The latest Field Poll of the Republican presidential race in California came out today, and it shows Rudy Giuliani still in front, but falling. He has dropped 10 points since the previous poll in August. Here is how the candidates stand on the basis of polling conducted between
The morning news clips carry a story from the Midland Reporter-Telegram about a speech Tom Craddick gave yesterday to the Downtown Lions Club in which Craddick said that the challengers to his speakership, Republicans all, are backed by trial lawyers who want to repeal the lawsuit reform he
Griffin Smith, one of Texas Monthly’s first staff writers, forwarded me this story from the American Spectator about Mike Huckabee. It’s a killer. Smith, whose signature piece was “Empires of Paper” about the big Houston law firms (November 1973), is editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The author of
The last post about Mikal Watts you’ll ever have to read (from me, at least):It’s not much of a mystery why he pulled out of the race. He was going to lose–and he was going to spend a bunch of his own money and have nothing to show for it
All signs point to Earle’s retirement as district attorney. The first indication I received was an e-mail from a prospective candidate:Paul, I am writing to inform you of my decision to commence an exploratory campaign to become the next District Attorney of Travis County. If, as I expect, Ronnie decides
One of the three men Governor Perry appointed to the University of Texas Board of Regents last week has been linked to political scandals at opposite ends of the Rio Grande, according to several news outlets. The appointee is James Dannenbaum, chairman of Houston-based Dannenbaum Engineering Corporation, whose company has
The alliance of convenience between Rick Perry and Rudy Giuliani could have a huge impact on Texas politics, especially the 2010 race for governor. Suppose:(1) Rudy picks Rick as his vice-presidential running mate and emissary to the right wing of the Republican party;(2) Rick’s lucky charm rubs off on Rudy,
IVR Polls, a recent addition to the Texas polling scene, released a poll last Friday showing that Rudy Giuliani has opened a five-point lead over Fred Thompson among previous Republican primary voters. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee has pulled into a tie for third with Mitt Romney. The survey was
In addition to listing the money Craddick got for Midland (see previous post, “Promoting Permian Pork”), the speaker’s Web site also announces his intention to press for enactment of legislation authorizing appraisal and revenue caps in the next legislative session. More may be involved in his support for caps than
Many legislators dip into the bottomless barrel of pork to benefit their districts, but few brag about it outside of their home towns. One notable exception: Tom Craddick. There was a lot of talk last session that the speaker had made off like a bandit for Midland. But you have
Sorry not to have been around for the past week. I’ve been writing a feature story about John Cornyn, and multitasking is not my forte. Count me as one who is skeptical that the Democrats can win that race. I spent about a thousand words explaining why, but the main
(1) She’s running for governor, for sure, probably, maybe, perhaps. (2) She will resign from the Senate sometime in 2009 to come home and campaign, allowing Rick Perry to appoint her successor. (I have always thought that Tony Garza had the inside track, but there is talk that Garza doesn’t
I watched the Republican presidential debate tonight at Dearborn, Michigan. The subject was limited to economics. The debate had actually been held several hours earlier and MSNBC broadcast it on tape delay. Before it aired, however, the network undercut their own exclusive by having Chris Matthews, who hosted the debate,
Last week, House parliamentarian Terry Keel gave a power point presentation to the Political Advocacy Association of Texas — the trade association for the lobby — on the rules issues that are likely to be the subject of debate in January 2009. Below are the elements of his presentation and
But he must not be very proud of it, because the White House website makes no mention of the veto, which occurred this morning. [Note: the veto message is now available on the White House Web site, at 1:14 p.m. See below.] One item does refer to “State
Amazing. A. H. Belo will spin off the Dallas Morning News and newspapers in Providence, Rhode Island and Riverside, California. The News, once uncontested as Texas’s leading newspaper and the newspaper of record for the state, will be spun off to Belo’s shareholders. Not a good day for those of
A friend returned from a weekend in the country and reported that the natives are incensed that Rick and Anita Perry are renting a house for $10,000 a month or thereabouts while the Governor’s Mansion is being refurbished. He says the home folk are really hot about it. They see
A Republican consultant copied me on an e-mail he sent to a well known national political writer about Hillary Clinton’s likely effect on the Democratic ticket in Texas. Here are the points he made (I have edited the order, not the wording):1. Hillary’s relatively unpopularity translates into a ballot test
I was a huge fan of Robert Gates when he was president of Texas A&M–I know a good writer should never take off on a digression in the middle of the first sentence, but, shouldn’t the Aggies, almost a year after Gates’ departure, be more interested in replacing the president
Going, going, Gonzales.
This poll on the Texas Senate race appeared on the Web site of the well known liberal blog Daily Kos, which bills itself as “the premier political community in the United States,” with 600,000 visits a day. That’s a few more than this site, give or take 595,000
I was in Washington last week working on a profile of John Cornyn, as Congress was preparing for the vote on the reauthorization and expansion of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, known in D.C. as S-CHIP, “s” standing for “state.” CHIP is designed to cover children from families whose income
I had lunch last week with a Republican friend who is very much involved in the campaign season. No, not Eppstein. Every time I write something like this people say I’m just a conduit for Eppstein. There are other smart guys out there, you know.Anyway, my RF said a number
The Los Angeles Times reports today that a California ballot initiative that would allow 53 of the state’s 55 electoral votes to be awarded to the winning candidate in each of the state’s congressional districts is “a shambles,” following the resignation of the election law attorney who was
… And I intercepted it, on the Web site, GOPUSA.com. It’s a fundraising advertisement for John McCain’s lagging presidential campaign. The next reporting deadline is Sunday, September 30, and McCain desperately needs a good showing to keep his hopes alive. Here’s the text: Dear Fellow American, When the clock is
How is this for a “pox-on-both-your-houses” poll? Rasmussen, August 10-11, 800 likely voters: Of the seven major presidential contenders, more people are committed to voting against them than for them.Hillary Clinton DEFINITELY FOR 32%, DEFINITELY AGAINST 44%Rudy Giuliani DEFINITELY FOR 25%, DEFINITELY AGAINST 37%Fred Thompson DEFINITELY FOR 23%, DEFINITELY AGAINST
I spoke with Fred Hill today about his decision to retire from the Legislature. He was in northern Montana, and the temperature was 55 degrees, and he didn’t sound like a man with a lot of regrets. “I sold my business in July,” he said, “and that really changed the
ABC’s Mark Halperin came through Austin yesterday to speak to a group last night at the Headliners Club about the presidential race. He began with a not so cryptic remark: “Yes, she can, and I have no idea whether he will or not.” It wasn’t hard to break the code
In the posting about Admiral Inman’s survey of the global political situation, I was a victim of my own faulty notetaking. I wrote (from my notes) that Turkey did NOT want to join the European Union. A couple of correspondents wrote to say that this was incorrect, and I received
Austin’s Fox Network station, Channel 7, released the results of a Rasmussen poll (500 likely voters, automated calling) last night that brought good news to Texas Republicans.President Bush approval rating:26% Excellent24% Good18% Fair31% PoorThat’s a 50% approval rating, better than he has polled here in a long time.Rick Perry did
Governor Perry spoke to the California Republican state convention on September 7. The speech is on the Perry campaign Web site, but I could not access it. The governor’s office said that my browser was pulling up an old version, or maybe my cookies were crumbling. In any case,
… about the possibility that Nancy Fisher may be leaving the speaker’s office, and that the person who might replace her is former representative Suzanna Gratia Hupp.
Rick Noriega has countered Mikal Watts’ early success in landing Rio Grande Valley endorsements in Hidalgo County with some endorsements of his own in adjacent Cameron County. The endorsers included three state legislators–Rene Oliveira, Juan Escobar, and Eddie Lucio III–and a slew of courthouse officials, including the DA, county clerk,
Warren Chisum has withdrawn his request for an attorney general’s opinion on the issue of whether public or private entities that receive state funds can use those funds to pay a registered lobbyist. As Chisum drafted the question, his inquiry included even the question of whether an entity that receives
Admiral Bobby Inman, who has served as Director of the National Security Agency and Deputy Director of the CIA, spoke at UT’s Frank Erwin Center last night on geopolitics. His talk was an off-the-cuff analysis of the political situation in most of the world’s potentially troublesome areas. The event was
Mikal Watts spoke to the Young Democrats at UT last night. I’d estimate the audience at around a hundred people. It was one of those semicomical moments in a political campaign when everything goes off the tracks. The event was supposed to start at 8, but the professor who was
Just had a conversation with a Republican numbers cruncher. Half of Texas Republicans believe that the country is on the wrong track. The split before the 2004 election was 60-40 “right track.” The NC’s assessment: “You can’t just put any presidential candidate at the top of the ticket and expect
As many as three members of the El Paso legislative delegation–none of whom are friendly to Tom Craddick–face reelection challenges that could have a major impact on the speaker’s race.* Paul Moreno has an announced primary opponent. She’s 28-year-old Marisa Marquez. Capitol Annex has the story, quoting an El
The results of the Democratic straw poll were ridiculous: Edwards 38%, Obama 21%, Hillary 20%. Reduced to rounded numbers, this makes the mathematical tally, for the 8,101 votes cast:Edwards 3,078Obamaa 1,701Clinton 1,620No chance that this is an accurate reflection of the Texas Democratic electorate. None.Some media outlets reported the results
Texas Monthly’s October issue, currently on the presses, contains an excerpt from Robert Draper’s well received book about George W. Bush, “Dead Certain.” It actually got a good review from the New York Times, which is rare for a Texas author not named Cormac McCarthy or Lawrence Wright. Draper is
Following Fred Thompson’s airing of his national TV spot during Thursday’s Republican presidential debate, I blogged about what I regarded as its ineffectiveness in advancing Thompson’s candidacy . The spot ended with Thompson urging viewers to check out Fred08.com for more information about his campaign. I took him up on
If you didn’t see Fred Thompson’s TV spot during the Republican debate (which I didn’t, since I was slogging away on a blog posting), you can find it on YouTube, as I did. It opens with a still Fred head (any resemblence to the ex-legislator of that name is
Fabrizio McLaughlin and Associates has just released its second decennial survey of the attitudes and views of members of the Republican party (“The Elephant Looks in the Mirror Ten Years Later”). It is a very interesting document, not least because it reveals how much the party has evolved since the
In the journalism business, there’s a saying that some stories “write themselves”–that the situation is so clear, and so egregious, that all the writer has to do is describe what happened. Such is R.G. Ratcliffe’s story in today’s Chronicle about Mikal Watts’s boasting about his influence with
Rove recently published a piece in the National Review that could serve as an outline for the book he plans to write in praise of the president whom he served. The headline is “The Long View.” In trying to give readers a sense of Rove’s arguments without
Last week I reported, in a piece on Speaker Craddick’s strategy to take his case for his reelection as speaker to the Republican base, that Linda Harper-Brown was trying to recruit a primary opponent for Kirk England. My information was specific: that she was advising a potential candidate who worked
Of the many things the first black district attorney of Dallas County is doing, none is more important than rethinking the concept of guilt and innocence.
Today, many younger Texans may be inclined to think of Lady Bird Johnson as belonging entirely to the past. But if her demeanor and style seemed faintly anachronistic, the virtues instilled by her parents back in East Texas—practicality, thriftiness, good manners, and an open mind—made her remarkably effective as a
Don’t bet against Tom Craddick.
Tom Craddick will take his case for why should be reelected speaker–and why he is justified in ruling that the House cannot remove him from his post–to the hinterlands, or at least the hinterlands currently represented by his political opponents. He was scheduled to address the Northeast Tarrant County Republican
