guess, it would be that her handlers are scared to death she’ll make a gaffe…
Tags:2014 Election, 2014 Governor's Race, Austin, Books, Democrats, Elections, Wendy Davis
Posted in Austin, Democrats, Elections, Texas | No Comments »
Thursday, August 28th, 2014
It’s not been a good month for people trying to pretend the Wendy Davis campaign is actually capable of winning the Governor’s mansion.
First, during a time when Davis desperately needs media attention to have any hope of closing the gap with Republican opponent Attorney General Greg Abbott, the Rick Perry indictment is sucking up all the media oxygen. “It’s very good for Greg Abbott because he’s up by 12-13-14 points on Wendy Davis and he has two to three times as much money as she does to close out this race in the final weeks.”
Next comes word that Wendy Davis is actually polling 10 points behind where Bill White was at this time four years ago. And Bill White, despite running a markedly more competent and professional campaign than Davis has thus far, got slaughtered.
Then it was revealed that Davis was trying to hide her 2013 tax returns, giving partial copies to the media “with the stipulation that the document couldn’t be shared with anyone or published in full.” A look at those returns shows why. Her 2013 tax return itself shows that out of $249,754 in gross income, Wendy Davis actually paid Uncle Sam a grand total of $788 in withholding in 2013. That left her just a wee, tiny bit short of the amount she she estimated had to pay. Namely, $60,000 short. But even that amount (which is what she sent in with her extension form) turned out to be less than the $70,252 she actually owed, which is why she paid $1,246 in tax penalties.
Evidently, when you pull Davis’ string, she says “Math is hard!” in addition to “Abortion is awesome!”
Finally, Davis’ laughable attack ad attempt to link Abbott to problems at the troubled Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas gets slammed by MSM fact checkers. In fact, Jerald Combs, the only person indicted in the now-closed CPRIT investigation, has not donated anything to Abbott.
In a state as deep red as Texas, Democrats were always going to need a string, spotless candidate running a flawless campaign to have any hope of beating Abbott. Davis isn’t, and she hasn’t.
Tags:2014 Election, 2014 Governor's Race, Elections, Greg Abbott, Media Watch, tax returns, Texas, Wendy Davis
Posted in Democrats, Elections, Media Watch, Texas | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 19th, 2014
I hit Instapundit this morning, and guess who the banner ad was attacking?
That’s right: An anti-Greg Abbott, pro-Wendy Davis ad on Instapundit! That’s some mighty fine use of targeted advertising, Wendy Davis campaign!
Next up: A Jewish Defense League fundraising appeal on Al Jazerra…
Tags:2014 Election, 2014 Governor's Race, Greg Abbott, Instapundit, Media Watch, Texas, Wendy Davis
Posted in Elections, Media Watch, Texas | No Comments »
Thursday, August 14th, 2014
With all Obama’s manifest incompetence at the national and international level, it’s easy to neglect Texas election news, so here’s a small update to tide you over.
Even liberal MSM fossil Paul Burka says that the governor’s race is over and Wendy Davis has already lost. (Shhhhh! Don’t tell her national liberal donors! Let them keep tossing dollars down the hole…
Abbott wants to reform Texas occupational licensing schemes, noting that an EMT only requires 33 days of training, but cosmetologists and barbers require 350 days of training.
Lt. Governor candidates Dan Patrick and Leticia Van de Putte will be having debate in September.
Brandon Creighton wins special election for state senate.
In the Texas House District 136 race (my district), Democratic challenger John Bucy claims to have raised more money than Republican incumbent Tony Dale. But that’s only true by counting Bucy’ spersonal political expenditures as contributions, contrary to state law, counting his volunteer campaign manager’s non-existent $22,018.70 “salary” as a contribution, and counting a bunch of other in-kind contributions.
Tags:2014 Election, 2014 Governor's Race, 2014 Lt. Governor's Race, Brandon Creighton, Democrats, Greg Abbott, John Bucy, Regulation, Republicans, Texas, Tony Dale, Wendy Davis
Posted in Democrats, Elections, Regulation, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »
Friday, July 18th, 2014
This has not been Wendy Davis’ week.
First Greg Abbott’s campaign announces that he has more than $35 million cash on hand. Since Abbott was already the prohibitive favorite, hearing that he’s shattered Texas gubernatorial fundraising records wasn’t exactly a ray of sunshine for Team Wendy.
Second, a Dallas Morning News headline proclaims that “Hollywood luminaries, labor and trial lawyers fuel Wendy Davis campaign.” Thus reminding everyone yet again that Davis is a liberal media darling whose fundraising occurs out of state because she’s far more popular in Hollywood than in Texas.
Now even the Democrat-friendly Texas Tribune is debunking her fund-raising numbers:
Instead of $13.1 million in cash on hand as claimed, the reports Davis and her allies filed show there was actually $12.8 million in the bank at the end of June, a difference of about $300,000.
Meanwhile, the $11.2 million Davis claims she raised over the latest period — an amount she said was larger than the $11.1 million Abbott raised — contains over half a million dollars in non-cash “in-kind” donations and counts contributions that could benefit other Democratic candidates.
One of the biggest sources of non-cash donations: a $250,000 in-kind contribution from country singing legend Willie Nelson. That’s how much the red-headed stranger told the campaign he would have charged for a free concert he gave at the senator’s Houston fundraiser, the campaign said.
The lower-than-advertised cash figure and non-traditional accounting methods raise questions about how much money can be accurately attributed to Davis for the latest period.
Also this:
It was the cash-on-hand figure from Battleground Texas that came in lower than advertised. In the press release, the Davis campaign said Battleground would report $1.1 million in the bank. But Battleground told the Ethics Commission it only had $806,000 in the bank.
That’s a double-dose of good news: The hopeless Davis campaign is sucking up money that might go to competitive races nationwide, and the well is running dry on Battleground Texas, which might conceivably be able to swing a few down-ballot races with better funding.
And the general election is four months away…
Tags:2014 Election, 2014 Governor's Race, Elections, fundraising, Greg Abbott, Texas, Trial Lawyers, unions, Wendy Davis
Posted in Elections, Media Watch, Texas, unions | 1 Comment »
Monday, June 23rd, 2014
Some Texas statewide race news to start your week with:
Her campaign manager twitched her whiskers, then jumped off the USS Wendy Davis. Speaking of which, remember her old logo?
Of the move, liberal MSM fossil Paul Burka says it’s about time: “The Davis campaign has been a disaster.” Also:
Democrats have already started describing the Republican slate as the “Abbott, Patrick, Paxton ticket.” There is always a “be careful what you wish for” component to these races. Patrick in particular is a very shrewd operator who has widespread support from the conservative base. He is a dangerous opponent. Democrats who underestimate him do so at their peril.
The fact that Greg Abbott is kicking Wendy Davis’ ass in polls is no surprise. The fact that Dan Patrick is kicking Leticia Van de Putte’s ass by an even bigger margin is.
Davis’ political obituary is already being written: “Privately, many of her supporters are resigned to her losing. And, already, some political operatives are pondering how she can stay politically relevant beyond November.” As I’ve said before, I think in 2015 she’ll host her own show on MSNBC.
Don’t give up, Wendy Davis! “Republicans needed her to be sucking up Democratic donors’ dollars all year long.”
Davis continues to raise funds where she’s most beloved: outside Texas.
More on that theme.
Abbott’s first ads against Davis are running in Spanish during the World Cup. It’s a sign of Abbott’s strength that he feels no need to secure his own base, so he can cut into Davis’ base right out of the gate.
Davis and Van de Putte are getting together to celebrate the one year anniversary of her abortion filibuster on Wednesday.
Abbott and Davis agree to two debates.
Abbot is not a big fan of corporate welfare.
Tags:2014 Governor's Race, 2014 Lt. Governor's Race, abortion, Elections, Greg Abbott, Leticia Van de Putte, Paul Burka, Texas, Wendy Davis
Posted in Elections, Texas | No Comments »
Thursday, May 1st, 2014
Ask Bo Delp.
“Bo Delp, spokesman and former communications director for Sen. Wendy Davis’ campaign for governor, has resigned.”
(By the way, Delp seems to go by Dr. Robert Delp for his resume.)
The Davis campaign has been roundly criticized from all sides (including liberal pundits and members of the press) for continued organizational problems and a candidate who did not appear to be ready for prime time. But for her spokesman to leave the most important, high profile, and well-funded Democratic campaign in Texas, things there must be even more dysfunctional than they appear.
Delp said Thursday that he is “considering a number of other opportunities in Texas Democratic politics.” Yes, because there are so many Texas Democrats with a higher profile than Wendy Davis.
Also, this bit is hardly reassuring for voters who want Davis to actually represent Texans and Washington, not just be another tool of the liberal elite:
“Zac Petkanas, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s former communications director, became Davis’ communications director in March.”
Evidently getting her money out-of-state wasn’t enough for Davis; now she has to import her personnel from the national Democratic Party elite as well…
(Hat tip: Moe Lane.)
Tags:2014 Governor's Race, Bo Delp, Democrats, Texas, Wendy Davis
Posted in Democrats, Elections, Texas | No Comments »
