Rick Perry vs World

04 January 2010

It's officially primary season

It's officially primary season in Texas, as the filing deadline has passed. Obviously the gubenatorial primaries and the Dem lt gov primary are the most interesting.

If Katz and Shami hold true to their pledges to spend $10 million in the primary, this is going to be a good year to be a campaign consultant. It will definitely make those races interesting.

Posted by Evan @ 01/04/10 04:35 PM | Comments (0)

A few only tangentially Texas politics links

I enjoyed this New Yorker piece on John Mackey of Whole Foods fame. I've never shopped there regularly, but it is one of the best places in Houston to find microbrews. He's a unique character And look, a Rice connection:

Mackey was brought up in a conventional middle-class home in a suburb of Houston. His father, Bill Mackey, was a professor of accounting at Rice University, and his mother gave up school teaching to raise John and his two siblings.

The Chron profiles Rice chemist James Tour.

Four years after Nobel laureate Rick Smalley's untimely death, it is the prolific Tour who as much as anyone has carried on Smalley's groundbreaking legacy in the science of nanotechnology.

Confirmation came last month when, among the more than 720,000 scientists who authored chemistry papers in academic journals during the last decade, Tour found himself among the 10 most-cited authors in the world.

This means the 135 papers he wrote during the last decade had one of the 10 highest rates at which other scientists “cited” them in the references of subsequent research papers.

I've had the pleasure to talk to Tour a few times, and I was always impressed by how he manages to simplify his research when talking to laypeople. They mentioned how hospitable he is, and while true, it fails to mention that his wife is the nicest, sweetest person in the world.

Ten years ago friends told me that one should bet on him as a future Nobel laureate if the committee has any since at all.

Finally, Cory Crow offers a Houston-flavored "things you won't hear in 2010." I found a few of them quite funny.

Posted by Evan @ 01/04/10 04:30 PM | Comments (0)

Chavez-Thompson to file for lt gov

I don't get it. I really don't. Why is a San Antonio labor leader filing to run for lt guv?

She'll be competing with Ronnie Earle, who should have his liberal populist base out of Austin pretty well locked up and Katz, who says he is going to spend $10 million the race.

So, she'll be in a primary where the winner is a very significant underdog to a Republican in a generic year. But not only is this Republican an incumbent, but David Dewhurst has money to spend on his message. Plus, Democrats are likely to face a nationwide headwind.

Posted by Evan @ 01/04/10 01:23 AM | Comments (0)

Dave Montgomery has a good article up in the FWST about opposition research, with a few quotes from the flacks about how it relates to Rick vs. Kay.

Of course, if you're reading this, there probably isn't that much new for you.

Posted by Evan @ 01/04/10 01:19 AM | Comments (0)

Every governor is a degen...?

This seems to be from a website that doesn't really have circulation

Gov. Sonny Perdue made it clear last year that he would block any attempt to set up slot machines in Underground Atlanta. He saw the proposal for what it was: just one more desperate attempt to find money in a bad economy.

Primarily, though, Perdue said no to the idea because he's a Southern Baptist, and he's opposed to gambling.

...

Back in 2007, Perdue bet Texas Gov. Rick Perry that the Little League team from Warner Robins, Ga., would beat the Texas team in the World Series. When they did, Perry paid up on the bet by flying the Georgia flag over the Texas Capitol.

Then, this past week, Perdue won again when the Georgia Bulldogs played the Texas A&M Aggies in the Independence Bowl. Perry, a Texas A&M graduate, had to make a donation to the Atlanta Community Food Bank when UGA, Perdue's alma mater, won. Perdue's office issued press releases to brag about the winning streak.

Yeah, I know, these bets between governors are all just "friendly wagers." Call them whatever you want; they're still bets. And that means as long as Perdue continues to profess his opposition to gambling, he's a hypocrite.

This might be one of the literally truest yet dumbest articles I have ever read.

Posted by Evan @ 01/04/10 01:16 AM | Comments (0)

"Expect low blows, high volume from Perry, Hutchison"

Christy Hoppe in the DMN:

The contact sport of Texas politics is about to evolve from its easy comparison to gridiron contests of hard-hitting marches toward goal lines. No, football is played with pads.

This governor's race has all the feel of NASCAR and kick-boxing: fast, furious and brutal.

Two of the state's Republican titans have been slugging it out for months in the heated primary, but now starts the final laps, the determining rounds.

I have actually not found the governor's race to be as heated as expected. Maybe that says something about my expectations, I don't know.

But anyway, moving on:

The circus is definitely coming to town," said veteran Democratic consultant Jason Stanford. "This will be great for us all to watch."

I appreciate that we as readers are informed that Stanford is a Democratic consultant. It is probably worth noting that, as a Democrat, Stanford has a vested interest in promoting the "yes, very bitter primary angle."

And then, apropos of nothing:

Tension is inevitable, and the fallout is unpredictable. "When Sarah Palin comes to town, the level of discourse doesn't usually rise," Stanford said.

I think we all know that anyone who works for newspapers doesn't like Sarah Palin. I couldn't discern another reason for this.

Anyway, you're here, so you already knew that this is a real race, with real consequences. Campaigns will attempt to make their case in whatever way possible that is allowed by the voters. I wouldn't say that's ideal, but it is reality.

Posted by Evan @ 01/04/10 01:13 AM | Comments (0)

03 January 2010

I'm thinking he's not obsessed with his ROI

I'm a little late to this, but well said, Ken Herman.

"I didn't care about politics because I didn't think I could make a change. Minorities did not get involved in politics, and we always thought we could not make a difference. Now we have a president called Barack Hussein Obama at the White House. He is minority. He is black. So he opened the door for an average person like me to step up front and be ready to serve this state of Texas as the new governor," Shami said at an Austin campaign event.

The downtrodden minority/victim role is particularly unattractive on a guy who lives in a 24,585-square-foot-home like Shami does.

This from a guy who gave 25K to Kinky Friedman as part of almost $80,000 in political donations over the past 7 years.

He plans to spend $10 million fighting Bill White in the primary. His campaign message sounds similar to Kinky Friedman's.

Posted by Evan @ 01/03/10 11:28 PM | Comments (0)

02 January 2010

2010 promises to be good

Hey man, I like Texas. I like Whataburger. But if reports that In-N-Out Burger is really opening 6 locations in Houston are true...2010 has already been good to me.

Once upon a time, I was a miserable consultant travelling to LA from Houston (obviously I was horrible...who cares about white sand if you're not in Texas?). I got accustomed to my amazing burgers, fries (animal style) and shakes. Life has never been the same since.

Posted by Evan @ 01/02/10 02:07 AM | Comments (0)

History time

Dave McNeely does the history of the three former student leaders: Rick, Kay, and John Sharp.

I don't know about you, but in college largely thought the people running for student office were self-important.

Posted by Evan @ 01/02/10 01:31 AM | Comments (0)

Newsweek thinks Bill White will win

That's their New Year's prediction.

Amount of importance I put on Newsweek's prediction powers? Zero.

In general, I refuse to place any stock in a magazine's opinions if I have read "ultraconservative" unless I have also read "ultraliberal." What is that you say? Yes, you're right, I'm still waiting for it to happen.

Posted by Evan @ 01/02/10 01:25 AM | Comments (0)

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