Rick Perry vs World

15 July 2005

New Burka column

Paul Burka's column on Rick Perry and the gubernatorial race in the new Texas Monthly is available for preview.

Posted by Evan @ 07/15/05 10:07 AM | Comments (0)

One week left in the special session...

...what are the odds that something gets done this session? How many more will it take?

Posted by Evan @ 07/15/05 08:53 AM | Comments (1)

12 July 2005

Montgomery & Associates poll

Montgomery poll, 905 Texas voters who voted in the 2002 and/or 2004 GOP primaries. moe=3.3%

Fav/Unfav
Perry 51%/21%
Strayhorn 34%/20%

Perry Job Approval:
Excellent 7%
Good 45%
Fair 34%
Poor 12%

Strayhorn Job Approval:
Excellent 9%
Good 46%
Fair 22%
Poor 19%

Matchup:
Perry: 55%
Strayhorn: 29%
Undecided: 16%

The numbers sound about right to me.

UPDATE: Full press release is here.

Posted by Evan @ 07/12/05 08:51 PM | Comments (0)

11 July 2005

Strayhorn raised $1.5M in 10 days

Via The Hotline, which notes that Strayhorn raised an "unprecedented" $1.5 million in 10 days. She's got $7 million in cash on hand.

It will be interesting to poke through those reports.

Posted by Evan @ 07/11/05 07:20 PM | Comments (0)

08 July 2005

Draft Pete Laney?

Houston Democratic State Rep. Senfronia Thompson has printed up tshirts that she's selling on the house floor that say "Save Texas, Laney for Gov -- 06."

Former House Speaker Pete Laney says, "It'll take a lot more than a T-shirt."

Printing up tshirts is one way to try to start a rumor and draft a candidate, I guess. Sorta. Kinda. John Moritz has more in the FWST.

Posted by Evan @ 07/08/05 08:42 PM | Comments (1)

06 July 2005

Dos

1. The Texas Supreme Court hears oral arguments today in the school finance case.

Don't expect a decision anytime soon.

2. Brian Chasnoff at the SAEN files a report on Kinky from Corpus Christi.

One thing worth noting: Kinky's getting significantly more media coverage than Chris Bell.

Posted by Evan @ 07/06/05 07:38 AM | Comments (0)

George Strong's rumors

Houston Democratic political consultant George Strong posts a few interesting rumors.

One is nothing new: both John Sharp and Tony Sanchez are considering running for governor of Texas.

The second is somewhat surprising: that Kinky Friedman might have some "big endorsements" from Democrats.

Another is bizarre: that Dewhurst will be the nominee for governor, not Perry. I've heard no rumblings of the sort, and I doubt that if Dewhurst were considering it he would have endorsed Perry. What particularly doesn't make sense is that the way Strong phrases his rumor appears to suggest that Perry might step down. I don't see that happening.

Also, Strong mentions a new website started by some Austin Democrats. stepuptexas.com has a poll for each race this next cycle -- from statewides to the legislature to county races. The poll for governor currently lists Lance Armstrong, Chris Bell, Paul Hobby, Ann Richards, John Sharp and Roy Spence.

For what it's worth, Bell leads Sharp 11-5 at the moment.

Posted by Evan @ 07/06/05 04:32 AM | Comments (0)

Strayhorn decides not to take the pay raise

Christy Hoppe -- Dallas Morning News:

A $33,000 raise caused a rise in the governor's race.

Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who indicated last week that she would accept the 35 percent raise authorized but not funded by the Legislature, said Tuesday that she wouldn't take the money after all.

"Although Gov. Perry sanctioned pay increases for statewide elected officials when he approved the state budget, I do not believe it is appropriate for me to accept a penny more for the work I was elected to do," Mrs. Strayhorn said.

The comptroller, who is challenging Rick Perry for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, was among seven statewide elected officials authorized to find money in their agencies to boost their own salaries from $92,000 to $125,000. Her decision followed criticism from Mr. Perry's campaign.

...

The holiday weekend gave Mrs. Strayhorn a chance to study the situation, too, and she changed her mind, spokesman Mark Sanders said.

"Her focus has been on her announcement [to run for governor] and dealing with Perry's horribly inept attempt to deal with the public school funding crisis," he said. "She looked at it over the weekend and called today to say she's not accepting it."

Last week, Mr. Perry's campaign uncovered Strayhorn comments from 1997, when she became eligible for a raise while serving on the Railroad Commission.

At the time, she was quoted saying that an election was a bond between herself and the people. "I knew what the terms were. And I say very strongly, if they have pay raises to hand out, it ought to be going to the teachers of this state," she had said.

...

"She has ripped a page out of Senator [John] Kerry's flip-flop manual, being for the pay raise before she was against it," he said.

The governor's office was initially included in the Legislature's bid to give statewide lawmakers a raise, but Mr. Perry declined to be included. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst's salary is set by the state constitution at $7,200, the same as legislators.

I've got to give credit to Mr. Saenz for the Kerry quote. It's a good sound bite.

"...Mr. Perry declined to be included," in this case means that Perry told legislators to exclude the governor from the pay raise authorization. This of course creates an interesting situation: all statewide executive branch offices will now pay more than the governor.

Mark Sanders, Strayhorn's spokesman (quoted in the article, but not excerpted here), was previously the spokesman for Tony Sanchez's failed campaign to unseat Governor Perry in 2002.

Posted by Evan @ 07/06/05 12:06 AM | Comments (0)

04 July 2005

Dallas Observer profiles Kinky

Robert Wilonsky in the Dallas Observer has a long and interesting profile of the man who hopes to be an independent candidate for governor.

Friedman on immigration:

Friedman insists that the campaign, not yet out of its bassinet, has invigorated and inspired him. For hours he pitches proposals that land somewhere between crackpot and genius. There's one called The Five Mexican Generals, which he insists would stem the flow of Mexicans illegally crossing the Texas border. The plan is simple: Divide the Texas-Mexico border into five districts, appoint a Mexican general to guard each, keep $1 million in a bank account for each official and then dock the accounts for every immigrant who slips across the border.

On being taken seriously and fundraising:

One of Barkley's first jobs in Texas will involve getting Friedman on the phone with his rich and famous friends and asking them to pony up. By the time of the election, Barkley would like to have $5 million, which is but a fraction of the $60 million Democratic candidate Tony Sanchez spent to get his ass handed to him by Rick Perry three years ago. Barkley insists that if Friedman can raise the money, that alone will prove to the media he's a candidate to be taken seriously.

"My old pal Evan Smith [editor of Texas Monthly] told me, 'Kinky, enough of the one-liners. Where's the real substance?'" Friedman says. "Yet he listens to Kay Bailey [Hutchison] or Rick Perry or John Sharp or Chris Bell and he thinks he's hearing substance, and that's ludicrous. I'll tell ya about one-liners. The kings of one-liners are probably Kinky Friedman, Henny Youngman and Oscar Wilde throughout history, but the defense of a good one-liner is that the cowboy uses one line between his saddle horn and the steer he's roped, and hopefully that one line is true and strong. Travis at the Alamo drew one line in the sand for the men to walk across. Jesus had one line on the cross: 'Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.' So if a one-liner is true and strong, it can save a soul. That's my defense of the one-liner. And I'm telling you, the campaign with the most substance is ours, merely because the candidate and the people around him don't come from politics. The closest we get to politics is Dean Barkley..."

"Hey, I resent that," Barkley barks. "Fuck you, asshole."

I think what Barkley meant to say is "Adios mofo." But he's not from Texas, so maybe he's not hip to the current politico lingo.

Barkley is right. They need to raise money, and then commission a poll showing Friedman with palpable support.

On rednecks:

"I think we're going to win Fredericksburg, and as Fredericksburg goes, so goes the state," he insists. "There are rednecks still left in this state, and the rednecks are for Kinky Friedman. That's the fact, OK?"

Color me unconvinced. How will Friedman's left-leaning social views play?

Posted by Evan @ 07/04/05 02:17 AM | Comments (1)

Eiland has a point

Kelly Hawes -- Galveston Daily News:

State Rep. Craig Eiland predicts that casino gambling might return to the table if the Legislature finds itself in a second special session seeking to resolve issues related to school funding.

...

Eiland indicated the governor and his re-election hopes would be at the center of any discussion about funding for education. He suggested that the absence of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison from the Republican gubernatorial primary might make it easier for Perry to get behind gambling as a possible revenue source.

"He had already come out in favor of gambling at the horse and dog tracks," Eiland said, "and as long as she was in the picture, he really couldn�t move off of that because that was the one issue where she was to the right of him. Now that she�s not running, he might be free to look at more options."

Eiland is right. Since Strayhorn has supported gambling to fund education in the past, she can't really take a credible anti-gambling stand if Perry includes gambling revenues in school finance. The political pressure was coming from Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Revenues from gambling will start looking mighty attractive to raising taxes. I wouldn't be surprised to see it happen.

I don't comment on policy on this blog, but the one exception has been this: if the state wants revenues from gambling, then why not legalize poker?

Poker is an actual game of skill, unlike say...slots or "VLTs". The game is currently extremely popular, especially with college and high school students. Underground games are flourishing across Texas.

If the state legalized Texas Hold'em, it would give folks a place to play legally -- and I promise you that many, many of the younger generation are playing but would prefer to play in Texas rather than online or in Lake Charles -- as well as generate revenue for the state.

Posted by Evan @ 07/04/05 01:53 AM | Comments (0)

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