Rick Perry vs World

02 July 2005

Sidebar updated

I got tired of folks emailing me to tell me that Carole Strayhorn had announced for governor, so I updated my sidebar.

It was a little bit more difficult to update the sidebar now that this blog uses Nucleus, but I just hope that I didn't screw any of Kevin's Nucleus customization work up.

Posted by Evan @ 07/02/05 09:33 PM | Comments (0)

Governing on Texas political blogs

CQ's Governing magazine has an article on how "a new generation of web scribes is shaking up state capitol politics." They focus on Eileen Smith, the firedancing Pink Lady herself.

An interesting paragraph:

Blogs may pose a more direct challenge to political newsletters. Texas has three of them, the Quorum Report, Capitol Inside, and Texas Weekly. Each charges $250 for an annual subscription, and is aimed more or less at the same niche of insiders that the blogs reach for free. Currently, the blogs come nowhere close to the newsletters in terms of providing useful information for staffers or lobbyists. But that could change. It all depends on who decides to take up blogging — and what sort of information they’re willing to share. “Blogs now have more gossip and entertainment value than the kind of stuff that would dominate the decision-making political conversation,” says Harvey Kronberg, editor of the Quorum Report. Kronberg admits that he reads In The Pink, but he doesn’t see Eileen Smith or her contemporaries as a threat. “Blogs don’t have the range, the reach or the institutional memory. That’s not to say someone won’t come along who does.”

Mostly agreed. I've had the pleasure of Quorum Report and Texas Weekly subscriptions in the past, and I thought both were well worth the money. I've never had the chance to try Capitol Inside, though I've heard good things.

The day could come when blogs could supplant those three newsletters, but that day isn't imminent.

Posted by Evan @ 07/02/05 09:24 PM | Comments (0)

01 July 2005

BOR says John Sharp to enter race for governor

According to BOR, John Sharp will seek the Democratic nomination for governor.

Shucks, he's lost for lite guv the last two times, why not give guv a shot? It will be interesting to see whether Bell decides to stay in the race if Sharp runs.

It'll also be interesting to see if anyone decides to take on Sharp. A few names being thrown about by Dems include former Ambassador to Sweden Lyndon Olson and advertising executive Roy Spence.

Posted by Evan @ 07/01/05 12:34 PM | Comments (0)

29 June 2005

Texas Monthly on Carole Keeton Strayhorn

The good folks at Texas Monthly send over some background reading on Strayhorn.

The first is Paul Burka's recent June 2005 story on Strayhorn headlined: Carole Keeton Strayhorn Has Guts. Carole Keeton Strayhorn Is Nuts. Discuss..

The second is Evan Smith's December 2003 story headlined: One Ticked-off Grandma, which mostly deals with the falling out from the 2003 legislative session.

Posted by Evan @ 06/29/05 08:15 PM | Comments (0)

This space intentionally left blank

1. Comptroller Strayhorn said that primary foe Perry's school finance plan was $200 million short and called it a "mess". Perry's office replied that Strayhorn had forgotten about more than $300 million in vetoed funds.

I guess Perry's office got the better of the exchange, since Strayhorn didn't appear to fire back with another press release. I assume if Perry's facts were wrong she would have. If I'm wrong, I expect to hear about it.

2. Kinky is in Corpus. "My campaign is not the joke. It's the Texas Legislature that's a joke. I think it's an easy job."

If school finance was so easy, I think it might've been solved by now.

3. Anyone else wondering how much PinkDome is making on the Adios Mofo tshirts? Are people wearing them around the Capitol?

4. Dave Montgomery speculates in the FWST about Hutchison's political future. The wagging tongues like Hutchison as a VP pick if Hillary is the nominee.

5. Cheers to Anne Linehan for including me on her list of favorite blogs.

Posted by Evan @ 06/29/05 04:26 PM | Comments (1)

Texas Monthly mention

Cheers to TM editor Evan Smith for mentioning this blog in a story from this month's issue (with Lance Armstrong on the cover) about Nate Nance.

I have a terrible memorization skills, but I believe the quote was "a Republican take on the wild, wacky, governor's race (www.perryvsworld.com)."

I was amused by one thing. Smith writes -- probably partly tongue-in-cheek -- about how he shouldn't promote his competition, seeing as most bloggers think they're going to bring down the media.

I've never seen it that way. Blogs aren't competing with Texas Monthly. I'm certainly not -- I'd have to be getting paid more to write lengthy and thoughtful analysis pieces! I write a lot of drafts of longer analyses, but never get around to finishing them.

It seems to me that blogs are all about niches. As Tom Kirkendall says, the "blogosphere is redefining the way in which specialized information and knowledge is communicated." My own experience is that the folks who read this blog are mostly other bloggers, journalists -- especially from smaller papers -- who want to make sure they aren't missing anything on their beat, political junkies trolling for the latest rumor and info.

On the other hand, my understanding of this blog's readership is anecdotally based on people who email me. So more regular readers should email me.

Or maybe I'll design a poll.

Posted by Evan @ 06/29/05 04:06 PM | Comments (3)

Not that I don't think she's serious...

...but am I the only one who was inspired by Senator Hutchison's re-election announcement to doublecheck the filing deadlines?

The filing period will be December 3, 2005 until January 2, 2006. The primary is March 7.

Like I said, I don't doubt her. But it is possible that Kay could have already lost her senate leadership election [I don't think this is likely. Kay appears likely to win, as she, Kyl and Ensign have already decided not to run against each other. However congressional leadership election results are known de facto sooner and sooner] and Strayhorn could be winning handily. If so, I have to wonder whether Hutchison might reconsider, at least for a moment.

I'm not trying to start a rumor. I'm just saying, there's always a chance, even if only remotely miniscule.

Edit: how happy are national Republicans that they won't have to defend an open seat in Texas? That's a big chunk of resources that the NRSC can send to states like MI, MN, FL, PA and MD to elect Michael Steele. Alternately, the money the NRSC saves from a TX open seat is practically enough to entirely fund an ND campaign.

Posted by Evan @ 06/29/05 03:48 PM | Comments (0)

26 June 2005

Weekend shorts

1. The DMN has quotes pro and con from some Dallasites about Perry's decision to roll the dice on school finance by vetoing education spending in the budget.

While it may be very unlikely, is there a way Perry can be elected if schools fail to open on time this fall?

2. Gardner Selby has the poll numbers that KBH's campaign leaked to him, showing her beating Perry. I may have some thoughts on this in the near future.

3. Meanwhile, Clay Robison's recent op-ed piece (not a news piece -- he does news on weekdays, and op-ed on the weekends) views this special session as Perry's re-election kickoff.

Posted by Evan @ 06/26/05 02:17 AM | Comments (0)

24 June 2005

Adios mofo continues

The adios mofo story continues. I'm getting lots of hits from search engines for "adios mofo." So if you're one of them, welcome. This blog focuses on the gubernatorial race, particularly the primary between Comptroller Strayhorn and Governor Perry. I occasionally muse on other Texas politics stuff as well. (And yes, I know my sidebar needs to be updated.)

1. Front page, above the fold, Statesman headline: "Adios, mofo" is all the rage. The article talks about how radio shock jock The Greaseman uses AMF for his signoff and how lots of folks are selling tshirts with Adios Mofo on it. Meanwhile, Democratic political consultant Kelly Fero has bought adiosmofo.com. There's nothing up yet at that domain name though.

2. John Kelso uses his column in the Statesman to comment on "adios mofo." He's generally disapproving in tone.

3. If you want to watch the adios mofo video, it's still here.

I think the average voter thinks this is funny, and that it humanizes the governor. Sure, it knocks the governor completely off-message for a few days -- it's hard to compete with Adios Mofo as a headline on the front page -- but there'll be plenty of time to focus on school finance in the days ahead.

Posted by Evan @ Adios mofo continues"> 06/24/05 08:35 PM | Comments (2)

A thought

How upset are Texas' political consultants that Hutchison decided not to run?

Her decision cost them as a whole a good deal of money by not setting off the ripple effect of open offices.

Posted by Evan @ 06/24/05 08:30 PM | Comments (0)

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