Rick Perry vs World

02 December 2005

Perry campaign alleges that Strayhorn improperly using govt resources

The AP:

Gov. Rick Perry's campaign alleged Friday that Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, his Republican primary rival, used her state office equipment to produce a campaign news release.

That prompted Strayhorn's camp to fire back and accuse a Perry aide of acting as a political operative even when he was working in the governor's press office at the state Capitol.

The clash signaled that the Texas governor's race between Perry and Strayhorn is intensifying as the March 7 primary approaches and that the campaign is almost certain to be a hard-hitting affair.

What triggered the verbal altercation was Strayhorn's Friday news release on campaign letterhead calling for a 10-percent property tax reduction and mandatory freeze on all property taxes for elderly and disabled homeowners.

The document criticized Perry, saying he would rather dole out money from his "slush funds" in the form of "corporate welfare" to his friends and contributors than keep his promise to lower property taxes.

Perry's campaign spokesman, Robert Black, later notified reporters that by pushing certain buttons on their computers they would be able to see that Strayhorn's document was created at the comptroller's office.

Black said Perry's campaign makes similar checks on all such documents from Strayhorn because, he said, she has used her state office before in a "clear, continuous, disturbing pattern of unethical behavior."

"It's a pretty sure bet that you're going to catch her with her hand in the cookie jar again, which is what happened today," Black said. "She very obviously used state resources and a state computer to create a campaign press release, and that's against the law, plain and simple."

...

Sanders acknowledged that at first the news release was worked on with the comptroller's state equipment because it was intended to be a policy statement from the comptroller in her official capacity.

"As we were putting it together and we began to point out in this document the governor's shortcomings, it became clear that this was a document that would be more appropriate coming from the campaign," he said, adding that the document then was moved to Strayhorn's campaign office and completed there.

Posted by Evan @ 12/02/05 11:51 PM | Comments (1)

Rick Perry and David Dewhurst

Are there perhaps signs of strain in the Dewhurst - Perry relationship?

~~Two~~ One bits of evidence:

1. Texas Weekly reports that Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst was upset with Speaker Tom Craddick, because Craddick decided that a joint House-Senate legislative committee was redundant, given the work that Rick Perry's tax commision is doing. Dewhurst is reportedly upset that Perry appointed his last Democratic opponent, John Sharp, to chair the commission. So he wanted a joint legislative committee to make suggestions as well, giving Dewhurst an opportunity for influence. So now, Dewhurst is probably upset with both Craddick and Perry over this matter.

2. Dewhurst recently hired longtime Republican operative David Beckwith. Beckwith had worked for Dewhurst before, of course, but his most recent gig was running Kay Bailey Hutchison's aborted primary challenge to Rick Perry.

If Perry and Dewhurst aren't getting along, then that's not going to help the effort to redo Texas' school finance.

Plus, Dewhurst and Craddick apparently have had an uneasy relationship after Texas Monthly named Craddick as most powerful in Austin, while leaving Dewhurst off the list.

[Sidenote: Beckwith worked in the George HW Bush White House as Dan Quayle's spokesman, while Perry's chief strategist and political consultant Dave Carney was political director in the HW Bush administration.]

UPDATE: Thanks to Gus in the comments for pointing out that Beckwith does indeed work for Cornyn, not Dewhurst. I'm not sure what I was thinking.

Posted by Evan @ 12/02/05 11:49 PM | Comments (2)

Candidates may begin filing in 30 minutes

The filing for the March primary begins tomorrow, Saturday December 3. The filing period runs until January 2.

[The title isn't true, of course. The office will not be open at midnight.]

Posted by Evan @ 12/02/05 11:30 PM | Comments (0)

Gammage "likely" to join race to be the Dems gov. nominee

Clay Robison appears to have talked with Bob Gammage, and he is "likely" to seek the nomination.

It's almost like I predicted that he would say something.

Posted by Evan @ 12/02/05 02:18 AM | Comments (0)

The most likely gubernatorial scenario

From an email I sent recently:

Actually, I think right now the most plausible scenario is that Rick Perry stays under 50%, with Kinky Friedman in 2nd. However, there's still a large chance that Friedman will blow up and say something stupid.

I would note that I used the phrase "most plausible scenario." That means that it is more likely than any other individual scenario. Feel free to disagree.

EDIT: Obviously, Friedman still has to get on the ballot. I assume he will, however. If he doesn't, he clearly wasn't ready for primetime anyway. So it doesn't surprise me that Texas Weekly notes that Friedman advisers (Minnesotans, but we welcome them nonetheless) are telling folks that they are aiming for 100,000 or even 200,000 signatures.

Posted by Evan @ 12/02/05 01:14 AM | Comments (4)

01 December 2005

Former Statesman journalist Dave McNeely gives something of a lesson in Texas political history.

Memo to The Guardian: McNeely could have fixed the multitudinous problems in 10 minutes.

Posted by Evan @ 12/01/05 02:27 PM | Comments (0)

Friedman in the Valley

The McAllen Monitor reports on Friedman's visit to several college campuses in the Valley, and his fundraising on South Padre Island.

Posted by Evan @ 12/01/05 02:22 PM | Comments (0)

30 November 2005

Bob Gammage, Democrats, and trial balloons

Well, the Bob Gammage for Governor trial balloon went up via email and blogs. I didn't scrupulously monitor the reception it got on the left side of the Texas blogosphere, but my sense was that Democrats were guardedly enthusiastic.

So it seems to me that this is put-up or shut-up time for Democratic gubernatorial candidates. The primary is looming.

In 2002, former Attorney General Dan Morales stunned the Texas political world when he filed for governor and not US senator. But Morales was a special case. Not only was Morales the last Democrat elected statewide in Texas, but he was sitting on a million or two in campaign cash if I recall correctly. So he had name ID and some money, although he also had a scandal and Sanchez's wealth lined up against him. Some have speculated that he ran in order to claim that the federal investigation then well underway was politically motivated. Indeed, Morales is now in prison. But Morales was a special case, overall. He had name ID and could easily garner media coverage that allowed him to start a little late and still be a credible candidate.

There have been lots of rumors of Democrats who are thinking of running for governor. The primary is now 3.5 months away. If someone is going to challenge Chris Bell for the right to be the Democratic nominee, then they're going to need to surface immediately. Yes, I'm assuming Bell would beat Felix Alvarado.

So if Bob Gammage or anyone else is running for governor, then I expect he or she will let us know in the next few days.

Posted by Evan @ 11/30/05 03:42 AM | Comments (1)

Adios mofo, redux?

A female friend of mine signed off our IM [instant messenger, for the Luddites] conversation by saying -- you guessed it: adios mofo.

We've never really talked politics, so I assume she wasn't making a joke about this blog or my partisanship.

So I have to wonder: has the phrase caught on with Texans? And if so, is it because of Governor Perry?

Will my kids be saying it in thirty years?

Posted by Evan @ 11/30/05 03:14 AM | Comments (1)

29 November 2005

Bio

The link from the Chronicle has brought in some new visitors. I'm reminded that my bio is woefully out of date. I'll update it sometime in the next day, even though I despise writing about myself.

Posted by Evan @ 11/29/05 11:02 AM | Comments (0)

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