Rick Perry vs World

04 February 2008

This profile of Borris Miles in the Chron is pretty interesting, but I don't really feel like I know anymore about what's happening in the rematch with Al Edwards than I did before.

Posted by Evan @ 02/04/08 11:50 PM | Comments (1)

Caller on Watts

The Corpus Christi Caller-Times caught up with Mikal Watts, publishing a long profile of the quit-before-he-could-be-defated Democratic Senate candidate.

Watts campaigned for five months, raising money and pledging $10 million of his own to the race. He had a staff of 17. Then, in September, he says, he started to doubt his decision. His youngest daughter cried that she never saw him. He prayed with his wife. He nearly bowed out that month, he says.

But what pushed him to actually do it was a trip to Washington, D.C., in early October, Watts said.

"I was pretty specifically aware that running for Senate would take me out of commission for the year, year and a half I was running," he said. "Myself and my family were ready to make that commitment. I went to Washington in October and really got a firsthand look at how senators live their lives and how little personal time they have. I reached the conclusion I wasn't sacrificing 16 months with my kids. I was in fact sacrificing the relationship for the duration."

So Watts made the announcement Oct. 22 that he was leaving the race, a move that surprised even some of his closest friends. He now says he plans to stay involved in politics through fundraising and contributing and to run for Senate again after his youngest graduates from high school in 10 years.

Clearly, it was just incidental to his decision to quit that he wasn't going to beat Rick Noriega.

Posted by Evan @ 02/04/08 11:43 PM | Comments (0)

Vote on the next Texas license plate

In January 2009, Texas gets a new license plate. You can vote on which you like best at TXDot.

Posted by Evan @ 02/04/08 11:20 PM | Comments (1)

Consultant for president

The "I hate Romney" club. I think I wrote on here awhile back that the enmity all the GOP candidates have for Romney was going to make it difficult for him to win the nomination.

The degree to which campaigns' personal dislike for Mitt Romney has played a part in this campaign cannot be underestimated," says an adviser to one of those rival campaigns. While sharp words have been exchanged between practically every Republican candidate at one point or another on the campaign trail, the aversion to Romney seems to go beyond mere policy disagreements. It's also a suspicion of what they see is his hypocrisy and essential phoniness — what one former staffer for Fred Thompson called Romney's "wholesale reinvention."

Posted by Evan @ 02/04/08 04:17 PM | Comments (0)

02 February 2008

Profligacy

Shelley owes half a mil? Ouch. That's not as much of a spendthrift as Lampson in his 06 campaign against Shelley, but...ouch.

Numbers from the AP:

Shelley: Raised $262k, $435k cash on hand, $500k debt.
John Manlove: $175k raised, $229k cash on hand
Hrbacek: $147k raised (+113k personal loan). $120k cash on hand.
Pete Olson: $200k raised

Posted by Evan @ 02/02/08 06:01 PM | Comments (0)

31 January 2008

Rick Perry endorses John McCain

Rick Perry hopped aboard the bandwagon today, endorsing McCain because of he "can and will" win the war against terrorists.

Posted by Evan @ 01/31/08 05:59 PM | Comments (0)

About that endorsement...um, yeah...*

RG Ratcliffe and Gary Scharrer take the Rick Perry-as-damaged lede:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry's national political posture was bruised Wednesday as the presidential horse he was riding in the Republican nominating process dropped out to endorse U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

Perry had put his own political credibility on the line last year by becoming the only Republican governor to endorse former N.Y. Mayor Rudy Giuliani for president. Eight of Perry's GOP gubernatorial colleagues had thrown their support to McCain, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

I had to read that sentence a few times before I realized it was supposed to be an or, not an and.

Perry declined to meet with reporters Wednesday to discuss the presidential contest or any possibility of his own future endorsements. Perry spokesman Robert Black said Perry was disappointed that Giuliani did not win.

"The governor hasn't made a decision if he's going to make an endorsement," Black said.

The whole Texans for Giuliani thing was a little odd. The Texas money establishment seemed to think they were backing a winner, but it never even took the nasty ads that I assumed would dethrone Giuliani. Instead it was just a slow drip-drip-drip. People have criticized Thompson's campaign -- and deservingly so -- but even he ran better than Rudy.

Still, on the off chance Perry was planning for running for re-election, this certainly won't help plans.

*The movie was filmed in Austin. I know you've seen it.

Posted by Evan @ 01/31/08 02:58 PM | Comments (1)