Rick Perry vs World

11 May 2005

Shorts

1. Dallas oilman Albert Huddleston says he'll donate heavily to KBH if she challenges Perry:

A deep-pocketed Dallas contributor said Friday he will funnel big bucks to U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's campaign if she challenges Gov. Rick Perry's bid for another term next year.

"She'd make a great governor," Albert Huddleston said. "If (she) chooses to run, then I will be helping her in that effort more than I've rarely helped anybody."

Perry's campaign spokesman, Luis Saenz, discounted Huddleston because he's spoken kindly of creating a state personal income tax and supported Democrats.

I checked Huddleston's political contributions at both federal and state level. He gives mostly (75%ish, I'd say) to Republicans, but definitely has lots of Democrats that he contributes to as well.

Not that it should matter that much. Both Perry and Hutchison should have plenty of money.

2. Byron highlights some relatively low poll numbers from Rick Perry. I can't find the actual poll results beyond the basic Perry job approval numbers, which are 38% Approve, 48% Disapprove, and 14% Unsure. Byron adds some numbers I couldn't find anywhere on Survey USA's website, that Republicans are 57/33 approval/disapproval with 10% unsure.

Lots of political journalists and observers discount Survey USA's polls, since they use automated questioners instead of human questioners on the other end of the line. I generally think that the skepticism of Survey USA is unwarranted.

I pass on the results of this poll without comment, as there are several reasons why this mightn't be very predictive.

Posted by Evan @ 05/11/05 07:35 PM | Comments (0)

Mistakes by inexperienced staffers

Remember the Republican pro-choice group that removed Hutchison from its endorsement list?

The group says it was a mistake by an "inexperienced staffer":

With Texas conservatives dogging her every move, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison found herself embroiled this week in an issue she prefers to avoid – abortion – after a miscue by a Republican abortion-rights group that has long backed her.

The Wish List, a group that raises money for GOP candidates who support abortion rights, sought to knock down reports it was distancing itself from Ms. Hutchison.

The Texas senator remains on the group's Web site as an honorary board member and is touted as one of four female pro-choice GOP senators.

Earlier this week, Wish List removed a page saying it "strongly supports" Ms. Hutchison for a third term in the Senate. The group's president, Pat Carpenter, on Friday blamed "an inexperienced staffer" for posting an endorsement prematurely, since Ms. Hutchison is not yet a declared candidate for re-election.

Social-conservative allies of the governor's campaign -- prodded by a Perry aide -- pounced on the group's decision, calling it an effort to hide Ms. Hutchison's support of abortion rights. They circulated a news release that erroneously said Wish List had dropped her from its board.

On Friday, social conservatives stepped up their attack on Ms. Hutchison with a new round of e-mails to activists in Texas.

...

Kelly Shackelford of the Free Market Foundation, which opposes abortion and gay marriage, said he's confident Mr. Perry would win the GOP primary.

At the same time, he said, some social conservatives see a silver lining in a Hutchison challenge because it would trigger elections that could put more conservative candidates in statewide office.

"I've talked with a number of people who privately think it might be a good thing," he said.

Posted by Evan @ 05/11/05 07:30 PM | Comments (0)

McKenzie column

It's no secret that the legislature's failure to produce a school finance bill hurts Rick Perry.

William McKenzie writes in a DMN column:

That sound you hear from Austin is a door swinging open, plenty wide enough for Kay Bailey Hutchison to barge right through.

Gov. Rick Perry has had every chance this session to lead legislators to a plan that answers the state's school funding shortfall, effectively closing Ms. Hutchison out of a gubernatorial primary challenge. Instead, he talks mostly about new academic and financial standards for schools. He appears content with the Legislature's funding proposals.

...

Unlike Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, who's more likely to enter the GOP governor's race because she darn well wants to, Ms. Hutchison doesn't want to take this big leap without the right opening. She sells well across Texas, drawing about two-thirds of the votes in her Senate races. She particularly resonates with suburban voters, including women in places like Plano who place a high priority on their children's schools.

Before the 2005 Legislature, Mr. Perry gave her some daylight. After an impressive stint as lieutenant governor in 1999, his first session as governor in 2001 ended with strained feelings because he vetoed a ton of bills. His swift pen angered even supporters.

Then came 2003 and the Legislature's mean budget battle. With the governor's backing, the House took deep cuts out of programs that help kids and the elderly. The House's approach pretty much prevailed because the governor didn't want legislators to raise taxes.

Mr. Perry's no-new-taxes theme continues in the school finance debate, fed by the anti-tax movement that conservative advocate Grover Norquist and others in Washington have turned into a cottage industry. "Everyone in Austin's been Norquistized," says one business leader.

But here's the rub: Schools don't get fixed without enough money. If Mr. Perry keeps low-balling the state's education investment over the next month – and if GOP Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst can't get the governor and House to budge – Ms. Hutchison has ample room to run. She can make the case that the governor didn't lead the state into the future.

Color me skeptical about McKenzie's column. McKenzie advocates that if Perry wants to be re-elected, then the guv ought raise taxes to pay for increased expenditures.

I'm very skeptical of the notion that GOP primary voters are clamoring for more state taxes, regardless of where the money is spent.

Posted by Evan @ 05/11/05 06:45 PM | Comments (0)

06 May 2005

Who's On The Right?

John Moritz, FWST:

A national organization that promotes Republicans who support abortion rights removed U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's name Wednesday from its list of advisory board members and from the list of candidates it will endorse in next year's elections.

Hutchison's office said the senator did not request that her name be removed. But Gov. Rick Perry's campaign, which views Texas' senior senator as a potential rival in next year's GOP gubernatorial primary, suggested that Hutchison was trying to camouflage her position on one of the hot-button issues among Republican activists.

"It looks like she's trying to hide from her record," said Luis Saenz, a spokesman for the Perry campaign. "Governor Perry is very proud of his record when it comes to issues dealing with the unborn."

The national organization, called The Wish List, would not say why Hutchison's name was removed.

Hutchison has consistently supported abortion rights, sometimes putting her at odds with social conservatives, who have a strong influence in Republican primaries.

Meanwhile, Wayne Slater writes up Perry's speech at a recent prayer breakfast

Gov. Rick Perry, who is counting on the support of social conservatives in his re-election bid, told a religious audience Tuesday that "America was founded on our Christian faith" and that prayer can help guide government policy.

"From the earliest days of the republic, our leaders have called upon Americans to join together in prayer," Mr. Perry told the Texas Prayer Breakfast.

The Republican governor said God "chooses to involve himself in the affairs of men – and not just the major issues that we deal with, but in every issue."

Facing a possible challenge in next year's Republican primary, Mr. Perry has cast himself as a social conservative and courted opponents of abortion and gay marriage.

"That's a base of support he absolutely has to have," said Richard Murray, a University of Houston political science professor.

Mr. Perry's address Tuesday to several hundred people attending the prayer breakfast struck strong religious themes and produced a standing ovation. The breakfast was part of National Day of Prayer.

Posted by Evan @ 05/06/05 02:50 PM | Comments (0)

03 May 2005

AP on anti-TTC rally

The AP wire:

About 250 farmers and ranchers rallied at the Capitol today to protest Governor Rick Perry's Trans Texas Corridor.

Critics say the highway project will gobble up the property of rural land owners.

Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn joined the demonstrators and called Perry's associates "land-grabbing highway henchmen."

She also called the governor's plan the "Trans Texas Catastrophe."

...

Spokesman Robert Black also says Strayhorn in the past has supported toll roads.

RG Ratcliffe has this in the Chron:

Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn got farmers, ranchers and small-business owners whipped into a frenzy at a Capitol rally Tuesday as they called for Gov. Rick Perry's impeachment over the land-condemnation provisions of his Trans-Texas Corridor plan.

"Perry and his hand-picked highway henchmen say we have a choice: no roads, slow roads or toll roads," Strayhorn said. "I say to Governor Perry and his highway henchmen: Hogwash. Vote our way today for freeways."

Posted by Evan @ 05/03/05 09:59 AM | Comments (0)

The Kate and Nate show

Gromer Jeffers in the DMN:

Kay Bailey Hutchison wants Dallas County Republican Party Chairman Nate Crain to leave her alone.

"I'm trying very hard to focus on my job," she said after a speech last week at the Belo Mansion. "I just would hope that our party leaders would not be taking shots at an officeholder in the party who is trying very hard to do her job."

...

"There is a disturbing pattern about where this is headed," Mr. Crain said. "I don't want to see our party split."

Rick Neudorff, the Collin County Republican Party chairman, supports Mr. Crain.

"I would rather her not run and have campaign money sucked up in one race," he said.

Potential Republican campaign donors throughout the state have sent similar signals. But despite some institutional opposition, analysts consider Ms. Hutchison unbeatable in her own back yard.

Her campaign contends that Mr. Perry's organization is responsible for Mr. Crain's sniping.

"It says a lot about his leadership," said Terry Sullivan, campaign manager for Ms. Hutchison. "He needs to focus on the important things going on in our state, instead of worrying about re-election."

Luis Saenz, the governor's campaign director, said Mr. Crain is "his own guy" and that Mr. Perry was not involved in the party leader's spat with Ms. Hutchison.

Posted by Evan @ 05/03/05 07:30 AM | Comments (0)

02 May 2005

The Weekly Weekend Roundup

1. Dean Barkley has joined Kinky Friedman's campaign as "campaign director and chief strategist." Barkley managed Jesse Ventura's campaign for governor of Minnesota and then was appointed US Senator by Gov. Ventura when Paul Wellstone died.

2. Senator Hutchison called the folks behind the Minuteman Project "very brave" and "caring." The Minuteman Project is volunteers who patrol the Arizona-Mexico border in the hopes of stopping immigrants from entering the US without documentation.

3. Rick Casey opines in the HouChron that the death of a campaign finance bill "could add considerable sizzle to a potential gubernatorial primary fight between" Perry and KBH. The dead bill would have prohibited outside groups from running ads in the days before an election.

Posted by Evan @ 05/02/05 06:06 PM | Comments (0)

Perry meets with Chronicle ed board

Clay Robison writes up Perry's sitdown with the Chron editorial board. The article mostly focuses on the CPS overhaul legislation and the controversial amendment banning homosexuals from being foster parents.

Cheers to In the Pink for the reminder to post this.

Posted by Evan @ 05/02/05 03:06 PM | Comments (0)