Is Dewhurst too complacent?
When I first wrote about the race for U.S. Senate, I said that there was no race, that Dewhurst has a huge lead in fundraising and name I.D. I still think that Dewhurst has the advantage over Ted Cruz, but, even in a state as big as Texas, there is such a thing as word-of-mouth, and it’s not on Dewhurst’s side. The Dew has never been one to spend time watering the grass roots. I don’t put much stock in the small-sample straw polls that have uniformly favored Cruz over Dewhurst, and Cruz’s endorsements from the likes of Tina Benkiser, George Strake, and Cathie Adams reflect yesterday’s RPT, not today’s. (George P. Bush’s endorsement of Cruz is of more contemporary value. ) But there is an enthusiasm gap in this race, and it favors Cruz. I wonder whether Dewhurst has bothered to have oppo research done on himself. I’ll bet there is a lot of stuff that won’t sell in an ultraconservative primary. I’ll bet, too, that Dan Patrick will have some unflattering things to say about the light gov. Dewhurst needs to take this race seriously, and so far I haven’t seen much indication that he is doing so.
Tagged: david dewhurst, senate race, Ted Cruz
Sue Sylvester says:
Agreed. D2 needs to remind us all who he is.
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Been there.... Reply:
July 15th, 2011 at 11:13 am
We know who he is…that’s the point.
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Jeff Rhodes says:
Um… Adams, Benkiser, and Strake may reflect yesterday’s RPT…but Dewhurst sure as hell doesn’t reflect today’s RPT, despite his attempts to buy it. Let’s not forget that Steve Munisteri is the founder of Young Conservatives of Texas…a group that is hardly a big fan of Dew.
Cruz will be a force to dealt with. Money is important, but this race won’t be bought by the highest bidder. Ask Tony Sanchez. Or ask Meg Whitman in California.
The funny thing, is David Jennings got upset that Burka didn’t mention Tom in this blog…Tom Leppert doesn’t have a path to victory in this race at all. He’s more moderate/liberal than Dewhurst and if anything he will siphon votes away from Dewhurst, helping Cruz.
Grassroots politics will be important in this race. Anyone who believes differently is either ignorant to the times or fooling themselves.
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Stevie F. says:
I don’t believe that Dewhurst has completely won over that many hearts and minds. How many people are really enthusiastic about Dewhurst and not willing to consider other candidates?
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Astro-Turf says:
AFP is not grassroots. Neither is Club for Growth.
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Jeff Rhodes says:
What do those two groups in particular have to do with anything. AFP hasn’t endorsed Cruz, and C4G is FAR from the only group supporting Cruz. And if you think the endorsement train has stopped, brace yourself. They’re going to get bigger and better.
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Tammanyhall says:
Those names may reflect the past, but the RPT of the past still has money, and if those endorsements get Cruz money, what is the harm? I would also echo an earlier poster’s point: how is the Dew the present/future of the RPT?
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Anonymous Reply:
July 15th, 2011 at 11:33 am
LMAO! The RPT of the past was hundreds of thousands of dollars in the hole.
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Money Reply:
July 15th, 2011 at 11:37 am
But some of the old-school TX Republicans that Paul is denigrating are rich, old white guys. Never hurts to have some of those
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Reality Checker says:
Self-funding candidates are far more successful in federal races because of the $5K limits. Dewhurst just passed some of the most conservative legisaltion ever – he has a solid record to go talk to overs about.
GOP Activist types are not even in the mainstream of primary voters. And Republican primary voters don’t seem fond of hispanic Republican candidates – just ask Victor Carrillo.
Cathie Adams and Tina Benskiser? Well, these fool’s gold dust twins left the Texas GOP heavily in debt – Washington DC style. Their support is nothing to be proud of. And they can’t even raise money for themselves, they sure as hell can’t deliver financially for Canada Cruz.
George Strake? I didn’t know that Trust Fund baby was still alive.
And hearing George P. Bush speak on C-SPAN at the Southern Leadership Conference was like watching a 100 lb woman give birth to a 15 lb baby – very, very painful.
The real question is what Dewhurst knows about Cruz that most voters don’t know anything about – yet. Some of that is going to be mighty embarrassing to far right types.
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Anonymous Reply:
July 15th, 2011 at 12:36 pm
You mean about Goldman Sachs and the CFR? I wonder how many tea party activists want to build a “North American Community”?
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Gold Man Sacks Reply:
July 16th, 2011 at 9:35 pm
Elaborate on this. I’m not familiar.
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Sidd Finch says:
It’s hard to be a genuinely successful politician if nobody really likes you. Money goes a long way but at some point you have to back it up with some personal substance.
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Whoa! says:
Realitycheck,
I agree with pretty much everything in your post; money certainly helps. The comment about Strake is a little much though!
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RumorMill says:
Not sure Dewhurst should wade into the rumor mill, his closet is not exactly skeleton free.
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linda Reply:
July 15th, 2011 at 1:05 pm
share!
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Honest Question says:
Who are Dewhurst’s supporters? Does he have anyone really in his corner, or just people who are afraid to back the loser (Cruz, Leppert, etc)? I guess it really doesn’t matter, but who stands up and says David Dewhurst is a great guy because…
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Anonymous Reply:
July 15th, 2011 at 12:02 pm
Who are his supporters? Dewhurst works the senate pretty hard to deliver – his friends are just waiting for him to announce and there are plenty
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Anonymous says:
“Is Dewhurst too complacent”…………in a word, YES!
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Fear the Beard says:
Cruz has never, and I mean never, run in a smashmouth political race. He’s untested in that regard. This is the most difficult aspect for first-time candidates. When is the last in Texas a successful candidate’s first time on the ballot was for the race of US Senate?
When I’m around Cruz, he comes across as brilliant, arrogant, unwarm, and very Ivy League—someone you’d hire to represent you in writing a brief, not in voting on bills and handling constituent problems. In fact, one almost senses that constituents will be a bother for him. Dewhurst shares this characteristic.
I don’t think voters will connect with Cruz. He needs to learn how to ride a bike first before asking voters for the keys to the jet airliner on his first drive. It looks presumptious because, well, it is.
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Anonymous Reply:
July 15th, 2011 at 1:54 pm
Thank you FTB. Cruz didn’t look me in the eye, disinterested handshake, no interest in who I was – very much I felt a bother. This is not at all the case with Dewhurst. Also hearing from grassroots Cruz does not present himself or his message well at forums. Not only has he never run in a smashmouth political race, he has never held elective office at any level, not even by appointment.
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Jeff Rhodes Reply:
July 15th, 2011 at 4:07 pm
Thanks for that brilliant insight Anonymous! You are honestly the first person I’ve seen say that Dewhurst was warm and interested in who you were. I mean, it doesn’t seem to me that someone is very interested if they can’t be bothered to show up on time (or even at all on quite a few occasions).
It’s pretty evident that you haven’t seen Ted speak at any of these forums because if you had, you wouldn’t think he presents himself or his message poorly. Especially considering he consistently wins the straw polls conducted after the forums…
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Garner's Bucket says:
The Dew has one 4 statewide campaigns over the past decade or so. This is what separates him from the Fiorinas and Whitmans of the world. It remains his race to lose.
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Anonymous says:
I thought Cruz was from Canada? Is is Mexican or Canadian? Either way he better have his birth certificate ready.
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Lawrence Person says:
How fascinating. Why, just last week, some guy was saying how Dewhurst’s financial advantage would let him win so easily that the race wasn’t “even worth talking about.” Gosh, who was that guy?
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paulburka Reply:
July 15th, 2011 at 3:57 pm
Things change. Dewhurst was and is the heavy favorite to win. Complacency is his biggest enemy.
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Ferris Bueller says:
Oh don’t worry. We’ll be reading about how it is all over when Dewhurst starts spending his cash. The difference is it really probably will be over.
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Julie says:
I was at a function, with Ted Cruz sitting at the same table. A woman on my right asked me who Ted Cruz was. She didn’t have a clue that he’s a candidate.
Nothing against Ted Cruz, but his name ID is still lacking in the general voter population.
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HR Puffnstuff says:
Here is a link to a report co-written by Ted Cruz’s wife, about merging the US into a supra-national legal framework with Mexico and Canada. Totally an accepted Ivy League plan… at Yale or Harvard, but an opposite view from what the patriot movement, anti-immigration groups, and state sovereignty movement is based upon.
http://www.cfr.org/canada/building-north-american-community/p8102
Further research would show Ted’s wife is on the social networking site LinkedIn listed as a VP of a little banking outfit and big Tea Party favorite, known as Goldman Sachs.
Even deeper research could be done to find out if Cruz is or was a member of the Texas Lyceum, which also boasts as its networking members John Sharp, state senators Rodney Ellis and Kirk Watson and Houston Mayor Bill White.
An election in today’s IPAD world is all in the packaging, however…with the Tea Party now split, in a Republican primary, angry people who oppose federal bailouts will never know about the Cruz Goldman Sachs connection, much less that Goldman was among the largest recipients of bailout money.
The Tea Party “fans” courted this early in the Texas US Senate race are more likely “astro-turf” grown… like folks who wave a yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” nylon flag that was sewn in a Chinese sweatshop.
It’s early… Dewhurst or Dan Patrick or Michael McCaul or Debra Medina can actually run to the right of Cruz… if they chose to do so. One-world government and Goldman Sachs are not Tea Party positions, but it is a good way to raise early money and early endorsements by the corporate-sponsored anti-tax “grassroots” groups.
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Jed says:
a little more to the right. more … a little more … almost … perfect!
running to the right of medina?! yow, that should be worth a merit badge at least. adam smith would have lost a primary in this climate.
how far right do republican nominees have to go before texas voters recoil? is it even possible? not a rhetorical question.
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PappaSmurf says:
Texas voters may recoil at the hypocrisy of seeking the tea party votes while being married to a banker whose bank received billions in bail out cash.
Texas voters could recoil at the Ivy League mantra of open-border and Mexican-trade-at-all-costs. It’s not only unsafe along the Mexican border but many may feel that the plan Cruz’s wife’s report talks about, to merge Mexican laws with US laws will only squeeze the middle class Texan family to pay the freight… at the very least, can we be sure the Tea Party voters will buy into what the CFR open-border document linked above calls for?
If Ted Cruz is really married to a Goldman Sachs banker who served on a task force to form a North American Community, then is it a fact worth knowing?
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Fiftycal Reply:
July 17th, 2011 at 2:05 pm
YEAH! One world government. Of course that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO with what Cruz wrote or what was in that report. But the EEEEEEVIL CFR wrote it so it must be EEEEEEEEVIL! But none of the commenters actually READ the report. Since it says nothing like what they are implying. I just wonder if they are left wing or right wing wingnuts. Not that it matters.
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Anonymous says:
We have some lame choices for Senate in 2012, just like we had some lame choices for Gov in 2010.
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Jeff Crosby says:
The Dewhurst Fundraising Plan
Step 1 (and the only one): Write self big fat check.
The Fill-In-The-Blank Fundraising Plan
Step 1: Procure one pistol
Step 2: Procure one ski mask
Step 3: Procure list of list of 7/11′s
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anita says:
I don’t know if we want to get into an extended discussion of the activities of a wife or former wives of either Cruz or Dew — at least not here. Maybe TMZ.
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Anonymous says:
I wish Kay Bailey was staying in the Senate. She has been good for Texas.
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LeFigaro says:
ANITA: good job trying to make the fact that Ted Cruz’s wife into a non-issue. So to you, it’s as if her being listed as a task force member for a major Council on Foreign Relations document calling for Mexico, the US and Canada to be more closely merged is just a tiny TMZ/gossip item? It’s a huge window into the mind of a person who would serve in the US Senate.
It’s seems you downplay the fact that Ted Cruz’s wife working for Goldman Sachs, as if it’s pointing out what charity ball she attends. Goldman Sachs is one of the largest banks in the planet, and in Tea Party drama, took billions in US taxpayer dollar guarantees during the famed bailout.
You’re right, let’s try to downplay the Goldman Sachs link, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) link, the link to a Heidi Cruz CFR document calling for the merging of Mexico, Canada and the US legal systems.
It’s just a light, fun TMZ kind of point to joke about.
Nothing anybody voting in a Republican primary cares about.
Nothing anyone who identifies with the tea party worries about.
TMZ… right.
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Fiftycal Reply:
July 17th, 2011 at 2:09 pm
Well, no one that is smarter than a fencepost.
BTW, the document you referred to has NOTHING about “merging” governments. At least not to someone that is rational. I guess the people with the double layer tinfoil hats (shiny side out) could.
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ConJob says:
no… see if Joe Straus has a wife who years ago was a member of a board for Planned Parenthood, that fact IS INDEED allowed to be run all over God and creation, blogs, email alerts, op-eds, sound cannons, banged on gongs, and shouted from the mountain tops.
….you cannot point out the Goldman Sachs-linked globalist, open-border, anti-Tea Party side of Ted Cruz’s campaign through his wife…
See… Joe Straus CAN be linked to Planned Parenthood because his wife served on a board years ago, but Ted Cruz is never, ever to be asked about his wife’s employement at Goldman Sachs, or part in writing a Council on Foreign Relations document calling for an erosion of our nation’s sovereignty.
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Ad Hominem Much says:
HR Puffnstuff, I do not agree with much that Ted Cruz says, but the notion that because he is/was a member of the Texas Lyceum is a reason to oppose him is downright stupid.
Talk about ad hominem politics! Good grief. Rick Perry was a member of this group as were dozens of other conservative Republicans. The Lyceum is a non-partisan organization that talks about public policy ideas and challenges. This is a group that for decades has engaged thought leaders in civil discourse.
If your suggestion is that we should not elect anyone that associates with anyone that disagrees with them, you don’t understand the marketplace of ideas or democracy very well.
If your suggestion is that the Lyceum is a group of elites, so is the US Senate. The notion that a group of educated, civic-minded and bi-partisan Texans is a bad thing is know-nothing politics at its worst.
Seriously, it feels like junior high when the cool kids tell everyone it is bad to be smart.
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Gold Man Sacks says:
Republicans have dominated forever, but wouldn’t Cruz be vulnerable to a challenge from John Sharp?
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817 says:
I’m still laughing at the (one-step) Dewhurst fundraising plan!
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Blue says:
Ted Cruz will become a darling of the internet money machine, especially after Palin gives him a huge endorsement. Count on it.
The Dew can EASILY lose the nomination.
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Dr. Ruth Freude says:
Doubtful. Internet money machine won’t raise $20 million for a Canadian Cuban running in Texas when nobody nationally has a real beef with any of the Republicans running. Ribio in Florida only started raising big $$$ when Gov. Crist left the Republican Party.
And Palin? That is doubtful – especially when she sees that Cruz’s fundraising dropped by a full 25% from Q1 to Q2 this year. Cruz is on a financial downward trend even BEFORE Dewhurst gets into the race. SarahPAC does not bet on longshots.
Cruz is the Rick Green of this race: a extreme far right 15 to 20% of the vote guy.
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Goo says:
I’ve met Cruz and I’ve met the Dew. Both are fairly dry people, but Cruz edged our the Dew in the sincerity department, which counts for something (for me at least, which isn’t saying much). I’m not a big-time donor or hot shot political operative…but Cruz will be getting one vote from me in the primary (and hopefully general) election.
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Carmen Miranda says:
I’ve met both men too – De3whutrst was sincere and candid with me and gav me his full atention. Eduardo Cruz never looked me directly in the eye (there was a mirror behind me). Cruz is the most arrogant and insufferable macho canadian I have ever met.
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