Posts Tagged ‘Dick Armey’

Dick Armey Aims to Unseat Speaker Joe Straus

Monday, September 24th, 2012

Well, this is very interesting:

FreedomWorks, which helped insurgent Ted Cruz snatch the GOP nod for U.S. Senate from Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, said Monday it will put its muscle behind toppling Texas House Speaker Joe Straus of San Antonio from his leadership post.

Armey’s one sharp cookie, and he plays hardball. Conservatives came up short when they challenged the moderate Straus before last session, but the incoming Texas House looks to be more conservative, and a lot of Straus’s committee chairs lost in the primary. But Straus is no pushover, and I imagine he still sits on a big pile of legislative IOUs, as well as lobbyist juice and gambling money. Will a disgruntled David Dewhurst throw his still-considerably clout behind his counterpart in the House?

This promises to be a very interesting fight…

Update: Here’s the Freedomworks press release, where Brendan Steinhauser says they’re supporting State Rep. Bryan Hughes for Speaker.

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Posted in Republicans, Texas | 1 Comment »

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.

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

    Texas Senate Race Update for December 13, 2011

    Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

    The filing deadline for all races is coming up on Thursday. Beyond that, the biggest news is probably going on behind the scenes, as I suspect all three of the major candidates are raising money like mad in advance of the Q4 deadline, the last to be reported before the March primary.

  • Ted Cruz, David Dewhurst and Tom Leppert have all officially filed for election.
  • So have Glenn Addison, Curt Clever, Charles Holcomb (as mentioned yesterday), and one Ben Gambini of Winnie (about which The Google has precious little; he might as well be Chauncey Gardener).
  • Sean Hubbard says he’s filed, and his name showed up on the Texas Democrats’ website today.
  • Still no sign of Ricardo Sanchez’s name. Two days left…
  • Leppert picked up the endorsements of a number of former Dallas Cowboys, including Roger Staubach (who I mentioned previously as having donated to Leppert) and Troy Aikman. Again, all those play to his Dallas base, but Staubach and Aikman’s endorsements certainly won’t hurt him in the rest of the state.
  • Dewhurst calls on Eric Holder to resign.
  • Dewhurst stated that he was willing to debate once or twice. As Texas Iconoclast noted: “How magnanimous of his highness.”
  • Once you get beyond the condescending opening (“Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst enters the U.S. Senate campaign with considerable cash and name recognition, but a couple of Republican challengers are nipping at his heels”), this Houston Chronicle piece is a fairly accurate distillation of the consensus wisdom on the race.
  • Speaking of MSM outlets, Robert T. Garrett in The Dallas Morning News has an interesting bit on Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks setting up a phone bank for Cruz. Garrett has even toned down most of his usual smug condescension…
  • Sen Jim DeMint also appeared with Cruz at a Houston fundraiser on December 6.
  • Dewhurst spoke in Wichita Falls.
  • The Texas Restaurant Association endorses Dewhurst. That link also notes that:

    This endorsement follows other major Texas endorsements of Dewhurst’s candidacy in recent weeks, including the Texas Poultry Federation, three former presidents of the Texas Farm Bureau, BEEF-PAC, the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association Political Action Committee and the Texas Farm Bureau Friends of Agriculture Fund last week. David has also received endorsements from the Texas State Association of Fire Fighters, the Texas State Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police, the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, the Texas Municipal Police Association and the Texas Department of Public Safety Officers Association PAC. Prior to those, he received endorsements Texas Right To Life PAC, pro-life leaders Kyleen Wright and Carol Everett, and the Texas Alliance for Life PAC.

    Dewhurst was always going to get the lion share of the business endorsements. The pro-life endorsements I’ve covered. The police and firefighter pickups won’t hurt.

  • Well, there’s one group that probably won’t be endorsing Craig James if he jumps in: Texas Tech boosters. But I don’t know where the silly “killed 5 hookers” meme started.
  • Robert Pratt at Empower Texas is not impressed with Tom Leppert’s pledge to “get things done” in Washington. I hardly qualify as a Leppert cheerleader, but I do think they make much ado about nothing for what is essentially a rhetorical flourish.

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    Posted in Elections, Media Watch, Republicans, Texas | 1 Comment »