Rick Perry vs World

25 October 2010

White's record as mayor, Chron circ continuing to fall, Green Party access

1. In the Statesman, Ben Wear looks at White's transportation record as mayor.

2. Chron columnist Rick Casey writes an entire column rehashing Politipinion's...opinions.

In other Houston Chronicle (related?) news, the Chron again posted one of the steepest declines in daily circulation among the top 25 newspapers. This comes on top of repeated significantly-larger-than-average declines even as the Houston metro continues to grow faster than average. The Wall Street Journal and the Dallas Morning News were the only papers to post increases.

3. Karl-T at BOR notes that the Green Party is quite likely to get 5% in the Comptroller's race, thus securing ballot access for the 2012 elections. Just as Libertarian ballot lines have ciphoned off crucial votes from Republicans in close races, Green ballot lines could do so to Democrats in close races. Karl-T tells Democrats not to vote Green in the Comptroller race (where there is no Democrat); the corollary I suppose is that Republicans should vote Green.

4. Bradley Olson takes a balanced look at White's record as mayor.

Posted by Evan @ 10/25/10 02:38 PM | Comments (0)

8 day campaign finance reports due today

The 8 day campaign finance reports are due today, so we should get some idea of how much money Rick Perry and Bill White have left for the final homestretch. Not including third-party groups of course. There was some speculation last time about how much TV time Bill White had actually reserved in advance, so maybe we'll get some insight into that as well.

Update: The post on the latest campaign finance reports.

Posted by Evan @ 10/25/10 10:33 AM | Comments (0)

24 October 2010

Micromanaging, Perry 1098, Prose, Transportation and more

1. DMN compares Perry vs White on transportation.

2. Bill White has gotten a bit of a reputation as a micromanager:

Fundraising chief Kathryn McCarter, sitting next to me, says that White still needs to review two new ads today and make suggestions. "He has a good eye," she says.

So he's as hands-on with the details of the campaign as people say?

"Oh, yes," she says, chuckling at the understatement.

Meaning he was responsible for that tortured prose in the campaign ad?

Ken Herman also recounts White spelling out details of details for the ads of his mayoral re-elect:

"We should tell a story. ... Coherence requires discipline. That means some stuff that meets the general criteria above will be discarded. The lack of coherence is why I had to be involved in the concepts and words and the like during prior TV production," he wrote. "This e-mail is an attempt to provide a clear vision and criteria for editing.

Finally, please consider different ways of tying statements to these themes. In prose you do it with thesis sentences. In ads you can do it with subtext imposed on pictures. In books chapter headings will do. Help the viewer link the dots."

Micromanaging?

Bill White really did put himself between MLK and Obama.

The excuse that White didn't know about this ad seems increasingly less believable as the campaign goes on. But hey, we all make mistakes.

3. Peggy Fikac talks to Cal Jillson, Jason Stanford, and Mark Sanders about their views on the race.

4. The Austin American-Statesman talks Perry v White in the Houston metro.

5. "The Seattle Times editorial board thanks Texas Gov. Rick Perry for inviting Washington employers to move to his state and remind Washington voters to defeat Initiative 1098, which would impose a state income tax."

Posted by Evan @ 10/24/10 11:53 PM | Comments (0)

23 October 2010

Tracking map

The Texas Tribune has a pretty cool map tracking events in the Perry vs White race. Check it out, they're trying to populate it with photos and reports using #txgovtrack on Twitter.

Posted by Evan @ 10/23/10 03:53 PM | Comments (0)

re: Bill White's ceiling

As I mentioned in the previous post, I don't think I've seen a single public poll in the entire race that has Bill White over 43%. Even with sample errors and randomness, you'd think that he'd get over 43% in a few polls here or there. If he's really at 42%, then we should have seen a 45% in there just based on randomness alone.

That speaks to what I've been saying all along: running like Bill White has as a generic Democrat in Texas during a strong Republican year has a ceiling. We know what that ceiling is: about 43%.

Bill White should have heeded my advice; he certainly shouldn't have begun the campaign telling reporters how liberal he grew up.

Posted by Evan @ 10/23/10 03:10 PM | Comments (0)

Rasmussen: Perry 51, White 42

Rasmussen's latest poll has Perry over 50.

10/21, 500 LVs
Perry 51
White 43
Other 2
Not Sure 5

The last Rasmussen poll two weeks ago had Perry 53-42, so there has been a slight narrowing, though not statistically significant.

To date, I don't think I've seen a public poll that has Bill White over 43%.

Posted by Evan @ 10/23/10 02:39 PM | Comments (0)

22 October 2010

It's Friday -- time to hit the links

* More on the TCJL poll by Bryan Eppstein that I mentioned yesterday that has Perry leading White 48 - 37. UPDATE: Crosstabs available on the TT's website.

* Bill White is out on the campaign trail with Robert Earl Keen. REK is a frequent proponent of Texas Dems. Meanwhile, Jason Embry had Pat Green as a camp counselor once upon a time...oh, and Pat Green endorsed Perry.

* A few links on Harris County voting.

Posted by Evan @ 10/22/10 02:08 PM | Comments (0)

Decision Points promo video

Although polls show a tossup in a hypothetical Obama v W race, it's not terribly helpful to have W's name in the news too much in the runup to the election.

Nonetheless W's book is being released the week after the election. Here's the promo video for Decision Points

Posted by Evan @ 10/22/10 01:52 PM | Comments (0)

21 October 2010

A day on the campaign trail with Rick Perry and Bill White

Houston ABC13's Ted Oberg does a day on trail with Bill White on Monday and Rick Perry today.

You know who Ted Oberg is, right? Does the name ring a bell? That's right, Ted Oberg is Adios, Mofo, one of the funnier moments in recent Texas campaign history. Here are his reports:

Bill White:

Posted by Evan @ 10/21/10 10:51 PM | Comments (0)