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September 2009
Grover Norquist to campaign with Perry
Conservative activist will boost governor … Perry says Hutchison should stay … Was the governor hacked?
Happy birthday to TxDOT spokesman Chris Lippincott and Democratic consultant Glenn Smith.
Austin weather from News 8 Austin’s Maureen McCann: More clouds than sun with a shower possible, especially south of Austin. High around 88.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it.)
Tuesday highlights and the day ahead
Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform and one of the most visible anti-tax crusaders in the country, will be in Austin on Thursday to campaign for Gov. Rick Perry. The two will appear together at a private luncheon with a couple dozen conservative activists. Then, at a press event, Perry will sign a pledge not to support tax increases — something that Norquist, with considerable success, has encouraged politicians all over the country to do.
More on this later, but his appearance will come just after Perry said Tuesday that he wants a constitutional amendment to say it will take a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to raise state taxes.
Norquist (you could call him the Michael Quinn Sullivan of national politics) once said, “We are trying to change the tones in the state capitals - and turn them toward bitter nastiness and partisanship.” He is also famous for saying he wanted to get government “down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”
Nonetheless, this is a Republican primary, and the Perry campaign believes there will be many more conservatives voting than moderates. So despite Norquist’s controversial statements over the year, his blessing could sway voters who see little difference between U.S Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s record on fiscal policy and Perry’s.
UPDATE: Hutchison long ago signed the Americans for Tax Reform pledge not to raise taxes at the federal level. But a spokesman for the group said today that she has not signed the pledge given to candidates for state office such as governor, and they’re different pledges.
One other note: Remember that Norquist was part of a group that accompanied Perry on a retreat to the Bahamas in 2004. Aides to Perry at the time said the trip, which also included school vouchers advocate James Leininger, gave the group a chance to discuss school funding.
• On Monday I had a chance to listen to Perry address grass-roots supporters in Round Rock. There were about 50 or 60 people in the room, and a couple of times, Perry raised the question of why U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison would challenge him in the GOP primary. He encouraged those in the room not to be shy about openly questioning why Hutchison would leave the Senate. He talked again about how the primary would drain valuable resources away from other Republican campaigns, but offered no inclination that he’s willing to prevent that drain by not running again.
Someone in the audience asked Perry whom he would appoint to succeed Hutchison in the Senate if she follows through on plans to give up her seat to run for governor. Perry said he hopes Hutchison will decide to stay in the Senate and not run for governor so he doesn’t have to choose a successor.
“I just don’t think it’s good for Texas if she makes that decision,” Perry said. Then, with a bit of a wry grin, he added, “Quite frankly, I don’t think it’s going to be good for her.”
• Joey Longley, the longtime executive director of the Sunset Advisory Commission, is joining Blackridge, which is Rusty Kelley’s lobby firm. Longley will lead a group within the firm that focuses on advising clients on the Sunset process.
Poll watch
A new poll from Vanity Fair and “60 Minutes” found quite a bit of love for Wal-Mart. Forty-eight percent of respondents said Wal-Mart is the best corporate symbol of America today. Google came in second at 15 percent. Source: New York Times
Countdown
153 days until the March 2 primary.
138 days until early voting begins.
In the news
“Gov. Rick Perry’s webcast campaign speech to supporters Tuesday was supposed to show how tech-savvy he is while doubling as a way to control his message. No gaggle of reporters, no off-message audience members and no chance for opponents to criticize crowd size. Just one problem: Many viewers who tuned in to the live event — the campaign isn’t sure how many — saw an error message instead of the speech. The Perry campaign said saboteurs were to blame and lined up its service provider to explain how it happened.” Austin American-Statesman
“When North Texan Michael Rhine was accused of burning some trash he was clearing from a storage barn in June 2005, he probably had no idea the legal fire it touched off would still be burning four years later. Rhine, an Iraq war veteran, was arrested on a charge of burning without a state permit, which carries a maximum six months in jail and a $50,000 fine, his attorney said. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected his appeal, but not before issuing an opinion that legal scholars and some attorneys say calls into question the long-standing practice of state agencies — rather than the Legislature — setting criminal penalties.” Austin American-Statesman
“Even some of the state’s leading Democratic voices question whether the party can win the governor’s race with the current crop of contenders. ‘Right now, we don’t have a candidate who can win,’ said Garry Mauro, who was the party’s sacrifice in 1998, when George W. Bush won his second term. ‘But it’s a long way before the election. One of the candidates could become someone who can effectively deliver the Democratic message, which I believe resonates with at least 51 percent of the voters in this state.’” Gromer Jeffers Jr.
“You know those ads that promise to show you how to make thousands of dollars working at home on your personal computer? They’re mainly bogus, of course. But Gov. Rick Perry, ever dedicated to helping the Texas economy, has come up with a program to allow Texans to do just that.” Rick Casey
“Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials routinely put illegal immigrants unescorted on commercial flights for deportation, including some who are sex offenders or have other criminal records, according to documents and field agent accounts.” Houston Chronicle
“A key Senate panel twice beat back efforts Tuesday to create a government-run insurance plan, dealing a crippling blow to the hopes of liberals seeking to expand the federal role in health coverage as a cornerstone of reform.” Washington Post
Everything else
(SPOILER ALERT — “Dancing With the Stars”)
ESPN says expect Cowboys’ RB Felix Jones to miss two weeks. The team hopes Marion Barber will be back this week.
Jon and Kate Plus Eight is now Kate Plus Eight.
Tom DeLay stays on “Dancing With the Stars” for another week. Instead, former supermodel Kathy Ireland got the boot. “I was prepared to go,” DeLay said, according to People.
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No First Reading today
I’ll be back Wednesday. Be sure to check statesman.com/postcards for your political updates throughout the day. Also, here is my story from today’s print edition about the use of social media in the governor’s race.
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Perry will talk to supporters Tuesday
Perry’s not-quite-an-announcement Tuesday … Hutchison touts health care exchanges … Hodge challenger shows fundraising strength
Happy birthday to Democratic operative Jeremy Warren.
Austin weather from KVUE: Morning fog, then partly cloudy and warm. A cold front will drop through Austin during the afternoon with a 20 percent chance of afternoon or early evening showers. High of 92.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it.)
Weekend highlights and the day ahead
Call it the modern-day whistle stop tour. Gov. Rick Perry has asked supporters to listen to an address that he’ll give online Tuesday morning. It’s not exactly a formal announcement of his candidacy, but it’s as close as Perry is likely to come.
The press will have to watch online also, which allows the campaign to avoid any stories about small crowds and prevents reporters from talking to Perry supporters who aren’t on-script. And the event comports with the Perry’s campaign prolific use of social media to reach its supporters.
Perry will address his campaign supporters in Round Rock today.
• An op-ed piece in today’s Statesman indicates how U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison may approach the issue of health care during her gubernatorial campaign.
Hutchison says the state should look toward health insurance exchanges that allow consumers to choose their plans from a variety of providers. She writes, “Participation is elective, and employees can choose the coverage that best meets their needs. Their premium contributions are made with pre-tax dollars if they are part of a company unit. Workers who do not qualify for employer-sponsored health coverage, such as part-time or contract employees, could be eligible to receive an employer contribution toward their health insurance. The employer’s set contribution would be applied to the premium cost, and the employee would pay the difference.”
It’s tough to evaluate the impact of Hutchison’s idea because at this point she’s just praising the exchanges as a concept, not describing how to implement them in Texas.
One of Gov. Rick Perry’s main health care initiatives would redirect federal Medicaid dollars into a pool to offer subsidies to help pay for private or employer-sponsored insurance. But that plan was initially rejected by the Bush administration, and the Obama administration has not moved to approve it.
• Democrat Eric Johnson will announce today that he has raised $100,000 in his race for the Dallas-area House seat now held by Democratic Rep. Terri Hodge.
“People have been so ready for change in this district for so long,” Johnson said in an interview. “We’ve been asking them to look around and ask, ‘Is the district better or worse than the district you grew up in?’”
Johnson, who grew up in West Dallas and has degrees from Harvard, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania, also said district residents are responding to his personal story. And he said he is in the race no matter how Hodge’s legal headaches are resolved. Hodge is under indictment for allegedly taking bribes — part of a larger investigation of corruption at Dallas City Hall.
• Tina Benkiser announced Saturday that she will give up her post as chair of the Texas Republican Party next month and join Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign as a senior adviser.
Benkiser, who comes from the social-conservative base that Perry is counting on to give him another term, is likely to be a surrogate for Perry around the state.
Her tenure at the helm of the state party was not without controversy. Republicans held on to all statewide offices during her time there, but the party’s once-large majority in the Texas House almost evaporated, and Democrats made significant gains in Dallas, Harris and Travis county offices. And there were many who wanted her out as state party chair.
Paul Burka wrote on his blog Sunday, “She was a weak and controversial chairman and sought to build that part of the party with which she is ideologically comfortable instead of broadening the appeal of the party. Benkiser did nothing to attract Hispanics to the GOP; indeed, she presided over the adoption of a party platform that states, concerning immigration, ‘No amnesty! No how! No way!’”
• Hutchison will be at businesses in Odessa and Big Spring today talking about federal cap-and-trade legislation. She’s against it. Perry will also talk cap-and-trade, which aims to stem the effects of climate change, at an event Tuesday.
• The Statesman’s Corrie MacLaggan broke a two-fer on Friday. First, she reported that the staff of the Legislative Budget Board had denied a request from the Health and Human Services Commission to hire about 650 new workers to speed up processing of food-stamp applications. Then she reported that the state is at risk of losing federal funds because it is processing applications so slowly.
The Health and Human Services Commission sent a letter to the Budget Board and Perry’s office in mid-August asking for the additional workers, but word of the rejection didn’t come until Friday. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, along with House Speaker Joe Straus, chairs the Budget Board. But his spokesman didn’t pin any of the responsibility for the denial on Dewhurst, saying it was a decision by the LBB staff.
In the six weeks since the Health and Human Services Commission sent Perry’s office the letter asking for more workers, Perry has not taken a position, or at least not one that his office wants to express publicly.
Poll watch
From Gallup: Americans are paying closer attention to political news today than in any year without a presidential election since Gallup began regularly tracking this measure in 2001. Republicans are more likely than Democrats and independents to say they follow politics “very closely.”
Countdown
155 days until the March 2 primary.
140 days until early voting begins.
In the news
“Hutchison’s seat on the Appropriations Committee has paid extraordinary political benefits because she can point to research labs, water lines and traffic lanes all over the state that she helped build. But if there is a political downside to seeking such projects, Hutchison is about to meet it head-on.” Austin American-Statesman
“The nastiest fight at the State Board of Education has nothing to do with what kids are learning in the classroom. It is the board’s handling of the $20.5 billion Permanent School Fund that has spurred questions about possible ethical transgressions.” Austin American-Statesman
“Texas has received less funding per resident from the stimulus package so far than almost any other state, according to a Dallas Morning News analysis of federal grants and contracts. Texas lawmakers have long complained about one reason for the disparity: Federal funding formulas, often written by small-state lawmakers, disadvantage big states like Texas. But Texas is also a victim of its own thrift: With fewer research universities, less subsidized housing, and a smaller contribution to programs like Medicaid and unemployment insurance, it stands to receive less emergency funds than if it spent more of its own money on the programs.” Dallas Morning News
“Here’s something you didn’t realize you were setting in motion when you elected Rick Perry as your lieutenant governor in 1998 by a margin of 1.85 percentage points. If you re-elect Perry next year, giving him another four-year term, and if he serves the whole four years, he will become among the longest continuously serving governors in the history of the United States of America.” Ken Herman
“Gov. Rick Perry never had much money growing up, and he has spent most of his adult life in public office, drawing a part-time salary as a legislator and relatively modest earnings in statewide office for the last quarter-century. But thanks to his investments and a series of private land deals, some that took advantage of his political connections, Perry has squeaked over the millionaire line, records examined by The Associated Press show.” Associated Press
“The coming months will tell whether Democrats can influence redistricting and, thus, policy-making for the next decade — or if they’ll blow it.” Peggy Fikac
Everything else
Cowboys host the Carolina Panthers at 7:30 tonight on ESPN.
The Texans blew a wide-open opportunity to take a 2-1 record, losing to the previously winless Jacksonville Jaguars at home Sunday. Richard Justice says in today’s Houston Chronicle, “Just when you start to believe in the Texans, they play a game like Sunday’s, in which the opponent is tougher, smarter, more resilient and better coached.”
The New York Yankees clinched the American League East on Sunday.
“Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” won the weekend box office, followed by “Surrogates” and “Fame.”
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Perry’s language ruffling feathers on Capitol Hill
Podcast
Washington Republicans take exception to governor’s criticisms … GAO report questions state’s use of stimulus dollars … Podcast with Corrie MacLaggan
Austin weather: Mostly cloudy and warmer. High of 78.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it.)
Thursday highlights and the day ahead
Ray Sullivan, chief of staff to Gov. Rick Perry, was in Washington on Thursday and stopped by a meeting of top aides to Texas Republicans in Congress. He updated the group on issues such as border security and then opened it up to questions.
That’s when it got a little tense.
According to two people in the room, Sullivan was asked why Perry was bashing “Washington Republicans” as part of his effort to hold off a challenge from U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Sullivan wasn’t apologetic, but simply told the congressional aides that Perry was running against a Washington Republican and would stick with the strategy he’s been using.
At least some Texas Republicans in Congress feel burned because they encouraged Hutchison not to run against Perry four years ago. From their perspective, if Perry wants to run against Washington, he should aim his attacks at the like President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Instead, Perry mentioned Republicans a couple of times in a fundraising letter earlier this months. Here’s the key passage from that letter:
Let’s be frank. Washington Republicans got us in this mess. They spent like Democrats and created a leadership vacuum that allowed the Democrats to take over Washington. The damage they did to the Republican brand is precisely why Republican majorities across the nation are now in jeopardy. Some are now converting to fiscal conservatism and opposing Obamacare just in time for the next election. Their opposition is ironic, considering their refusal to reform Medicaid — which has exploded state budgets — their support of a new entitlement for prescription drugs and past votes that put us on the path to universal health care, one aggrieved group at a time. If Washington Republicans hadn’t spent like Democrats for 12 years, they might have maintained enough votes to actually kill Obamacare. If his government-run health care plan becomes law, its passage lies directly at the feet of Washington Republicans who spent their way to a mere 40 seats in the U.S. Senate.
Read my story on this from this morning’s Statesman here.
• Perry had a fundraiser Thursday evening at the Four Seasons in Austin. Tickets began at $1,000. The minimum cost to attend the fundraiser and a private reception was $5,000.
• Speaking of fundraisers, House Speaker Joe Straus was in Lubbock on Thursday to raise money for Rep. Delwin Jones, who has drawn an opponent in the Republican primary.
There’s not a ton of new stuff, but here’s footage of Jones introducing Straus and talking about the speaker’s first term at the helm of the House:
• And breaking this morning from the New York Times: “President Obama and the leaders of Britain and France will accuse Iran Friday of building a secret underground plant to manufacture nuclear fuel, saying it has hidden the covert operation from international weapons inspectors for years, according to senior administration officials. The revelation, which the three leaders will make before the opening of the Group of 20 economic summit here, appears bound to add urgency to the diplomatic confrontation with Iran over its suspected ambitions to build a nuclear weapons capability. Mr. Obama, along with Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, will demand that the country allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to conduct an immediate inspection of the facility, which is said to be 100 miles southwest of Tehran. American officials say that they have been tracking the covert project for years, but that Mr. Obama decided to make public the American findings after Iran discovered, in recent weeks, that Western intelligence agencies had breached the secrecy surrounding the project.”
The FR Podcast
I sat down with the Statesman’s Corrie MacLaggan on Thursday to talk about her story this week on problems with the food-stamps program, as well as other issues related to health and human services in the state. We discussed outsourcing and how the national push for health-care reform might affect Texas.
Poll watch
A New York Times/CBS News poll asked respondents whether they mostly support or mostly oppose Obama’s proposed changes to the health care system. Thirty percent said “mostly support,” 23 percent said “mostly oppose” and 46 percent said they “don’t know enough.”
Countdown
158 days until the March 2 primary.
143 days until early voting begins.
In the news
” A 19-year-old Jordanian citizen is expected to make an appearance before a federal magistrate in Dallas this morning after authorities accused him of attempting to blow up a downtown Dallas skyscraper. Hosam Maher Husein Smadi was arrested Thursday after he parked a vehicle laden with government-supplied fake explosives in the underground parking garage of Fountain Place, a 60-story tower in the 1400 block of Ross Avenue at North Field Street, authorities said. The arrest was part of an FBI sting operation that began after an agent monitoring an online extremist Web site discovered Smadi espousing jihad against the U.S. more than six months ago.” Dallas Morning News
“Amid the tumult of A&M President Elsa Murano’s forced resignation over the summer, members of the school’s governing board insisted that saving money and limiting tuition increases was the most critical issue facing the school. Thursday, they learned that $16.7 million in annual savings has been found — a tiny sliver of the school’s $1.2 billion budget but perhaps enough to keep tuition flat for the next two years. Regents haven’t officially voted to do that — next year’s tuition will be set in the spring — but board chairman Morris Foster repeated the goal.” Houston Chronicle
“Stories like Landry’s seem to bolster Gov. Rick Perry’s recent decision to send elite teams from the state’s top law enforcement agency, the Texas Rangers, to remote borderlands to help them with security and deter a spillover of the gruesome drug-war violence plaguing Mexico. But Landry’s situation never grew violent, and many other ranchers, sheriffs and politicians along Texas’ 1,200 mile border with Mexico found the governor’s announcement puzzling.” Associated Press
“The board that oversees a state prepaid college tuition fund will extend the deadline to request a full refund until Nov. 30 because of the large number of telephone calls and inquiries, state officials said.” Fort Worth Star-Telegram
“Democratic political committees have seen a decline in their fundraising fortunes this year, a result of complacency among their rank-and-file donors and a de facto boycott by many of their wealthiest givers, who have been put off by the party’s harsh rhetoric about big business.” Washington Post
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Democratic dustup in governor’s race
Gilbert suspicious of what he hears from Schieffer … Hutchison says she needs to stay long enough to fight health care … A key shift in gambling politics?
Happy birthday to Amanda Thomas of the Texas Charter Schools Association and Gary Susswein of UT-Austin (and former Statesman Capitol reporter).
Austin weather from KVUE: Cloudy and cool with a 60% chance of showers. Rainfall accumulations will be less than 0.25” for most areas. Winds northeast at 5-10 mph. High of 69.
Wednesday highlights and the day ahead
An abbreviated FR today. And for a little change of pace, let’s turn our attention to the Democratic race for governor.
Gubernatorial candidate Hank Gilbert brought his announcement tour to Austin on Wednesday, and the Statesman’s Corrie MacLaggan was all over it.
Gilbert referred a couple of times to Ted Schieffer, although by all indications he meant Tom Schieffer, who is also seeking the party’s nomination. And he accused Schieffer of copy-catting his ideas, specifically his focus on early-childhood education and high school dropouts — two novel issues indeed.
In a talk at the University of Texas at Arlington this week, as covered by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Schieffer discussed expanding pre-kindergarten, reducing the dropout rate and providing options for students who don’t go to four year colleges. Gilbert’s campaign says Gilbert has been talking about those very issues, in greater detail, as he has traveled this state this week to roll out his candidacy. They point to a lack of specific education plans on Schieffer’s Web site as proof that Schieffer is late to the party.
Schieffer spokesman Clay Robison told MacLaggan, “Improving public education has been (Schieffer’s) No. 1 priority from the beginning of his campaign. He was talking about attacking high dropout rates and expanding early childhood education when Hank Gilbert was still talking about running for agriculture commissioner.”
Gilbert also said he wants to give every teacher a $5,000 raise, but he said he will wait until November to describe how to pay for it. Such a raise would cost about $1.5 billion a year, and at a time when state leaders are expecting to start the 2011 session with a deficit in the neighborhood of $10 billion, that’s quite an ambitious plan, especially considering that Gilbert wants to spend $500 million every two years to build up more tier-one universities. And he wants universal pre-K. That would cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars per year, at least.
Here are some of the highlights of Gilbert’s visit to Scholz Garden on Wednesday:
MacLaggan also has a very important story on the front page of this morning’s Statesman, and it’s about a wave of problems with the state’s food-stamp program. She writes, “Tens of thousands of Texas families are waiting as long as several months for food stamps as a surge in applications lands on an already strained system. And when state workers do process the applications, they often do it wrong. One out of every six food stamp applications is incorrectly processed by state workers, according to state data. In some cases, that means eligible families are being denied benefits.”
• We’re getting close to the October-November time frame that U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison identified as when she would look to leave the Senate and return to Texas to campaign for governor full-time. Her timetable also could depend largely on the health-care debate. On Wednesday, she told The Hill, “I’m going to stay and fight the health care takeover, because I think it’s the most important issue we might face in my entire term, so I’m going to try to do everything I can to fulfill my responsibility to Texas, which is why I can’t be exactly clear when I would leave. But I do think it’s important for people to know that I’m committed to running for governor.”
If she hasn’t announced a decision by the start of the filing deadline in early December, it could cause a lot of headaches for current office-holders who want to move up. If you’re a state representative from, say, Dallas, and you want to run for, say, attorney general, but the current attorney general wants to run for lieutenant governor, but the current lieutenant governor is expected to run for U.S. Senate but says he’s running for re-election, then how long can you wait?
Just a hypothetical, of course.
In the news
“In this age of proclaimed ‘government transparency,’ a phrase yielding 3.9 million items in a Google search, only one Texas U.S. Senate candidate quickly loosed his personal tax return; several others balked.” Gardner Selby
“Indian gaming may be about to gain a major legal toehold in Texas. The state over the past decade has been successful in closing casinos run by the Tiguas of El Paso and the Alabama-Coushatta of Livingston, and gambling at a tiny casino run by the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe in Eagle Pass has been limited. Now, the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma is poised to take possession of an existing horse racing track in Grand Prairie. The tribe runs one of the biggest Indian casinos in the United States, just across the Texas border.” Houston Chronicle
“State legislators are pressuring Texas Comptroller Susan Combs to drop plans to slash refunds to parents and others who invested in a state prepaid college tuition program.” Fort Worth Star-Telegram
“Texas state agencies, cities and other beneficiaries of stimulus funds will report next month how many jobs have been created by the roughly $4.1 billion that has gone to Texas so far.” Dallas Morning News
“Documents produced during the Austin school district’s search for a new superintendent and released Wednesday showed mixed first impressions of Meria Carstarphen, who ultimately got the job.” Austin American-Statesman
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Those pesky cameras
Cameras making their mark in young campaign … Perry addresses federal cap-and-trade bill, again … Others question Hutchison’s questioning on czars
Austin weather from KVUE (Maureen’s out of town): “Cloudy and warmer, but still about 10 degrees cooler than average for this time of year. There is a 20% chance of a few showers. Heavy rainfall is not expected. Winds northeast at 5-10 mph. High of 78.”
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it.)
Tuesday highlights and the day ahead
The real winner of the 2010 governor’s race may be the unassuming, fit-in-your pocket video camera.
Whether in the hands of journalists trained in print or operatives trained in trickery, the nascent gubernatorial campaign has reinforced the power of an amateurish Web video that quickly spreads around the Internet. Politicians are trained to be on their best behavior when they see large, professional television cameras shining bright lights in their face. But it’s the cameramen they don’t see who can cause the most trouble.
We’ve seen this demonstrated a number of times on the national stage. When U.S. Sen. George Allen, R-Va., called the Democratic operative following him around “Macaca” in 2006, the video cost Allen the election. But with the Democratic Party unable (or unwilling) to compete in statewide elections recently, it’s been a long while since we had a real heavyweight campaign fight in Texas, and so the full force of the phenomenon is just starting to hit here.
The camera first caused trouble in August, when U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison returned to her hometown of LaMarque to kick off her challenge to Gov. Rick Perry in a high school gym. A couple hundred people came out for the speech, but the crowd looked meager in the gym. While television photographers waited at their assigned posts for the speech to begin, American-Statesman editorial writer Ken Herman worked the floor with his tiny camera. His footage of Hutchison campaign operatives repeatedly moving the small crowd to make it look like a big crowd for TV cameras arguably did more than any television or newspaper story to show Austin insiders that the campaign’s first event was a disappointment.
A week or two later, a Perry operative with a video camera walked into a Hutchison campaign event and captured the senator telling a supporter in a one-on-one conversation, “We have just spent way too much time in Washington.” The Perry campaign slapped that little snippet into a Web video, feeding its preferred narrative that Hutchison is more Washingtonian than Texan, without any additional information about what she meant.
Then came the recession talk.
The Hutchison campaign last week put on YouTube a short clip of Perry talking about how well Texas is performing in the economy compared to other states, complete with Perry questioning whether Texas was even in a recession. The Hutchison campaign hoped that this would do what Phil Gramm’s “We’ve sort of become a nation of whiners” comment did to John McCain’s presidential campaign — illustrate it as out-of-touch with the concerns of struggling voters.
But Perry had made a brief mention of suffering Texans in his Houston talk, saying, “We have our challenges. But we’re still substantially better than any other state. We’re 1.8 percent less than the national average on unemployment. It’s not lost on me that those Texans that have lost a job, that’s a family.”
The Perry campaign erred by not having footage of its own candidate. And by waiting until newspaper deadlines had passed Monday night to post the full video of the Houston speech, they were able to keep Perry’s questioning of the recession in the news for almost a full week. And their control was amplified by the fact that the Houston media largely ignored Perry’s speech. Campaigns, unlike news organizations, have workers in every city, or at least can afford to send their operatives there
Perry wasn’t happy.
“Anyone who has listened to my remarks who’s not just a rank political hack knows that in almost every one of my remarks, I have talked about the seriousness of this recession, how it’s impacting people,” he said Tuesday. “I have said that until every Texan who wants a job, has a job, we’re going to continue to create ways to improve our economy.”
Those comments came after a Tuesday-morning speech in Austin on federal climate-change legislation. Did Perry make any gaffes? It didn’t appear so, but Hutchison’s operatives will check for sure.
After all, they have the footage.
• At a Capitol summit hosted by three government agencies, Gov. Rick Perry lashed out Tuesday at federal cap-and-trade legislation that aims to combat climate change.
“The energy taxes associated with the Waxman-Markey Bill will make every product that uses energy more expensive, forcing hard-working Texans to bear substantial new costs, and kicking a hole in our state’s economic strength,” Perry said.
Perry, who usually doesn’t talk about legislation when it’s moving through the state Capitol, has repeatedly talked about this federal bill. He lashed out at the plan in June at a gathering of business leaders that had been organized by his office. And he called a news conference last November to criticize the cap-and-trade approach.
Asked if he thought his concerns were being heard in Washington, Perry said, “I think Americans are being heard. I think I’m a voice — of reason. I think Americans are really concerned about what they see in Washington.”
Perry pointed to estimates saying cap-and-trade could increase living expenses for Texas families by $1,200 per year. And while the comptroller’s office says the state could lose more than 100,000 jobs by 2020 if the legislation passes, the New York Times noted that those estimates do not take into consideration the jobs that could be created from producing more green energy.
Perry also pointed to a Texas A&M study saying almost all Texas farmers and ranchers would be negatively impacted by the bill.
Hutchison also opposes cap-and-trade legislation.
Tom “Smitty” Smith of Public Citizen said Perry was failing to consider “the enormous consequences of global warming on Texans and their pocketbooks,” citing rising electric costs related to higher temperatures.
“Study after study has indicated we could change the climate dramatically and reduce the raging temperatures through energy efficiency, renewables and sensible changes to the way our cars are powered that don’t cost as much as the continued increase of global warming will cost,” Smith said. “What Governor Perry is ignoring is the fact that it’s not just increasing temperatures, but it’s the effect of those temperatures on our crop yields, on the amount of water that we have in our lakes, and the enormous cost that will occur as we relocate our industries away from the coast as a result of seal-level rise.”
The Tuesday event was heavy on panelists from the energy industry, although Smith was part of the day’s final panel. Jim Marston of the Environmental Defense Fund told the Statesman’s Asher Price that the event was more photo-op than fact-finding summit.
“The reason why it clearly isn’t serious is they don’t talk to the best scientists in the state, and they have an economic analysis done by someone who only looks at the cost and not the benefit of bill,” Marston said. “They don’t look at science, and they don’t do real economics. They bring in ideological folks. They bring in the Heritage Foundation. It’s a bunch of folks who are going to say the governor is right, vote for him.”
Marston said there was little advance warning about the event. “This is all politics,” he said. “Other governors have actually had summits where they try to actually get the facts.”
• Earlier this month, Hutchison wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post criticizing a lack of accountability in the Obama administration’s use of so-called czars. The column helped her secure a national television interview on Fox News.
Since then, she’s faced a little pushback. The Post reported that, while Hutchison called the 32 czar posts in the Obama administration “unprecedented,” there were 36 such posts in the Bush administration.
And two Washington lawyers wrote their own op-ed in the Post over the weekend that said Obama’s use of the czars is allowable under the Constitution. Lawyers David Rivkin and Lee Casey, who worked in the Justice Department while Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush were president, wrote, “Hutchison’s frustration at being unable to tell whether the czars are imposing the administration’s agenda on agency officials who have been confirmed by the Senate is misplaced. Legally, they can do no such thing. The Constitution vests all executive power in the president, creating a unitary executive, and it is his authority to execute the laws that federal officials exercise, subject to his direction.”
• Perry picked up an endorsement from Dallas businessman T. Boone Pickens on Tuesday.
Stat of the day
New Census figures show that the rate of median property tax payments to median home values is higher in Texas than any other state. In other words, the median property tax payment in Texas was 1.76 percent of the median home value in 2008. New Jersey was second-highest at 1.74 percent. Of course, the lack of a personal income tax makes Texas more dependent than most states on property taxes and sales taxes to pay for government. Source: The Tax Foundation
Poll watch
In a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, 10 percent of respondents say President Barack Obama will get blamed if health care legislation doesn’t get passed this year, while 16 percent say congressional Democrats will get the blame and 37 percent say congressional Republicans. The poll also shows that Obama’s approval numbers on health care have improved slightly.
Countdown
160 days until the March 2 primary.
145 days until early voting begins.
In the news
“Stung by a video clip that shows him questioning whether Texas is in a recession, Gov. Rick Perry punched back Tuesday by saying he’s well aware that Texans are facing tough times.” Austin American-Statesman
“The Texas attorney general has launched an investigation into the multiple incidents of falling athletic lighting poles designed and sold by a bankrupt Fort Worth company. Along with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, that brings to two the number of government agencies actively looking into the structural failure of the huge towers designed and sold by Whitco Co LLP.” Austin American-Statesman
“The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation is committing $10 million to help state officials create a student data system, a project aimed at providing teachers with historical snapshots of student performance, the foundation and state officials announced Tuesday.” Austin American-Statesman
“Charges of economic cluelessness and political hackery are flying in Texas as U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison challenges Gov. Rick Perry for the Republican nomination for governor.” Wall Street Journal
“The Texas alcohol agency under fire for its raid at a gay bar rarely punishes its officers for misconduct, and officers’ supervisors are usually the ones who conduct disciplinary investigations. Experts say that method increases the likelihood of flawed inquiries.” Associated Press
“Like the other contestants on ABC’s Dancing With the Stars, Tom DeLay hopes he wowed the judges this week with his cha-chas across the stage with professional dancing partner Cheryl Burke. But the former U.S. House majority leader may be more concerned about the opinions of black-robed judges back in his home state as he continues to battle prosecutors in a 4-year-old legal tangle that shows no sign of ending anytime soon.” Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Everything else
Oakland beat the Rangers, 9-1. Rangers still six and a half games back in the wild-card race.
Cowboys RB Marion Barber has a strained quad, but a source tells ESPN that he hopes to play Monday night. TV reports in the Metroplex say he could be out up to two weeks.
Cedric Golden says don’t blame Tony Romo for being Tony Romo.
Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. had a daughter over the weekend — Charlotte Grace Prinze.
Bruce Springsteen turns 60 today.
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New footage of Perry’s Houston speech
More footage of Perry remarks in Houston … State agencies invite businesses to sound off on cap-and-trade … Keig gets an appointment
Austin weather: Expect scattered showers and thunderstorms. High of 82.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it.)
Monday highlights and the day ahead
Much was made over the weekend of the brief YouTube clip in which Gov. Rick Perry, speaking last week to a business group in Houston, jokingly asked whether there was a recession.
The Perry campaign has been saying the comments were taken out of context. Now you can decide. The Hutchison campaign, which filmed Perry in Houston, has posted his full remarks.
The crux of his speech was that Texas is doing better than the rest of the country economically. It’s the crux of most Perry speeches these days.
Two critical passages:
First, Perry says, “We’ve got our own challenges. When you’re the No. 1 exporting state in the country, which we have been for the last seven years, and you have that kind of international and national contraction of the economy, sure, you’re going to be impacted by it and we have our challenges. But we’re still substantially better than any other state. We’re 1.8 percent less than the national average on unemployment. It’s not lost on me that those Texans that have lost a job, that’s a family. But what we can do and what we do work on, Dan, every day, the real answer to that is not creating another big-government program to keep people unemployed. The answer is to create a climate where the jobs get created in this state and that man and woman can have a good job to take care of their family in the future.”
About 20 seconds later, he says, “Mayor Giuliani asked me, he said, ‘Give me the Cliff Notes version of how this happened.’ He said, ‘Why is Texas kind of recession-proof, if you will?’ As a matter of fact, just today, I think, Michael, you said someone had put a report out that the first state that’s coming out of the recession is going to be the State of Texas. I told him, I said, ‘We’re in one?’ Seriously, the fact is that because we have positioned ourselves so well economically, we’re going to be the first state that starts showing that major recovery and then the rest of the states are going to follow us out of it.”
Here is part one, which is the portion in which Perry makes the joke questioning whether there is a recession.
Part Two:
Part three:
So did Perry express sympathy for people who have lost their jobs? Yes. Did he question whether there is a recession? Jokingly, yes. Should the lasting impression be that Texas is outperforming the rest of the country, or that Perry briefly joked about whether there actually is a recession?
A critical question in this governor’s race will be whether Republican primary voters care more about the fact that more than half the jobs created in the United States in 2008 were created in Texas, or about the fact that Texas lost almost 300,000 jobs in the first eight months of 2009.
• The Public Utility Commission, the Railroad Commission and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality will host a daylong summit today, starting at 9 a.m. in the Capitol Annex Auditorium (E1.004), on federal cap-and-trade legislation.
Perry will open the event with introductory remarks, followed by Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples. A series of panels will follow, including representatives from the Heritage Foundation, Valero, Texas Instruments, the Texas Oil and Gas Association, TXU Energy, El Paso Electric, Luminant and the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers. The last panel of the day will include representatives from the Texas Renewable Energy Industries Association, the Catholic Diocese of Austin and Public Citizen.
Jim Marston of the Environmental Defense Fund listed more than 30 Texas-based academics who were not invited to participate in the panel, despite expertise in climate science, economics, engineering and geology.
• Michael Landauer of the Dallas Morning News notes that Perry told reporters over the weekend that he thinks Todd Willingham was guilty of murder, even if you discount the arson evidence. Landauer asks, “How does the governor think Willingham killed his kids if not by arson?”
• Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell will meet with U.S. Sen. John Cornyn during a trip to Washington today.
• And here is Politico’s highlight package of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay making his debut on “Dancing With the Stars.” You’re welcome.
Stat of the day
New figures from the Census Bureau show that 24 percent of Texans lack health insurance — the highest rate in the country.
Countdown
161 days until the March 2 primary.
146 days until early voting starts.
In the news
“Gov. Rick Perry was bound and determined to find some position for Lowell Keig. Keig, general counsel at Youth & Family Centered Services Inc., has been appointed to the board of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, Perry’s office reported Monday.” Austin American-Statesman
“As chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, part of U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s job is to raise money to elect Republicans to the U.S. Senate. But Texas’ junior senator is borrowing a page from the playbook of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, who gave political supplicants and opportunity to get close to him through major donations to his Americans for a Republican Majority leadership committee.” Houston Chronicle
“As a political operative in Texas and Washington, Karl Rove was hardly alone in the practice of spreading rumors to damage an opponent. Even after he left the White House and assumed the role of Fox News pundit, according to a new book, Rove told people that one of Barack Obama’s potential vice presidential running mates beat his first wife.” Wayne Slater
“East Texas rancher Hank Gilbert threw his hat into the ring for the governor’s race Monday, saying public education will be a top priority.” Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Everything else
Houston Astros fired manager Cecil Cooper on Monday with 13 games left in the season. Weird timing, but the move had to be made.
Colts beat the Dolphins on Monday, 27-23. Turns out Peyton Manning is better than Chad Pennington.
Lamar Odam, who plays forward for the Los Angeles Lakers, and Khloe Kardashian, who has a famous sister, will wed this weekend after a month of dating, US Weekly reports. The over/under on the length of the marriage is one year and I’m taking the under.
Scott Baio turns 48 today.
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Perry, Hutchison annoy each other with contested race
Perry and Hutchison each express annoyance at each other’s candidacy … Gilbert goes on announcement tour … Job losses pile up
Austin weather from News 8 Austin’s Maureen McCann: Partly to mostly cloudy with isolated showers possible. High around 85.
Happy birthday to Bernie Scheffler, who does press for Sen. Wendy Davis.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to FR when I post it.)
Weekend highlights and the day ahead
Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison aren’t doing a very good job of hiding their personal displeasure that the other is running for governor.
A race between two well-funded — I mean, really well-funded — politicians for an office this big would be heated no matter the personal relationship of the candidates. And yet it can’t help matters that, if you listen closely, it’s clear that Perry and Hutchison each feel that the other has no business running. You could say that each has expressed a certain entitlement to the Republican nomination.
Hutchison’s case seems to be that she stepped aside for the good of the Republican Party in 2006 and that it’s now her turn. She told Fox Radio last week, “I’d hoped to run in 2006, but it seemed like that was premature. People wanted to give the governor a chance and wanted to have the party stand together.” She later added, “When I started running, then he jumped in after I started talking to people about running, and I just wasn’t going to be bullied out of running because I think we need a change.”
Perry, meanwhile, seems to think the contested primary is bad for the Republican Party. But he seems to think it is solely Hutchison’s obligation to stop it, not his. While in Washington on Friday and Saturday, Perry expressed amazement that Hutchison would put the party through a primary (his suggestion being that he has a right to run, but she doesn’t).
From Todd Gillman’s blog for the Dallas Morning News:
“The idea that we are about to spend $50 million in a Republican primary is asinine,” Perry said, arguing there’s a limit to how much GOP donors will spend in any election year. “It is a fixed universe…. It is beyond me how anybody thinks that is good for the Republican Party, for conservative values that you want to see instilled in government. It’s not. It’s crazy.”
That line reminds me of the time that Jon Stewart mocked Zell Miller’s 2004 speech at the Republican National Convention when he said, with a Georgia accent. “How dare they nominate a candidate? In an election year!”
While in Washington, Perry spoke to the Value Voters Summit.
According to his prepared remarks, Perry said, “We know that the route to success is lower taxes, smaller government and freedom for every individual. I know that because I’ve seen that approach work in Texas. Just three months ago, we wrapped up our biannual legislative session with a balanced budget, a tax cut for 40,000 small businesses and a Rainy Day Fund that is projected to grow to $9 billion by 2011. Compare that to California’s $24 billion deficit and a federal deficit approaching $1.6 trillion.”
Of course, that federal deficit might be $12 billion smaller if Washington had not given Texas that much to in stimulus dollars, which the state used to balance the budget without tapping that Rainy Day Fund.
• The Texas Workforce Commission announced Friday that the state lost 62,200 jobs in August. For the year, the state has lost more than 290,000 jobs.
Meanwhile, the brief YouTube clip of Perry questioning whether there is a recession has been viewed more than 17,000 times since it was posted late last week.
• Democrat Hank Gilbert kicks off a statewide tour today announcing his gubernatorial candidacy. He tells the Statesman’s Corrie MacLaggan, “I’m not always politically correct in the way I say things or present things, but people who know me … understand that whatever I tell them, they can take it to the bank.”
Tom Schieffer must not know him. Schieffer, who is also seeking the Democratic nomination, recently told reporters that he believed after talking to Gilbert this summer that Gilbert would run for agriculture commissioner. Gilbert has said he told Schieffer he was seriously considering running for the ag post but was so unimpressed after listening to Schieffer speak that he decided to change his mind.
Stat of the day
The unemployment rate in Texas reached 8 percent last month. That was well below the national rate of 9.7 percent, but still high enough to be the highest rate in Texas since 1987. Source: Texas Workforce Commission
Countdown
162 days until the March 2 primary.
147 days until early voting starts.
In the news
“Former state Comptroller John Sharp and Houston Mayor Bill White held forth in front of a wall decorated with red, white and blue bunting and a Barack Obama poster inscribed with the word ‘HOPE.’ Both men, angling for the U.S. Senate seat that Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison has said she’ll quit by December, talked about their personal stories and can-do abilities. But neither Democrat delved into specific stands on some of the hottest-button issues in Washington: health care reform, financial bailouts, economic stimulus, cap-and-trade environmental legislation. And neither mentioned the president.” Austin American-Statesman
“Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, is harnessing the powers of incumbency in Congress to wage a two-front campaign in the nation’s capital and in Texas to unseat Gov. Rick Perry, a fellow Republican.” San Antonio Express-News
“Could Dan Patrick be Gov. Rick Perry’s surprise pick for the U.S. Senate? If not, will Patrick run for the job? Would he run for governor as an independent if U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison wrests the GOP nomination from Perry?” Peggy Fikac
“Gov. Rick Perry on Friday strenuously defended the execution of a Corsicana man whose conviction for killing his daughters in a house fire hinged on an arson finding that top experts call junk science.” Dallas Morning News
“Former Bush speechwriter Matt Latimer admits he had a crush on Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison when he arrived as young staffer on the Hill some years ago. ‘I thought a tough-talking Texas woman would be an ideal Republican presidential candidate someday,’ he writes in his hot new book, which goes on sale next week. ‘She was lean and attractive with a soft voice and honey blond hair.’ Then he met her. Dallas Morning News
“Hutchison 40%, Perry 38%. This is a stunning development. Hutchison was down 46-36 in July and had a poor rollout of her campaign in August. What accounts for the turnaround?” Burkablog
“The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan warns in an urgent, confidential assessment of the war that he needs more forces within the next year and bluntly states that without them, the eight-year conflict ‘will likely result in failure,’ according to a copy of the 66-page document obtained by The Washington Post.” Washington Post
“The story of the spectacular rise and fall of John Edwards, with its sordid can’t-look-away dimensions, is moving slowly but deliberately to its conclusion here in North Carolina.” New York Times
Everything else
Tony Romo threw three interceptions and Lawrence Tynes kicked the game-winning field goal as the Giants beat the Cowboys, 33-31. Watching on TV, I couldn’t help but notice that Texas Stadium looked different. Did the Cowboys get a new stadium? If so, somebody should cover that.
The Houston Texans got punched in the mouth by the Tennessee Titans on Sunday. Then they punched back even harder. Badly in need of a win to erase the stench of their Week One loss, the Texans beat the franchise formerly known as the Houston Oilers 34-31. Jerome Solomon writes in this morning’s Chronicle, “The Texans made mistakes — oh, did they make mistakes — but they withstood blows that in the past would have had them folding like wet paper napkins.”
If college ball is more your speed, Kirk Bohls has 10 thoughts on the weekend in college football.
The Houston Astros were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs on Sunday, which is kind of like me saying Anne Hathaway has mathematically eliminated me from her list of prospective husbands.
“Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” won the weekend box office, followed by “The Informant,” “Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself” and “Love Happens.”
“Mad Men” won best drama at the Emmy Awards and “30 Rock” won best comedy. Full list of winners here.
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Digging into the Perry-Hutchison poll
Podcast
Poll shows movement for Hutchison, but should we believe it? … Slater and Embry discuss the governor’s race … An instant Herman classic
Happy birthday to Republican activist Mark McCaig and Jeff Sadosky of the Hutchison campaign.
Austin weather from News 8 Austin’s Maureen McCann: Mixed sun and clouds, a very slim chance for a brief shower. High of 89.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it.)
Thursday highlights and the day ahead
A new Rasmussen poll showed yesterday that U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Gov. Rick Perry are in a dead heat among likely Republican primary voters. I’ll admit that I was a little surprised to see this, because my general perception has been that Hutchison has been unable to put together a clear message that’s connecting with anybody.
Before I go any further, there are some important caveats here. Rasmussen uses automated calls, not phone banks staffed with human beings like many of the top political pollsters do. And Rasmussen is not popular among many polling professionals. So by no means should this be taken as an absolutely accurate description of where the race is at this moment.
What is important here is that it’s a change. Perry has been ascending for months, and this shows a much tighter race (Hutchison leading 40-38, margin of error plus or minus 3.5 percentage points) than what the last Rasmussen poll found in July. So I do think it’s fair to look at what this poll says compared to the earlier ones that Rasmussen has done.
What’s also interesting are the crosstabs. Hutchison has a slightly larger lead among women than Perry has among women. And she does better with those who don’t identify themselves as Republicans but whom Rasmussen thinks will vote in the primary.
I thought the age breakdown was particularly interesting:
Ages 18-29: Prefer Hutchison, 41-26
Ages 30-39: Prefer Perry, 47-38
Ages 40-49: Prefer Perry, 38-37
Ages 50-64: Prefer Hutchison, 43-34
Age 65 and over: Prefer Perry, 47-33
The breakdown by income was also interesting:
Under $20,000: Prefer Hutchison, 61-24
$20,000 - $40,000: Prefer Hutchison, 41-33
$40,000 - $60,000: Prefer Perry, 50-34
$60,000 - $75,000: Prefer Perry, 39-37
$75,000 - $100,000: Prefer Hutchison, 45-41
More than $100,000: Prefer Perry, 41-37
Rasmussen says that almost an identical number of primary voters view each candidate favorably. But Perry’s job-approval rating of 69 percent is down 5 points from July.
There are several possible explanations for Perry’s dip: Hutchison spent August in the state, visiting every media market with a message that was harsh on Perry; The resignation of a Texas Tech regent who says he was told he needed to support Perry may have hurt the governor; Hutchison has been aggressive over the last couple of weeks about finding friendly interviews on national cable and radio.
We certainly shouldn’t read too much into any of this. The number of undecided voters in Rasmussen’s poll is actually growing, Hutchison’s lead is well within the margin of error and there are still millions of dollars to be spent.
• Perry is in Washington today for a fundraiser and to speak to the Value Voters Summit, a group of social conservatives. The Washington Times reported Thursday that Perry’s folks asked to have his name removed from a mock ballot of presidential candidates. Perry spokesman Mark Miner told me last night that Perry’s name was removed because he’s focused on running for re-election as governor.
• Deli owner Marc Katz tried to file for lieutenant governor Thursday. It didn’t go so well. As most of us know, you don’t file for state office until December. The Statesman’s Mike Ward gave an excellent play-by-play over on the Postcards blog.
Statesman editorial writer Ken Herman was also there and put together one of his best videos yet:
• The state Democratic Party has a new Web site at txdemocrats.org. The state Republican site is texasgop.org.
The FR Podcast
I sat down to talk about the governor’s race Thursday with Dallas Morning News Senior Political Writer Wayne Slater. We talked a couple of hours before the Rasmussen poll came out, but it wouldn’t have changed the dynamics of our conversation too much. We discussed Hutchison’s dilemma as a sitting senator, Perry touring the state with Giuliani and how Perry’s national perception differs from his perception in Texas. It’s about 23 minutes and, of course, Slater is quite good.
Stat of the day
The Brookings Institution studied the 100 metro areas to see how they have performed economically during the recession. They looked at changes in employment rate, unemployment rate, gross metro product and housing prices. Five of the 20 strongest-performing metro areas in the country were in Texas: McAllen, Austin, Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. Source: Brookings Institution
Countdown
165 days until the March 2 primary.
150 days until early voting starts.
In the news
“The State Board of Education sought to quiet some controversies Thursday as the state’s social studies curriculum standards for public schools undergo revision.” Austin American-Statesman
“The row of shovel-wielding dignitaries at the groundbreaking for Austin’s new federal courthouse this month included members of Congress, federal judges and others with a hand in planning and funding the $100 million-plus project. At the end of the row was George Lobb. It’s not clear how Lobb, a 31-year-old lawyer who sometimes practices in federal court, got there. But there he was, wearing a gray suit, a hard hat and a wide grin for the cameras.” Austin American-Statesman
“A growing share of Texans are failing to pay back their student loans, especially those who went to for-profit colleges, according to new figures from the U.S. Education Department. In Texas, 9.3 percent of borrowers defaulted on their federal student loans last year - the highest rate in nearly a decade.” Dallas Morning News
“Let’s say you’re preparing dinner and you realize with dismay that you don’t have any certified organic Tuscan kale. What to do? Here’s how Michelle Obama handled this very predicament Thursday afternoon: The Secret Service and the D.C. police brought in three dozen vehicles and shut down H Street, Vermont Avenue, two lanes of I Street and an entrance to the McPherson Square Metro station. They swept the area, in front of the Department of Veterans Affairs, with bomb-sniffing dogs and installed magnetometers in the middle of the street, put up barricades to keep pedestrians out, and took positions with binoculars atop trucks. Though the produce stand was only a block or so from the White House, the first lady hopped into her armored limousine and pulled into the market amid the wail of sirens.” Dana Milbank
Everything else
I think Texas will blow out Texas Tech, the Cowboys will beat the Giants and the Texans will lose to the Titans this weekend.
New in theaters: “The Informant,” “Love Happens,” “Anvil: The Story of Anvil,” “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs,” “Cold Souls,” “The Horse Boy” and “Jennifer’s Body.”
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Key county chairs line up behind Gattis
Gattis comes out of the gate strong … Can Hutchison hit on key issues? … State Board of Ed is back in town and talking social studies
Austin weather from News 8 Austin’s Maureen McCann: Becoming mostly sunny and warmer. A stray brief morning shower is possible north of Austin. High of 89.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to FR when I post it.)
Wednesday highlights and the day ahead
Rep. Dan Gattis, a Georgetown Republican looking to replace retiring Sen. Steve Ogden next year, today will announce that he has secured the support of Republican Party chairmen in nine of the district’s 14 counties.
Gattis announced his candidacy Monday and is trying to move swiftly to assert his dominance in the race against Ben Bius of Huntsville. This endorsement list certainly helps. County chairmen in both parties are often reluctant to pick sides in contested primaries, so the fact that Gattis already has the public support of most of them is significant. His endorsement list includes the chairs of Williamson, Brazos, Burleson, Grimes, Lee, Madison, Milam, Trinity and Walker counties.
• In a national interview with Fox Radio this week, most of the questions thrown at U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison were about national issues. But she also got the critical question asking why she wants to be governor, and her first response wasn’t about public education, or insurance rates, or taxes or clean air.
It was about the Republican Party.
“I’d hoped to run in 2006, but it seemed like thtat was premature,” she said. “People wanted to give the governor a chance and wanted to have the party stand together. Now, honestly I’m trying to save the Republican Party in Texas. I’m trying to keep it conservative and open it up and build it so that we are good stewards of our government. The governor has raised taxes, business taxes, which I think is a mistake. He isn’t addressing the education of school dropouts and making sure that in education we’re giving every child the opportunity to do their best.”
After broadly saying she wanted to address education and transportation and health care, she returned to her annoyance with Perry’s decision to run again and her efforts to help Republicans: “When I started running, then he jumped in after I started talking to people about running, and I just wasn’t going to be bullied out of running because I think we need a change. I think we need to rebuild the party and I think it could be the beginning of the movement to rebuild the party nationally.”
When trying to make the case against Perry, is Hutchison constrained by ideology?
She can’t talk about the state’s looming budget challenges, and they’re considerable, because they were caused by a multi-billion-dollar tax cut pushed by Perry (and approved by a bipartisan group of legislators). The use of private contractors to perform traditional government tasks has run into problems at the Health and Human Services Commission and the Department of Information Resources, but Hutchison says she wants less government, not more. As Paul Burka noted this week, the state has not used recent surpluses to make major investments in public education, but Hutchison wants less spending. Electric rates are 30 percent higher than the national average, according to a new report from the Public Utility Commission, and they were below the national average before the Legislature de-regulated the electric market in 1999. But de-regulation is like privatization: It’s tough to criticize in a Republican primary without sounding liberal. (Or, as Joe Scarborough once said of John Kerry, “kind of French.”)
Hutchison’s campaign recently saw an opening when Perry called a wall along the Texas-United States border “nonsense.” But Perry’s campaign quickly produced past news stories showing that Perry and Hutchison have largely the same position on the border wall.
There is some precedent here. In 2006, a group of Republican House candidates won primaries against more conservative incumbents in the GOP primary with a major assist from teachers’ groups and opponents of school vouchers. Those candidates ran largely on education issues. But the model has not been tested in a statewide race.
Democrats have a different problem: Texans clearly prefer to vote for Republicans in statewide elections, so Democrats must find issues that will appeal to some voters who have been supporting the GOP in statewide elections while creating enough of a distinction between themselves and the Republicans that voters see a difference. There’s a long way to go before the general election, but so far, Democratic candidates aren’t doing much to draw attention to themselves. Tom Schieffer has not given much detail about what he’d like to propose, not that doing so would necessarily create a swarm of news coverage. Democrat Hank Gilbert has tried to do this to some extent, but he does not have the money or name ID to get a message out. Perhaps Gilbert can build on the effort when he goes on a statewide announcement tour next week.
And that brings us back to Perry. At nearly every turn, he repeats the names of a handful of companies (Caterpillar, Medtronic, Toyota) that have recently relocated to Texas or expanded their operations here and the few thousand jobs that will result. And he has a record that gives a good roadmap for how he thinks state government should run. But past performance does not always indicate future results. At no point during the 2006 election did Perry say he wanted to privatize the Texas Lottery, but he was working on a plan to do just that in the months leading up to Election Day. Perry has not spelled out what he wants to do in his next term, but this election is more likely to be about his first two terms anyway.
• Bipartisanship lives, at least when it comes to raising money. This morning at the Austin Club, the Texas Association of Realtors’ PAC will hold a fundraiser for Democratic Reps. Joe Pickett and Ryan Guillen and Republican Reps. Wayne Smith and Larry Phillips. Gardner Selby was quick to note that all four are on the House Transportation Committee.
Poll watch
“A new national poll indicates that Americans are not nearly as optimistic about the economy as the chairman of the Federal Reserve seems to be. Eighty-six percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Thursday morning say they think the U.S. is still in a recession, with 13 percent saying the nation’s economic downturn has ended. According to the poll, 42 percent say the country is in a serious recession, 35 percent call it a moderate recession, and one in ten characterize it as a mild recession.” Source: CNN
From Gallup: “Americans who oppose healthcare legislation mainly do so because of concerns about big government, generally, (17 percent) or government involvement in the healthcare system, specifically (11 percent). There are also concerns about how healthcare legislation will affect healthcare costs (9 percent) and about its cost to the government (8 percent), particularly in terms of its impact on the federal budget deficit.”
Obama approve/disapprove: 51/41, according to Gallup.
Countdown
166 days until the March 2 primary.
151 days until early voting starts.
In the news
“Gov. Rick Perry’s plan to send Texas Rangers to the border region to help law enforcement has drawn criticism from elected officials near the border, as has the way Perry presented his plan.” Austin American-Statesman
“The clamor this summer over social studies curriculum standards for Texas public schools has been a mere prelude to the real debate that begins today at the State Board of Education.” Austin American-Statesman
“The University of Texas is scaling back some programs while expanding others as it strives for the highest status among the nation’s public universities during challenging economic times, the school’s president said Wednesday.” Austin American-Statesman
“Now comes Elaine C. Kamarck, a Harvard University lecturer and author of “Primary Politics,” a book on how candidates shaped the modern nominating system. Kamarck says states that moved up their primaries hoping to gain importance (Texas not among them) incongruously shortened the time that candidates must keep sufficient momentum to nail down their party’s nomination. Kamarck, who came to Austin this month as a member of the Democratic National Committee, said well-funded aspirants can treat the post-New Hampshire period like a national primary, leaning on advertising to close the deal. That accounts for a kind of political Dullsville for the rest of us.” Gardner Selby
“A bigger and better University of Texas Medical Branch is rising from the debris of Hurricane Ike, with more than $1 billion in repair, refurbishing and new construction under way or being planned.” Houston Chronicle
“Until she resigns, Hutchison faces a minefield of choices each week, between campaigning back home or sticking close to the Senate, just in case a politically sensitive vote pops up on short notice. It is untenable to cling to the Senate seat much longer.” Todd Gillman
“Republican state Rep. Delwin Jones of Lubbock, who battled challengers from his own party last year and in 2006, will get at least one opponent in the March 2 primary. Zach Brady, a Lubbock attorney and a Texas Tech graduate who worked for GOP Sen. Robert Duncan, also of Lubbock, and for former Democratic U.S. Rep. Charles Stenholm of Abilene, said he will challenge Jones in House District 83.” Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
“Within minutes of the release of the Senate Finance Committee chairman’s long-awaited health-care reform bill Wednesday, the attacks started flying. Liberal Democrats and allies, particularly labor unions, fumed. Republicans, after being courted for months, denounced the work as pure partisanship. But behind the rhetorical fireworks was a sense that the fragile coalition of major industry leaders and interest groups central to refashioning the nation’s $2.5 trillion health-care system remains intact. As they scoured the 223-page document, many of the most influential players found elements to dislike, but not necessarily reasons to kill the effort. Most enticing was the prospect of 30 million new customers.” Washington Post
Everything else
The Texas Rangers, the victims of a three-game sweep at home at the hands of the Oakland A’s, are falling out of the American League playoff race. Texas is now six games behind the AL West-leading Angels and six and a half behind Boston in the wold-card race.
To save money, Southwest Airlines is cutting lemons from its beverage service.
Celebrity birthday of the day: Kyle Chandler, who plays Coach Eric Taylor on “Friday Night Lights,” is 44.
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You can’t confuse Rick Perry
Governor uses one of his favorite lines … Farabee not running again … Neither is Flores
Austin weather from News 8 Austin’s Maureen McCann: Sun with residual clouds, a brief sprinkle possible mainly north of Austin. High of 87.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com to get a link to First Reading when I post it).
Tuesday highlights and the day ahead
Now that he’s been governor for nine years, we have a pretty good sense of what bothers Rick Perry. He doesn’t like lawsuits, or the Obama administration, or process stories.
But what’s most clear about Rick Perry is that he doesn’t like things to be unclear. More to the point, he seems to have declared war on the State of Confusion.
At a press event Tuesday with former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Perry sought to fend off a question about their divergent views on social issues by returning to the stated purpose of their joint appearance — to talk about law enforcement, gang-fighting and border security.
“Texans don’t get confused that we’re here talking about any of those other issues,” Perry said.
Throw a dime in a jar every time Perry says “first and foremost” or tells you what “the fact of the matter” is and you’ll have enough for a steak dinner before too long. But Perry’s favorite rhetorical tool of all time may be declaring that he, and the people of Texas, are not easily confused.
In the one televised debate of the 2006 campaign, Perry said, “One thing people don’t get confused about is the fact that Texas is a strong-on-crime state.”
When legislators pushed back against his 2007 executive order to vaccinate school girls against the human papillomavirus, Perry said, “I don’t ever get confused that this is about life.”
President Barack Obama may confuse some people. But not the governor. “I don’t get confused about the man,” he told Fox News in June. “He’s popular, but his policies are not popular.”
Even a trip out of state can’t confuse him. On a trip to Pittsburgh in 2007, he told a newspaper there, “I don’t get confused that with the lack of manpower and the lack of resources that the federal government has made available that you can cross the border, and you can cross the border with enough frequency and with enough items to create a lot of havoc,” he said.
And Perry certainly has no confusion about Texas itself. “This is a conservative state,” he said late last year. “They want conservative governance. I don’t get confused about that.”
The implication is often that Perry’s political opponents and the news media are particularly prone to confusion.
Still, it would be hard to blame Perry or anyone else for being confused by what’s been happening on the campaign trail this week. There on Tuesday was the governor, who seems to have a special dislike for moderate Republicans, standing before television cameras with a moderate Republican.
There was some confusion Monday evening about why Perry’s opponent in the March primary, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, missed a Senate vote to strip federal funding for the community group ACORN. But that was cleared up when folks read in this space that she attended a Monday night fundraiser at the home of former Dallas Cowboy Roger Staubach.
And it’s a little confusing that Perry criticized Hutchison for missing another vote on Tuesday when he is spending the better part of two work days this week traveling around the state to raise money and hold press conferences with Giuliani. And on Friday, he’ll be in Washington to attend another fundraising event and to speak to a summit for social conservatives.
Raising money and basking in the warm embrace of social conservatives should make Perry feel right at home when he’s in the nation’s capital. So he probably won’t get confused.
• Rep. David Farabee, D-Wichita Falls, will not seek another term. The Wichita Falls Times Record News reports that Wichita Falls Mayor Lanham Lyne is considering seeking the seat as a Republican.
This is a setback for Democratic efforts to win a majority of seats in the Texas House. Republican John McCain got 70 percent of the vote in the district last year. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, also a Republican, got 69 percent there.
• Indicted Rep. Kino Flores, D-Palmview, also said he’s not going to seek another term. The Statesman’s Corrie MacLaggan reports this morning, “The heavily Democratic district has drawn at least two candidates for the 2010 Democratic primary. Attorney Sergio Munoz Jr., son of Flores’ predecessor as the state representative for District 36, said in a news release Tuesday that he’ll run. And Democrat Sandra Rodriguez, a former school trustee and juvenile probation officer who ran against Flores last year, had already scheduled a campaign kickoff event for today in Mission.”
• A disillusioned speechwriter to former President George W. Bush has written a behind-the-scenes book that’s sure to turn some heads. GQ has an excerpt.
Stat of the day
“A national report released Tuesday says that the health insurance premiums Texas families pay climbed nearly five times faster than their incomes this decade. And even though the average family’s health insurance premiums increased 91.6 percent between 2000 and 2009 — from $6,638 to $12,721 a year — families often got fewer benefits for their money, not more, according to the report by Families USA, a nonprofit consumer group based in Washington.” Source: Austin American-Statesman
Countdown
167 days until the March 2 primary.
152 days until early voting starts.
In the news
“As controversy over the advocacy group ACORN flared from Washington into Texas on Tuesday, state politicians quickly began lining up to oppose federal financing for the group and to cut off any state financing. At the same time, ACORN officials in Texas said the dispute was helping, not hurting, their work by triggering an outpouring of Lone Star support.” Austin American-Statesman
“Hey, boys and girls, it’s ‘The Rick and Rudy Show,’ the madcap antics of a GOP odd couple. One’s for abortion and gay rights, the other isn’t. One has a great head of hair, the other also has a head.” Ken Herman
“Rudy Giuliani — the hero of 9/11, the voice of heroic first responders the day terrorists struck — came to Texas this week to raise money for Perry’s re-election. It’s payback by Giuliani, who got the Texas governor to campaign for him in Iowa and Florida in last year’s presidential race. They are a political odd couple, then and now.” Wayne Slater
“A proposed lottery game that would allow players to become instant winners (or losers) without so much as scratching a ticket is under fire from critics who contend it would be a giant step toward slot machines.” Houston Chronicle
“World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon (R) will formally enter the Connecticut Senate race today, adding a celebrity element to a contest that promises to be among the most competitive in the country.” Washington Post
Everything else
Oakland beat the Rangers 6-1.
Cute video of the day: At last night’s Phillies’ game, a dad caught a foul ball and, after a couple of fist-bumps with other fans, handed it to his daughter. She had other ideas:
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Perry knocks Hutchison for missing ACORN vote
Hutchison was in Texas during vote … Perry starts two-day Rudy tour … Pickens said endorsement in governor’s race coming soon
Happy birthday to Senate staffer Colin Coe and Republican consultant Todd Olsen.
Austin weather from News 8 Austin’s Maureen McCann: Partly to mostly cloudy, 20 percent chance of rain, high of 85.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it.)
Monday highlights and the day ahead
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison did not take part Monday in an overwhelming Senate vote to withhold federal funding from ACORN, the increasingly controversial community organization. On Monday evening, she attended a fundraiser at the Dallas-area home of former Dallas Cowboy Roger Staubach.
The Senate voted 83-7 to deny funding and community grants to ACORN, which stands for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. The organization has faced a series of setbacks over the last year, including the recent circulation of videos in which some of its employees gave tax-avoidance advice to conservative activists posing as pimps and prostitutes. The organization is also the subject of voter-fraud investigations.
“This is yet another example of Senator Hutchison failing to protect the taxpayers of Texas,” said Mark Miner, a spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry, whom Hutchison is trying to unseat.
Hutchison’s team said the senator has previously voted to cut off federal funding for ACORN and supported the effort that passed the Senate on Monday.
And here is the dilemma that Hutchison faces. If she stays in the Senate, she will either have little time for campaigning in Texas or she will have to miss votes like this, which the Perry team will be happy to point out. If she follows through with plans to resign her Senate seat this fall, Perry will attack her for quitting on the job for her own political ambition.
• Gov. Rick Perry today begins a two-day tour around the state with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, including fundraisers in Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio. They will also hold a series of press conferences where, along with local law enforcement, they will discuss border security and efforts to combat transnational gangs.
Giuliani plays a particularly interesting role here. Perry alarmed some conservatives in 2007 when he endorsed Giuliani for president. The Hutchison campaign recently put out a Web video saying the Giuliani endorsement raised questions about Perry’s judgment. But as Wayne Slater of the Dallas Morning News quickly noted, a number of Hutchison staffers and former staffers worked for Giuliani’s campaign.
Back to today’s event — Giuliani’s position and past statements on immigration caused him some headaches in his presidential campaign. In a 2001 radio address, he said, “The city of New York, quite frankly, is quite tolerant of undocumented immigration and this shouldn’t surprise you because I’ve been the Mayor for a long time and outspoken on this issue, even nationally, I happen to agree with that,” according to this clip from YouTube.
Since one of the topics that Perry and Giuliani will discuss is border security, expect the Hutchison campaign to push that line today.
• The editors of the Eagle in Bryan-College Station published an editorial yesterday that was quite pointed in its criticism of Perry’s suggestion to Texas Monthly that Bonfire could soon return to Texas A&M.
The editorial says, “Perry just can’t seem to keep his hands off A&M. His meddling has cost the school greatly and it needs to stop. It is one of the great universities in the country, not his personal play toy. Let’s remember the students who died and those who were injured. Let’s not sully their memory with talk of reinstituting what ultimately was and always would be a dangerous tradition.”
• Rep. Dan Gattis, as expected, said Monday he’s running for the Texas Senate seat now held by the retiring Steve Ogden.
• T. Boone Pickens stopped by the Statesman on Monday to talk about his energy plan, but he deflected a question about whom he will support for governor. In this Ken Herman video, Pickens discusses the agreement he has with U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to stay out of presidential politics — but not state politics. You can also hear his spokesman trying to keep him on message.
• And R.G. Ratcliffe of the Houston Chronicle sat down with Houston Mayor Bill White to ask whether he would switch to the governor’s race if Hutchison does not resign her Senate seat.
One more cool video. Last night Colbert interviewed an advocate for health-care reform for his “Better Know a Lobby” series.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Better Know a Lobby - Health Care for America Now | ||||
| ||||
Poll watch
According to a Washington Post/ABC News Poll, “Nearly six in 10 Americans are now concerned about job or pay losses in the coming months, little changed since February, and there has been no increase in the percentage who see the federal government’s stimulus efforts as having an impact, even as the pace of layoffs has eased in recent months. And there is lukewarm public confidence that the government is enacting measures to stave off another financial crisis.”
Obama approve/disapprove: 53/40, according to Gallup
Countdown
168 days until the March 2 primary.
153 days until early voting starts.
In the news
“Texas has received a five-year, $50-million federal grant to help employees of small businesses buy health insurance, state officials said today. The state will chip in 20 percent in matching funds.” Austin American-Statesman
“The state’s largest doctors’ organization is mounting a campaign with posters, brochures and lapel stickers that say ‘Slow Down,’ ‘Wrong Way’ and ‘Me and my doctor, we know best on health care reform.’ But if that sounds like the Texas Medical Association, with nearly 44,000 members, is against health care proposals touted by President Barack Obama and the Democrats, that is not what the campaign means, association officials said.” Austin American-Statesman
“The private fundraising drive to restore the historic Texas Governor’s Mansion that was gutted in an arson fire 15 months ago has topped the $3.5 million mark in donations and pledges.” Austin American-Statesman
“To play on a campaign slogan of Republican gubernatorial candidate Kay Bailey Hutchison: Kay, you can do better.” Lisa Falkenberg
“House Democratic leaders will move ahead with a ‘resolution of disapproval’ against Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) on Tuesday afternoon, following through on their threat to sanction the conservative lawmaker for heckling President Obama during his speech to Congress last week.” Politico
Everything else
Rangers fell four and a half games behind Boston in wild-card race after losing 9-0 to Oakland on Monday.
Juan Martin del Potro upset Roger Federer in five sets to win the U.S. Open.
Patrick Swayze passed away Monday.
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Perry plans to raise money in DC this week
Perry heading to town he loves to criticize … Hutchison makes weekend swing … Another big Obama speech coming today
Happy belated birthday (Sunday) to Republican pundit Matt Mackowiak and Tina Gray, who works in Sen. John Cornyn’s press shop.
Austin weather from News 8 Austin’s Maureen McCann: Mostly cloudy, 30 percent chance of rain. High of 83.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want me to send a link to First Reading to your inbox as soon as it’s posted.)
Weekend highlights and the day ahead
Gov. Rick Perry, the man who said last month that the governor’s race would be a battle of “Washington versus Texas,” (with Perry starring as Texas and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison playing the role of Washington) is holding a fundraiser on Friday. In Washington. All seven of the hosts named on the invitation are lobbyists or former lobbyists, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
“The governor is against the policies coming out of Washington,” said Perry spokesman Mark Miner. “There are many people who share the governor’s concerns about the out-of-control spending and policies coming from Washington.”
Also while he’s in Washington, Perry will be one of many speakers at the Value Voters Summit, which is sponsored by the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family Action and other social-conservative groups.
• For several weeks, the Hutchison campaign has drawn attention to the fact that Perry was de facto campaigning by traveling around the state in his official capacity.
On Saturday, Hutchison was de facto campaigning by traveling around the state in her official capacity. The senator hit Wichita Falls, Abilene and San Angelo to discuss health-care reform.
Hutchison spokesman Jeff Sadosky said the campaign paid for a chartered plane because her swing also included a campaign stop. The Perry team has said the governor’s campaign also pays to charter planes on such trips.
But Sadosky took issue with my comparison between Hutchison’s events and the ceremonial bill-signings that Perry held around the state throughout the summer. “While Perry has been jetting around Texas ceremonially re-signing legislation that has been law for months, Kay Bailey Hutchison, John Cornyn and Texas Republicans in the House have been working to ensure Texans are not forced into the Democrats’ national health care plan and will continue to do so,” Sadosky said.
• Scott Dueser, former board chairman for the Texas Tech University System, told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal that he told fellow board member Windy Sitton that he relayed a message from the governor’s office after she came out in support of Hutchison’s campaign. “They were upset with Windy for supporting Kay Bailey Hutchison and they wanted an explanation,” he said. But Dueser denied Sitton’s claim that he told her Perry’s team wanted her to resign from the board.
Meanwhile, Perry talked to Corrie MacLaggan on Friday about former Tech regent Mark Griffin’s claim that former Perry chief of staff Brian Newby told him that the governor expected loyalty from his appointees, prompting Griffin, a Hutchison supporter, to resign from the board. “All that board activity was (Griffin’s) decision,” Perry said. “We didn’t have anything to do with it. I didn’t talk to anybody.”
So was Newby acting on his own? The governor’s office has not criticized him for his talk with Griffin.
Stats of the day
“On every major measurement, the Census Bureau report shows that the country lost ground during Bush’s two terms. While Bush was in office, the median household income declined, poverty increased, childhood poverty increased even more, and the number of Americans without health insurance spiked.” Source: The Atlantic
Poll watch
According to a new Washington Post/ABC News poll, “Americans remain almost deadlocked in their opinion of the Democrats’ health-care initiative, with 46 percent in favor of the proposed changes and 48 percent opposed. There is also a clean split on Obama’s handling of the issue, with 48 percent approving and the same number disapproving.”
According to the New York Times, a poll that the Pew Research Center will release today shows trust in the new media has reached a new low, “with record numbers of Americans saying reporting is inaccurate, biased and shaped by special interests.”
Countdown
169 days until the March 2 primary.
154 days until early voting starts.
In the news
“Debra Medina, who plans to run for Texas governor, says she considers herself like David taking on Goliath. And the battle she’s entering has two Goliaths.” Austin American-Statesman
“At a rare red-state gathering of Democrats from across the United States, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said in Austin on Friday that the Democratic National Committee will help Texas Democrats gain ground next year, perhaps toward wiping out the GOP’s 76-74 edge in the Texas House of Representatives. But Kaine, the committee’s chairman, didn’t detail specific infusions of money or political ground troops.” Austin American-Statesman
“There’s an echo of George W. Bush’s ‘uniter not divider’ mantra as his chief loyalist, Karen Hughes, boosts U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s bid to unseat Gov. Rick Perry.” Peggy Fikac
“Harris County may be forced to pay $4 million or more to the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority due to a cascading series of challenges initiated when $117 million in stadium bonds soured at the peak of the financial crisis last year.” Houston Chronicle
“Between financial rescue missions and the economic stimulus program, government spending accounts for a bigger share of the nation’s economy — 26 percent — than at any time since World War II. The government is financing 9 out of 10 new mortgages in the United States. If you buy a car from General Motors, you are buying from a company that is 60 percent owned by the government. If you take out a car loan or run up your credit card, the chances are good that the government is financing both your debt and that of your bank. And if you buy life insurance from the American International Group, you will be buying from a company that is almost 80 percent federally owned.” New York Times
“President Barack Obama is on the warpath over myths and distortions about health care reform, but he’s spreading one of his own: that there’s any chance of genuinely bipartisan health care legislation reaching his desk this fall. In truth, Democratic offers to reach across the aisle — and Republican demands that they do so — are largely a charade, performed for the benefit of a huge bloc of practical-minded voters who hunger for the two parties to work together and are mystified that it never seems to happen.” Politico
Everything else
Things aren’t looking good for the Texas Rangers, who now stand four games behind the Red Sox in the AL wild-card race.
And speaking of not looking good, the Houston Texans gave what could charitably be described as an awful performance on Sunday, losing 24-7 to the New York Jets and their rookie coach and rookie quarterback.
Cowboys beat Tampa Bay 34-21 as Tony Romo threw for a career-high 353 yards.
“The Jay Leno Show” debuts tonight at 9 p.m. on NBC, lead guest is Jerry Seinfeld. For anybody interested in this sort of thing, Time had a great cover story a couple of weeks ago about what the new Leno show says about the state of the TV business.
Whitney Houston will be on the season premiere of Oprah today.
Just when you thought Serena Williams had locked down the award for Most Embarrassing Weekend Outburst, Kanye West swept in and won it at the last minute last night at the Video Music Awards.
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Ogden may not be done yet
Finance chairman won’t seek re-election … Special election could cost $30 million … Wilson’s opponent continues heavy fundraising
Happy birthday to Senate staffer Stephanie Leavitt.
Austin weather: High of 87 with a 60 percent chance of rain.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to FR as soon as I post it.)
Thursday highlights and the day ahead
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden made the widely-expected announcement Thursday that he will not run for re-election. But is he done with politics for good?
Ogden says he has no immediate plans to run for something else, but in an interview with the Statesman’s Mike Ward, he left open the possibility that he run for lieutenant governor if David Dewhurst gives up that post to run for the U.S. Senate. “I’ll call you back when I have 16 votes lined up,” Ogden said.
UPDATE: Just to clarify, I presume he means he may run as the acting lieutenant governor until the end of 2010, not seek a four-year term.
There was also talk that Ogden might challenge U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco. “The handicappers think (a run against Edwards) would be a good race, but I have no plans to do that,” Ogden told Ward. But he then added, “I don’t want to say I wouldn’t run in any event, under any circumstances.”
Edwards vs. Ogden would be quite a race. Of the 254,000 total votes cast in Edwards’ 2008 race, about 57,000 of them were in Ogden’s home county, Brazos County, and about 79,000 were in McLennan County, which is Edwards’ home. Another 49,000 votes were cast in Johnson County, which Ogden does not represent in the Senate, but Edwards got just 44 percent of the vote there in 2008 when running against a little-known Republican. So Ogden could do well there.
In a new analysis, Larry Sabato and Isaac Wood of the University of Virginia forecast that Republicans could pick up 20-30 House seats in 2010. Their analysis says the Edwards seat “leans Democratic.” It’s a district that regularly supports Republicans in state and national elections but has stuck with Edwards, who, as chairman of an Appropriations Subcommitee, is arguably the highest-ranking Texan in the U.S. House. Ogden could not use the money he has raised as a state senator in a congressional race.
If you need a refresher on Ogden, go back and read Kate Alexander’s excellent profile from just after the legislative session.
• Ogden’s announcement means some other 2010 dominoes will start to fall. Rep. Dan Gattis, R-Georgetown, has long been planning a run and is expected to be the only sitting legislator in the race. But the Republican nomination won’t come without a fight. Businessman Ben Bius of Huntsville, who has run previously for the Texas House, said Thursday that he is exploring a run. Bius could put a lot of his own money into a campaign and try to cast the decision as one between a businessman and a trial lawyer.
• There’s also going to be a lively Republican primary for Gattis’ seat, should he enter the Senate race. Milton Rister, the former head of the Texas Legislative Council, and Cedar Park City Council Member Stephen Thomas are expected to get into that one, and there could well be others.
• The other question out there is, who will be the next chairman of Senate Finance? Hard to say because we don’t know who will be lieutenant governor, and the lieutenant governor picks the chairmen. Just looking at who is on the committee now, you’d have to consider Robert Duncan, Tommy Williams, Jane Nelson and Kip Averitt in the mix.
• Back to Dewhurst for a second. Paul Burka wrote on his blog this morning that there could be two other reasons for Dewhurst saying earlier this week that he would run for re-election. Burka writes, “(1) I am told by two sources that he called Hutchison to ask about her plans — was she going to resign her seat and if so, when — and he did not like the answer that he got. (2) Word reached him that Abbott has been saying around town that he was going to run for lieutenant governor. For once, Dewhurst didn’t dither around. His announcement made it much more problematic for Abbott to get in the race. As with KBH, he would have to explain why he is taking on a strong incumbent and dividing the party.”
• Secretary of State (and Perry appointee) Hope Andrade said, in response to a question from small-government activist Michael Sullivan of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, that a special election to replace Hutchison in the U.S. Senate could cost taxpayers as much as $30 million. Sullivan and Perry have been allies on a number of issues but Sullivan said he has not taken sides in the governor’s race.
Still, the Perry campaign pounced. Said Perry spokesman Mark Miner, “The Senator’s potential resignation to run for governor amounts to nothing more than another taxpayer funded bailout, only this one benefits one person’s political ambition.”
Hutchison spokeswoman Jennifer Baker responded, “Just because Rick Perry has successfully bullied some University regents into resigning doesn’t mean he can bully Kay Bailey Hutchison out of this race. If Rick Perry had spent the last nine years doing his job instead of playing political games, mismanaging the state and wasting billions of taxpayer dollars, Texans would not need a new governor to come in and clean up his mess.”
• U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, will be on “Meet the Press” Sunday, along with Dick Durbin, Howard Dean and Newt Gingrich.
• NBC News reported that the Democrat running against U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson has raised $700,000 for his campaign since Wilson shouted “you lie” during President Barack Obama’s health-care speech.
Poll watch
A new Gallup poll says 51 percent of Americans have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in state government to handle state problems, down from 67 percent, where it was for each of the last four years. Results were not broken out by state.
Obama approve/disapprove: 51/42, according to Gallup.
Countdown
172 days until the March 2 primary.
157 days until early voting begins.
In the news
“The next round in the State Board of Education battle over the social studies curriculum standards is about to begin. Next Thursday, the board-appointed expert reviewers are scheduled to testify before the board about the standards written this summer by groups of educators and interested community members.” Austin American-Statesman
“The Texas Open Meetings Act is safe for now after the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit by two former West Texas City Council members who asserted that the act violated their free speech rights.” Austin American-Statesman
“One spin: More than 300 Democratic Party players from across the United States and its territories will descend on Austin today, sending a powerful signal that long-suffering Texas Democrats stand to prevail statewide in 2010… An alternate take: The committee is coming to Texas for the first time in more than three decades because someone in Washington simply cottoned to the fun of prowling deep into Republican-rich Texas, where no GOP nominee has lost statewide since 1994 and no Republican presidential nominee has lost since 1976.” Austin American-Statesman
“Gov. Rick Perry announced Thursday he’s sent a special contingent of Texas Rangers called ‘Ranger Recon’ to hot spots along the Texas-Mexico border to engage drug and human smugglers.” Houston Chronicle
“More than a million doses of swine flu vaccine a week are expected to start rolling in next month, state health officials said Thursday, but the first batches probably won’t be enough to vaccinate everyone considered most at risk.” Dallas Morning News
“Houston Mayor Bill White usually gets what he wants.During his nearly six years as Houston’s chief executive, White has deftly wielded power in the strong-mayor form of government with a style marked by consensus-building rather than arm-twisting. He largely avoided controversy by following one rule: He didn’t put items on the City Council agenda he wasn’t sure would pass. But, lately, the mayor has lost a few.” Lisa Falkenberg
“Eight years later, the site known as Ground Zero remains mostly a giant hole in the ground. A projected completion date has been pushed back years, if not decades. The project has been beset by repeated delays, changing designs, billions of dollars in cost overruns, and feuding among the various parties involved in the complex undertaking.” Washington Post
“Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) says he’s done apologizing for his outburst during President Barack Obama’s prime-time speech Wednesday, but two House Democratic leaders are calling for a formal reprimand if Wilson continues to refuse to make a public statement of contrition on the House floor. Politico
Everything else
Pittsburgh beat Tennessee 13-10 in overtime to win the first game of the NFL season. Of course, the Steelers won the coin toss and the Titans never got the ball in OT. I hate the NFL overtime system.
Rangers didn’t play Friday, remain two games behind Red Sox in wild-card chase.
David Robinson, John Stockton and some guy named Jordan are going into the Basketball Hall of Fame this weekend.
New in theaters: “9,” “It Might Get Loud,” “Lorna’s Silence,” “The September Issue,” “Sorority Row,” “Whiteout” and “Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself.”
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Perry in Houston today to talk border
Running late this morning, so I will skip some of the usual bells and whistles and hit a handful of key things going on this morning.
Gov. Rick Perry will be in Houston today to discuss border security. Said Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle, “In the absence of adequate federal resources to secure our border, the governor will announce the state’s latest border security capability using highly-skilled teams to address the ever evolving threat along the Texas-Mexico border. He will also continue to urge Washington to approve the 1,000 Title 32 National Guard troops he has been requesting since January.”
• Perry created quite a stir yesterday as his suggestion to Texas Monthly that the A&M bonfire could return as soon as next year made the rounds. Ralph Haurwitz writes in this morning’s Statesman, “As far as Gov. Rick Perry is concerned, it’s not a question of whether Texas A&M University will resume its annual Bonfire tradition, but when. His alma mater, on the other hand, is decidedly cool to restoring a tradition that took a tragic turn nearly 10 years ago.”
• The Hutchison campaign has made a new video highlighting some of the coverage of Perry’s role in higher education over the last week, most notably the Texas Tech regents who say they were pressured to resign and the UT regents who said Perry lobbied them on whom to hire as chancellor.
• Perry is taking some knocks from the opinion class for these issues. Bill McKenzie wrote on the Dallas Morning News Web site yesterday, “Actually, we ought to really worry about his political approach to the state’s colleges because they are increasingly important to growing Texas’ economy. If they become the playground of our leaders, how are we going to attract top professors and generate independent research? If we can’t do either, we’re going to have a hard time developing the intellectual base the state needs to compete in a brain-driven global economy.”
• Jake Tapper of ABC News reported on Twitter that the Democratic challenger to South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson has raised $100,000 from 3,000 people since Wilson yelled “You lie” during President Barack Obama’s speech. I wonder how many of those donors live in South Carolina.
• To check out the accuracy of some of the things Obama said last night, I highly recommend the St. Petersburg Times’ PolitiFact site. They do great work.
• I have to mention this — the NFL season kicks off tonight with the Titans and Steelers at 7:30 p.m. on NBC. Steelers will win tonight. As for the season, I like the Cowboys to go 10-6, the Texans to go 11-5 and the Patriots to beat the Packers in the Super Bowl. Give me your own predictions and I’ll hang on to them.
Sorry for the belated and brief post this morning. Apparently the crash of Blackberry e-mail yesterday led to a series of unfortunate events. Back tomorrow.
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Don’t read too much into Dewhurst’s non-move
Other shoe hasn’t dropped yet on U.S. Senate seat … Gilbert wants to drive up university spending … Obama speech tonight
Austin weather: Mostly cloudy, 30 percent chance of rain. High of 94.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it. If you’ve sent one and I haven’t added you, remind me.)
Tuesday highlights and the day ahead
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst’s low-key proclamation to supporters Tuesday that he would run for re-election next year served as a reminder of just how many issues are up in the air as we head toward the December filing period for the 2010 elections.
First, it’s important to say that the Dewhurst announcement doesn’t mean much. He’s been saying that he is running for re-election. But U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has said that she is going to leave the Senate this fall, and it is still widely expected that Dewhurst will run for her seat when there is an election to fill it, and maybe even get an interim appointment from Gov. Rick Perry to fill it. Tuesday’s announcement from Dewhurst doesn’t change that.
As has been the case for months, everyone is waiting to see what Hutchison is going to do. And even though she said several weeks ago that she would leave the Senate this fall, she has not yet followed that up with a specific timetable. And there is some of speculation out there that, while she will stay in the governor’s race, she will not give up the Senate seat to run.
There’s one school of thought that says Hutchison could stay in the Senate and try to get out in front of Republican opposition to President Barack Obama’s plans on health care and climate change. The thinking goes that she could build up her visibility with Republican primary voters with frequent appearances on cable and maybe the occasional Sunday show. But wouldn’t she get much more attention if she was campaigning in Texas and getting on the local news (somewhere) every night? After all, there is no shortage of Republicans trying to get on national television right now to talk about health care, and the cable shows they covet still have relatively small audiences.
At 7:30 a.m. this morning, Hutchison gave an interview that lasted about six minutes on CNBC’s Squawk Box. The subject was health care, and Hutchison said numerous times that she opposes Obama’s plan and supports lawsuit reforms and tax credits for consumers to purchase health care. But most of the questions were process-related, so who knows how much of a lasting impression the interview will have. The governor’s race did not come up until the end, when the hosts said they would ask her about it the next time she’s on the show.
Another consideration is that resigning this fall would shift power to Perry, who could then call the special election when he wants. If he thinks he has a lead and wants to sit on it, he could call the election before the primary. Suddenly the short race to fill Hutchison’s seat would become a huge story in the Texas media and could well draw attention away from Hutchison’s efforts to catch Perry in the polls.
National Republicans certainly hope that they won’t have to compete in a special election in the coming months. Republicans have to try to keep open seats in a number of states next year, including New Hampshire, Ohio and Missouri. Texas is a particularly expensive state, and the Democrats interested in Hutchison’s seat are stronger than the candidates that the party usually puts forth for these races. So an unscheduled open seat in Texas could drain money from other GOP efforts. Remember that Texan John Cornyn is responsible for keeping and winning Republican seats in the Senate, and he’ll go to great lengths not to lose a seat in his own state.
Hutchison spokesman Jeff Sadosky said Tuesday, “Nothing has changed since the last time the senator addressed this question. At the moment she is focused on fighting Obama’s liberal agenda.”
Back to Dewhurst. Why did he put out his announcement (a fundraising solicitation) on Tuesday? For one, even if he wants to run for the Senate, he needs to wait somewhere right now. And he may be trying to send a signal to Attorney General Greg Abbott, who many believe will run for lieutenant governor if Dewhurst does not seek re-election.
The Houston Chronicle’s R.G. Ratcliffe raised another interesting point Tuesday. One possibility, Ratcliffe said, is that “Dewhurst wants to retire the $2.5 million campaign debt that he personally guaranteed for his political committee before he makes another personal investment in a Senate race. By announcing for re-election, it becomes easier to raise money for the office he already holds, and federal law may preclude him from raising money to eliminate the state debt once he becomes a senator or Senate candidate.”
• Ralph Haurwitz and I have a story in this morning’s Statesman with new details about how Perry pushed UT System regents to hire John Montford as chancellor last year. (Spoiler alert: The regents weren’t swayed). The story illustrates Perry’s increasingly-controversial involvement in higher education.
On a related note, Perry told Texas Monthly’s Pam Colloff that the Texas A&M Bonfire could return as soon as next year. Colloff, who is working on a story about the 10th anniversary of the Bonfire tragedy, asked the governor how it would be brought back to campus. “I’d leave that up to the board and the current administration to sit down and decide the safety parameters, the oversight, et cetera,” Perry said. “They are very capable men and women, and I trust their judgment.”
• Democratic gubernatorial candidate Hank Gilbert said Tuesday he wants the Legislature to spend $500 million every two years to help seven public universities reach first-tier status. Gilbert’s campaign said the state could tap “unencumbered” revenue, Texas Lottery dollars that are now going into general revenue, or look to surcharges on parking tickets at colleges and universities or a fee of $1 to $5 per semester for college students.
• Democratic consultant Glenn Smith today is launching a new Web site, dogcanyon.org. It sounds a little something like a Texas-based Huffington Post. Smith said Tuesday, “We’re going to do politics, but we’re also going to do some offbeat, unpredictable and entertaining writing on culture — books, movies, music, downhome culture.”
• Gardner Selby reported Tuesday on the Postcards blog that U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, did not hold any August town-hall meetings here in his hometown, where roughly a third of his constituents live. He did hold them in Katy, Tomball, Bellville and Brenham.
• President Barack Obama will address the country at 7 p.m. tonight. Asked about the public option on the “Today” show this morning, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, “The president will outline what he thinks the value of public option is and why he thinks we have to have choice and competition in the system.”
Poll watch
Gallup: “Sixty-four percent of Americans say their representative’s position on health care reform will be a major factor in their vote in the next congressional election; just over a third say it will be no more than a minor factor. Opponents of reform have the edge in intensity here. Among Americans who want their member of Congress to vote against health care reform, 82 percent say the issue will be a major factor in their vote in next year’s elections. Among those wanting their member to vote for reform, 62 percent say the issue will be a major factor for them.” Read more here.
Obama approve/disapprove: 51/41, according to Gallup.
Countdown
174 days until the March 2 primary.
159 days until early voting begins.
In the news
“A set of keys unlocking more than 100 legislative offices and rooms in the Texas Capitol were lost Monday night in a possible grab-and-run theft that triggered beefed-up security and mandatory ID checks in the historic statehouse complex.” Austin American-Statesman
“The air pollution permitting process in the nation’s largest greenhouse-gas-producing state does not adhere to the Clean Air Act and portions of it should be thrown out, federal regulators said Tuesday in an announcement applauded by Texas environmentalists.” Associated Press
“From a back-row seat in the Illinois Senate chamber, Barack Obama listened silently as political adversaries mocked his health-care reform bill: Socialized medicine. Hillarycare redux. Too expensive. Back-door route to a single-payer system.” Washington Post
“In our exhausting 24/7 news cycle, demand for timely information and analysis is greater than ever. With journalists being laid off in droves, savvy political operatives have stepped eagerly into the breach. What’s most troubling is not that TV-news producers mistake their work for journalism, which is bad enough, but that young people drawn to journalism increasingly see no distinction between disinterested reporting and hit-jobbery.” The Atlantic
Everything else
Rangers took both games of a double-header against the Indians last night 11-9 and 10-5. Texas is two games behind Boston in the wild-card race and four and a half games behind the Angels in the AL West.
BYU moves up 11 spots to No. 9 in AP football poll. Oklahoma drops to number 13.
Cedric Golden says in his column this morning that Longhorn fans shouldn’t get too giddy about Oklahoma’s loss over the weekend. “We know that to be the big cheese, a team must defeat quality opponents — and hope those same opponents defeat other quality opponents. So in the world of college football, that loss dropped the Sooners down a bit — not only from the short list of national title hopefuls, but also in the all-important USA Today coaches poll, where they plummeted 11 spots from third to 14th, and in the Associated Press poll, where they dropped to 13th.”
Jon Gosselin tells ABC News that he “despises” Kate, his estranged wife. “I can’t sit on the sofa with that woman,” Us Magazine says.
Celebrity birthday of the day: Adam Sandler is 43.
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Should governor’s appointees be loyal?
Accounts question Perry’s statements about his focus … Obama speech today … President sounds a little like the governor
Happy birthday to Statesman columnist Kirk Bohls and Rep. Garnet Coleman.
Austin weather: Partly cloudy, high of 96.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it.)
Weekend highlights and the day ahead
The big story heading into the weekend was the news that two Texas Tech regents said they were pressured to resign by allies of Gov. Rick Perry’s because they support Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison for governor.
It’s important to note that Perry’s staff was given repeated chances to say that the governor or his office did not ask former chief of staff Brian Newby to tell Mark Griffin to resign from the Tech board, but it offered no such denial. Newby has not said that Griffin’s account is untrue (a series of calls from reporters went unreturned Friday). And Perry’s office did not distance itself from Newby or former Tech Board of Regents chairman Scott Dueser, who, according to former Tech regent and current Hutchison supporter Windy Sitton, told Sitton that the governor’s office wanted her “to cease and desist supporting Kay Bailey immediately or resign from the board.” The phone message I left at Dueser’s Abilene home went unreturned all weekend.
All of that is to say that the Perry campaign has not disputed these accounts or distanced itself from the people who purportedly acted on the governor’s behalf.
What’s worth noting is the difference between these accounts and Perry’s public proclamations that he’s unsure whether there will be a primary and that he is focused on the state’s business. Sitton said that the “cease and desist” order (which she ignored) came last year. Since then, consider some of Perry’s public statements.
He told a gaggle of reporters in January, as reported by the AP, “A hundred and thirty-eight days until the legislative session is over. And the fact of the matter is, that’s what people are focused on, that’s what they’re interested in and that’s where I’m going to keep my focus.”
He told the Dallas Morning News in January, “I have had lots of tough races, and I am very proud of what we’ve done in this state. We’re focused on this session, and good policy always makes good politics. So I am not going to get distracted by who may or may not run, but instead focus on being the best governor I can be and continue to move this state forward.”
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that Perry said at an August bill-signing in Dallas, “I don’t know who all is going to be in a primary [or] even if I’m going to have a primary or not.”
(That was right around the same time that Griffin praised Hutchison at a campaign event).
And Perry told a Lubbock television station last week, “I’ll be real honest. I’m not sure there is a campaign yet until folks filed and paid money and their name is on the line.”
It will be interesting to see what becomes of this thing. Will more Perry appointees come forward with statements like this? Or will Republican primary voters conclude that it’s perfectly reasonable that Perry expects the members of his team to support his re-election?
One important point here: It was Hutchison who, just a few months ago, defended her support of Gerald Ford over Ronald Reagan in the 1976 GOP primary for president by noting that Ford had appointed her vice chairwoman of the National Safety Transportation Board.
• Congress returns to Washington today, and the Perry campaign has put together a little Web video to mark the occasion:
• Maybe President Barack Obama and Perry are more alike than either would want us to believe. When his policies are criticized, Perry often claims that his opponents have no solutions of their own (and he often has a point). Yesterday at a labor picnic, Obama said, “I’ve got a question for all these folks who say we’re going to pull the plug on grandma, that this is all about illegal immigrants. You’ve heard all the lies. I’ve got a question for all of those folks: What are you going to do? What’s your answer? What’s your solution? And you know what? They don’t have one.”
• Obama will say today in his speech to the country’s students, “But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world - and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.” Read the whole thing here.
• Joe Scarborough, who was mentioned in Politico over the weekend as a possible GOP candidate for president in 2012, said of the school talk this morning, “I want my 6-year-old to hear this speech today.”
• The White House released a statement at around midnight Saturday that controversial green jobs czar Van Jones was leaving the administration. According to the Washington Post, “The resignation of White House environmental adviser Van Jones has revealed a lapse in the administration’s vetting procedures that, nearly eight months into his tenure, delivered President Obama with an unwelcome distraction as he begins an important week on behalf of his health-care reform initiative.”
Stat of the day
Nationally, there are 81 primary-care doctors for every 100,000 people; in Texas, the average is 68. And 27 Texas counties have no doctor. Source: Austin American-Statesman
Countdown
175 days until the March 2 primary.
160 days until early voting begins.
In the news
“As talk on national health care reform centers on providing insurance for everyone, Texas and the nation are already struggling with a shortage of primary care doctors that is expected to keep growing. In Texas, 114 of the 254 counties have been designated by the federal government as primary-care shortage areas. Some clinics spend months trying to lure doctors, and some patients drive one or two counties away for even the most routine health care.” Austin American-Statesman
“Campaign contributions from special interest groups with a stake in the healthcare debate continue to add up as Congress returns to work today. More than $15 million has been given to members of Congress this year, including nearly $300,000 to the North Texas congressional delegation.” Fort Worth Star-Telegram
“Gov. Rick Perry rallied opposition to federal stimulus spending, but he now is the manager of one of the biggest pots of federal gold in Texas: crime grants to local law enforcement agencies. And those grants have become an integral part of Perry’s political machine.” Houston Chronicle
“As Congress returns today from summer recess, Kay Bailey Hutchison opens a final chapter in the Senate, assuming she sticks with her vow to quit soon to focus on her bid for Texas governor. Congress will be focused almost single-mindedly on health care. But Hutchison will be coping with the reality that she is a self-proclaimed lame duck as she tries to complete unfinished business and score a few political points before stepping down.” Dallas Morning News
“Rick Perry’s has trumpeted the endorsement of conservative leader Steve Hotze of Houston. Hotze is the president of Conservative Republicans for Texas and his endorsement underscores Perry’s effort to corral the hard right in his party in advance of next year’s GOP primary. In a statement issued by the Republican governor’s campaign, Hotze praised Perry as a friend of fiscal restraint and traditional family values. What a difference a year makes.” Dallas Morning News
Everything else
Rangers and Indians got rained out yesterday. Texas is two and a half games behind Boston in the AL wild-card race.
Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford expected back in two to four weeks.
Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor wrote “VIck” in his eyeblack on Saturday to show support for the new Eagles’ backup QB. “Not everybody’s a perfect person in the world. Everyone kills people, murders people, steals from you, steals from you, steals from me, whatever,” Pryor said. Well, technically not everyone, Terrelle.
The new “Melrose Place” debuts tonight at 8 p.m. on the CW. I’ve seen the pilot and I hated it for most of the show, until I realized I had been totally sucked in by the end.
Celebrity birthday of the day: Jonathan Taylor Thomas, formerly of “Home Improvement” is 28.
Follow me on Twitter, @jasonembry.
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Podcasts with Ben Philpot
Podcast
KUT reporter chimes in on gov’s race … Perry and Hutchison weigh in on Obama school speech … Are you ready for some fantasy football?
Happy birthday to Jamie Moore, a senior policy adviser for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. (assist: Mackowiak)
Austin weather from News 8 Austin’s Maureen McCann: Increasing clouds, a 30 percent chance for isolated showers and thunderstorms. High of 98.
Thursday highlights
At least three Austin-area school districts won’t show President Barack Obama’s speech to students on Tuesday, the Statesman reports this morning. And the two leading Republican candidates for governor weighed in on Thursday, both generally expressing sympathy with parents who want the option of withholding their children from the speech. You can read what they had to say in this morning’s story or in my Postcards item from Thursday.
Gov. Rick Perry said he was troubled that federal officials did not try to coordinate more with local school officials. He said, “I hope schools will provide a suitable alternative for students not participating in this event. I also hope that this is not an indication of the federal government further encroaching on states’ authority over education.”
Seeing the controversy grow, Democratic consultant Glenn Smith said, “Where was George W. Bush on 9/11? In a classroom of youngsters. Would these people have told those school children not to listen to the president read them a story? These people are hypocritical ninnies.”
One other point on all this: Thursday in this space, I pointed to press reports from 1991 when then-President George Bush gave a speech that was broadcast into schools all over the country. I did not see the followup story, which showed Democratic congressional leaders at the time such as Richard Gephardt and Martin Frost complaining about Bush using the speech and Department of Education resources for political purposes. Thanks to a commenter for pointing it out.
• Hutchison was in East Texas on Thursday and got a little TV time, saying she stepped aside for the good of the party by not running in 2006.
• Wayne Slater of the Dallas Morning News put up a great item on Thursday about the long line of Hutchison staffers who worked for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The Hutchison campaign has mocked Perry for endorsing Giuliani’s 2008 presidential campaign.
• A story in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal this morning says that Mark Griffin “was asked to resign” from the Texas Tech Board of Regents because he supports Hutchison for governor. But the story doesn’t say who asked him to resign or quote anyone on the record.
The FR Podcast
Two podcasts this week, both with Ben Philpot of KUT, the local public-radio station. In the first, which is a tad longer than 15 minutes, Ben and I discuss the governor’s race on each side of the aisle and the waiting game being played further down the ballot. You can download the podcast in the top right corner of this entry or you can listen to it below. For our other podcast, skip on down to the “everything else” section.
In the news
“Rick Perry might not be the only candidate in the 2010 race for Texas governor who is known for great hair. As the Republican governor with famously spiffy locks seeks re-election, the head of a Houston hair products company that Perry recently touted says he might be running for governor — as a Democrat.” Austin American-Statesman
“The convicted double murderer who threatened to kill a state senator after the lawmaker got him busted for having a cell phone on Texas’ death row appears to be at it again.” Austin American-Statesman
“It wouldn’t be a Sharp campaign without weirdness. This is a guy who has run against a man with a famous senator’s name and a guy with a dead president’s name.” Ken Herman
“Barack Obama is hardly the first president to speak at a public school. He’s not even the first to plan a live telecast from a classroom. President George H.W. Bush did that in 1991, and without stirring anything close to the ferocious backlash the Obama administration has faced in North Texas and elsewhere. But almost two decades later, the country is far more polarized. The media culture moves at relative hyperspeed. Conservative critics are more ready to pounce on Obama, even when he’s urging students to stay in school and out of trouble - just as Bush did back then.” Dallas Morning News
“A Washington veteran with experience in media, politics and diplomacy will take over the most controversial arm of George W. Bush’s presidential library - the policy institute that some SMU faculty members and Methodist leaders did not want. Over lunch this week in Dallas, Bush offered former White House official James K. Glassman the opportunity to run the think tank that the former president has described as a place to foster debate on democracy, education and other global concerns.” Dallas Morning News
Everything else
One other podcast for you today, folks. The NFL season is a week away and many of us will be drafting fantasy football teams this weekend. I’m an avid fantasy football player, as is KUT’s Ben Philpot, and we’ve recorded this 27-minute podcast to help you get ready for your draft, compare players against one another and talk about how to approach the game. If it’s not your cup of tea, simply ignore this, that’s why I made two separate podcasts. You can listen below but you cannot download this one because I made the political podcast downloadable. Would be glad to hear your feedback. And thanks to Ben for his insights.
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Schools weigh whether to air Obama
Some parents protest kids listening to president … A little redundancy in the Kinky coverage — this time … Perry, on campaign trip, says he’s not sure there’s a campaign yet
Happy birthday to Glenn Garry of the Texas Board of Architectural Examiners and Kip Smith, who works for Rep. Tommy Merritt.
Austin weather from News 8 Austin’s Maureen McCann: Partly sunny, hottest day of the week. Highs back around 100.
Wednesday highlights and the day ahead
Here’s a story that picked up steam Wednesday and isn’t likely to slow down today: The apparent controversy over whether schools should broadcast an address to students next week from President Barack Obama.
As Laura Heinauer writes in the Statesman this morning, “Obama’s address, which is billed as a direct speech to children on the importance of education, set off a nationwide wave of phone calls from parents who were concerned their students might be forced to watch.”
As Heinauer reports, teachers will have the option of showing the speech in the Austin, Round Rock and Lake Travis districts. I looked around the Web sites of some other districts Wednesday night and saw that the Leander school district won’t show it at all. According to the Leander Web site, “Due to the logistics of making a webcast available during that time of the school day, we will not be showing this address in LISD classrooms or campuses. However, as soon as the speech is available, we will place a link on the district website should you and your family choose to view the speech.”
Conservative commentators in the media have pounced on the speech and the fact that the U.S. Department of Education has suggested lessons for teachers to build around the speech. According to the Dallas Morning News, Metroplex radio host Mark Davis “suggested Tuesday might be a good day to be sick.”
Glenn Beck said on his radio show that on the night of the speech, he would broadcast a special “about indoctrination and grabbing your kids.”
Commentator Michelle Malkin wrote, “Schools have used students as little lobbyists on everything from illegal immigration to gay marriage to anti-war activism. And most recently: Census collection. Will Obama be able to resist issuing a call to youth arms to marshal help in passing his legislative agenda?”
(The link to Malkin’s post also has information about the suggested lessons for teachers to use with the speech.)
This isn’t the first time a president has tried to reach students in their classrooms. In October 1991, then-President George Bush talked to students at a Washington junior high and it was broadcast into classrooms across the country. From a Washington Post story at the time: “The White House sent letters to schools across the nation to encourage teachers and principals to allow students to tune in the speech. which was also carried live by the Mutual Broadcasting and NBC Radio Network. The live television and radio coverage was arranged at the request of the Education Department.”
• When talking about Kinky Friedman’s entry into the Democratic race, maybe there should be a ban on the phrase “this time as a Democrat.” Here’s some of the coverage from the past few days:
The Associated Press, on Monday: “Humorist and author Kinky Friedman says he’s running for governor again, this time as a Democrat.”
News 8 Austin, Tuesday: “The pool of people diving into the race for Texas governor keeps getting deeper. Kinky Friedman kicked off his campaign for governor of Texas Tuesday, this time as a Democrat.”
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Wednesday: “Folk singer and humorist Richard Friedman, better known as ‘Kinky,’ officially announced Tuesday that he will run for governor of Texas again in 2010 - this time as a Democrat.”
Politico, Wednesday: “Richard ‘Kinky’ Friedman is making his second run for governor of Texas, this time as a Democrat.”
And, naturally, the headline that I wrote for the Web version of my story, posted Monday: “Friedman running for governor again, this time as Democrat.”
• I’m going to try to post local news coverage from around the state when the gubernatorial candidates are on the road.
Perry said he’s focused on running the state. “I’m not sure there’s a campaign yet,” he said. Which is probably why his campaign paid for a truck with a large sign to follow U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison around the state when she announced her candidacy last month.
• Asher Price has a good story in this morning’s Statesman about Zak Covar, the new deputy executive commissioner of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Price writes, “Covar’s promotion, made by the executive director of the agency, is another stage in his meteoric rise. It also raises questions about the interplay of politics, policy and personnel at the state agency. The appointment of Covar, who is 33 and has a bachelor’s degree in poultry science from Texas A&M University, is unusual because he has a background in policy and politics; his predecessors as the agency’s chief operating officer were longtime state employees.”
Poll watch
Pew Research Center for the People and Press: “Americans are extremely displeased with Congress, and there are already some signs that this could take a toll on the Democrats in the 2010 midterm elections. Currently, 37 percent express a favorable opinion of Congress, while 52 percent hold an unfavorable view. Positive opinions of Congress have declined by 13 points since April and are now at one of their lowest points in more than two decades of Pew Research Center surveys.”
Obama approve/disapprove: 54/40, according to Gallup.
In the news
“Most anyone pursuing state office crabs that Texas leads the nation in bad things and trails in good. Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Tom Schieffer says Texas is in a race for the bottom. Kinky Friedman frets about trailing Louisiana and Mississippi. And GOP U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison launched her gubernatorial run by proclaiming five areas in dire need.” Gardner Selby
“Texas’ prepaid college tuition plan is rescinding a long-standing policy that pays parents big returns - as much as 200 percent - when they cancel tuition contracts in an effort to trim the program’s projected $2.1 billion deficit.” Dallas Morning News
“Health care reform is said to be in trouble partly because of those raucous August town hall meetings in which Democratic members of Congress were besieged by shouters opposed to change. But what if our media-created impression of the meetings is wrong?” E.J. Dionne
“In a memoir being published this month, Senator Edward M. Kennedy called his behavior after the 1969 car accident that killed Mary Jo Kopechne ‘inexcusable’ and said the events might have shortened the life of his ailing father, Joseph P. Kennedy.” New York Times
“Curt Schilling, the former major league pitcher who won the allegiance of Bostonians by leading the Red Sox to the 2004 World Series, said Wednesday that he has “some interest” in running for the seat held for nearly 50 years by Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.” Associated Press
Everything else
Rangers beat the Blue Jays 6-4. Texas is two and a half games back in the wild-card race.
Cubs beat the Astros 2-0.
Starting in October, KEYE-TV will scrap its morning news program from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. and instead air “J.B. and Sandy” as they broadcast their morning radio show, Michael Barnes reports.
Follow me on Twitter @jasonembry.
Celebrity birthday of the day: Charlie Sheen is 44.
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Perry and Hutchison on the border
Is there difference between GOP bigwigs on border fence … Job losses down, but still losses … Chris Matthews says Rick Perry is strange
Austin weather from News 8 Austin’s Maureen McCann: Mixed sun and clouds, a bit more humid. High of 98.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it. You can also follow me on Twitter, @jasonembry.)
Tuesday highlights and the day ahead
Are the two main Republicans running for governor far apart from each other on the issue of border fencing?
Let’s return to something that broke on Friday afternoon in Montgomery County. Talking about the Texas-Mexico border, Perry said, “They should have that Predator Squadron at Ellington Air Force Base flying their Predators up and down that Mexican-Texas border. I mean, they’ve got to practice somewhere. Fly up and down the Rio Grande. Use the technology to flow back in so that we can help defend our borders. Use the technological advances that we have. This idea that ‘we’re going to build a wall’ is nonsense. But we can have a technological barrier to keep people who want to do harm to our citizens out of this country, while we still continue to have a flow of commerce with our No. 1 trading partner.”
Perry spokesman Mark Miner later said Perry is “for a fence in strategic areas, but he believes you need to use technology and other innovative resources to protect the border. He doesn’t believe you need to build a fence from one end of Texas to the other.”
But by that point, the Hutchison campaign had pounced at Perry’s assertion that the idea of building a wall is nonsense. After all, Hutchison has repeatedly voted in Congress for fencing along the border between the United States and Mexico.
While the “nonsense” line is now out there for Hutchison’s team to run with, and while Team Perry probably wishes the governor had chosen a different word, reporting in recent years indicates that Hutchison’s position doesn’t seem that different from the one that Miner espoused on behalf of Perry.
Hutchison put an amendment into a piece of December 2007 legislation that gave the Department of Homeland Security flexibility in where to put fencing and removed the requirement for a double-layered fence, according to press reports at the time. Some of the Republican Party’s fiercest advocates for border fencing said her amendment hurt their efforts.
She told the San Antonio Express-News at the time, “Border patrol agents reported that coyotes and drug-runners were altering their routes as fencing was deployed, so the amendment gives our agents discretion to locate the fence where necessary to achieve operational control of our border.”
And the Dallas Morning News wrote this in January 2007:
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison expressed deep skepticism Tuesday about fencing the entire U.S.-Mexican border - a project that could cost up to $60 billion over the next 25 years
“Do we need security all the way across the border? Yes. And I want to know what is the best way to get that security, and I think it is important that we talk to people that live with it every day,” she said. “It doesn’t seem like Congress was really in the real world.”
Last fall, in the midst of a pre-election push to demonstrate toughness on immigration and border security, Congress authorized a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border. Both Texas senators voted for it but now say they doubt such a fence is feasible or cost-effective compared with other ways of securing the border.
So despite what may have been a slip of the tongue by Perry (one that is certainly fair game for the Hutchison campaign to use), they have similar statements out there on the federal issue of border fencing. But there is still room for both campaigns to use the border-security issue over the next six months.
For Perry, it fits neatly into his whole bash-Hutchison-by-bashing-Washington strategy to say, as he has many times, that the state government is acting to protect the border because the federal government is failing at it.
Hutchison, meanwhile, can point to reports in the El Paso Times this year that Perry’s border-camera program has produced drastically fewer arrests than earlier projected and has been called unsuccessful by advocates on both sides of the immigration issue.
• BREAKING THIS MORNING: The Washington Post reports: “A privately run estimate of U.S. employment — which is used as a predictor of the Labor Department’s jobless figure — released moments ago said that the private sector shed 298,000 jobs in August, down from 360,000 jobs lost in July. That would make it the smallest monthly drop in U.S. unemployment since September 2008.”
• The two Republican campaigns sparred yesterday over who is paying for Perry’s ceremonial bill signings around the state, and I laid it all out over on the Postcards blog. Basically, Perry’s spokesman told Paul Burka that 99 percent of his travel costs were paid for by the campaign and not taxpayers, but that was at odds with something I was told earlier this year by another Perry staffer, and so the spokesman had to clarify what he meant by travel costs.
• MSNBC’s Chris Matthews is still trying to hit Perry with the whole secession thing and was given new ammo over the weekend when a pro-secessionist group rallied at the Capitol here in Austin. Matthews has discussed it for two straight days on his show, and on Tuesday, he said Texans should be proud to have Hutchison for a governor and he called Perry “strange.” Wouldn’t be shocked to see that show up in a Perry commercial. Here’s the three-and-a-half-minute clip:
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
• Also over on Postcards, Gardner Selby reports that the county judge in Fayette County has requested that health-care protesters not demonstrate at the opening of a veterans’ clinic this week. At least one protester doesn’t seem inclined to comply with his wishes.
Stat of the day
On average, more than 2,100 convicts are on the road each day in 80 buses and vans. State officials are trying to cut down on that traffic by no longer transporting prisoners from across the state to Huntsville to be released. Source: Austin American-Statesman
Poll watch
According to a new poll from CBS News, two in three Americans find the health care reforms being discussed in Congress confusing. The share of people in the poll who say government would do a better job than private insurers of keeping costs down has decreased from 59 percent in June to 47 percent now. Still, more people say government will keep costs down than private insurers.
Obama approve/disapprove: 52 percent/42 percent, according to Gallup.
In the news
“With the economy down, student financial need is up. That, in a nutshell, explains why the University of Texas has decided to withdraw from the National Merit Scholarship Program.” Austin American-Statesman
“A 3-year-old Conroe boy was the victim of a fatal beating less than a week after a Texas Child Protective Services caseworker made a random visit and deemed him safe, as well as the cousins who lived with him.” Houston Chronicle
“The Taliban has become a much more potent adversary in Afghanistan by improving its own tactics and finding gaps in the U.S. military playbook, according to senior American military officials who acknowledged that the enemy’s resurgence this year has taken them by surprise.” Washington Post
“President Barack Obama’s approval ratings, once seen as historically high, could soon be among the worst early poll numbers for a modern American president.” Politico
Everything else
Rangers beat Toronto 5-2, remain four games behind Boston in wild-card race.
Cubs beat the Astros 4-1.
Kirk Bohls writes in this morning’s column: “No one’s talking about them. Hardly anyone outside their mothers are following them. Democratic gubernatorial candidates are more prominent than Chris Hall and friends. But no five players will have a bigger impact on the Longhorns’ fortunes than the ones who will line up tackle to tackle.”
Celebrity birthday of the day: Salma Hayek is 41.
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Friedman lists Democratic heroes, but LBJ not among them
Friedman drops names of many late Democrats as he starts new campaign … Battle of the Web videos continues … Auditors fault state handling of contract
Austin weather from News 8 Austin’s Maureen McCann: Partial sun, not as hot. High of 95.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want me to send you a link as soon as I post First Reading each day. You can also look for updates on Twitter, @jasonembry.)
Monday highlights and the day ahead
Kinky Friedman is back in gubernatorial politics. The independent candidate who finished fourth in the 2006 race is running this time as a Democrat. Instead of trying to draw audiences to rallies and events and all that, he’s announcing this week with a series of media interviews around the state. I talked to him yesterday and you can read my story from this morning’s paper here.
A couple of bonus scenes that aren’t in this morning’s story:
Friedman has a new book that’s about to come out, and it highlights his conversion to the Democratic Party. It’s called “Heroes of a Texas Childhood,” and he described it as a Profiles-In-Courage-type book that highlights the lives of folks including Sam Rayburn, Sam Houston, Ralph Yarborough, Molly Ivins, Ann Richards and Lady Bird Johnson. But, interestingly, not Lyndon B. Johnson.
“I don’t think he’s a hero,” Friedman said. “He’s not one of mine. I think he did a lot for civil rights but he demonstrated one way of doing things: arm-twisting in the Senate, petty points of procedure. If you go with LBJ, you could go with David Dewhurst, Bernie Madoff would be good. But if you’re talking about a governor, I want to be the kind of governor that is like Obama or JFK or Ann Richards.”
LBJ, Madoff and David Dewhurst. There’s a dinner party.
Friedman also said he’d like to see background checks for politicians to make sure that they don’t have criminal records and that they’ve paid their taxes, and drug-tests to make sure that nobody using drugs would get on the ballot.
I asked Friedman how Willie Nelson, his good friend and adviser, would feel about this.
“Willie’s not on the ballot,” he said. “I don’t know what Willie thinks about that.”
It’s going to be very difficult for Friedman to recapture the magic of his 2006 race, when his campaign was much more of a novelty. One donor who gave Friedman thousands of dollars in 2006 simply told me “no comment” Monday when I asked about the prospect of supporting Friedman again. And former Friedman spokesman Laura Stromberg told my colleague Corrie MacLaggan, “Most of the people who gave of their time, effort and finances are going to be hard-pressed to do that again. If he didn’t win in 2006, he can’t possibly pull it off in 2010.”
• (Updated): Gov. Rick Perry’s team followed Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison on Monday to Temple, where she held a fundraiser and, according to her staff, had a healthy turnout. She also had a public event for the press and GOP voters. The public was invited to attend (I mistakenly thought earlier that it was just a press conference) but the Perry campaign produced this video showing that it was unimpressed with her turnout:
Said Hutchison spokesman Jeff Sadosky, “We’re pleased that so many Bell County Republicans chose to show their support by attending the fundraiser. Senator Hutchison will continue to meet with voters and discuss her plans to spend less than Perry, tax less than Perry, and borrow less than Perry.”
• The Hutchison campaign, meanwhile, put together a little something reminding voters of some of the candidates that Perry has supported — as far back as 33 years ago:
• MSNBC host Chris Matthews had a little fun on his show Monday with folks who rallied at the Capitol for secession over the weekend, linking them to Gov. Rick Perry’s expression of sympathy for secessionists earlier this year:
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
• Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick says Vicki Kennedy “is not interested” in succeeding her husband in the Senate, Chuck Todd reported on NBC this morning.
Stat of the day
From the Houston Chronicle: “More girls under 15 give birth in Houston than any other U.S. city, according to a new national report, and many of the city’s teen moms have additional children before they turn 20.”
Poll watch
Rasmussen says 55 percent of U.S. voters now expect the war in Afghanistan to get worse during the next six months, a 14-point jump since the beginning of the month.
(Incidentally, Mort Zuckerman on “Morning Joe” this morning: “We are in virtually a hopeless state in Afghanistan.”)
Gallup: “The number of Americans who believe they are likely to contract the H1N1 virus this year has nearly doubled since early May, expanding from 20 percent to 36 percent.”
Obama approve/disapprove: 51/42, according to Gallup.
In the news
“Auditors found significant failures by the state agency responsible for overseeing the $863 million data center consolidation project that has been plagued by delays and operational problems.” Austin American-Statesman
“Starting today, it will be illegal for teens to talk on a cell phone while driving, and municipal judges will be added to the list of people allowed to perform marriage ceremonies. These are just two of the 642 pieces of legislation passed by state lawmakers earlier this year that go into effect today. Here are a few of the new laws.” Austin American-Statesman
“All that marks Amber Maccurdy’s short 66 days on earth is a vacant space for the mobile home where the 2-month-old baby once lived and later died an excruciating death. By the time paramedics arrived on April 9 to her grandmother’s Katy mobile home, the infant had a large gaping abscess on the right side of her chest, the result of a brutal, untreated staph infection. Autopsy results would later find she had broken ribs and a fractured arm, compromising her immune system even more. Amber’s parents — Hobert Maccurdy and Melissa Menkes — along with maternal grandmother Linda Menkes, have been charged, accused of failing to seek medical attention leading to Amber’s death. They didn’t seek medical care, her mother told authorities, because she was afraid Texas Child Protective Services would take Amber and her two brothers away from them. After all, CPS investigators had been called to the mobile home a total of four times since 2003, including one time nearly a month before Amber died. But not once were Amber or her brothers taken from the home, despite several warning signs.” Houston Chronicle
“Obama’s challenge was to push his agenda through a Democratic-controlled government while retaining the affection of the 39 percent of Americans in the middle. The administration hasn’t been able to pull it off. From the stimulus to health care, it has joined itself at the hip to the liberal leadership in Congress. The White House has failed to veto measures, like the pork-laden omnibus spending bill, that would have demonstrated independence and fiscal restraint. By force of circumstances and by design, the president has promoted one policy after another that increases spending and centralizes power in Washington.” David Brooks
“George F. Will, the elite conservative commentator, is calling for U.S. ground troops to leave Afghanistan in his latest column.” Politico
“In 2006, Goldman Sachs C.E.O. Henry Paulson reluctantly became Treasury secretary for an unpopular, lame-duck president. History will score his decisions, but the former Dartmouth offensive lineman definitely left everything on the field. In private conversations throughout his term, as crisis followed crisis—Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, A.I.G., and so forth—Paulson gave the author the inside track, from the political lunacy and bailout plans to the sleepless nights and flat-out fear, as he battled the greatest economic disruption in 80 years.” Vanity Fair
Everything else
Rangers lose 18-10 to the Blue Jays, fall four games behind Boston in wild-card race.
Astros beat the Cubs 5-3.
Texans did not look good at all last night in 17-10 loss to Vikings. The first play from scrimmage saw Adrian Peterson running about 1,000 yards to the end zone. If you play fantasy, you should draft him. And speaking of which, we’re gonna have a little First Reading treat for you fantasy football players on Friday. Stay tuned.
Former Miss California Carrie Prejean sues over her firing.
Celebrity birthday of the day: Lily Tomlin is 70.
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