Rick Perry vs World

03 January 2011

Perry picks McDonnell advisor for RGA

Perry announces RGA executive director:

Phil Cox, who ran Gov. Bob McDonnell's gubernatorial campaign in 2009 and remains one of his top advisers, has been named executive director of the Republican Governors Association.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the group's newly elected chairman, announced the appointment Monday.

Cox will remain executive director to McDonnell's political action committee, Opportunity Virginia. McDonnell serves as vice chairman of RGA. He also will continue to advise Virginia Republicans looking to take back control of the state Senate in this year's elections.

Somewhat interesting that he picked someone so closely linked to McDonnell.

Posted by Evan @ 01/03/11 04:31 PM | Comments (0)

New staffers for Perry

Perry is shaking up his staff:

Gov. Rick Perry has named Rob Johnson senior advisor and Jeff Boyd general counsel. He also named Brandy Marty director of Budget, Planning and Policy; Milton Rister director of Administration; and Sarah Floerke deputy legislative director and House liaison.

What struck me was that Johnson and Rister are both former Dewhurst guys.

Posted by Evan @ 01/03/11 04:29 PM | Comments (2)

Texas Inauguration Info

Rick Perry and David Dewhurst will be inaugurated on Tuesday January 18th at 11 in the morning on the South Steps of the Capitol.

Then there will be an "Inaugural BBQ" at 12:15 pm on the west side. If you still haven't had enough celebrating, there's an evening celebration at 7:30 at the Palmer Events Center.

Get your tickets at the Texas Inaugural site, where you can donate to the Wounded Warrior fund.

Update: Inaugural Celebration performers will be Clay Walker, Pat Green, Eli Young Band and Bonnie Bishop.

Posted by Evan @ 01/03/11 04:22 PM | Comments (0)

01 January 2011

New Year links

* The first Latina governor was sworn in today. Texas connection = not only was Susana Martinez born in El Paso, but Bob Perry gave almost half a million to her campaign.

* I enjoyed Cory Crow's Not-Quite-Predictions post.

* In a Politico story on Connie Mack IV's potential run for Senate:

Chief of staff Hans Klinger has served as a general consultant for the campaigns of Texas Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Saxby Chambliss.

I think most people reading that Politico story would have an overstated sense of Klinger's role in these campaigns.

* Ben Smith's story in Politico on the 1988 presidential campaign tome "What It Takes: The Way to the White House" begins:

Before Richard Ben Cramer bought his old white farmhouse here in 1993, he called in "the best real estate guy that I know," and then-Delaware Sen. Joe Biden and his brother Jimmy drove down from Wilmington to have a look.

The Biden brothers approved, and Joe Biden "had a fabulous way for me to get it all repaired and fixed up and everything," Cramer recalled. "Joe sees no limits in houses."

Cramer hasn't made any of the improvements Biden suggested, but if that glimpse of Biden’s obsession with real estate sounds vaguely familiar, it's because this is the Biden whose life -- and rundown Wilmington mansion -- Cramer introduced to the nation in his 1,049-page chronicle of the 1988 presidential campaign, "What It Takes: The Way to the White House." The book was the point of departure for every profile of the vice presidential nominee 20 years later. It even defined Biden to Biden. "So that's how people see me?" he marveled to Cramer and others after he read the book.

This amuses me because I first heard of What It Takes about a decade ago from one of Biden's kids. I guess that means the VP liked it.

Posted by Evan @ 01/01/11 03:05 PM | Comments (0)

31 December 2010

Adios 2010

I'm not terribly sorry to see 2010 go. It hasn't been the best of years for me, starting with this, but not ending there.

Not sure what the next year holds for this blog. I've never really felt like writing about the legislative session has much comparative advantage for me, though I suppose I could reprint all the rumors that come my way. I may take another long hiatus. A decade ago, I spent lots of time studying redistricting maps and law, so I suppose there's a chance that I post on that. Time will tell.

Anyway, here's to 2011! Happy New Year! ¡Espero que todos tengan un año muy feliz!

Posted by Evan @ 12/31/10 04:49 PM | Comments (0)

30 December 2010

Voting fraud is normal in South Texas?

Steve Miller on election fraud in South Texas:

In a courtroom here, Dora Gonzalez confessed.

She had intentionally hampered the voting process by mishandling more than 100 absentee ballots in the March 2 Democratic primary in Val Verde County. By 29 votes, her employer, County Commissioner Jesus Ortiz, had won the primary, effectively handing him re-election in this Democratic county. Challenger Gus Flores alleged voter fraud and sued.

A judge ruled in August that Gonzalez' activity on Ortiz' behalf was illegal and ordered a new primary. Under close scrutiny, the election was won by Flores with a 306-vote margin.

In many ways, the case is typical of voter fraud in South Texas: Many violators are not charged -- Gonzalez wasn't either --- because prosecutors complain the cases are hard to prove. When they are prosecuted, the penalties are so small they don't deter the crime. So, with payment as "get out the vote" workers for candidates, the vote harvesters continue to hijack absentee ballots by sending applications on behalf of voters, arriving on their doorstep as the ballots arrive and coaching their votes.

"It's almost like it's OK because it's always been done," said Rudy Montalvo, election administrator in Starr County, which hugs the Mexican border just northwest of McAllen. He's done battle with his own Dora Gonzalezes, to little avail.

Will people continue to repeat the canard that "there are almost no proven cases of voting fraud in Texas" just because convictions are rare? Even with a confession, she wasn't even prosecuted.

Texas Watchdog actually makes the whole article available for republication under a Creative Commons license.

Posted by Evan @ 12/30/10 02:25 PM | Comments (0)

The redistricting sitdown

The Hotline's blog had a Q&A with Georgia Republican Rep. Lynn Westmoreland. Here's the snippet on Texas:

The Hotline: What states are particularly well prepared?

LW: Pennsylvania is really kind of a model of what these states need to be. They've had meeting after meeting with Pennsylvania delegation up here. So I think it's a pretty good relationship with all of them.

The Hotline: When you mention meetings with the delegation, do you mean that representatives from the state legislature are meeting with the Republican congressional caucus.

LW: Well, each delegation does their own thing. The Texas guys have met with some of their people that are going to be doing reapportionment. So has Pennsylvania. We've meet with some of our guys from Georgia. We're trying to encourage the delegations to do that, to sit down.

In not too long, Texas political blogs will probably be all redistricting, all the time.

Posted by Evan @ 12/30/10 01:44 PM | Comments (1)

UTIMCO & Performance of Texas Venture Capital and Private Equity Funds

Today I ran across the alternative investment performance figures for UTIMCO -- UTexas's investment manager. Most of the investments are PE and VC funds. It's not too surprising that private equity and venture capital investments will be NYC and Silicon Valley focused, but I still would have expected to see some other Texas firms on that list that I am pretty sure are open to new investments.

Here's a quick and dirty list of the Texas firms that UTIMCO invests in: Austin Ventures, ARCH Venture Partners, Escalate, Sandefer Capital, JatoTech, PTV Sciences (Pinto), SCF Partners, Texas Pacific Group, TGF Management, Essex Woodlands, Wingate Partners, Encap, Fortress (Dallas office), GSO ( bought by blackrock). I could have missed some, but that should be a majority.

If you aren't in the investment management business, you might want to research J-curves, capital commitments, etc., in order to correctly interpret the numbers presented.

Posted by Evan @ 12/30/10 12:50 PM | Comments (0)

"I win your internet for today"

The quoted title is from a friend's feed.

And he was right, he did win my internet. That's Nancy Reagan kissing Mr. T at the 1983 White House Christmas Party.

Posted by Evan @ 12/30/10 08:53 AM | Comments (0)

Ted Cruz to challenge KBH?

National Review's John J. Miller writes about something that I hear people talk about, but I don't think I have seen in print until this point: former solicitor general and AG candidate Ted Cruz running for Senate in 2012:

Right now, Cruz isn't a declared candidate. Neither is Hutchison: She's not saying whether she plans to pursue reelection. For Cruz, it may not matter. He appears to be getting ready for a campaign, whether it's against her or for an open seat.

No matter what Hutchison does, there may be a logjam of primary candidates -- not just Cruz and Williams, but also railroad commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones, former secretary of state Roger Williams, and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who will probably be the most significant contender if he runs. Dewhurst has the ability to self-fund and the support of Austin's political establishment; the conventional wisdom will hold that the race is his to lose. But conservatives will harbor doubts because they don't consider Dewhurst one of their own.

I think Cruz would probably have a better chance of emerging out of a crowded pack than most of the names in that last paragraph. He doesn't have much name identification, but neither do any of them, with the exception of Dewhurst.

And even Dewhurst isn't well known for a specific cause or issue, nor as Miller relates, has he ever really sealed the deal with much of the activist base. That may explain why he hesitated in running when Phil Gramm surprised us with his retirement announcement, and John Cornyn boldly announced and locked up support.

Posted by Evan @ 12/30/10 08:13 AM | Comments (0)

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