Posts Tagged ‘Texas Gubernatorial Race’

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Wendy Davis Stops Digging, Gets Out Jackhammer

Tuesday, October 14th, 2014

Once again, the Wendy Davis campaign is the gift that keeps giving to conservative pundits. It’s all over but the voting at this point, but Davis’ thrashing, flailing campaign is so ham-handed and tone-deaf that she keeps staying in the news for all the wrong reasons.

First came this amazingly stupid ad:

Reaction was swift and pretty much universally negative.

Fox: “Absolute desperation…catastrophic.”

Even ultra-lefty Mother Jones was appalled: “Wendy Davis just released an ad attacking Greg Abbott, her opponent for governor in Texas, which is, to be blunt, bullshit. It’s offensive and nasty and it shouldn’t exist. She’s basically calling Abbott a cripple.”

MSNBC? “A huge blunder.” “Every Democrat I met down there was appalled.” “She’s gonna get creamed.”

Indeed, the ad is so ill-considered and offensive that it may derail what I thought would be her next gig: a position at MSNBC.

As Hot Air noted: “Perhaps Wendy Davis isn’t familiar with what an Attorney General does.”

Also note that this ad didn’t come from an outside group or SuperPAC, this came from the Davis campaign itself. Her fingerprints are all over it and she has no deniability.

So what did Davis do after this nigh-on universal condemnation? She doubled down on stupid.

And this happened:

And Abbott? He’s just shrugging over the whole thing, and why shouldn’t he? Never interrupt your opponent when they’re in the process of committing suicide. Also note that he eschewed the frequent liberal tactic of calling a press conference to talk about how offended he is. When you’re a front-runner with a comfortable lead and a big money advantage, you don’t need such cheap theatrics.

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

The Incredible Shrinking Wendy Davis

Wednesday, February 5th, 2014

The last few weeks have not been kind to Wendy Davis.

Since announcing very respectable fundraising totals in early January, it’s been all downhill since then.

First came the revelations of the many falsehoods in her biography, then doubling down on some falsehoods.

Even the lefty Texas Observer said “the Wendy Davis operation is about the worst at media relations that I’ve ever seen. Her team’s mismanagement of the press is damaging her candidacy.” (This will not be a surprise to those reading this blog.)

Also, her decent fundraising numbers appear to have evaporated:

Of course, it doesn’t help her campaign that Davis has expensive tastes.

Everything about her campaign suggests she was woefully unprepared to run a statewide race in Texas.

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Posted in Democrats, Elections, Texas | 1 Comment »

Your Obligatory “Wendy Davis is a Damn Liar” Post

Tuesday, January 21st, 2014

Everyone and their dog has already chimed in on Wendy Davis’ serial prevarications by now, but hey, it is my state.

WendyDavisSadDog

In the Dallas Morning News, political reporter Wayne Slater brought up examples of Davis’ campaign biography that don’t match up with the facts:

It is her biography — a divorced teenage mother living in a trailer who earned her way to Harvard and political achievement — that her team is using to attract voters and boost fundraising.

The basic elements of the narrative are true, but the full story of Davis’ life is more complicated, as often happens when public figures aim to define themselves. In the shorthand version that has developed, some facts have been blurred.

Davis was 21, not 19, when she was divorced. She lived only a few months in the family mobile home while separated from her husband before moving into an apartment with her daughter.

A single mother working two jobs, she met Jeff Davis, a lawyer 13 years older than her, married him and had a second daughter. He paid for her last two years at Texas Christian University and her time at Harvard Law School, and kept their two daughters while she was in Boston. When they divorced in 2005, he was granted parental custody, and the girls stayed with him. Wendy Davis was directed to pay child support.

In an extensive interview last week, Davis acknowledged some chronological errors and incomplete details in what she and her aides have said about her life.

“My language should be tighter,” she said. “I’m learning about using broader, looser language. I need to be more focused on the detail.”

Just try that “my language should be tighter” line if you ever get audited by the IRS.

Wendy Davis’ campaign biography leans heavily on her time as a single teenage mom. She was indeed all of those things, just not at the same time.

Other tidbits: When she ran for the Ft. Worth city council in 1996, she did it as a Republican and voted in GOP primaries.

Also, there’s that little bit about Davis leaving her husband the day after he paid off her Harvard loan. As one Twitter wag put it:

There are a few other tiny wrinkles to Davis’ life story. The fact her ex sought a restraining order to keep her from using illegal drugs while visiting her children is one. Another is the fact that she lied about some of the details of her life story under oath.

A few more Twitter observations on the latest Wendy Davis revelations:

It also doesn’t say much about her intelligence that she thought she could get away with these lies in the Internet era…

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Posted in Democrats, Elections, Texas | 1 Comment »

Wendy Davis Pulls in (Extends Pinky) One MILLION Dollars From Dr. Evil, er, Oliver

Thursday, January 16th, 2014

I’ve been going through Wendy Davis’ finance report. I hope to report some interesting tidbits, but the Statesman beat me to the punch on one of the most interesting, reporting Davis received a hefty (raises pinky) one million dollars from a doctor Carolyn Oliver.

I’m sure liberals who complaining about the corrupting influence of money in politics will be asking her to give that back any minute now.

(Checks watch)

Any minute now…

In the meantime, here’s the Washington Post and Will Franklin on why Wendy Davis’ fundraising numbers are considerably less impressive than they seem to be.

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Will Kinky Friedman Run for Governor Again? Will Rick Perry?

Thursday, August 9th, 2012

Word is he’s considering a run in 2014.

Could Kinky get nominated? Sure. You saw how little effort it took to run as a Democratic statewide for the Senate, and Kinky starts off with greater name recognition than any of the Dems in that race. There’s little indication any prominent Democrat wants to go through the meat-grinder of a statewide race (though if I were to guess, trial lawyer Jason A. Gibson, who launched an abortive Senate bid before Sadler got stamped with the union label, might make a run). Kinky’s probably to the right of the Democratic primary electorate, but I don’t see anyone with his name recognition talking about a run.

Could Kinky do better than he did in 2006? Sure. Kinky only got 12.5% of the vote, coming in fourth. Even Democrat Chris Bell did better in that four-way race, pulling in just shy of 30% of the vote. That’s probably his absolute floor if he gets the Democratic nomination, and it’s probably closer to 40%.

Could Kinky win? Doubtful, but not impossible. Save for 2006, Democratic gubernatorial candidates have pulled in between 40% (Tony Sanchez) and 42% (Bill White) of the vote against Rick Perry. Perry clearly damaged his popularity with the missteps of his abortive Presidential run (and, to a lesser extent, his endorsement of David Dewhurst’s failed senatorial campaign), though probably not enough to lose to Kinky (or any other Democrat), assuming he runs again. But two years is a long time, both good and bad. Perry has time to recover, but also to make a catastrophic error or fumble a crisis. And while it’s not nearly as widespread as the MSM would like you to believe, there is a certain amount of Perry fatigue among even Republican voters. Perry’s already the longest serving Governor in Texas history, having replaced George W. Bush on December 21, 2000. That’s an awful long time for anyone to be in the same office, and there are plenty of people ready to make the argument that it’s too long.

Will Rick Perry run again in 2014? Answer cloudy, ask again later. Maybe even Perry doesn’t know yet. Word is that Attorney General Greg Abbott is itching for the office, and may run even if Perry doesn’t opt to retire. If I had to guess, I think it’s slightly more likely that Perry retires than that he runs again. He has nothing left to prove at a statewide level. Dewhurst’s implosion proved that even the most well-heeled Texas incumbents are vulnerable to a challenge from the right. Perry has very little to gain and much to lose from hanging on, and a Perry-Abbott race would be a brutal smackdown that could go either way. It would probably be in Perry’s best interest to assume that Texas A&M Presidency rumor has the diehard Aggie angling for as his post-gubernatorial sinecure, and possibly contemplate another Presidential run at the end of Romney’s second term. But Perry would hardly be the first politician to stay in office too long.

Another gubernatorial run might not be good for Kinky, but it would be be good for the Texas Democratic Party, which resembles a moldy thing in a jar more than a viable alternative. Kinky might (might) even be able to shake off the stultifying far-left political correctness that has rendered the party uncompetitive in statewide races.

It would also be good for the Republican Party of Texas; once you get past the Tea Party, there’s no one left to keep them honest.

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On the Way Out, Kay Bailey Hutchison Demonstrates Why She’s On the Way Out

Friday, March 23rd, 2012

Proving that she’s become part of the problem, Kay Bailey Hutchison took Planned Parenthood’s side in the current funding dispute. It’s an object lesson in why, even if she hadn’t retired, Hutchison was no longer going to be a Senator after January 3, 2013. As Texas has gotten more conservative, Hutchison has gotten more liberal. And her argument that Planned Parenthood is vital to the Texas’ Women’s Health Program is bunk.

Not only should the U.S. government not be providing taxpayer funded abortions, they shouldn’t be subsidizing family planning services period, because it’s not the proper function of the federal government. The idea that Uncle Sam should dispense abortions and condoms is a recent one, and panders not only to big government feminism, but also (speaking of debunked) neo-Malthusian thinking and religious environmentalism. Defunding Planned Parenthood and its ilk should be an easy decision for both economic and religious conservatives. The fact that Hutchison is far more concerned with hoovering up federal dollars just goes to prove Rick Perry’s assertion in the 2010 gubernatorial race that “Washington changed Kay.”

There has long been grumbling about Hutchison not being conservative enough, but only in her last term did it become loud enough to ensure that somebody would launch a primary challenge against her; her suicidal attempt to bring down Perry in 2010 just hastened the process. (Why both she and another moderate Republican woman, Carole Keeton McClellan Rylander Strayhorn, both felt such burning animus toward Perry that each destroyed their careers in futile attempts to take him out is an interesting topic I don’t have enough insight on to address.)

Both Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann have proven that it’s possible to be elected as a strong conservative woman. It’s just a shame that Texas doesn’t have one as a U.S. senator.

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Posted in Budget, Elections, Texas | 1 Comment »

Rick Perry Doesn’t Pull Any Punches

Tuesday, October 26th, 2010

As seen by this video by a Houston Police Officer talking about how her husband (another police officer) had been killed by a multi-arrested illegal alien while Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White was touting Houston as a “sanctuary city”:

I haven’t spent much time on the Texas gubernatorial race as I’ve thought all along that Perry was going to beat White like a drum, and this video is a good example why.

(Hat tip: Dwight. )

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Posted in Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Texas | 3 Comments »

More on Perry’s Victory

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

This Michael Barone piece shows Perry beating Hutchison pretty much everywhere, but racking up a particularly large margin in metro-Houston, which would seem to bode well for defeating former Houston Mayor Bill White in November.

Updated: A piece from Kevin Williamson in NRO on Perry’s victory. I think he overstates the Ron Paul component of the Tea Party. (I also think most Paul supporters themselves were less wedded to his fringe isolationist and conspiracy theory views than they were with his populist anger at the GOP establishment that had abandoned conservative principles of fiscal discipline in favor of pork-fueled cronyism.)

Updated 2 From Danny Huddleston at American Thinker: “Note to all Republicans running for office anywhere in America, stick to Reagan conservatism and you will win. Contrary to popular belief independents don’t want moderate candidates, they want authentic candidates with core values.”

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Instant Analysis: Why Perry Beat Hutchison Like A Rented Mule

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

As of now, just after 10 PM, Perry is winning big enough to avoid a run-off, and Hutchison conceded. That was the exact opposite of what most pundits predicted when Hutchison got into the race 18 months ago. After all, Perry was considered by many (including many conservatives) to be, not to put too fine a point on it, an asshole. He built up a reputation for cronyism with the attempted Trans-Texas Corridor land grab and the vaccine fiasco, both of which involved former aides. His love of toll roads (even converting existing, paid-for roads into toll roads) rubbed many Texans the wrong way. His veto of the post-Kelo eminent domain reform HB 2006 pissed off still more people, many of whom view the later 2009 Constitutional Amendments addressing the issue (Proposition 2, Proposition 3) as weak substitutes.

But in the end, none of that mattered. As many commentators noted, Hutchison’s best day was the day she announced, and it’s been downhill ever since. Why? Many reasons, but here are a few of the main ones:

  1. Perry ran a much better campaign, running hard and never letting up. Hutchison expected people to vote for her because she was popular (routinely racking up 65% of the vote in general elections) and wasn’t Rick Perry. Perry asked for people to vote for him because he was conservative.
  2. For all his numerous missteps, Perry has actually gotten the big picture right: keeping the budget balanced, refusing to even consider a state income tax, and generally not screwing up the Texas economy. Even in today’s serious recession, Texas running rings around high-tax states like California. Perry deserves real credit for that.
  3. In a year when outrage against big-spending in Washington is at a rolling boil, Perry was able to successfully paint Hutchison as a Washington insider, a task made easier by Hutchison’s unapologetic defense of earmarking. He was able to do this because, while Hutchison’s voting record is conservative by the standards of the U.S. Senate, it’s not particularly conservative by the standards of Texas. There’s always been a suspicion by many rank and file Texas Republicans that Hutchison is a little bit of a “squishy” conservative, much like George W. Bush, who was dinged by conservatives numerous times for his free-spending ways.
  4. Perry constantly courted Tea Party activists despite the presence of Tea Party favorite Debra Medina in the race. As an energetic and widespread movement, the Tea Party voters he was able to win away from Medina probably put him over the top.

There are many other reasons, but running the best campaign, and as more conservative than Hutchison in a very conservative year, was enough to clinch the deal for Perry.

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Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas | 1 Comment »

Free Electricity, Courtesy of Farouk Shami!

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

If you live in Texas, there’s a good chance you’ve seen the Farouk signs festooning fences along major highways. They belong to one Farouk Shami, who is waging an underdog gubernatorial campaign against Houston Mayor Bill White for the Democratic nomination.

There’s much that’s commendable in Farouk Shami’s personal background. A Palestinian-American entrepreneur (that’s the Palestine that’s east of Jerusalem, not the one east of Mexia), he might bring much-needed private sector experience to a race dominated by political insiders.

Many of his positions are pretty standard liberal boilerplate (for a death penalty moratorium, against cracking down on illegal aliens, etc.). On the other hand, he favors limiting abortions to the first trimester, a moderately cultural conservative position that probably puts him to the right of most Democratic primary voters on this issue.

Oh, and did I mention that he also wants to provide everyone in the state free electricity? Yes, indeed. He said that goal could be achieved in ten years thanks to through “expansion of wind and solar energy use.”

Let’s do a little math, shall we?

In 2005 (the most recent period for which I was able to locate reliable data), Texas consumed 334,258 million kilowatt hours of electricity. Or, to put it Big Scary Number form, 334,258,000,000 kwh, or 334,258,000,000,000 watt hours.

Of that 334,258 million kilowatt hours of electricity, a grand total of 7 million kwh is currently supplied by wind power. There’s no separate figure I’ve been able to find for solar. My suspicion is that it is similarly a drop in the bucket.

Prices to generate solar power are all over the map, but most seem to agree that 10 cents a kilowatt hour is the “holy grail” of solar electricity consumption, the point at which it becomes marginally price competitive fossil fuel energy sources. (For comparison, the City of Austin currently charges 7.82¢ per kWh for residential customers who exceed 500 kWh during the summer.) That means Governor Farouk could provide power to all Texans for a mere $33.4 billion in taxpayer money. Every year.

The Texas State biennial budget for 2010-2011 is $182.2 billion, or $91.1 billion a year. So Farouk Shami is suggesting we spend well over 1/3rd of the state budget to supply energy to residents, money that would presumably have to come from either massive tax hikes or massive budget cuts. This is, to belabor the point, in no way, shape or form “free.”

Now these are quick and dirty, back-of-the-envelope calculations. If you have better numbers for any of the above, let me know. But I suspect the conclusions will remain the same.

I do not think that it is too much to ask that Texas gubernatorial candidates be capable of performing basic math. This, combined with his recent announcement that he’s invented a blow-dryer that grows hair makes me conclude that Farouk Shami is not, in fact, a serious candidate for Governor of Texas.

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Posted in Democrats, Elections, Texas | 2 Comments »

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