“Senate District 10 partners victorious in preserving&strengthening ’08 district. Lege damage repaired. Thanks to all who supported&believed.” [tweeted @ 1:33 p.m.] * * * * Just pointing out the obvious: The saving of Davis’s seat could take on added significance if senators choose the successor to Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst.
One of the most interesting aspects of a Texas presidential primary, if there is one, will be how Mitt Romney fares. Romney is the establishment candidate. The size of the Romney vote will clarify what percentage of the state’s Republican vote is still cast by the establishment. In its early
This smacks of a desperate attempt to stay relevant. Perry’s brand is tarnished, even in Texas. In a statewide poll commissioned by the Dallas Morning News at the end of January, his job approval rating was lower than Obama’s. He finished toward the back of the pack in every
Lest anyone think that the race between challenger Elizabeth Ames Jones and incumbent Jeff Wentworth [a third candidate, Donna Campbell, is also in the race] is going to be a campaign characterized by mutual respect and a civil exchange of ideas, I herewith present the opening statements of the two
Her decision was made minutes ago (5:48 p.m.) This means Greg Abbott will not have to rule on whether Austin is the capital of Texas, which briefly became an issue as Ames Jones struggled with residency issues. Ames Jones’ action sets up an epic battle for Jeff Wentworth’s state Senate
Note to readers: This material originally appeared on the Dos Centavos blog, the principal author of which is A. S. (Stace) Medellin. I am publishing it under the auspices of the doctrine of “creative commons distribution,” according to which others are free to copy, distribute, and transmit the
Perry has been in the news this week, mainly about discussions of his future plans: Fox News ran a story on Monday, which begins: The governor and his wife, Anita Perry, in their first interview since Perry dropped out of the Republican presidential race, told Fox News that they
It depends upon who you talk to. Attorney General Abbott put out a press release today that strives hard to give the impression that there is a deal: “The proposed maps minimize changes to the redistricting plan passed by the Legislature and, as the U. S. Supreme Court required, makes
This is the result of a poll ranking states from most conservative to least conservative.Texas (12th) doesn’t make the list of the ten most conservative states, which are: Mississippi Idaho Alabama Wyoming Utah South Dakota Louisiana North Dakota South Carolina Arkansas Most of the states on this list are
The report below is based upon notes I took during the Texas Association of Business debate. It is not a verbatim report but it is substantially faithful to the candidates’ remarks. Opening statements Cruz began by defining the race as “a clear contrast between a “timid career politician”
The speech by education commissioner Robert Scott to the Texas Association of School Administrators on Monday will inevitably spawn considerable speculation about Rick Perry’s future involvement in education policy issues. The remarkable thing about the speech is that Scott sounded a lot more like a policy maker than a bureaucrat.
When Rick Perry, the longest-serving governor in Texas history loses his first campaign ever, what happens to him? More importantly, what happens to us?
I was talking to an attorney for the plaintiffs in the upcoming Supreme Court case, when he said that conservatives may intervene in the school finance lawsuit. Their contention, the attorney said, is that an efficient system could be achieved with school choice and vouchers. A school finance lobbyist told
Nothing prevents the Legislature from drawing new maps. Redistricting is no different from any other bill, and it doesn’t have to be limited to the session after a census. That said, I don’t see the point of going through the exercise. So what if Republicans endorse a referendum to re-redistrict
From RealClearPolitics: 1/30 polls Insider Advantage: Romney 36, Gingrich 31 Public Policy Polling: Romney 39, Gingrich 32 Suffolk University: Romney 47, Gingrich 27 Quinnipiac: Romney 43, Gingrich 29 Gallup Tracking: Romney 27, Gingrich 28 1/29 polls Survey USA: Romney 41, Gingrich 26 NBC Marist: Romney 42, Gingrich 27 Miami
From the story, dated 1/27, by Cameron Joseph: The Texas state attorneys defending the state’s GOP-drawn redistricting plans from court challenges have reached out to settle litigation, according to sources in the state. The settlement would give minority groups and Democrats what they’ve been demanding from
The results are hardly surprising. In a recent post, I raised the question of whether Perry could be reelected. I didn’t think so then, and I don’t think so now. And the talk from Ray Sullivan and the Perry team that he could run for president in 2016
A single word can turn a campaign in the wrong direction. In the case of Rick Perry, of course, that word was “oops.” In the case of Mitt Romney, the word was “maybe”: Romney’s answer to the question of whether he would release his tax returns. It came across as
This solves one problem but creates a slew of others, starting with the most obvious: which maps will be used? The Legislature’s maps haven’t been pre-cleared by the D.C. court. The San Antonio district court’s maps were incinerated by the Supremes, who ordered the San Antonio judges to draw new
The only surprise is how long it took for Perry to surrender to the inevitable. He has been a non-factor since the Iowa caucuses. During the past month, I have been working on a story about what happens when Perry returns to the Capitol. It will be posted on the
A new CNN/Opinion Research survey finds Rick Perry leading Mitt Romney in the GOP presidential race by double-digits, 32% to 21%, with Ron Paul at 13% and all other candidates in single digits. Most interesting is that Perry’s biggest strength may be the electability factor, with 42% saying he
A COMMUNICATION FROM THE PERRY CAMPAIGN TO THEIR SUPPORTERS Subject: PERRY COMMITS BEYOND SOUTH CAROLINA!!! We’re in for the long haul, folks! Perry supporters nationwide! Our ranks have grown and money is being raised from individual donors at a breakneck pace. You are ALL A MAJOR PART
Normally I do not engage in discussions over which polling firms do good work and which do not. My policy has been to publish polls and let readers reach their own conclusions about which polls are credible and which are not. However, due to Public Policy Polling’s findings in the
A new poll from Public Policy Polling, a well known firm that is aligned with the Democratic party nationally, calls into question Perry’s standing with Texas Republican voters: In a PPP poll taken in September, the month in which Perry announced his candidacy for president, Perry led Romney by 49%
Jeff Wentworth faces a tough primary race against TLR-backed Elizabeth Ames Jones. Wentworth’s consultant, Bryan Eppstein, is circulating a comparison of their respective fundraising efforts. The summary in italics is written by Eppstein: Wentworh raises $400,000+ with 500 Co-Hosts for Jan 22nd Campaign Kickoff… Invitations mailed
This was Kate Alexander’s main takeaway from the Senate debate. I don’t think it was any surprise that the top-heavy favorite in the race was on the defensive. If anything, as I wrote in my report on the debate on Friday, I thought Cruz missed opportunities
How they stand in SC: Romney 37 Paul 16 Santorum 16 Gingrich 12 Perry 6 Huntsman 3 The attacks on Romney’s role and tactics at Bain Capital did not hurt him. They will be heard again in the general election. The only thing the attacks accomplished was to strengthen Obama
Tom Leppert’s pitch was that when he became the mayor of Dallas, the biggest problem was crime, and he brought it down by 31%. “I’ve been there, I’ve done it.” Good talking point, but not what is uppermost in the minds of primary voters. Craig James kept saying that he
His attacks on Romney for being a “vulture capitalist” have not gone over well with other Republicans, and they cost him the support of a major backer in South Carolina: Investment fund executive and top GOP donor Barry Wynn told the Associated Press he was leaving the Perry
As expected, the Republican field did not offer a lot of competition for front-runner Mitt Romney in New Hampshire. The pundits were saying anything under 40% was bad for Romney, but he was close enough, with 39.3%. He has endured a couple of bad days as a consequence of saying
Last week the Statesman took me to task for a post I wrote after the Iowa caucus in which I said that the State Water Plan has not been funded. The article appeared under the headline, “Is the State Water Plan unfunded? No” Here is what the Statesman
I don’t get it. Why did Rick Perry go to South Carolina? Why did he participate in the New Hampshire debate? He had no passion, he didn’t attack anybody, and certainly not Romney. I guess he just wants to play with the other kids. He can’t stand being left out.
According to a new CNN/Time/ORC poll, out today on the CNN website, Romney has a commanding lead in South Carolina: Romney 37% Santorum 19% Gingrich 18% Paul 12% Perry 5% Huntsman 1% Since the previous poll, taken in December, Gingrich has dropped 25 points. Santorum has
That would be Rick Perry, of course. Perry cannot accomplish anything for himself in South Carolina. What he can do, and what he will do by staying in the race, is split the conservative vote between Gingrich, Santorum, and himself (Ron Paul is not a factor), and by doing so,
From The Hill’s “Pundits Blog” today comes this effort in unsubstantiated and unrestrained speculation about why Rick Perry decided to stay in the race and go to South Carolina, by columnist Brent Budowsky, who has never been an admirer of Rick Perry. If Rick Perry was a legitimate conservative (which
What an amazing turn of events. It started out as an ordinary speech by a losing candidate. Rick Perry thanked Iowa, he thanked his supporters, he thanked his family, and he read a letter from a young man who had driven from Texas to work in the campaign, all of
Romney, Paul, and Santorum are in what amounts to a three-way tie at 23% each. Nope, Romney has nosed ahead with 24%. Perry has climbed out of single digits to reach 10%, 3 points behind Gingrich. He spent $4 million on media in Iowa. This was a doomed exercise from
Romney 23 Paul 21 Santorum 15 Perry 14 Gingrich 13 Bachmann 6 * * * * If this holds, Perry will remain in the presidential race for sure, and may even get a boost. This is a good result for him. After being shunted aside by Iowa’s evangelical power brokers
To our readers: Thank you for making this blog what I hoped it would become, which is an ongoing town hall meeting about Texas politics. I am very grateful for the interest and involvement of so many people. Now, back to business …. Perry may escape from Iowa with a
The Des Moines Register poll covered Tuesday through Friday. The results: Romney 24% Paul 22% Santorum 15% Gingrich 12% Perry 11% Bachman 7% According to the Register: If the final two days of polling are considered separately, Santorum rises to second place, with 21%, pushing Paul to third, at 18%.
Emmett Tyrell, a conservative columnist for the Washington Examiner, ruminates today on the success and failure of his predictions for 2012. I know that he is a conservative columnist because one of his predictions was that liberalism would be dead. He also proclaimed the death of crony capitalism. And
I’m on record as not being a fan of the Voter I.D. bill and I agree with DOJ that it is discriminatory and not only will it prevent people from voting but in fact is intended to prevent people from voting — most of whom are poor or members of
Readers may have heard that former Texas State Rep Glen Maxey has published an e-book about Rick Perry’s private life. I seldom agree with Mr. Perry about anything, but his campaign’s description of the book as “false internet garbage” seems spot on to me. The Daily Beast today has a
This didn’t get posted over the Christmas weekend: Perry did not qualify for the Republican primary in Virginia. It’s pretty easy to qualify. Candidates need 10,000 signatures of registered voters on petitions, and must also have 400 signatures from each of the state’s eleven congressional districts. Every campaign needs
As most people who follow redistricting know by now, the D.C. district court ruled against the state and Attorney General Abbott, denying the state’s motion for summary judgment and refusing to preclear several state maps. The D.C. Court has since issued its ruling in the case, explaining why it denied
Here is the latest Iowa poll, from the Des Moines Register: Paul 27.5% Gingrich 25.3% Romney 17.5% Perry 11.2% * * * * Perry hit a high water mark of 16% in a previous poll, but since then he has fallen back. No recent poll has Perry higher than
The news that Rick Perry intends to pad his income by drawing a pension while serving as governor changes Texas politics. Before we learned about his double-dipping, and with his presidential bid looking bleak, it was possible to foresee the end of the Perry governorship, in January 2015.
From the Daily Beast: Texas Gov. Rick Perry, still looking to regain his traction after a series of mind-numbing debate performances (oh, and an awful job as governor), has let the world and Iowa know that he “wasn’t on his game” recently (make that the last four months) because
The Perry campaign has a huge ad blitz under way in Iowa, aimed at the state’s influential evangelical/social conservative community. The campaign has spent some $2 million, according to the Associated Press. The spot was designed to be controversial. It stretches the facts on several points, and it is very
As the ranks of Republican candidates thin with Herman Cain’s decision to suspend his campaign, the remaining serious candidates are reduced to three: Romney, Gingrich, and Perry. No, I haven’t forgotten Ron Paul. I just dismiss him as a contender. He can get his share of the votes, but he
