Drawing whoops from supporters on a cold night near Austin, Republican Gov. Rick Perry cast his capture of his party’s nomination for another term as governor as sending a message that should echo far beyond the state.
“From Driftwood, Texas, to Washington, D.C., we are sending you a message tonight,” Perry said as incomplete results showed him with 51.4 percent of the vote, above the 50-percent threshold he needs to clear to avoid an April runoff with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who conceded earlier in Dallas.
“Stop messing with Texas,” Perry said to several hundred people in a room in the Salt Lick restaurant, many of them wearing cowboy hats and boots. “Stop messing with Texas. That message resonates; it resonates across our state.”
Perry, the state’s longest-serving governor, took office in late 2000 when George W. Bush resigned to serve as president. Perry was elected in 2002 and re-elected in 2006 and is poised to be the front-runner against Democratic nominee Bill White, the former Houston mayor, for election to a term that could yield him a remarkable 14-plus years in office.
The Austin American-Statesman’s Christina Rosales, watching the speech, said Perry supporters reacted strongly to Perry’s reference to the party’s appeal across a range of Texans ranging from disgruntled conservative Democrats to fiscally or socially conservative Republicans or members of the Texas Tea Party movement — the last phrase touching off several back-and-forth chants from one part of the room amounting to “Texas” and “Tea Party.”
Later, boos cascaded as Perry recalled the national elections of 2008 and Barack Obama’s victory as president, an office Perry has insisted he has no interest in seeking.
“People thought the election in 2008 was the final nail to the coffin in American conservatism,” Perry said. “But we had a victory in New Jersey, a victory in Massachusetts,” referring to recent respective governor’s and U.S. Senate races in those states. “And now we’re looking for a victory in Texas.”
UPDATE, 10:50 p.m.: The governor spoke indirectly to his longevity by touching on actions taken by lawmakers on Perry’s watch. Texas didn’t spend all available revenue in the 2009 legislative session, Perry said, though he didn’t mention that federal stimulus aid helped make that possible.
He also referred to legislative actions intended to reduce lawsuits and to step up state-mandated testing in public schools. “This is not fancy stuff,” Perry said. “But it is simple stuff and it works.”
Predicting the Obama administration will pour “special attention” on Texas—a remark that led one crowd member to holler, “Bring it on”—Perry said he’ll be focused on making sure the federal government doesn’t trample on Texas in violation of the constitutional amendment stating the “powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states, respectively, or to the people.”
“We’re going to keep Texas strong for Texas values and experienced leadership,” Perry said.
Perry also quoted Ronald Reagan, who was president when Perry was a Democratic member of the Texas House. The quotation: “The common sense and common decency of ordinary men and women, working out their own lives in their own way — this is the heart of American conservatism today.”
“How right he is,” Perry said.
After he spoke, Perry shook hands with well-wishers and posed for photographs for about 10 minutes. It looks to Rosales like the party’s over — until another election night.
Word from Gov. Rick Perry’s primary party at the Salt Lick is that there were no TVs for supporters to hear Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s concession remarks in Dallas.
Hutchison spoke as the band performing for Perry’s crowd was playing Steve Miller’s “The Joker.” When the song ended, the lead singer referred to Perry and said it “looks like he’s going to keep that title for quite a while.”
Farouk Shami, the Houston businessman who tried to parlay a fortune built from hair-care products into success in politics, conceded to Democrat Bill White in the party’s gubernatorial primary.
Shami said in a statement: “Although this wasn’t the outcome we’d hoped for, do not get discouraged. A defeat is only a defeat if you let it stop you. I will not let today’s results stop me. Although I will not be our nominee for governor, I will continue to fight for those I have met on the campaign trail. I will continue to fight to bring jobs to Texas. I will continue to fight for equality in our education system. I will continue to support candidates who fight for all Texans.”
He continued:
I ask for each of you to join me. Do not give up hope. Continue to support the cause. Eventually, we will overcome all obstacles and accomplish our goal, real change for Texas. Thank you again for your support. It means the world to me, more than I can ever express in words.
The Austin American-Statesman’s Christina Rosales just called in from the Salt Lick in Driftwood where Gov. Rick Perry is having his primary night campaign party—replete with a country band named Granger Smith and a barbecue pit converted to a very warm spot to roast marshmallows and make s’mores.
Rosales says people seem to have arrived from all over—Dallas, Laredo, Galveston, Lubbock, San Antonio and Austin, for starters. The former coach of the Oklahoma Sooners and Dallas Cowboys football teams, Barry Switzer, is among them. We’ve heard too that Victor Carrillo, the member of the Texas Railroad Commission whom the Associated Press lately projects as losing his bid for renomination, may drop in. Carrillo was initially appointed to the commission by Perry.
Perry’s supporters are upbeat, Rosales reports, but they’re not saying anything particularly dramatic.
Though the Salt LIck doesn’t vend alcoholic beverages, a bartender hired for the party is pouring various libations including Mojitos.
Former Houston mayor Bill White has won the Democratic gubernatorial primary, according to The Associated Press.
White, who was mayor of Houston until January, beat six primary opponents, including Houston businessman Farouk Shami.
The mayor of Houston from 2003 to January 2010, White is a former U.S. deputy secretary of energy who has also served as chairman of the Texas Democratic Party.
Shami, the founder of a hair care products company who had never run for political office, poured millions of dollars of his own money into the race. Shami presented himself as the ideal example of the American Dream — a Palestinian-born businessman who built a company in Texas that became well-known for its Chi hair irons.
Results will soon start to shake out from today’s party primaries. Meantime, I asked activists across the board what they think news organizations might have failed to discern from the campaign season to date.
Two shout-backs:
—Republican consultant Eric Bearse, formerly an aide to Gov. Rick Perry, says that should former Houston Mayor Bill White win the Democratic nod for governor, he might regret not facing tougher challenges in the primary. “White needed a serious opponent, to take some shots, and come out of it tested,” Bearse said. “Now he has an organization that has never had to seriously defend his record, and he is largely an undefined canvass. The Perry campaign has the opportunity to fill in the canvas and show Texans the real Bill White record that the Houston media has given short shrift to.
“White’s strength in Houston is also overstated,” Bearse continued. “His (winning mayoral) elections were dependent on a large number of Democratic voters, meaning he has not had to appeal very much beyond a Democratic base. Further, television exposure in the entire Houston media market does not translate into electoral strength, but instead name ID. White will be much more definable by the opposition in the general election because he didn’t have a real primary race.”
—Deece Eckstein of Austin, a former aide to Gov. Ann Richards and state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, floated a simple what-the-hey: “Why was everyone so afraid of (GOP U.S. Sen.) Kay Bailey Hutchison for so long?” He calls that one of the great mysteries of this election cycle.
More to come through this evening, time permitting, from comments I fielded. What do you think observers missed?
More to ponder as the polls close across Texas: There’s a Twitter feed that has its humor mojo working on Gov. Rick Perry who, you’ll hear often, has never lost an election.
Judging from the rickperryfacts Twitter posts that have popped today, I’m venturing this is intended to be an anti-Perry feed.
Some high/lowlights:
“Rick Perry named the group ShaNaNa. They did not want to be called that.”
“Rick Perry won the 1977 World Series of Poker, holding only a Joker, a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card, and a green #4 card from the game UNO.”
“When Rick Perry’s speeches appear on TV in France, the French unconditionally surrender to Rick Perry just to be on the safe side.”
“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is loosely based on Rick Perry’s time in (his boyhood hometown of) Paint Creek.”
“The Transformers character Optimus Prime is loosely based on Rick Perry’s time in the Air Force.”
“Rick Perry took your bet, and he did eat just one. Now, pay up.”
“Rick Perry created the Grand Canyon while mountain biking through what was formerly known as ‘Wee Canyon.’”
“Rick Perry is the reason why toilet water spins the other way in Australia.”
“If you spell Rick Perry in Scrabble, you win. Forever.”
Anyone see anything similar on others aspiring to be governor?
HOUSTON — The day before election day, Gov. Rick Perry talked to a gathering of supporters at the Harris County GOP headquarters about some ominous clouds.
His main opponent in the Republican gubernatorial primary has also recently mentioned dark clouds.
But while Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison was referring to problems Texas faces in areas such as education and transportation, Perry was pointing to the economic recession that he said resulted from the actions of Washington, D.C.
The difference highlights the contrasting images the candidates are trying to conjure in the minds of voters in tomorrow’s election: for Hutchison, it’s the problems in Texas; for Perry, it’s the short-sighted ways of Washington, D.C.
“This is the greatest state in America — we all agree on that,” Hutchison said at a benefit dinner last week for the Harris County GOP that Perry and fellow Republican gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina also attended. “But it would be foolish not to realize there are clouds on the horizon if we don’t address the issues that face our state.”
Today, Perry said that state lawmakers such as Allen Fletcher and Randy Weber, who were at his campaign event, “saw the dark clouds of the approaching recession coming last year as they were meeting in Austin.” Despite pressure to spend all the money in the state’s rainy day fund, Perry said, “they resisted; they were courageous; they stood back and said, ‘You know what? We know that there are some tough times coming because they’re spending all the money in Washington, D.C., they are acting irresponsibly in Washington, D.C., but in Texas, we’re not going to do that.’”
Roy Streckfuss of Houston was among several dozen Perry supporters, local officials and reporters packed into the room where the governor spoke shortly before noon. Streckfuss, owner of a staffing company, said that he used to support Medina but that he has already voted for Perry because of the governor’s focus on jobs and the economy. “He’s truly going to encourage it like no other person,” said Streckfuss, who said his business has weathered the recession well. Hutchison “is a good person. But she’s been in Washington too long.”
Perry left Houston by plane to head for campaign events in San Antonio and Dallas later today.
Earlier this morning, he canceled his first scheduled trip of the day — a gathering at a Beaumont hotel — because of weather, instead addressing the group of local officials and supporters by phone from Austin.
In the call, he hammered on his campaign themes of touting the Texas economy and rejecting Washington’s meddlesome ways.
“The future of this country, I think, could be substantially more positive if Washington, D.C., would follow Texas’ very straightforward lead on how to deal with this economic crisis that faces our country,” he said. “The message to Washington is very clear: Quit trying to be all things to all people. Stop forcing the states to adhere to these one-size-fits-all policies.”
And with time running out before election day (“One more wake-up,” he says), Perry encouraged the group to vote and to encourage others to do so.
“Just remind your friends and neighbors over the course of the next 12 to 36 hours that one of the most important decisions that they’re going to make in a long time is in their hands,” Perry said.
Several top campaign aides to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Farouk Shami resigned today, said Charlie Ray, who had been the campaign’s press secretary.
Five staff members stepped down, including Ray, campaign director Vince Leibowitz, and communications director Kelly Love Johnson, Ray said.
The resignations come a day after the campaign’s internal chaos spilled into public when a bizarre e-mail exchange was, apparently inadvertently, sent to reporters.
On Tuesday, Ray and Shami gave out conflicting information about the roles of aides David Diaz and Jessica Gutierrez, both of whom had been sending out press releases on behalf of the campaign. Ray said that neither were authorized to speak for the campaign, but Shami said late Tuesday night that both had permission to give such statements.
“The role of David Diaz and Jessica was news to me and my services were clearly in conflict with theirs,” Ray said today. He said working with Shami was “challenging.”
Leibowitz said today that he still plans to vote for Shami — he just can’t work for him.
“Clearly, (Shami) will not accept political strategy from the people who are there to provide it,” Leibowitz said.
Just before 1 a.m. Tuesday, reporters received a press release from Diaz’s AOL address titled “Bill White was early supporter of a plan based on racial profiling, says Farouk Shami.”
About 12 hours later, reporters got an e-mail from “PressTeam@Faroukforgovernor.com” apparently meant just for the campaign staff.
“Who in the hell is David Diaz?” the e-mail begins. “He is not authorized by the campaign to send out any press releases.” The unsigned e-mail ends: “Seriously, can we hunt these people down and muzzle them?”
Democrat Farouk Shami became the second gubernatorial candidate in two days to say it’s unclear whether the U.S. government was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
Shami’s comments today — which follow Republican Debra Medina’s yesterday — came during an interview on WFAA-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth. When a reporter told Shami he wanted to ask him the same question Medina was asked — whether the U.S. government was involved in the attacks — this was Shami’s response:
“I’m not sure. I am not going to really judge or answer about something I’m not sure about. But the rumors are there that there was a conspiracy. True or not? You know, it’s hard to believe, you know, what happened. It’s really hard to comprehend what happened. Maybe. I’m not sure.”
You can see the full interview with the Houston businessman here.
In the same interview, Shami also says that most of his factory workers are Hispanic because “you don’t find white people who are willing to work in factories.”
Historically, he said, when “white people come to work in a factory, they either want to be supervisors or they want to be, you know, paid more than the average person. And unfortunately they exit.”
Republican gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina just released a statement saying that she has never “believed that our government was involved” with the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.
“I have never been involved with the 9-11 truth movement, and there is no doubt in my mind that Muslim terrorists flew planes into those buildings on 9/11,” Medina’s statement says. “I have not seen any evidence nor have I ever believed that our government was involved or directed those individuals in any way. No one can deny that the events on 9-11 were a tragedy for all Americans and especially those families who lost loved ones.”
Medina said she was surprised by Beck’s question because the topic isn’t relevant to the governor’s race.
“I think the fact that people are even asking questions on this level gets to the incredible distrust career politicians have fostered by so clearly taking their direction from special interests instead of the people,” Medina said. “It is absolutely the right and duty of a free people to question their government.”
But the damage to her campaign may be done. In the interview, Beck told Medina that because of e-mails he’d received from listeners, he wanted to ask her whether the U.S. government was involved in the attacks.
“I don’t have all of the evidence there Glenn so I’m not in a place, I have not been out publicly questioning that,” Medina said. “I think some very good questions have been raised in that regard, there are some very good arguments and I think the American people have not seen all the evidence there, so I have not taken a position on that.”
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White largely bypassed opponent Farouk Shami in a televised debate tonight in Fort Worth, instead attacking Gov. Rick Perry and seeking to appeal beyond his party to independents and Republicans.
Shami, meanwhile, criticized White and distanced himself from career politicians while making some big promises to Texans: That they won’t have an electric bill in 10 years and that if he doesn’t succeed in creating 100,000 jobs, he’ll give the state $10 million.
It was the first — and only scheduled — Democratic gubernatorial debate, giving many Texas viewers their first good look at White, a former Houston mayor, and Shami, who founded a Houston hair care products company. Though White was a popular mayor, he is not widely known outside of that city, and Shami has never run for political office. Shami, who is spending millions of his own money on his campaign, has been advertising on TV for months, while White recently started airing his TV ads.
White is the clear choice of Texas’ Democratic establishment and he seems to have succeeded in avoiding major blunders to derail his front-runner status. He said that he wants to ensure that legislative sessions “are not hijacked by wedge issues,” and said Perry “has brought the partisan politics of Washington to the statehouse.”
But Shami attacked White’s work as mayor and characterized himself as better-prepared to create jobs. “You talk about it — I do something about it,” he said to White.
The debate was held at the CBS 11/TXA 21 studios with a studio audience of about 40 people.
Other candidates in the Democratic gubernatorial primary — Alma Aguado, Felix Alvarado, William C. Dear, Clement Glenn and Star Locke— did not meet debate organizers’ criteria. The winner of the primary will face the winner of the Republican primary (Gov. Rick Perry, businesswoman Debra Medina and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison are running) in November.
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s campaign says Gov. Rick Perry left out a few important details when he touted his border-security initiatives this morning to the Major City Police Chiefs meeting in Austin.
What he didn’t say is as telling as that he did, they say: “In his address, Rick Perry didn’t talk about his border security camera program that has been called a “boondoggle” or his refusal to take part in common sense tools to enforce immigration laws.
“Yesterday, Rick Perry was trying to dodge his record of mandating the HPV vaccine for sixth-grade girls. This morning, Rick Perry is trying to cover-up his failed record on border security and wasting millions of taxpayer money on a border program that has been called a ‘boondoggle’,” said Hutchison spokesman Joe Pounder. “Because of her strong record and forward-looking plan, Kay Bailey Hutchison is the only leader Texans can trust to secure the border.”
There was little direct tussling among the state’s three Republican candidates for governor when they met in their second televised debate Friday night in Dallas.
Gov. Rick Perry promoted the state’s economic success over the last decade while conceding that Texas lost jobs during the national economic meltdown that began in 2008. He also defended the Texas Enterprise Fund, his job-creating account that has come under some criticism this week because some of the companies that got taxpayer money through it did not meet their job-creation targets. Perry also faulted Washington on a number of issues including transportation and immigration — a direct shot at the woman standing to his left on stage, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
Hutchison criticized Perry on the Enterprise Fund, saying the jobs brought to the state by the fund likely would have come anyway. She sidestepped a question on how the state should increase funding for transportation, and while she said she supports numerous abortion restrictions, such as parental-consent laws, she reiterated her support for the Roe v. Wade decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that legalized abortion.
Perhaps the most memorable moment of the night came when Hutchison could not name the first governor of Texas.
Wharton businesswoman Debra Medina, whose campaign has been on the upswing since the first debate, landed many of the sharpest blows. She said Hutchison and Perry have not respected the Constitution, and she punched Perry for an increase in spending by the executive branch of state government. Although she talks often about personal liberty, Medina said she supports the state’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.
Farouk Shami couldn’t name Texas’ comptroller or attorney general when asked to do so during a meeting today with the Austin American-Statesman editorial board.
OK, neither can a lot of Texans. But Shami, a Democrat, is running for governor.
Shami, a Houston businessman making his first run for office, was asked a series of questions about Texas government. When asked whether he could name the state comptroller, Shami said: “Not at this point.” (It’s Susan Combs).
Asked who the attorney general is, he answered that he knows who is running: “Barbara” and “Ted Cruz.” (Barbara Ann Radnofsky is a Democratic candidate for attorney general, and Ted Cruz is a Republican who last year announced his intention to run for attorney general but never filed because his mentor, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, also a Republican, is running for re-election).
And asked to name his state representative and state senator, he answered that his representative is Rep. Senfronia Thompson and his senator is Sylvester Turner. Although Shami has property in Houston’s Harris County, he’s registered to vote in bordering Montgomery County. Neither Thompson nor Turner represents Montgomery County. And Turner, who, like Thompson is a Houston Democrat, is not in the Senate at all — he’s a state representative.
Shami did know the amount of the biennial state budget (about $180 billion).
As for the hardest question — How are the members of the Public Utility Commission and Railroad Commission chosen? — Shami answered that some commissions are appointed and some are elected.
Does Shami consider himself well-informed about state government?
“I’m a good reader,” he said. “I follow politics nationally and internationally and locally all the time … I’ve been watching it — not inside it.”
UPDATED: Shami campaign manager Vince Leibowitz, who was not in the editorial board meeting because he was not invited to attend, called the meeting “a police interrogation.”
“Many Texans don’t know the answers to these questions,” Leibowitz said. “The Statesman is trying to make Farouk Shami look like a rube when he really is not.”
Leibowitz said that if other candidates haven’t been asked the same questions, “we would have to question whether or not Farouk Shami was given this treatment simply because he’s coming out of the mainstream or because he’s the wrong color or the wrong ethnicity.”
American-Statesman editorial page editor Arnold García Jr. said that the questions had nothing to do with ethnicity.
“Questions about his knowledge of the basic workings of state government are fair game for him or any other candidate for elected offices at all levels,” García said. “We routinely ask candidates for county commissioner and city council what the county or city budget is.”
Also during the editorial board meeting, Shami took a shot at Bill White, his rival in the Democratic primary. Shami, 67, a Palestinian American who arrived in the United States in 1965, said that despite the fact that White was born in Texas, “I am more Texan than he could ever be.”
Mark your calendars, Texas Democrats. Dallas public TV station KERA announced that it will sponsor a debate between Democratic gubernatorial candidates Bill White and Farouk Shami, according to Quorum Report. The debate is set for 7 p.m. Feb. 8
After Gov. Rick Perry accepted the endorsement of the Texas Association of Business earlier today, he addressed a criticism by one of his opponents in the gubernatorial primary.
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s campaign spokesman said Perry’s record on the Texas Enterprise Fund, which was designed to increase the number of jobs in Texas, is marred in misstatement and a lack of oversight.
The criticism came after the release of a report this week that said many recipients of public money have not lived up to their promises of job creation. The day before the report was released (and on the same day it was leaked The Associated Press) Perry’s office issued a press release announcing that he extended the timetable for some of the companies to meet job-creation goals.
At the TAB event, Perry noted to reporters that Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Speaker of the House Joe Straus also have decision-making roles with the fund.
“If the senior senator is saying that David Dewhurst and Joe Straus have been poor managers of the TEF, then she needs to say so,” Perry said.
He went on to say that the fund created 54,600 jobs and $14.3 billion in capital in Texas.
“I think I’ll compare that to what they’ve done in Washington, D.C. any day,” he said before disappearing through a door to the kitchen at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center.
The governor didn’t mention that he is the only one needed to authorize changes the TEF contracts.
UPDATED: Also today, Hutchison called for an independent audit of the fund.
“Texans deserve to know how their money is being spent and sadly in this case misspent. State government should promote Texas business but also should be good stewards of taxpayers’ money,” Hutchison said in a statement.
GOP gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina said today that she used campaign dollars on clothing “because I’m a poor small-business provider not usually wardrobed like people would expect a gubernatorial candidate to be wardrobed.”
Her comments came during a meeting with Austin American-Statesman editorial board. News reporters (who do not participate in editorial board decisions about which candidates the newspaper will endorse) regularly sit in on editorial board meetings with candidates.
State law generally prohibits public officials from spending campaign funds for personal use. And a Texas Ethics Commission advisory opinion says that political contributions can only be used to pay for clothing if the clothing “is not adaptable to general use as ordinary clothing.” That opinion says that a tuxedo rented for a legislative gala is OK.
Medina said that after the campaign, she’ll likely donate the clothing to charity.
At the Statesman, Medina criticized Texas ethics rules that she said make it nearly impossible for people who are not wealthy to run for office.
“Do I enjoy having to use campaign funds to pay for my clothes?” Medina asked. “No, it makes me very uncomfortable. But it’s probably more important that I pay my mortgage, and so the campaign’s going to get to pay for the clothes that I have to wear and the shoes that I wear.”
Medina’s spending report shows wardrobe purchases from Macy’s, Nordstrom, Dillard’s, New York & Co., Limited Store and an unnamed store at First Colony Mall in Sugar Land.
This video of Medina was shot by the Statesman’s Ken Herman.
Updated: The Perry campaign says the rally will not be at the same time as the Super Bowl.
Earlier: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will attend a Houston-area rally for Gov. Rick Perry’s re-election campaign on Super Bowl Sunday, the Perry campaign said today.
“I look forward to standing with Sarah to promote our shared conservative values of limited government, low taxes and individual freedom,” Perry said in a statement. “Gov. Palin is a true conservative leader whose priorities and message resonate with Texans, and I am honored to have her in Texas supporting my campaign.”
Perry’s statement said that Palin will campaign with him to highlight Texas’ efforts to create jobs, cut taxes, strengthen education and secure the border.
In a note on Facebook this morning, Palin wrote that she looks forward to helping governors such as Perry, U.S. representatives like Michele Bachmann of Minnesota “and heroes and statesmen like Senator John McCain.”
“We will support these candidates and others so that they can continue to fight for our American values,” wrote Palin, who recently joined Fox News as a commentator.
The Perry rally is Feb. 7. The campaign did not provide details on a time or exact location. (No word on whether it will be at the same time as the Super Bowl).
Palin’s involvement in Perry’s campaign is not a surprise. Early last year, she sent a letter to the Texas Federation of Republican Women endorsing Perry for re-election. And the Perry campaign had said Palin would campaign with him before the March 2 primary.
Perry and Palin had been slated to appear at a late January event in San Antonio, but that event was canceled.
Perry joined Palin on the campaign trail when she was the GOP vice presidential candidate in 2008.
The photo below by Tom Reel of the San Antonio Express-News shows Palin and Perry arriving at San Antonio International Airport on Oct. 3, 2008. The photo above is courtesy the Perry campaign.
It appears that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Farouk Shami did vote in the presidential election in November 2008, Montgomery County election officials said today.
Elections administrator Carol Gaultney said that she’s still gathering information but that she expects that she will be changing county records to show that Shami did vote.
“It does look like he signed the wrong line,” she said.
Shami has said that he voted for President Barack Obama, but Montgomery County had no record of him having voted in 2008.
Gaultney said that in response to a public information request from Shami’s campaign, she examined the records and found a signature that appears to be Shami’s on the line for Reem Shami. (Reem Shami is Farouk Shami’s daughter).
Gaultney said that it’s the responsibility of voters to ensure they sign next to their name but that she understands how Farouk Shami could have signed in the wrong place because the poll book had several Shamis in a row — several of whom had “Farouk” as part of their name — with addresses on the same street.
Gaultney said that she’s waiting on an affidavits from the Shami campaign — one from Farouk Shami saying that he did vote (and showing his signature), and one from Reem Shami saying she did not. The campaign is preparing those affidavits, said Kelly Love Johnson, a campaign spokeswoman.
DENTON — U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison took the fight to Gov. Rick Perry in the first gubernatorial debate Thursday, hitting him particularly hard on taxes.
Perry accused Hutchison of trying to tear down a state that is in stronger economic shape than the rest of the country. He also exploited her efforts to blur the fact that she supports some abortion rights.
Hutchison has struggled to find her voice in the race against Perry, but she was decidedly aggressive on Thursday, jumping into any exchange where an opportunity presented itself.
“I don’t think Governor Perry has prepared our state for the future,” she said.
Perry pointed in turn to Hutchison’s Washington record, noting that she has repeatedly voted to increase the federal debt level and has voted for most of the federal budgets that have come before her.
Based on that track record, Perry said it was “a little tough to understand” that she would tell Texans she could balance the state budget.
Knowing that Texans generally view the state government more favorably than the federal one, Perry has sought to cast the race as Texas vs. Washington, with Hutchison playing the role of Washington.
Considering they’re running for the state’s highest office, the candidates faced few questions about state issues. There was hardly any mention of public education, and little talk about transportation other than a brief discussion of how much federal gas tax money is returned to Texas.
Thursday’s was the first debate of what is arguably the biggest primary contest in the history of the Texas Republican Party. Perry and Hutchison, the party’s two biggest stars, will meet again in a Jan. 29 — this time without Wharton businesswoman Debra Medina.
A crowded field of candidates including former Houston Mayor Bill White is seeking the Democratic nomination, but no Democratic debates have been scheduled.
When I asked Farouk Shami’s campaign officials in November what his religion is, they told me he is Quaker.
Now, they say he’s not.
“The reason for the differing answers from the campaign is a result of a miscommunication between Farouk and his previous (campaign) team,” said Vince Leibowitz, who is now campaign director for the Democratic gubernatorial candidate. “Farouk did go to Quaker school … so I think that was part of the reason for the misconception.”
Late last year, Shami fired several campaign staffers, including campaign manager Joel Coon and spokesman Jason Stanford. Stanford was the one who told me in November that Shami is Quaker.
Stanford told me today that when Coon asked Shami what religion he is, Shami replied: “‘I am a Quaker.’” Stanford added: “I’m not exactly sure where the miscommunication came in.”
So what religion is Shami?
Leibowitz says that Shami is a “very spiritual person” who “has not been a significant practitioner of any major faith.”
But according to one of Shami’s grandsons, the entire family — including Shami — is Muslim. Basel Badran of The Woodlands, who described his relationship with his grandfather as extremely close, said that the family is not especially religious but that they are Muslim.
The issue here is not so much what religion Shami is but rather how the campaign communicates information about him and how accurate that information is.
Here’s how Shami himself put it in December, according to a KSAT report: “My religion is American … I’m a Muslim Quaker. Have you ever heard of that?”
Linda Chavez-Thompson, a national leader within the AFL-CIO and the
Democratic Party, plans to enter the Democratic primary for lieutenant
governor on Monday, according to a source familiar with her plans.
She is expected to file Monday afternoon at state Democratic Party
headquarters.
Former Travis County prosecutor Ronnie Earle and Austin deli owner
Marc Katz are already seeking the Democratic nomination. The
Republican nominee will likely be incumbent David Dewhurst.
Chavez-Thompson, a former AFL-CIO executive vice president, can tap a
national network of organizing and fundraising contacts.
“Now’s our time to take back this state — this is the election where we’re going to move this state forward,” White told the crowd. “We know it’s going to get dirty; we know there’s going to be negative campaigning, but … isn’t Texas worth fighting for?”
White has been endorsed by Austin mayor Lee Leffingwell, every member of the Austin City Council, and all of Travis County’s state legislators, many of whom joined White tonight.
Leffingwell lamented that a person who was born on the last day a Democrat was in the governor’s office is now 15 years old (“that almost breaks your heart, doesn’t it?”) and that Bill White is the one to change that. And state Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, said: “We need to be more fired up than we’ve ever been.”
Watson, a former Austin mayor, said that White “made Houston a model for a well-run big city,” citing White’s work coordinating services for Hurricane Katrina evacuees, lowering crime and cutting property taxes. “He worked well with Republicans, Democrats and independents, not by compromising his values but by welcoming everyone to the table and creating a vision that everyone could believe in.”
Just as he did during his campaign announcement speech Friday in Houston, White took shots at Gov. Rick Perry. White faces Houston businessman Farouk Shami, author Kinky Friedman and several little-known candidates in the Democratic primary (Friedman is expected to make a campaign-related announcement tomorrow). Meanwhile, Perry, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and businesswoman Debra Medina are fighting it out on the GOP side.
White, the son of schoolteachers, said that as governor he’ll work to address problems such as high dropout rates, large numbers of uninsured children and high homeowner’s insurance rates.
“I’m not as smooth as some of the career politicians, but I do know this … I know how to bring people together to get things done,” White said.
Watson joked that White may have trouble if he ends up facing Perry in the general election because the Republican has a clear advantage over White in one area.
“If all this race is about is who has the best hair,” Watson said, referring to Perry’s famously good hair and White’s bald head, “folks, we’re in big trouble.”
Gov. Rick Perry caroled with soldiers at a tree-lighting ceremony under blue skies at Austin’s Camp Mabry this afternoon.
Earlier, he said: “Sometimes, Americans get so caught up in the rush of holiday preparations, buying gifts, making travel plans or stringing up lights, they forget the folks who defend their freedom to enjoy the holidays. It’s important for each and every one of us to include our men and women in uniform, and the families who love them, in our thoughts, prayers and plans this holiday season. Bottom line, there are a whole lot of Texans involved in keeping America safe by serving” in the Texas and National Guard.
Afterward, Perry declined to comment on Houston Mayor Bill White’s earlier declaration of his candidacy for the Democratic nod for governor except to say White should be chatting first with Farouk Shami of Houston, the hair-care magnate who has said he’ll put $10 million of his own into chasing the Democratic gubernatorial nomination.
Here’s Perry (the man in black) singing:
In the shot below, the soldier you see is Brig. Gen. Don Harvel of Atlanta, who’s on the right side of the photo also featuring Allison Castle, Perry’s chief spokeswoman, and R.G. Ratcliffe, caroler-in-chief for the Hearst Newspapers Capitol Bureau.
Harvel helped me understand why the lighting ceremony took place well before dark.
“We have to catch everybody while they’re on duty before they’re released for the day,” Harvel said. The typical release time: 4:30 p.m.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Hank Gilbert just announced he’s dropping out of the race in order to run for agriculture commissioner, the position he sought in 2006.
And he’s endorsing Farouk Shami for governor, saying that Houston Mayor Bill White violated his trust by saying he was committed to the U.S. Senate race. Gilbert’s remarks to reporters came as White was announcing in Houston he’s running for governor.
Gilbert said that more than once, White “gave me his word” that he was going to stay in the Senate race. “To me, that’s a trust issue,” Gilbert said.
So he’s throwing his support to Shami, a Houston businessman who Gilbert says is “doing this from his heart.” He said he’s met with Shami and believes he is a “man of his word” who shares many of Gilbert’s policy positions.
However, at the time of Gilbert’s announcement, his attack Web site, thescoop.hankgilbert.com, was still taking shots at Shami. It had an item saying that Shami, who has said he’ll put $10 million of his own money into the primary, is trying “to buy his way” into winning the Democratic nomination.
“Sadly, Texas has already seen enough of the ‘government as business’ approach, and Shami’s won’t be any different,” Gilbert’s Web site said.
Gilbert said he got into the race because he didn’t see the leadership he was looking for at the top of the ticket. But he said there are now two credible candidates who have the funding available to mount a serious campaign against Gov. Rick Perry, who he thinks will win the GOP contest.
America is at a crossroads, and Texas is poised to lead the country forward through the tough times, Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday as he filed his candidacy for re-election next year.
“The 2010 election is occurring at a watershed moment in American history,” Perry said. “Our nation is in the midst of an economic struggle that exceeds anything we’ve seen in decades. Americans are dealing with double-digit unemployment, rising prices and a two-front war or terror. Things are better in Texas, but we haven’t been immune to the effects of the economic crisis.”
In a 10 a.m. press conference at the Republican Party of Texas headquarters, Perry said Texas is weathering the recession better than other states.
“Our unemployment rate is almost a full two points below the national average,” he said. “We may have created 41,000 new jobs last month, but there are still a lot of Texans concerned about their future.”
Perry said he hopes to counteract the Democratic agenda in Washington.
“Texas has no match when it comes to innovation and work effort,” he said. “Texas is strong because of years of principled conservative leadership that has emphasized spending cuts over tax increases, job creation over social engineering, and individual freedom over government intervention. Unfortunately, we’re now dealing with a federal government that is barreling in the opposite direction.”
Perry said he will push a constitutional amendment that would require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to raise taxes.
“There have only been two state budgets since world war two that cut general revenue spending in Texas, and I signed both of them,” he said. “In the process I’ve also line item vetoed $3 billion in unnecessary spending, more than all Texas governors combined.”
Perry has been in office longer that any other Texas governor, but he said that is proof of his success, not a reason to step aside.
“Mack Brown has been head coach at the University of Texas longer than I’ve been governor and I don’t hear anybody calling for Mack to step down,” he said. “He still has some rather important work to do. I suggest rather vigorously that we made as positive, powerful difference in Texas but we still have some work to do.”
Perry is expected to face opposition from fellow Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, as well as from Houston Mayor Bill White, who will announce his plans Friday in Houston.
“The great thing that I have to offer is a record,” Perry said. “I suspect most governors would dearly love to have just finished a legislative session where they balanced the budget, made tax cuts for 40,000 small businesses and have $8 billion in the rainy day fund.”
Recent news reports have questioned whether Democrat Farouk Shami will face anti-Muslim discrimination in his quest to become governor.
But as we reported in today’s paper, he’s not Muslim — he’s Quaker.
Here’s some more information on his religious background, according to campaign spokesman Jason Stanford: Shami had a Muslim mother and father, a Catholic stepmother and a Jewish step-grandmother.
“He went to American Quaker schools in Palestine and identifies now as a Quaker,” Stanford said.
When asked whether he ever identified with another faith, Stanford said: “It’s not a big issue with him. I really think his religion is the American Dream.”
HOUSTON — At the official launch of businessman Democrat Farouk Shami’s gubernatorial campaign earlier today, attendees picked up T-shirts, shook hands with the candidate and viewed his TV ad that debuts Friday.
Maria Arredondo was among the attendees who is also one of Shami’s employees. Arredondo, a production supervisor, said it was optional for employees to attend and that she wanted to go to support her boss.
Houston resident Doris Cleveland said she’d heard about Shami through a friend who is helping with the campaign. And Anne Gillis, a member of the advisory committee for the Montgomery County Democratic Party (that’s the county where Shami, a resident of The Woodlands, lives), said she was familiar with Shami in part because she uses one of his products: a BioSilk hair de-frizzer.
Cleveland was among several attendees who said that if a candidate with a name like Barack Obama can be elected president, a candidate with the name Farouk Shami has a shot at being governor of Texas.
The video below shows the scene and features supporter Naser Alzer talking about how Shami might overcome his challenges.
HOUSTON — With hundreds of supporters watching, Democrat Farouk Shami this afternoon officially launched his gubernatorial bid outside CHI USA, part of his hair care business. It’s the same facility GOP Gov. Rick Perry visited earlier this year to celebrate Shami’s work bringing manufacturing jobs from Asia to Texas.
In a red-carpeted white tent where his employees and friends were served popcorn and cotton candy, Shami said he’s an example of the American dream and that he is inspired by President Barack Obama.
Obama “did not let his strange name or unconventional upbringing stand in his way,” said Shami, who was interrupted at times with chants of “Farouk! Farouk! Farouk!”
Shami said that as governor, he would bring jobs to Texas, encourage organic farming and ranching, improve public schools, and help more Texans have access to health insurance.
Shami told the ethnically diverse crowd his life story: The immigrant born in what was then Palestine arrived in the United States with $71 and went on to become a U.S. citizen and the founder of a company that he said is now worth more than $1 billion. His company, Farouk Systems, makes CHI flat irons and hair dryers and BioSilk shampoos and conditioners.
He has said he’ll spend $10 million of his own money in the Democratic primary.
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s appearance in Houston today with former Vice President Dick Cheney will take place a couple of hours later than expected.
There was some question about whether Hutchison’s Senate schedule would let her be there, but she is going to be able to attend.
Why the delay? Today the Senate is voting on a spending bill for military construction and veterans’ programs. Hutchison is the leading Republican on the subcommittee working on that bill, so she has to be there to help manage it on the floor, a campaign spokeswoman said.
There were earlier concerns that a procedural vote on health care would cause her to miss the event, but that vote isn’t happening today.
GOP gubernatorial candidate Kay Bailey Hutchison will announce tomorrow she will not resign from the U.S. Senate “until the fight against Obama Care and Cap and Trade are over,” campaign spokesman Joe Pounder said today.
“She, like every Texan, can fight on two fronts at one time,” Pounder said.
Resigning from the Senate isn’t a requirement to run for governor. Since the filing period ends in early January, this means that a long line of politicians will not have a chance to file for her open seat and other openings. The State Republican Executive Committee could pick nominees for statewide offices if its nominees resign to run for the Senate or angle for another spot on the November ballot.
Mark Miner, a spokesman for the campaign of Hutchison’s GOP primary opponent Gov. Rick Perry, said: “We appreciate that Senator Hutchison has taken the governor’s advice and finally decided to make a decision to stay in Washington. Hopefully this will allow her to be a full-time senator for the people of Texas.”
Earlier today, Perry reiterated his belief that Hutchison needs to stay in Washington to block Democrats who are “trying force a health care plan on us that is absolutely devastating to the bottom line in Texas.”
“All hands on deck, 24-7 is what we need,” Perry said. “We’ve got a senator that’s A-W-O-L in places and we’ve got votes that are being missed.”
To that, Pounder responded that Hutchison is a “tireless fighter for Texas who delivers results each and every day.”
(Additional information from staff writer W. Gardner Selby)
A new Rasmussen Reports poll says Gov. Rick Perry is ahead of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, 46 percent to 35 percent, among voters who plan to take part in the March Republican primary.
The poll is significant because, two months ago, Rasmussen showed Hutchison leading Perry by two points.
Wharton businesswoman Debra Medina draws 4 percent in the poll, and 14 percent of respondents did not know who they plan to support.
From Rasmussen: “Perry has a 52 percent to 30 percent advantage over Hutchison among those who identify themselves as conservatives, while Hutchison attracts a majority of party moderates and liberals. In all primary elections, turnout is the key, and it is very difficult to project turnout this far in advance. However, it appears that Perry has a clear advantage if only the conservative Republican base shows up in a low-turnout election. Hutchison will do better if she expands the number of people who participate.”
Rasmussen uses automated phone dialing in its polls.
Republican Debra Medina says she’ll be the first candidate in the 2010 governor’s race with Spanish-language TV ads.
In the 30- and 60-second spots, which she says will start airing Saturday on Univision in the Rio Grande Valley, Corpus Christi and Laredo, Medina tells viewers that she’s like them: a proud Texan.
In the ads (see below), an announcer says that Medina “shares our values about the importance of family, hard work and faith. She also understands that the money we work so hard to earn should be for us and not for more taxes.”
The announcer calls Medina “alguien como nosotros” — “someone like us.”
Medina, who doesn’t sound at all like a native Spanish speaker, says: “Who is going to think more about Latino families? Rick Perry, Kay Bailey Hutchison or me, who has a Latino family?” The ad then shows Medina with her husband and two children.
Medina’s cultural heritage is German and Bohemian, she told my colleague Gardner Selby last month in an e-mail. “Being married, however, to someone with a Mexican American heritage, I certainly embrace the culture,” she wrote.
But before she explained that, she told Selby, who had asked her whether she considers herself Latina: “I’d not consider myself anything other than a wife and mother, a nurse and a patriot. I believe we too often get into race when it’s immaterial.”
Gubernatorial candidate Hank Gilbert today challenged fellow Democratic hopefuls to a series of 10 debates around Texas.
“My opponents should welcome this opportunity to put themselves and their issues before Democratic primary voters,” Gilbert said.
But one of his leading Democratic rivals, Tom Schieffer, probably won’t be playing along.
“Tom Schieffer is already participating in candidate forums around the state,” said Schieffer spokesman Clay Robison. “He looks forward to continuing his dialogue with Texas Democrats as we move toward the March primary.”’
Gilbert also extended the invitation to candidates Kinky Friedman and Felix Alvarado, and a Gilbert spokesman said he’d also invite any other Democrat who formally announces a run for governor.
Mark Thompson, a therapist who had said he’d run for governor, has endorsed Gilbert, telling the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that “there’s just too many people running.”
Gilbert’s proposed debate schedule includes Tyler, which is close to his home in Whitehouse:
Week of Jan. 4: Education debate in El Paso
Week of Jan. 11: All-issues debate in Dallas/Fort Worth
Week of Jan. 18: Jobs/economy debate in Amarillo
Week of Jan. 25: Energy/environment debate in Houston
Week of Feb. 1: All-issues debates in McAllen and Laredo
Week of Feb. 8: Environmental policy debate in Austin
The Texas Medical Association’s political arm, TEXPAC, today announced its endorsement of Gov. Rick Perry’s re-election campaign.
The group selected Perry because of his “unwavering support and defense of Texas’ medical liability reforms and his efforts to protect the sacred patient-physician bond,” said Dr. William Fleming III, president of the association.
But relations between the doctors and Perry haven’t always been so warm.
In 2002, the year after Perry vetoed a bill that would have required insurance companies to promptly pay routine medical claims, the association endorsed Perry’s Democratic opponent, Tony Sanchez. At the time, Perry said that the legislation would have encouraged frivolous lawsuits.
And this year, the governor publicly indicated he wouldn’t support a Texas Medical Association-backed legislative proposal to allow about 80,000 families to buy into the Children’s Health Insurance Program. (The measure died before landing on Perry’s desk).
“We don’t agree 100 percent, but we agree most of the time,” Fleming told reporters at a press conference today at the association’s Austin headquarters, which Perry attended.
On tort reform, they tend to agree.
Since Texas voters in 2003 approved a constitutional amendment limiting jury awards in medical malpractice cases, Perry said, the number of doctors applying to practice in the state has increased 57 percent.
“There were too many areas of Texas where there was a dwindling access to health care because of these frivolous lawsuits,” Perry said. In some areas of the state, he said, doctors were “almost an endangered species.”
Since the reforms, 14,498 doctors either returned to practice in Texas or started practicing in the state, Perry said.
These days, the association — which includes nearly 44,000 Texas doctors and medical students — likes Perry so much that Fleming, in an apparent slip, called the governor “Dr. Perry.”
Perry said that the endorsement was the second most important physician endorsement he’s ever received.
The most important: when Dr. Joe Thigpen granted Perry permission to marry Thigpen’s daughter, Anita.
The AP photo below by Harry Cabluck shows Fleming, left, and Perry.
The governor also talked politics a bit. He said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour will be in Texas today to endorse Perry’s re-election effort (as reported this morning in First Reading).
Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison are taking aim at each other in the GOP gubernatorial primary.
But over on the Democratic side, candidate Hank Gilbert isn’t limiting his attacks to the primary or even to just one opponent. His strategy: Target everyone.
Gilbert’s new campaign attack Web site takes on Perry and Hutchison as well as fellow Democrats Tom Schieffer (in a section called “Schieffer Sleuthing”), Kinky Friedman (“Kinky’s Corner”) and Farouk Shami (“Eye on Shami”). He doesn’t stop there — he also devotes a section to taking shots at Democrats who aren’t actively campaigning, Felix Alvarado and Mark Thompson.
Gilbert is touting the site as the “first online rapid response” Web site in the history of Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidates. It remains to be seen how rapid that will be; the Gilbert campaign’s response time hasn’t always been so speedy. For example, on Thursday, Sept. 17, Gov. Rick Perry made his much-criticized recession remark (“We’re in one?”) at a luncheon. On Friday the 18th, several reporters blogged about the speech, and the Hutchison campaign sent an e-mail blast criticizing Perry for being out of touch.
It wasn’t until the following day that the Gilbert campaign weighed in with a news release. That’s an eternity in the online news cycle.
Maybe the Gilbert campaign relied on newspaper print editions to learn about the incident. In which case, I probably should be thanking them.
Gov. Rick Perry is in New York City today and tomorrow to promote Texas as a business and relocation destination.
Today, the governor spoke at the NASDAQ Closing Bell Ceremony, where he said that Texas is about more than boots, hats and barbecue.
“We all know that the global economy is struggling and our country’s going through one of the toughest economic cycles in our lifetimes, but we’ve come here with a message of optimism, with word that there’s still a place in this country where jobs are welcome, where taxes are low, where regulations are predictable and, you might say also, frivolous lawsuits are a rare occurrence,” Perry said, “and that place is Texas.”
To watch video of that, click here and in the “event profile” section, click on “watch the event video.”
Perry, who is facing a GOP primary battle in March against U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Debra Medina, is being accompanied on the New York trip by Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade, Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and DeSoto Mayor Bobby Waddle. Also with him, according to the governor’s office, are economic development representatives from the cities of DeSoto, Waco, Lubbock, Pearland, Plano and Temple and representatives from:
The newly elected chairwoman of the Republican Party of Texas told reporters this afternoon she believes U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison needs to clarify if and when she’s resigning her seat by early next year in connection with her bid for governor.
Cathie Adams of Dallas, who also said she won’t be withdrawing her earlier endorsement of GOP Gov. Rick Perry’s re-election, said her hope that Hutchison acts on the resignation issue reflects concern among party activists waiting for Hutchison’s decision before setting their own political plans or making political commitments.
Adams singled out the possibility of Hutchison putting off her resignation until after the 2010 candidate filing period ends in early January, a scenario potentially leaving party leaders with the job of choosing some nominees for major statewide positions. That could happen if incumbents react to a Hutchison resignation after the filing deadline by deciding to either pursue Hutchison’s vacated seat or to chase other offices opened up in the wake of her resignation.
“It would help the people of the state of Texas to know more clearly, especially by (the candidate filing deadline of) Jan. 4,” Adams said, “because if she resigns after that, we’re going to throw things into quite an unknown.”
Adams spoke in Austin after her election as chairwoman by members of the State Republican Executive Committee. The vote occurred weeks after the previous chair, Houston lawyer Tina Benkiser, quit to become a senior adviser in Perry’s campaign.
Adams said it would be impossible for her now to withdraw her earlier endorsement of Perry for another term.
“That would be like trying to turn the direction of the river,” Adams said, adding that any endorsements she’s previously made “are out there.” Still, she said, “there’s not going to be any partiality” on her part in her new role.
Hutchison isn’t legally required to quit her seat to run for governor, though she’s said she intends to resign to focus on her challenge of Perry in the March 2 Republican primary. But she hasn’t specified a resignation date, lately saying she wants to remain in the Senate through the national debate on health-care legislation.
Her decision not to air a quitting date has caused political unease back home because until she settles her plans, other office-holders believe they can’t resolve their plans.
Notably, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst could react to Hutchison giving up her seat by joining the field of Senate aspirants. Also, Attorney General Greg Abbott might shift his sights from re-election next year to bidding for lieutenant governor, subsequently clearing the way for other hopefuls to jockey for attorney general. To date, Dewhurst and Abbott have said that they’re concentrating on winning third terms.
Adams said: “If she’s going to run for governor, I think that it would be best for our party if by Jan. 4, filing deadline, that we know clearly who is running for what.”
I didn’t get an immediate comment from Hutchison on Adams’ thoughts.
Gov. Rick Perry signed a national group’s no-new-taxes pledge at an Austin hotel today as the group’s leader said the pledge doesn’t mean signers can’t monkey with taxes.
UPDATE: Democratic candidate Tom Schieffer said later he’s not going to sign such a pledge, calling Perry’s move “the same political shell game that Rick Perry has been playing for eight years. You pledge not to raise people’s taxes, but you do things that will cause the price of government services to go up.”
Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign says that his Webcast this morning was attacked, preventing users from logging in to watch Perry deliver a campaign message.
“This planned and coordinated attack was political sabotage, and we are working to identify those responsible for this illegal activity,” said campaign spokesman Mark Miner.
Miner did not say how many people were affected, but he did say that more than 22,000 users did log in to watch the video, which featured Perry at a Caterpillar dealer talking about Texas’ success luring jobs to the state. Perry, standing in front of a giant Texas flag and a few Caterpillar workers, also talked about what he said was out-of-control spending in Washington, his standard way of criticizing his GOP gubernatorial challenger Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
I logged in about 10 minutes before the Webcast and was able to see it, but another Statesman staffer who attempted to log in after it started got an error message that said: “Unable to connect to database server … This could mean your hosting provider’s database server is down.”
Phillip Martin, a communications specialist with the Texas Democratic Trust, which supports Democratic campaigns, said he doubts the hacker explanation and that his guess is that the Perry campaign server was overloaded and crashed.
“The much more likely scenario is that Rick Perry screwed up again and is once more refusing to take responsibility for his failure,” Martin said.
And the Hutchison campaign is also questioning the Perry campaign’s explanation.
“What an embarrassing campaign launch,” Hutchison campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Baker said. “I’m sure the governor is hacked but we are skeptical their site was.”
But Miner said that the campaign’s database was injected with a code that made it crash and that campaign staffers are working to find out who is responsible.
“We were completely prepared for any amount of people that were going to log into this,” Miner said. “We had more than enough bandwidth.”
Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign has hired the Hispanic advertising agency LatinWorks, campaign spokesman Mark Miner said.
The Austin company will be “helping on a number of message delivery issues, including Hispanic outreach,” Miner said.
Miner said LatinWorks has not done work for Perry’s campaigns in the past but that the governor “has known Manny (Flores, LatinWorks’ CEO) for some time.”
Miner declined to describe the Republican governor’s plans for reaching Hispanic voters.
“We are going to be doing some specific campaign-related measures we’re not ready to announce yet as far as reaching the Hispanic community,” he said. “Issue-wise, we’re talking about the same issues that affect all Texans — jobs, the economy, education.”
Two out of three Hispanic voters vote for Democrats, said Jerry Polinard, a political scientist at the University of Texas - Pan American.
“For the Republican candidates, it’s an uphill battle,” Polinard said. But he added that Republicans “can’t appear to be ignoring the fastest-growing political group in the state, even if it’s not likely they’re going to change their propensity to vote Democratic.”
LatinWorks’ clients include Bud Light, Burger King, Domino’s Pizza, ESPN, H-E-B and Lowe’s.
We’ve seen Gov. Rick Perry and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison trading barbs as they prepare to face off in the GOP gubernatorial primary next year. Now, a fight has broken out on the Democrats’ side.
Hank Gilbert, a Tyler-area rancher who ran for agriculture commissioner in 2006, today accused fellow Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Tom Schieffer of stealing his education ideas.
Gilbert’s concern centers on Schieffer’s remarks about pre-kindergarten, dropout prevention and vocational education during a visit to a University of Texas at Arlington class on Tuesday that was documented in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Gilbert, who wrapped up his campaign announcement tour with a press conference today in Austin, said that Schieffer’s copycatting was “glaringly obvious” and that “he didn’t just think of these remarks.”
But Schieffer spokesman Clay Robison said Schieffer, a former state lawmaker and U.S. ambassador from Fort Worth, has been addressing such issues for months.
“Improving public education has been his No. 1 priority from the beginning of his campaign,” Robison said. “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’s campaign sent a document to reporters this morning accusing Schieffer of “hijacking” Gilbert proposals. The name of the document wasn’t subtle: It began with the words “SCHIEFFER_HIT.”
The document laid out examples including a claim that Schieffer’s remarks about early childhood education as quoted in the Star-Telegram sounded like Gilbert’s prepared remarks for a press event Monday in Amarillo.
Schieffer said: He wants more Texas children enrolled in early childhood development programs starting at age three because it will improve their chances of graduating from high school.
Gilbert said: “Because the foundation of good students is quality education in the early years of childhood, I’m proposing universal pre-kindergarten statewide by 2013.”
Surely Gilbert didn’t invent pre-kindergarten or dropout prevention. I asked Gilbert how he could be so sure Schieffer was copying him, and Gilbert replied: “Look at the quotes that he used … in his rollout. They’re nowhere to be found on his Web site. As far as we know, he doesn’t even have an education plan.”
At his press conference at Scholz Garten, Gilbert called for ending what he called “test and punish” teaching. He also proposed a $5,000 pay raise for teachers.
But he didn’t say how he’ll pay for his proposals.
“We’re not going to talk about funding today,” he said. “We’re putting the plan out there because we’re wanting to create a dialogue, we’re wanting to create the discussion, we’re wanting to develop the policy.”
He said he’ll roll out a funding plan in mid-November for his K-12 education proposals.
Gilbert also referred to Tom Schieffer twice as “Ted Schieffer” at Scholz today (one instance is on the video below).
“If I did, I’m mistaken,” Gilbert said. “I’m sorry. Sometimes I forget names.”
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.
Earlier this year, Keig was considered the front-runner for the top job at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission until questions were raised about his qualifications and his handle on the issues.
Then Keig’s name surfaced this summer as a possible appointment to the board of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas. The State Board of Education named Keig as one of six nominees from which Perry was to choose to fill the board’s open seat.
Keig works for an Austin company that provides health, education and assisted-living services to children, teens and people with disabilities in hospitals, group homes and residential treatment facilities in eight states.
Previously, he was chief of the attorney general’s Elder Law and Public Health Division.
The state’s Republican U.S. senators and an Austin congressman tossed darts at U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi raising money for a Democratic campaign committee in Austin this afternoon.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn chuckled Friday before noting that Austin is one of the best known havens for Texas liberals. “I’m sure she’ll go back with a sack of Texas cash,” Cornyn said.
I’d asked what Pelosi has done right and wrong. Cornyn didn’t volunteer anything she’d done right, but he suggested two measures advancing through the House warrant criticism—the climate-change “cap and trade” plan, which he said would drive up energy bills, and the committee-approved plan to expand access to health insurance.
“Our disagreement is not personal,” Cornyn said. “It is about policy matters and I think the winds are blowing in our (Republicans’) direction now.”
The state’s senior senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison, issued a statement through her gubernatorial campaign today about Pelosi’s Austin stop:
Nancy Pelosi is coming to the wrong place if she’s trying to drum up support for Obama’s government takeover of health care. The Texas grassroots movement in opposition to government run health care is unlike anything I’ve seen. The message is clear ‘don’t mess with Texans’ health care’. I urge Speaker Pelosi to listen to the people and stop pushing legislation through Congress that would have a disastrous effect on the quality of our health care and on the economy.
Separately, I asked Austin-area U.S. House members to visit Friday about Pelosi raising money in Central Texas. Of them, U.S Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, offered a statement suggesting Pelosi was pitching in for Austin executive Jack McDonald to challenge McCaul next year.
Lobbyist Ben Barnes, hosting Pelosi, later told me McDonald isn’t getting money from the event though, unsaid, he could certainly qualify for later consideration by the group fielding donations, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
McCaul’s statement, via spokesman Mike Rosen, suggested Pelosi would be fetching donations while Texans watched or played football before anyone knew Pelosi is also expected to attend the University of Texas-Texas Tech University football game this evening:
The Pelosi/McDonald event is being held while the Aggies and Longhorns are both playing football — (she’s) hoping to raise money from those opposed to McCaul’s bipartisan achievements and those who hate football, a tiny group indeed. The McDonald/Pelosi team will quietly raise money while hoping to avoid questions from the press and the public on bailouts, cap and trade and government-run health care.
I’ve been told Pelosi doesn’t have time for an interview today, but I’m holding out hope. Maybe she needs a lift to the big game.
Gov. Rick Perry said today that he wasn’t involved in Mark Griffin’s decision to resign from the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents.
Griffin said last week that shortly after he showed public support in August for Perry’s political rival, Kay Bailey Hutchison, he got a call from Perry’s former chief of staff saying that the governor expects loyalty from appointees. Griffin said he resigned not long after that call.
“All that board activity was his decision,” Perry said of Griffin. “We didn’t have anything to do with it. I didn’t talk to anybody.”
Perry’s comments came in response to questions from the Austin American-Statesman following a ceremony at the Capitol today honoring first responders injured or killed in the line of duty.
When asked if he asked anyone to make a call to Griffin, the governor said no.
The former chief of staff, Brian Newby, has not returned calls from the Statesman seeking comment.
Last week, a spokeswoman for Perry declined to directly answer questions about whether Perry or his staff asked Newby to call Griffin.
Gov. Rick Perry today announced that the state will put Ranger Reconnaissance teams along the Texas-Mexico border.
The teams are comprised of Texas Rangers and Texas National Guard Counterdrug forces. According to Perry’s office, the teams “will identify high-intensity smuggling routes in remote areas, and conduct operations to reduce border-related crime in these corridors. These activities are also an essential element of a proactive strategy to deter spillover violence.”
Perry’s office did not release the specific number, composition or location of the teams.
He also reiterated his request that the Obama administration allow 1,000 members of the National Guard to support civilian law enforcement near the border.
By drawing attention to border security, Perry is able to criticize Washington as he is running for re-election against U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
UPDATE: Hutchison campaign spokesman Joe Pounder called Perry’s announcement an empty promise as he heads toward the election. “With his signature border initiative failing to produce any results, Texans need a governor they can trust to actually improve our security,” Pounder said.
While writing a column printed today on how office-seekers charge Texas with being first in things bad and last in things good, I shared my research into where Texas has ranked compared to other states with GOP Gov. Rick Perry and his March primary challenger, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
I also touched base with a former top number cruncher for the state and a senator who keeps a constant eye on where Texas stands.
Hutchison spokesman Jeff Sadosky replied by noting that Texas ranks No. 1 in the ratio of property taxes to each home’s value, according to this chart.
Also, the state recently reached 81.81 percent of its constitutionally limited debt capacity, according to this state board. Under Perry, bonded debt per person has increased more than 80 percent, according to the Hutchison campaign’s review of annual financial reports posted here.
Separately, I asked Billy Hamilton, the state’s former deputy comptroller of public accounts, what he made of Texas’s ranking in some areas not changing much over nearly 20 years.
Hamilton replied:
It seems to me all states have been under similar pressures over the
past few years. Maybe a few have tried to make real headway on key public policy issues, but if you think about the political environment, that mostly has been a non-starter. I am surprised that the share (of government spending dependent on property-tax revenue) hasn’t risen. Partly, I would bet that is a result of the rapid rise in the use of sales tax locally and the strong growth of the tax in the 1990’s. Maybe also some effect of the recovery of oil and gas tax after the nadir in the late 1980’s. I can’t think of any other explanation.
He added:
I am not surprised that the (college) tuition rates have risen because, as you know, the state made a conscious policy to restrict general funding of higher education and transfer more of the cost to parents and students. That may fit the state’s conservative outlook, but I think it’s the wrong policy if we value an educated workforce, particularly with our state’s complex demographic future.
Finally, state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, bristled at Hutchison reciting where Texas lags without following up with proposals to improve the state’s standing.
Shapleigh, who tracks how Texas stacks up to other states, said Hutchison’s “major complaints are transportation, fight clubs in Corpus Christi, poor education outcomes, and the highest uninsured rate in the country—all these issues relate to state resources. How will she fix these problems and still spend and tax less? I hope you will ask her these hard questions as she moves forward with her campaign.”
I expect she’ll be asked many questions along those lines, presuming she sticks with the woe-is-Texas theme.
Kinky Friedman, the humorist and 2006 independent gubernatorial candidate, will formally announce on Tuesday he is running for governor as a Democrat, according to campaign manager Rania Batrice.
Friedman’s announcement tour — which will start Tuesday and go through Thursday — will start in Austin and continue in Houston, Dallas, El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley, Batrice said.
Other Democrats running for governor include Hank Gilbert, the party’s 2006 pick for agriculture commissioner; former Fort Worth legislator Tom Schieffer; Mark Thompson, the party’s 2006 nominee for railroad commissioner; and educator Felix Alvarado.
Hank Gilbert told the Statesman’s Gardner Selby on Tuesday that he plans to seek the Democratic nomination for governor.
Gilbert, a cattle producer and businessman from Whitehouse, was the party’s nominee for agriculture commissioner in 2006. He lost that race to Republican Todd Staples, 55 percent to 42 percent. He is also active in efforts to fight toll roads.
“I just feel like we need that person at the top that has the experience of fighting in the (Legislature) and fighting to get things done for the people of Texas across this state, get people inspired to take a hard look,” Gilbert told Selby.
Gilbert is the third Democrat who badly lost a statewide election in 2006 (when Democrats were sweeping Republicans out of office across the country) but is planning to run for a different statewide office in 2010. Barbara Ann Radnofsky, who ran for the U.S. Senate against Kay Bailey Hutchison, is planning to run for attorney general. Mark Thompson, who lost a challenge to Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams, is also running for governor. And Fort Worth educator Felix Alvarado has said he’s going to join the governor’s race.
A Fort Worth resident knocked out of the 2006 Democratic primary for governor says he’s intent on running for governor next year despite the fact that he was bounced from the previous race when his $3,750 check for the candidate filing fee bounced.
“It has taken me a long time to come out of hibernation,” Felix Alvarado said today. “I really felt bad about what happened. It was humiliating.”
Irma Mathis, his campaign operations manager, said separately that she’s going to make sure Alvarado covers the filing fee this time. “I told him this time I want to see a money order, or cashier’s check…no personal check,” Mathis said.
Former state Rep. Tom Schieffer, the Fort Worth lawyer and former U.S. ambassador who’s the sole major announced Democratic aspirant for governor, rode out a frank encounter with Austin Democrats Monday who pressed him on his political support of Republican George W. Bush and how he’d raise money to fulfill his repeated vow to focus as governor on improving public schools (he doesn’t know). Editorial columnist Ken Herman recaps the downtown event here.
Afterward, Schieffer sat down for an interview touching on state taxes, discrimination against gay soldiers and his abiding friendship with Bush including an unexpected detour into whether he contemplated resigning as ambassador and coming home early due to second thoughts about the Bush administration’s course (punch line: no, but the way Schieffer framed that answer could raise eyebrows).
Also, Schieffer aired hopes of tapping Austin investor and campaign donor John Thornton for advice. Thornton has lately been in the news because he’s funding The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit online enterprise geared toward deep-dish reporting on state government and politics.
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, is inviting supporters to join her for the Austin stop on her tour formally announcing for governor next week. The stop is taking place on Monday afternoon.
Details: She’ll be at the Etter-Harbin Alumni Center at the University of Texas. Doors open at 3:30 p.m, program starts at 4 p.m.
The theme: “Results, Not Politics.” (Wise guys might say you can’t get results in government without politics.)
RSVP to Garrett Payne at Garrett@texansforkay.com or 512-705-0261.
Kinky Friedman hasn’t quite said he’s decided to seek the Democratic nod for governor next year.
But Willie Nelson and Three Dog Night are poised to raise money next month for just such a race.
Friedman told me today: “I can’t really do that (fundraising) and not run.”
Earlier today, his operation sent out an e-mail blast inviting recipients to a “Bloody Mary Morning” with Nelson and/or to a San Antonio concert with Three Dog Night.
The invitation to the Sept. 16 event with Nelson — starting at “eleven-ish” in the morning at a Plano country club — states it’s intended to help Friedman win the Democratic nod. The charge: $1,000 a plate.
Reservations for Three Dog Night’s show Sept. 18 are $250 a person.
Henry Cisneros, the former San Antonio mayor and U.S. secretary of Housing and Urban Development, says he huddled recently with his wife, Mary Alice, and decided not to continue pondering a run for governor next year.
“I was tempted,” he said. “It may be the last opportunity that I have (to run statewide). I sat down and talked to my wife about it. We are really trying to build our business nationally… We are going to spend the next 20 years building our business” and tending to the needs of their family and city.
Cisneros, who turned 62 in June, said as long ago as July 2008 that he didn’t plan to run for governor. “I am put out to pasture,” he said then.
Yet he’s sufficiently popular among Democrats and smooth on the stump that such talk didn’t die.
And Cisneros, whose wife is on the San Antonio City Council, remains politically active; the other night, he was a star attraction at a Sinton, Texas party event otherwise featuring gubernatorial candidate Tom Schieffer of Fort Worth and the party’s two U.S. Senate aspirants, Houston Mayor Bill White and John Sharp, the state comptroller.
But talk of his own candidacy—any candidacy—should die, Cisneros said Wednesday. “That decision has been made conclusively.”
Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign this afternoon challenged U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to join him in accepting invitations to two gubernatorial debates before the March 2 Republican primary—one organized by a Dallas TV station and the other by Collin County Republicans.
Hutchison’s camp didn’t explicitly say, “Heck, yeah,” but her campaign manager, Terry Sullivan, later agreed debates will happen. “Of course,” he said. “Repeatedly.” He added later that the senator plans to join the debate organized by the station—“absolutely.”
On Thursday, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s campaign vigorously defended its placement of more than 2,200 hidden phrases on a campaign Web site while GOP Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign charged dirty pool and Internet experts differed on the wisdom and integrity of employing hidden phrases in such a fashion. (See our print review of the topic here.)
Episode over? Maybe not. This afternoon, all the phrases were absent from the site’s source code.
UPDATE 6:49 pm: Hutchison’s campaign spokesman, Jeff Sadosky, said tonight the campaign decided to sever its ties with the company that pitched them the hidden-phrases’ strategy.
“This whole story about computer-generated source code is a distraction that is taking attention away from the important issues facing Texans and Sen. Hutchison’s positive agenda to move Texas forward,” Sadosky said. “It is very unfortunate that the auto-generated list contained inappropriate words and phrases. In order to once and for all put this issue to rest, we have decided to part ways with the firm responsible.”
Earlier today, Michael David, an Austin Web expert, said the changes may demonstrate a realization by the campaign that they were violating quality guidelines for sites spelled out by Google.
“You busted them,” David said, “and they took it down.”
Kate Morris, another Web consultant, said it’ll be interesting to see what the campaign does with hidden text going forward.
I’ve asked Hutchison’s campaign to say why all the phrases were removed and will update this post when I hear.
Listed below are the hidden phrases that were on Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s campaign site this morning. The campaign has said the phrases are being removed.
This morning, I came across a Web site for U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s gubernatorial campaign.
A provocative twist: The site may have been juiced with the intent of drawing visitors with the help of more than 2,200 hidden phrases—including “rick perry gay.” (See the phrases here.)
On my inquiry, Hutchison’s campaign spokesman, Jeff Sadosky, initially said he’d look into the matter. He later issued a statement that didn’t indicate how the phrases landed on the site, but said they weren’t condoned and would be removed.
Sadosky said: “We did not know these offensive word associations were being searched for by hundreds of thousands of Texans everyday nor do we condone the computer-generated existence on our Web site. They will be removed promptly.”
UPDATE 2:33 p.m.: Sadosky and other campaign aides said this afternoon that only the two phrases using “rick perry gay” will be removed because they won’t play into the campaign’s future messages.
Broadly, the campaign said a vendor sold them on a tool that generates the phrases hourly or less in an attempt to divine the most frequent Web searches made by individuals who search online using one or all of the terms “Rick Perry,” “Kay Bailey Hutchison” and “Texas.”
Punch line: The generated phrases aren’t intended to drive up traffic to the standbykay site; they are intended to help Hutchison’s campaign decide most efficiently where to purchase banner ads or other Web-related advertisign that would drive people to the site, where visitors can volunteer, chase information or make donations.
I’ll be curious to learn from the vendor why the list of search phrases is posted (albeit unseen) on the Hutchison site.
Earlier, I found that neither GOP Gov. Rick Perry’s political site nor the site put up by Democratic aspirant Tom Schieffer of Fort Worth has such lists, which are hidden to view unless a visitor checks on a site’s page source information.
Perry spokesman Mark Miner said he hadn’t seen the site.
Speaking before Sadosky said the hidden phrases would be removed, Miner said: “If they’re behind this, it’s outrageous. They should pull it down immediately. It shows the depths they will seek for their own political gain.”
Other hidden text in the pro-Hutchison site’s source list range from Texas counties to names of members of Congress and statewide officeholders to “texas grape growers” and “orthodox synagogue” and “gas prices governor” as well as at least one phone number, which when I called it didn’t appear to be a campaign-related number.
See what I saw by checking the page source on the site, which is here.
UPDATE, 12:45 pm: The site was created this week and was registered by a Chicago outfit, Election Mall Technologies.
Meanwhile, an Austin expert on search engine optimization told me it looks to her like the list of phrases was created as a misguided attempt to drive up the site’s relevance in searches on Google and other search engines or by a hacker intending harm to Hutchison’s campaign.
The expert, Kate Morris, said the site could be subject to getting banned by the Google search engine because of the hidden phrases, which are looked down upon because sometimes phrase combinations can cause engines to mistakenly rate a site as more relevant (or useful) than it is.
I noted Morris’s initial reaction to the pile of hidden phrases: “Woah. Oh my lord. Wow.”
Her reason for the reaction: “The sheer number of phrases and the archaic manner in which they were inserted caught me off guard.”
Just weeks before formally declaring for governor, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has changed campaign managers and enlisted additional senior advisers and consultants, though the departing manager and his replacement said Monday the changes aren’t a sign of shakiness in her effort.
The departure of manager Rick Wiley for a senior role in a Wisconsin campaign is to be announced shortly along with the hiring of Terry Sullivan of South Carolina as his replacement.
Wiley and Sullivan said the change in leadership, finalized last week, was not in reaction to Hutchison losing ground to GOP Gov. Rick Perry in recent polls. Instead, the two said, the addition of new staff and consultants reflected timely growth in a campaign intent on making history.
“As with any campaign, you build as you go,” Sullivan said. “You don’t hit the ground with a full staff.
“This is big; this is going to be one of the biggest races the country has ever seen outside of a presidential race. This is a multi-dimensional campaign. We want to make sure we’ve got the firepower to win.”
As mentioned here and in print on Saturday, a close adviser to U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, poised to challenge GOP Gov. Rick Perry next year, recently visited with Joe Allbaugh, who managed George W. Bush’s first gubernatorial campaign and 2000 presidential race.
Jim Francis of Dallas declined to recap his conversation with Allbaugh, though he separately said that Hutchison plans to add campaign staff.
Hutchison’s campaign manager, Rick Wiley, who seems to have successfully quashed Wisconsin-generated rumors that he’s heading to the Badger State to manage a campaign, has said he expects additional field workers to come aboard.
Just the fact that Francis talked to Allbaugh, who says online here that he’s got a consulting firm with offices in Austin, Washington and Oklahoma City, prompted a July buzz about whether Allbaugh was about to take a leadership role in Hutchison’s campaign.
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s fund-raising through June attracted $100,000 (or more, counting in-kind donations) from a dozen Texans including some individuals who’d previously been in GOP Gov. Rick Perry’s camp.
Not unexpectedly, Robert Rowling of Irving, who dramatically quit an advisory oversight role over investments on behalf of the University of Texas System early this year, is in Hutchison’s $100,000 crowd.
Others include one-time Perry appointees Ned Holmes of Houston and John Nau of Houston, who’s helming Hutchisons’ fund-raising effort.
Way down her contributors’ list: former Bush adviser Karen Hughes of Austin, lately in corporate communications, who donated $500.
UDPATED AND CORRECTED: Gov. Rick Perry hustled up $100,000 donations from six supporters in June toward $4.2 million in donations, his campaign said this afternoon, with philanthropist-fundraiser Mica Mosbacher of Houston topping all donors by separately giving $75,000 and $50,000 donations in addition to her $100,000 contribution. (Perry appointed her to the University of Houston System Board of Regents in 2008.)
Perry’s 1,000-plus donors were barred by state law from giving him checks until the last nine days of June, meaning his campaign corraled a whomping $470,120 per day.
His other $100,000 givers: San Antonio businessman Red McCombs and his wife; investment manager Gary Petersen of Houston and his wife; tax consultant George Ryan of Dallas and his wife; Dallas businessman Harold Simmons and his wife; and the Gallagher law firm of Houston.
Perry’s biggest Austin giver was the AT&T Texas PAC, which gave $50,000. Two Austin residents made $50,000 donations: Steve Hicks, chairman of Capstar Partner and a Perry appointee to the University of Texas System Board of Regents, and James Schneider, a former senior executive with Dell Inc.
All of these givers (or their spouses) have ponied up for Perry before, having given him (all together) more than $1.5 million from 2003 through 2008, according to a review of finance reports by Austin-based Texans for Public Justice.
Other lobby-oriented groups and their Perry donations include: the Wholesale Beer Distributors ($25,000); TEXPAC, the political arm of the Texas Medical Association ($25,000); the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas ($20,000); and the American Electric Power Texas Committee ($10,000).
Former Austin state Rep. Terry Keel gave Perry’s campaign $5,000 from his political kitty.
There’s not yet been word on Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s finance report.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Schieffer of Fort Worth revealed today he’s raised almost $800,000 in contributions. That’s far less than what Republican Gov. Rick Perry or his expected primary challenger, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, have said they each corraled, but probably in excess of what Democratic prospect Kinky Friedman will be reporting this week (I’ve heard Friedman has raised less than $100,000, the bulk of it from Spicewood entrepreneur and long-time Friedman supporter John McCall).
His campaign entered July with $454,155 cash in hand.
Schieffer’s campaign money includes $200,000 loaned by Lyndon Olson of Waco who, like Schieffer, is a former U.S. ambassador; Olson, the campaign’s treasurer and co-chairman of its finance committee, separately gave $55,000 to the campaign. Also, Edward “Rusty” and Evelyn Potter Rose of Dallas each gave his campaign $100,000. Rusty Rose was a partner with Schieffer when the two were in a group with George W. Bush that owned the Texas Rangers baseball team.
Lawyer Joe Longley topped Schieffer’s Austin donors; he gave a little more than $25,000.
“This money was raised during some very difficult times in Texas,” Schieffer said in a statement distributed by his campaign. “People are worried about the economy, jobs, insurance rates, health care and utility costs.
“Still, enough people believed in what we are doing to invest their hard-earned dollars in our cause. They did not give because I had the advantage of incumbency nor did they give because I held one office and was running for another. They gave us these resources because they believe I can lead a cause that will change Texas for the better. I am humbled by their confidence and will do everything I can to merit their continued support.”
Clay Robison, Schieffer’s spokesman, told me Schieffer hasn’t devoted as much energy as Perry and Hutchison to fund-raising; he’s been focused on meeting potential supporters around the state.
“He hasn’t been spending a lot of time on fund-raising, per se,” Robison said, adding that “you could call (Perry and Hutchison) professional fund-raisers, professional politicians.”
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison revealed this afternoon at a Dallas press conference that her gubernatorial campaign ended June with nearly $13 million cash on hand.
Her tally of $12.5 million tops the $9.3 million that GOP Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign has said the governor had on hand through June and widens the $2.4 million edge on his campaign that Hutchison established at the start of the year.
“This is a huge victory,” Hutchison told reporters at the event, which I viewed online until the feed cut off some 16 minutes into Hutchison’s appearance.
Hutchison also said she’ll formally declare for governor in August.
“I am so excited and ready to go,” Hutchison said.
She pooh-poohed recent polls suggesting that Perry has overtaken her among likely GOP primary voters. “I know that I am ahead and I know that we are going to win because we are right on the issues and” right for Texas, she said.
Though she’s spoken previously to possibly resigning her seat—a move that could set off a spring 2010 special election to elect someone to serve out her term—she added no details on resignation thoughts today.
Hutchison leaped ahead of Perry in cash on hand just before the start of this year when she juiced her fledgling gubernatorial committee by transferring $7.96 million from her U.S. Senate campaign account.
As of the end of December, she had nearly $8 million cash on hand in her state kitty and Perry had $6.6 million in his.
Much remains to be seen including which individuals and interests pitched in for the respective aspirants and how each one carved into the other one’s usual base of support.
But the totals signal that both of them—who each reached statewide office via the 1990 elections—will have ample money to wage high-powered campaigns through the March GOP primary.
A possible hitch: If the campaigns misspend money wildly in the intervening months, hurting outreach efforts and muddying their intended messages to voters.
Separately today, Perry’s campaign announced the hiring of Rob Johnson, who has been chief of staff to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, as Perry’s campaign manager.
Other Perry staff posts were also unveiled including Kevin Lindley as Johnson’s deputy; Krystle Kirchmeyer as finance director; David White as political director; and Sarah Floerke as organization director.
UPDATE: See the live stream here: http://texans.forkay.com/pages/livestream
Credit the Dallas Observer for reaching Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s chief campaign spokesman earlier today; Hans Klingler told the pub here that she’s calling Dallas reporters together this afternoon to share the date she’ll formally announce her candidacy for governor against Gov. Rick Perry and to pass along fund-raising tallies for the first six months of this year.
Perry, to remind, said last week his campaign had $9.3 million cash on hand as of the end of June; he raised more than $4 million in the last few days of June, the only period he and other state-level officeholders were legally permitted to accept contributions.
Hutchison’s campaign tells me her 2 p.m. event in Dallas will be live-streamed online at her site, here.
My hunch: The senator is about to overtake Attorney General Greg Abbott in having the most cash on hand of any state officeholder or candidate entering July. Abbott, widely expected to run for lieutenant governor if incumbent David Dewhurst clears out, is letting supporters know he ended June with $9.37 million cash on hand, up from nearly $8.6 million at the end of December.
Gov. Rick Perry thanked the Texas Municipal Police Association Friday at its annual convention lunch at the Sheraton Hotel and applauded the Legislature for bills to help law enforcement better do its job.
Perry referred to the gathering of “first defenders” of the public, telling the full room he considered his job and that of the Legislature to form a first line of support for them.
In this most recent legislative session, Perry said he signed bills to put legal pressure on drug running trans-national gangs he said were better armed, funded and organized than ever before.
Taking gentle poke at the federal government, Perry said the Legislature continued to support with tax dollars law enforcement efforts along the state’s border with Mexico.
Senate Bill 872 made sure that the families of officers and emergency worked killed in the line of duty would continue to receive health insurance benefits, Perry told the group.
And he got perhaps the biggest laugh of the afternoon in thanking the Legislature for a bill protecting those responding to emergencies from being fined for being caught by a red light camera.
“From time to time,” Perry said, drolly, “common sense emanates from the Capitol.”
Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign revealed today that it ended June with $9.3 million cash on hand, having raised $4.2 million in the last nine days of the month, which was the only period this year that he could legally accept donations.
For the moment—and surely just for the moment—that means Texans for Rick Perry is reporting more cash on hand than Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s gubernatorial committee, which entered this year with nearly $8 million cash on hand, a tally that then outpaced Perry’s end-of-2008 cash balance of $6.6 million.
Hutchison’s campaign, which could legally raise money through the regular legislative session and post-session veto period, is widely expected to report much more cash on hand by the time all finance reports are due a week from today.
UPDATE: Hutchison spokesman Hans Klingler reacted indirectly, saying: “Kay Bailey Hutchison is proud of her strong statewide support, which is both broad and deep.”
The two are expected to face off for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in March.
Today, Perry’s campaign didn’t release his full report and it disclosed no information on who precisely accounted for his end-of-month haul.
But broadly, the campaign said it had raised $4.23 million—including $454,094 online—from 1,076 donors from June 22-June 30, which it said nearly doubled the amount he collected over a similar time period after the 2005 regular legislative session. (UPDATE: By my math, the campaign’s contributions this June fell $455,410 short of doubling the $2,343,248 Perry’s campaign raised in the June period of 2005—about 10 percent shy of a doubling.)
Jim Lee of Houston, one of Perry’s state finance chairs, said: “This is a remarkable accomplishment and a ringing endorsement of Gov. Perry.” He noted that 95 percent of the contributors are from Texas, “showing that Texans continue to appreciate and value his leadership.”
“Sarah Palin is a good friend and accomplished governor who will continue to be a strong voice of conservatism in American politics,” Perry’s written statement said. “Her state and our country are better off as a result of her tenure as governor and her candidacy for vice president.”
The statement continued: “I expect she will continue to work on the issues facing our country as conservatives strive to undo the damage being done by an out-of-control congress and federal government.”
This photo tumbled in from Gov. Rick Perry’s Twitter — which he often calls “Tweeter” — feed; nine puppies born to his son’s dog, Belle, are spending the long July 4 weekend with Perry and his wife, Anita.
Gov. Rick Perry, who was energized while speaking to an April “tea party” rally outside Austin’s City Hall, plans to give a few of this week’s parties a whirl. His office confirms that Perry plans to attend a party today in Sulphur Springs and go to gatherings on Saturday, Independence Day, in Rockwall, Austin and San Antonio.
After the 11-minute mark of this interview with instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds, Perry salutes the tea parties, describing them as “spontaneous, organic, coming right out of the ground, if you will, all across this country.”
Perry adds that he enjoyed seeing Americans “that love this country, knowing that we are on a track that will destroy America, particularly destroy America’s economy, unless this Congress gets under control,” presumably a reference to federal spending and other actions.
“And to me that’s what the tea party has really always been about… Tea parties are really about freedom and liberty. Americans are tired of seeing their freedoms be taken away, seeing their liberty being restrained. And it happens when Washington forces their programs upon the states,” Perry says, without specifying which programs.
As snagged here, former Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, who left office this year, filed paperwork with the Texas Ethics Commission today to run for an unspecified office next year.
Earle’s move comes in the wake of his saying last week he was leaning toward running for governor after his earlier speculation about running for attorney general.
Earle’s action also comes after separate online efforts to draft State Sen. Kirk Watson and/or Earle to run for governor next year. Both Facebook pages surfaced recently; neither prospect spoke up for or against the pitches, though Watson has said he’s going to mull his political options probably until the end of the summer.
In some Democratic circles, there’s just that much unease at possibly ending up with former Fort Worth Rep. Tom Schieffer as the likely nominee; some are uncomfortable that his career has been entwined with the successes of George W. Bush. Another hopeful is Mark Thompson, the party’s nominee for the Texas Railroad Commission last year, while Kinky Friedman, who ran as an Independent in 2006, is considering a try as a Democrat.
Peek at the draft-Watson site here. See the draft-Earle site here.
This morning, I either came upon meaningless muttering in connection with the GOP gubernatorial brawl expected to climax in the party’s March primary or a hint of chair shifting afoot that if it proves out, could be taken as an indication U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison saw a need for new blood in her campaign.
A Hutchison campaign spokesman said that the rumor I’d heard that Hutchison is shaking up her campaign has no basis in fact, though Hans Klingler said that Austin consultant Todd Olsen, who some observers have thought of as Hutchison’s general consultant, was focusing on direct mail, his long-time specialty.
Olsen subsequently advised that he’s never held himself out as the campaign’s general consultant. He said, rather, he’s simply a political consultant to Hutchison and that role hasn’t changed. He also reminded me of a March e-mail exchange we had in which he stressed as much.
UPDATE: When Olsen clambered aboard with Hutchison in December, he did not identify himself as her general consultant. In a note he sent to GOP activists, he wrote that he and his business partner, Kevin Shuvalov, would “be helping Senator Hutchison as she takes additional steps to run for governor…”
Olsen’s Dec. 4 e-mail continues:
We are excited about getting to help KBH, look forward to having some fun with many friends, possibly busting some china with old friends, and working together to glue it back together. Texas is a big state, and yet we share a small family of friends who’ve worked hard together and will continue to do so long into the future.
Today, Olsen charged the Perry campaign with originating shake-up rumors, saying: “They are trying to hide the fact that they are struggling by creating rumors.”
Perry spokesman Mark Miner then said he hadn’t heard anything about possible Hutchison staff changes. Of Olsen’s assignment of blame, Miner said: “It’s untrue,” adding that recent polls show Perry holding strong among Republicans. “We feel very comfortable with where we are right now.”
At my request, Republican consultant Craig Murphy reviewed the list of financial supporters laid out by Perry’s campaign today (see that blog here) and concluded that it’s an “impressive” indication that both Perry and his expected challenger in the March GOP primary, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, will raise plenty of money to pour into TV advertising-plus.
Murphy, who’s not affiliated with either campaign, though he has a firm that helped Perry in his last inauguration and said that if Perry wins, his firm could pitch in again.
Murphy said generally “there are a lot of things that this election will be about, but one of them will not be money. Both candidates will have all the money they need to reach saturation.”
Murphy (who must be a sports fan) stressed what I’ll dub the looming “yuck factor,” for both candidates:
Unknown is which way things start breaking when the voter gets to the inevitable point of saying — ‘I hate both of them after
all this negative advertising.’ That cannot be quantified in a poll taken
before the first attack ads are run and yet it is one of the most important
things there is in an election like this.
Quick, somebody get me the Who’s Who for Republican benefactors in Texas.
I’ll need something like that to sort and analyze the hundreds of people listed by Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign today as members of his 2010 finance team; fetch the list here.
Perry’s camp describes the finance effort as three-headed: Its chairs are Roy Bailey, a past finance chairman of the Republican Party of Texas who’s in business with Tom Hicks of Dallas; Houston investor Jim Lee, a long-time Perry supporter who also has been a huge fund-raiser for George W. Bush and Rudy Giuliani; and Gene Powell of San Antonio, where he’s one of the city’s biggest real-estate developers.
UPDATE: We can evidently count one Democrat out of consideration for governor in 2010. Perry’s listed financial supporters include AT&T executive John Montford, the former Lubbock state senator who’d been rumored to be weighing his own run for governor as a Democrat.
Montford’s office confirmed that the ex-senator is helping to organize a Perry campaign event in San Antonio. And Montford followed up: “I am supporting the governor in his re-election bid.”
A spousal twist: Perry’s list shows that the wife of a previous Perry backer who’s gone over to Hutchison, Louis Beecherl of Dallas, is sticking with Perry. Her name: Julie Beecherl. Louis Beecherl has been announced as one of Hutchison’s finance chairs.
Likewise, Perry lists Gina Bridwell of Abilene as a backer. Her husband, Tucker, is among Hutchison’s finance chairs.
Lee, one of the finance chairs, said the pile of names (which he said included many people new to backing gubernatorial campaigns) reflects Perry’s continuing appeal. He listed as factors the state’s business climate, its status among a few states with balanced budgets and the 2009 Legislature’s decision to exempt more businesses from the revamped business franchise tax.
“This is as strong a list as we could ever imagine,” Lee said.
Hutchison’s campaign hadn’t spoken up as of 5:30 p.m.
Next week’s special legislative will be the eighth that Gov. Rick Perry has called since he became Texas’ chief executive in 2000.
While it’ll be the most special sessions ever called by a single Texas governor, remember this: Perry has been the state’s chief executive longer than any other, nine years.
A Perry aide said he called three special sessions in 2003 — all for redistricting — and one each in 2004 and 2007. He called two in 2005.
Even so, the record for special sessions for a single legislature still rests with the 71st, which was called into six special sessions in 1989-90 by then-Gov. Bill Clements.
Workers compensation insurance and public education were the issues.
The previous record was five special sessions in 1929-30 that were called by then-Gov. Dan Moody.
In 1933-34, lawmakers were called into special session four times, during the height of the Great Depression.
And lest we should hear complaints from legislators about how much time they’re having to spend in Austin, remember this:
In 1989-90, lawmakers spent 292 days in Austin (140 during the regular session, the rest for Clements’ six specials) and they were at the Capitol 263 days 1933-34 for the four specials.
Nothing has eclipsed the 12th Legislature’s in-town stay in 1870-71, though. They spent 353 days in Austin in a regular session and four specials.
And the longest stretch between special sessions? It occurred much more recently, from 1992, when Gov. Ann Richards called four special special sessions, and 2003, when Perry called his first special on redistricting.
Gov. Rick Perry announced just a few minutes ago that he will call lawmakers back into special session next Wednesday, July 1.
The special session will start at 10 a.m.
Issues that will be considered, from Perry:
•”Legislation extending the existence of five state agencies that were subject to sunset review by the 81st Legislature that would otherwise be abolished without legislative action, and to change the review schedule for certain state agencies to balance the Sunset Advisory Commission’s workload.”
Those agencies include the Texas Department of Transportation, Texas Department of Insurance, Texas Racing Commission, Office of Public Insurance Counsel and Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation.
•”Legislation allowing the Texas Department of Transportation to issue general obligation bonds, which have already been approved by voters, for highway improvement projects, and for the creation, administration, financing and use of a Texas Transportation Revolving Fund to provide financial assistance for transportation projects.”
•Legislation extending the authority of the Texas Department of Transportation and a regional mobility authority to use comprehensive development agreements to design, finance, build and maintain transportation infrastructure.
That last item deals with renewal of the authority for the state and regional toll agencies to reach long-term toll road leases, or “comprehensive development agreements.” Under existing law, TxDOT”s ability to ink such deals wit private companies would go away Sept. 1 other than for a short list of proposed roads that have an extra two years.
State Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, carried legislation during the regular session that would have extended the authority for six years, and that language was incorportated into the TxDOT sunset bill that died at session’s end.
Along the way, a separate bill by state Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, was paid with the Carona bill. Both senators said then that passage of the extension for toll road leases would depend on passage of the Nichols bill because it gave the state and tollpayers additional contract protections.
Legislative aides said it is not clear whether that pairing will pertain during the special session.
“After speaking with legislators I am calling a special session to extend the operation of five critical agencies and help reduce gridlock by continuing to provide options for financing our state’s highways,” Perry said in a statement.
No immediate reaction from Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst or House Speaker Joe Straus.
But the special session had been rumored for weeks to either start this week or early next week. At least two of the three issues to be included in the special session called by Perry were left unaddressed when lawmakers went home June 1 from their regular, every-other-year session.
In a late-afternoon stop at the Capitol as part of his campaign kickoff tour, Tom Schieffer said today that Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, advised him this spring that he wouldn’t run for governor.
Watson, of course, was ballyhooed Tuesday as a potential candidate by Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, the San Antonio Democrat who announced she wouldn’t be trying for the job.
Responding to a reporter’s query, Schieffer said today: “I think Sen. Watson is a very good candidate… He told me he was not going to run for governor. I hope nobody (else) runs for governor. I hope everybody will fall out on both sides, but I suspect that won’t happen.”
Schieffer said he last spoke to Watson about a month ago.
Watson issued a statement Tuesday saying he’s mulling all election possibilities — including a bid for a second Senate term. He said he probably won’t settle his 2010 political plans until late in the summer.
A former Fort Worth legislator whose career was entwined with the rise of George W. Bush declared his candidacy this morning for the Democratic nomination for governor of Texas.
Tom Schieffer, the younger brother of CBS-TV newsman Bob Schieffer, told onlookers in Fort Worth, according to his campaign: “It has been a long time since we had any vision in this state, and I want to do something about that. I am a Democrat — as (the late U.S. House Speaker) Sam Rayburn used to say, without prefix, suffix or apology — and I think it is time we all had a governor.”
Schieffer, 61, surfaced as an unexpected Democratic prospect for 2010 this year after ending stints as the U.S. ambassador to Japan and, before that, Australia.
Previously, he helped a group led by George W. Bush purchase the Texas Rangers baseball team, subsequently serving as the club’s president.
The former three-term Texas House member, who lost his bid for a fourth term in a redrawn district in 1978, spoke outside his boyhood elementary school in Fort Worth as word broke of a poll of Texas adults on their preferences for governor.
The poll by the non-partisan Texas Lyceum suggests that among Republicans, Gov. Rick Perry lately leads U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, his expected challenger in March’s GOP primary, though the spread between them falls within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 6.1 percentage points, meaning their tussle could be neck and neck.
According to the poll, Perry leads Hutchison by 33 percent to 21 percent, though 45 percent of GOP voters remain undecided. The poll found 81 percent of Democratic voters uncommitted for governor.
“The big picture is that Texans have not focused on this race at all,” said Daron Shaw, a University of Texas professor of government who helped oversee the poll, though he added that Perry appears to have a strong lead among core conservatives, while Hutchison has an edge among GOP moderates and liberals.
Hutchison spokesman Hans Klingler reacted: “To the extent this poll shows anything, it’s that two-thirds of Texans don’t want Rick Perry for yet another four years. His 39 percent support from (November) 2006 is deteriorating. When Kay Bailey Hutchison begins laying out her vision for the state later this summer, we’re confident that her substance will prevail over his rhetoric.”
Perry spokesman Mark Miner said: “After months of criticisms from Washington and tearing down Texas, the senator’s numbers continue to drop. Gov. Perry will continue to talk about creating jobs, cutting taxes, protecting private property rights and improving education.”
In appearances today in Fort Worth, Houston and Austin, former state Rep. Tom Schieffer is expected to declare his candidacy for governor.
The Fort Worth lawyer who prides himself on consistently voting in Democratic primaries is best known to date for personal ties to George W. Bush—with whom he teamed while running the Texas Rangers baseball club and for whom he later served as the Bush administration’s U.S. ambassador to Australia and then Japan.
I reached five ways Schieffer could shine or stumble in his first campaign fly-around:
1) Tone: Will he prove strident or poised, muddling or sharp? The worst thing that could happen is that he puts observers to sleep—or drives them to restlessness. If anyone within reach of a reporter openly yearns for the party’s losing candidates of yore, Schieffer will have made a lousy first impression.
2) Message: I’ve heard that Schieffer’s initial stump speech, built around fears of Texas becoming a third-world state, has been tightened. Observers will see today if that’s so. Also, Schieffer needs to find detailed facts to back up his moan about Texas tumbling. Otherwise he risks sounding all too fret-filled; voters could tune out.
3) Respect: To a degree, serious candidates publicly ignore most opponents. The point is to keep attention focused on their very own (electable) selves. So today would not be the time, for instance, for Schieffer to tee off on yet-to-commit aspirant Kinky Friedman or to compare himself to Leticia Van de Putte, the San Antonio state senator who’s revealed she’s not going to run for governor. Then again, Schieffer needs to show he understands where Democrats-not-like-him are coming from. However he can, he has to demonstrate respect.
4) Reach: Schieffer’s outfit has spread the word that he’s building a campaign team headed by long-time Austin activist Susan Longley and former Cameron County Judge Gilberto Hinojosa—a sign that he knows old-timers in party politics. To solidify standing as the front-runner for his party’s nomination, however, he needs to make inroads with activists who jumped into passing leaflets and nudging neighbors during last year’s not-going-to-happen-ever-again Democratic presidential primary; it’s those troops (thousands of them) who are both eager and wizened enough to want to get involved afresh—for the right candidate. But I suspect it’ll take a cutting-edge crew of them to get others signed on with Schieffer.
5) Management: Schieffer has enlisted California consultant Bill Carrick (whose past clients included presidential aspirants Richard Gephardt and Bill Clinton) to make his TV ads, at the least an indication that Schieffer’s not intending to campaign on the cheap. Whoever else he touts today—or brings aboard—will show if he’s got the stuff not only to win the nomination, but to whack toe to toe with the winner of the expected GOP smash-off between Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
Think of other critical factors? Write me at wgselby@statesman.com .
State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte said today she’s not running for governor next year, saying that Austin Sen. Kirk Watson should chase the Democratic nod for governor instead.
UPDATE: Watson, a lawyer in the penultimate year of his first Senate term, said later that he’s flattered by her encouragement, but won’t decide his 2010 political plans—a chase for re-election or a try for another office—until after an expected summer special session, and probably not until the end of the summer. (He posted a statement here.)
“I do enjoy what I’m doing” now, Watson said.
Van de Putte, a San Antonio Democrat, had been mulling the possibility of a gubernatorial bid for months.
Her inaction could leave Fort Worth lawyer Tom Schieffer as the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, though Mark Thompson, the 2008 Democratic nominee for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission, has said he’s intent on running. Also, Kinky Friedman, who ran as an independent in 2006, is exploring a try in 2010 as a Democrat.
Schieffer, set to announce his candidacy on Wednesday, reacted to Van de Putte with this statement:
She would have been a formidable opponent in the Democratic primary. I am grateful she will not be running for governor this year. I look forward to sitting down with her to discuss my candidacy because I believe I can be the kind of candidate she can support, both in the Democratic primary and the general election.
In a statement issued earlier, Van de Putte said:
I will gladly work hard to ensure that a Democrat prevails in the election for Governor, so that Texas families can have a better shot at having a state government focused on the needs of Texans, instead of state Republican leadership obsessed with their own political futures, at Texans’ expense.
In stepping aside, however, Van de Putte pitched for Watson to leap in.
The warm-up:
Prominent Democrats must put personal ambitions aside and very pragmatically nominate the person best equipped to win in November. Just because one can win the Democratic nomination for Governor doesn’t mean one should, unless he or she is best positioned to defeat the Republican nominee in the fall.
And the punch line:
That’s why I think Senator Kirk Watson should raise his sights and run for governor. I’ve watched as Senator Watson has emerged as a leader in the state Senate on the issues of most importance to Texans. While staying true to Democratic values, he is a bipartisan pragmatic leader solidly focused on addressing the priorities of all Texans. I intend to lobby Senator Watson to run for governor, and I’ll wholeheartedly support him if he does. But if he declines, Democrats should recruit and support someone who, like Watson, is energetic, pragmatic, focused, and smart; and who can fully energize Democratic supporters while also attracting a broad range of independent voters in every region of the state.
Van de Putte subsequently told me that she’s been encouraging Watson to leap for governor for the last couple of days — and he’s mulling the possibility. Watson, the former Austin mayor, was the Democratic nominee for attorney general in 2002; he later won the Senate seat given up by Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Austin.
Van de Putte said she hopes that Democrats who put their hopes in her will turn their energies to Watson. “I hope they will join me in asking Kirk Watson to take up this challenge,” she said. “I think he’s strongly considering it.”
She said her decision not to run for governor was based on family considerations.
“At this particular time, I am not going to be able to give the type of energy and focus to it that (a gubernatorial bid) would need,” she said.
A bill intended to help working families with their federal income taxes fell victim to Gov. Rick Perry’s veto pen on Friday.
House Bill 2888 used about $2.6 million in federal money from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to support volunteer tax centers around the state that help low-income people fill out their federal income tax forms. Texans leave unclaimed an estimated $1 billion in refunds and tax credits, such as child care credits and the Earned Income tax credit.
Perry wrote in his veto statement that “taking the (federal dollars) away from their intended purpose of serving clients to fund this program is unnecessary. These funds should be used to benefit people, not create more government bureaucracy.”
The bill created one new full-time position in the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs to help set-up and support new tax centers across the state.
In Austin, the non-profit group Foundation Communities has run a volunteer tax center for the past five years. This year, the volunteers helped families get $25 million in tax refunds owed to them.
“A tiny investment of money from the State would reap millions in the pockets of hard working Texans,” said Walter Moreau, executive director of Foundation Communities.
“Volunteer income tax programs help common, working Texas families to file their income tax return correctly,” Moreau said. “Getting the biggest, honest refund possible from the IRS is as all-American as motherhood and apple pie, so why Perry killed this program is mind-numbing.”
East Texas Rep. Leo Berman lunched with Gov. Rick Perry today—as previewed in my Thursday column here—and gave him four bones to chew on that could lead Berman to cancel his declared plans to run in the 2010 GOP gubernatorial primary already expected to be headlined by the Perry face-off with U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
Berman, R-Tyler, said afterward that if Perry embraces his suggestions related to illegal mmigration, “it would satisfy many of the people who have asked me to do this (run for governor). He’s got the money, the name, the position. I would probably endorse him and get out of the race myself.”
Berman has otherwise said he’d declare for governor around July 4.
UPDATE: Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle later confirmed the meeting, adding that Perry plans to get back to the representative.
By not running, Berman could spare the incumbent from losing the votes of voters greatly concerned about illegal immigration—a big deal if the March primary proves tight.
Gov. Rick Perry gave new hints this morning that he hopes an upcoming special session will be a short one.
Talking to a reporters at the Capitol at mid-morning, Perry was asked whether a short special session — perhaps just one or two days in length — will be possible.
Perry said a short session is the hope. By getting an agreement between legislative leaders on a bill beforehand, he said, could make the length quick.
Perry has not said when he plans to call the special session, and he didn’t give any further hints this morning.
Perry confirmed Tuesday that a special session will be necessary to reauthorize or extend the Texas Department of Transportation, the Department of Insurance and three other agencies that were targeted to shut down because a so-called “safety net” bill was not approved on the legislative session’s final day on June 1.
Gov. Rick Perry this morning offered new details about a Tuesday night biking accident that left him with a broken collarbone and his right arm in a sling.
Since no official reports have been publicly released on the accident, the details this morning were the first to be made public about what exactly happened.
Perry told reporters at the Capitol just a few minutes ago that he was biking down a steep, familiar trail in the Barton Creek Greenbelt near his temporary home in the Estates Above Lost Creek subdivision, when his bike unexpectedly slipped off the trail.
“I went down the hill … over the (handle) bars … (and) landed on the back of my shoulder,” he said. Perry said he did not land on his head, as had earlier been speculated.
When Perry landed, he said, “I knew (the collarbone) was broken … I could feel it.”
“It would have been a great-looking video,” he quipped.
Perry said he quickly got up, pushed the bike up the hill and walked back to his house with his security detail. He was then transported to Seton Medical Center, where he was treated and released.
Gov. Rick Perry, who busted his right collar bone mountain-biking Tuesday night, wasn’t available for a moment-by-moment recap this morning. At about 7:30 a.m., though, he posted this message at http://twitter.com/governorperry: “Thanks for the tweets and prayers…First Nurse was great and I will be in office reading and signing bills tomorrow. Bike helmets work!!”
The “First Nurse” reference is likely to his wife, Anita Perry, who has a nursing background.
UPDATE: Through an aide, Mrs. Perry told me today: “The governor is fine and comfortable and resting at home. I felt good enough about his condition that I’m on my way to Dallas to see my grandpuppies, which were born (Monday) June 8, the anniversary of the (Governor’s) Mansion fire.” Nine puppies were born to Belle, a Labrador retriever belonging to Griffin Perry, the governor’s son.
Perry spent a few hours Tuesday night at Seton Medical Center Austin on W. 38th Street though a hospital spokeswoman, Matilda Sanchez, citing privacy issues, she couldn’t provide details. “He was treated and released,” Sanchez said today.
Yes, the failure of lawmakers to send Gov. Rick Perry legislation continuing several agencies including the Texas Racing Commission means the commission, like four others, should start winding down at the start of the 2011 fiscal year on Sept. 1.
But no, that’s not about to happen, commission members were told today.
“We are to continue our work as usual,” the commission’s executive director, Charla Ann King, advised. “I anticipate that we will be back in special session in the coming months. We will be ready when the time comes.”
Perry told reporters today he will call a special session to clean up the legislative breakdown, but he didn’t let loose of his intended timing. Personally, I’m keeping my August calendar clear on a hunch that Perry will want this thorn plucked before the start of the new fiscal year (and before the brunt of campaign season).
The commission chairman, Rolando Pablos, similarly said he doesn’t expect any closure-related actions to roll out that would affect horse and dog tracks overseen by the commission.
Pablos referred to a letter the agency fielded from Perry just after the session ended this month. Perry wrote June 3 that “Texans will be taken care of and employees of the affected agencies will continue to go to work every day.” (Fetch his full note here.)
She isn’t yet a formally declared gubernatorial candidate, but U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison remains intent on raising money toward challenging Gov. Rick Perry in the March GOP primary.
In what may be her first political event after the legislative session that ended June 1, Hutchison is set to attend an Austin lunch fund-raiser June 27. Guests are asked to donate $1,000 or $3,000 per couple.
Two consultants—one Republican, the other Democratic—each insisted to me this week that if U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison doesn’t fully commit to running for governor soon (say, by July 4) she risks losing momentum in her expected challenge to Gov. Rick Perry.
It just could be, each fellow said, that GOP donors who have waited for her summer declaration will reconsider if she’s not full-throated soon. Some may already wonder if she’s going to change her focus as she did before the 2006 elections.
Until Hutchison acts, it’s almost impossible for her to demonstrate otherwise—though it’s worth noting that if the senator were thinking of shutting down her gubernatorial campaign, she probably wouldn’t be adding on staff.
Amy Hopcian started in March as the Hutchison campaign’s director of research and rapid response (yes, that’s really her title). And spokesman Hans Klingler of Hutchison’s campaign announced today that Austin lawyer Pete Winstead with be steering her fund-raising in Central Texas.
Saying more supporters will be rolled out starting Friday, Klingler said the senator’s announcement “will come in plenty of time… Summer time is a lot about being with your kids out of school. Republicans will have plenty of time to assess their choice for governor.”
Gov. Rick Perry hasn’t directly said he won’t call a special session to deal with the chaotic end of the session House-Senate differences Monday.
But he has just told reporters that they’ll have the summer off from lawmaking.
“It’s way too early,” Perry said, to be committing to a special session.
“I never rule out the option of a special session,” Perry said. ” Governors have always had that authority and I suspect they always will. And it’s there. It’s a tool. And I don’t think anybody is just dying to come back into Austin to do the work that should have been done during the 140-day session. But it’s an option that’s there.”
He said, though, the agencies at risk will stay open.
“We’re going to keep building roads and maintaining the highways,” he said. “We’re going to continue to have an insurance industry that’s regulated… We’re going to make sure that Texans are taken care of and those employees in those agencies are going to continue to go to work every day.”
Of the Senate not signing off an a resolution intended to keep the agencies operating for two years, Perry said: “I felt like I was watching an episode of ‘Lost.’”
Gov. Rick Perry has vetoed his first bill of the session — Senate Bill 2038, an attempt to clarify how the Texas Supreme Court, other courts and executive branch agencies interpret changes to state law that are intended to be non-substantive.
Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, who authored the bill with state Rep. Will Hartnett, R-Dallas, said the provision stems from a 1999 tax case in which the high court held that “an intended non-substantive revision of the Tax Code actually had a substantive effect.”
In the case, Fleming Foods of Texas Inc. was seeking a tax refund.
In a one-page explanation of the veto, Perry told lawmakers that if they intend a law to accomplish a specific purpose, they should write it clearly enough to do that.
Gov. Rick Perry this afternoon seemingly laid out a challenge to legislators scrambling to reach a deal on shoring up a fund that’s intended to be the provider of last resort of hail and wind insurance to property owners in 14 coastal counties and a sliver of Harris County.
He spoke in the wake of state senators salvaging their windstorm plan late Wednesday by attaching it to an unrelated measure, which grew from about 1,000 words to about 13,000 words—just like that.
Gov. Rick Perry let it be known last week he intends to call a summer special session if lawmakers fail to send him a plan shoring up the fund providing windstorm and hail insurance coverage for residents of 14 coastal counties and a slice of Harris County.
Still, windstorm legislation looks likely to die short of House floor action because the proposal sits behind the spotlit voter identification measure that Democratic leaders don’t want to take up; they’ve been slow-going dozens of otherwise non-controversial local and consent measures since Thursday evening to ensure the House doesn’t reach the ID measure before today’s midnight deadline for House action on Senate proposals.
Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, said today he’d been assured by Perry aides Monday that Perry is still thinking about starting the session next Tuesday June 2, the day after the 140-day regular session comes to a close.
Perry has an alternative, however, which would be to leave the windstorm law as it is.
Jim Oliver, general manager of the non-profit Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, said Tuesday: “As far as us getting money to pay claims, there won’t be any problem at all.”
Gov. Rick Perry just released this statement on Memorial Day:
“On this Memorial Day, we are compelled to pause and consider the enormous sacrifice made by generations of American servicemen and women, who have gone in harm’s way in defense of the freedoms we too often take for granted. From the first shots of the Revolutionary War to the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, our brave men and women have risked much on our behalf throughout the course of our nation’s history.
“Whether we spend Memorial Day in the Texas Capitol, tending to the people’s business in these last few days of the session, or gathering with family and friends for food and fellowship, we can never let our thoughts stray far from those who defend us and stand watch around the world. I encourage all Texans to say a prayer for the members of our armed forces, past and present, and consider how we can honor them in the days to come. Theirs is a life lived for others and we owe them our undying respect, admiration and support.”
The restoration of the fire-gutted Texas Governor’s Mansion will get $22 million, $3 million less than first requested, under a budget compromise by House and Senate negotiators.
Details: $11 million in the 2010-11 state budget, all from federal stimulus money, and $11 million in general-revenue funds that will be allocated immediately, in a supplement to the current state budget.
Will the $22 million be enough, when Gov. Rick Perry and the State Preservation Board earlier asked for almost $27 million?
“It’ll be enough,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, one of the negotiators. “That’s all there’s going to be.”
The deal on the stimulus funding was agreed to last night, officials said, and the deal on the supplemental funding was expected to be finalized later today.
Previously, state funding had been requested to pay for $25 million of the projected $27 million cost, with private fundraising expected to cover the rest. So far, about $3.4 million has been raised — including $2.4 million in cash and $985,600 in pledges.
Other remaining issue: Neither spending bill apparently will include wording to prohibit the closing of Colorado Street, as a part of the restoration project. Restoration officials earlier proposed closing the street in front of the historic Mansion to provide better security and to reduce street noise for the occupants.
Gov. Rick Perry told legislators this afternoon he could call a special session immediately after the regular session ends June 1 to work on a plan patching up the fund that provides windstorm insurance coverage to property-owners in 14 coastal counties and a sliver of Harris County.
UPDATE, 6:49 p.m.: Perry spoke hours before a House panel advanced a negotiated version of the Senate-approved Senate Bill 14 by a 7-2 vote with Democratic Reps. Senfronia Thompson of Houston and Trey Martinez Fischer of San Antonio voting no. The two each asked for more time to review the revised take, which had been hammered out by Rep. John Smithee, R-Amarillo, who chairs the House Committee on Insurance, and three coastal state representatives.
Smithee said action was needed tonight to ensure floor consideration before Tuesday’s deadline for House action on Senate measures.
To be seen: How insurance rates could change depending on distinct House and Senate approaches to windstorm coverage and how insurance companies would be affected under the competing versions.
Gov. Rick Perry’s office said Wednesday he’s signed into law a proposal drafted to shield reporters from having to reveal confidential sources.
The shield law had long been sought by advocates for newspapers and broadcasters. (See a recent article on the measure here.)
Perry said: “This was a complex issue that required thoughtful consideration, and I am pleased that lawmakers were able to strike a balance between protecting the rights of the people and the press.”
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s gubernatorial campaign tonight took a shot at how Gov. Rick Perry has handled Texas’ troubled institutions for people with mental disabilities.
The comments came as video footage became public showing what police have said were fights among residents of Corpus Christi State School, one of 13 such residential institutions.
“The fight clubs … are a sad chapter in Texas history and further proof of Rick Perry’s failed leadership as Governor of this state,” Texans for Kay Campaign Manager Rick Wiley said in a written statement.
Meanwhile, Perry, who’s expected to face Hutchison in the 2010 GOP gubernatorial primary, called the fights “totally reprehensible” and vowed that those involved “will have the heft of our law put upon them, and appropriately so.”
Wiley said that Perry has long known that the U.S. Department of Justice was investigating the institutions.
“Since then, the problem has only gotten worse and Perry has done nothing to address it,” Wiley said. “All Texans deserve better than this appalling failure of leadership but specifically those who are the most vulnerable among us.”
Today, after visiting with representatives on the floor of the Texas House, Perry told reporters that the fights are “not acceptable behavior in any environment but particularly in a place where you’re supposed to be protecting citizens” of the state.
I’ve closed loops with two Austin operators celebrated overnight by Kinky Friedman as advisers to his exploration of running for governor next year as a Democrat.
Businessman Lowell Lebermann and former Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower separately confirmed they’re advising Friedman. But each also cautioned they’re not sure Friedman, who ran as an independent in 2006, is serious enough to make a substantive bid.
Here’s something you don’t expect to hear a governor tell a visitor: “‘There’s nothing I like better than having somebody in my office on their knees.”
It’s not what you think, no matter what you’re thinking. But it did involve nice words for a visitor’s hair and a brief discussion of mating history.
And, for the record, one of the visitors was a real dog.
Here’s the video from Gov. Rick Perry’s office today.
Noted Texas historian and author Light Townsend Cummins of Sherman was named the official State Historian by Gov. Rick Perry.
Cummins replaces Jesus de la Teja of Austin.
The state historian is a largely ceremonial designation that lasts for two years.
Cummins is a history professor and director of the Center for Southwestern and Mexican Studies at Austin College in Sherman.
He is also a board member of the Texas State Historical Association, an associate of the Danforth Foundation, and past chair of the Grayson County Historical Commission.
After receiving a bachelor’s degree from Texas State University, Cummins received a doctorate degree in history from Tulane University.
Kinky Friedman, exploring a fresh run for governor (this time as a Democrat), says he’s enlisted several well-known advisers, though he wasn’t clear what precisely they’d be doing to help him decide whether to run for governor.
Now he’d mentioned San Antonio lawyer Abel Dominguez and former Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower before. But Friedman hadn’t revealed commitments to advise from Austin businessman Lowell Lebermann, who’s a former University of Texas System regent and Austin City Council member, and Houston lawyer Richard “Racehorse” Haynes, who’s famous for his courtroom moxie.
A poll taken Sunday and Monday on behalf of Gov. Rick Perry’s re-election campaign suggests that among Republicans likely to vote in the 2010 GOP gubernatorial primary, Perry is in striking distance of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
At least that’s the thrust of a summary circulated this morning, which also states that Hutchison’s affiliation with last year’s bailout of Wall Street and long-time stay in Washington won’t sit well with GOP voters.
The summary doesn’t precisely say how pollster Mike Baselice chose who to poll.
Hutchison’s camp later questioned the methodology.
Her campaign manager, Rick Wiley, and a senior strategist, long-time GOP pollster Lance Tarrance Jr., took issue with Perry’s campaign testing the candidates in two ways—both with their officeholder titles (Gov. Perry, Sen. Hutchison) and simply by their names. Tarrance said the sample size in each case means the margin of error for each sample of 250 GOP voters is plus or minus 10 percent.
“Maybe they’re baiting everybody” with the poll, Tarrance said.
Baselice said later the plus or minus margin of error for a sample of 250 voters would actually be 6.1 percent.
In the summary, Baselice advises: “The overall ballot score shows the race much closer than some of recent polls floating around the Internet.” The percentages as relayed to Perry supporters by Perry consultant Dave Carney: Hutchison 44 percent, Perry 39 percent.
Yet those percentage combine the two samples. When the two were paired against each other by names alone, Hutchison led by 11 percentage points, that is: Hutchison, 47 percent, Perry 36 percent.
Put another way, nearly one in two Republican voters favors Hutchison for governor at this time.
Baselice, reached later, defended his approach.
Of testing Gov. Perry versus Sen. Hutchison, Baselice said: “We wanted to see what happens when we use the titles. We wanted to see what advantage or disadvantage labels play.”
“Not worried,” Baselice said. “This is why you run campaigns.” He said Hutchison’s popularity will be affected once voters learn about her record in Washington. “The point is the race is closer than other people are giving it credit for.”
“Things are tighter than (people) think,” he said. “The fun is about to begin.”
The Texas governor will have an official flag — and it won’t look like Russia’s — if a bill given final approval by the House today passes into law.
State law says that the Texas governor may adopt a flag for ceremonial purposes, but recent governors haven’t done so. Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, filed a bill that would have designated the 1839 pilot flag of the Republic of Texas as the governor’s flag.
But that proposal drew criticism over the weekend from House members who pointed out that the 1839 flag looks just like the Russian flag, except the Texas one has a star in the center. On Saturday, when Dunnam presented the 1839 flag, Rep. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney, started questioning Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, in Russian, from the back microphone. King said: “I know that it was an accident by my comrade.”
King presented a different flag: It’s dark blue, with a white star in each corner, and, in the center, a star flanked by live oak and olive branches on a light blue circle.
Here’s Gov. Rick Perry, sharing the stage Monday night in Garland with three conservative talk-show hosts as they pass judgment on President Obama’s first 100 days in the White House.
Can a Republican governor be objective about Obama? Yep, says Perry.
Here’s some pre-event chat with folks in Garland tonight as Gov. Rick Perry served as moderator for three prominent conservative talk-show hosts as they offer their review of President Obama’s first 100 days in office.
Included in the video below: Folks who are glad the pirates were shot, folks who believe Obama has us on a one-way road to socialism and a guy who is glad that panties on the head is among America’s interrogation techniques.
And we ask the question Republicans will have to answer by the March 2010 GOP gubernatorial primary: Rick or Kay?
Another poll has popped, this one from the pro-Democratic Daily Kos blog.
And it has a current-events touch; 51 percent of Texas Republicans approve of Perry’s “suggestion that Texas may need to leave the United States.” Also, a majority of Republicans and independents approve of how Texas government is run; most Democrats don’t.
Here at the Capitol, I just ran into a group of fourth-graders from Greenhill School in Addison. They presented First Lady Anita Perry with $688.67, which they raised for the Texas Governor’s Mansion Restoration Fund. They called their project “4th Grade Pennies for Texas!”
The mansion burned last June; authorities have said the fire was arson but have not identified the arsonist.
The clarion call has gone out from Gov. Rick Perry to his supporters: Join me for a “very special event” in Garland on Monday. Sounds like it’s shaping up as something less than a tribute to mark President Obama’s first 100 days in office.
Here’s what Perry e-mailed to “my fellow Texans”:
“I will be moderating a very special event, Monday, April 27th, as Dallas/Ft. Worth based News Talk 660 KSKY Radio welcomes nationally syndicated talk hosts Mike Gallagher, Michael Medved, and Hugh Hewitt for their kickoff of the ‘Obama First 100 Days’ National Tour at the Special Events Center in Garland, Texas.”
“America has seen significant change since January 20th and Texans, like you and I, have a lot to say about the direction we’re currently headed. I am honored to have been invited to moderate this significant event, one that gives everyone an opportunity to voice their opinions to three of America’s most recognized national talk show hosts.”
“Thousands of us will gather to be part of this historic event. Along with the syndicated show hosts I will be joining a select group of listeners for a VIP Dinner in advance of the program! Please join us if you can! This is an evening that Texans cannot afford to miss.”
Five statewide elected officials will be talking to about 100 pastors at a closed-to-the-public Texas Pastors Policy Conference at an Austin hotel today. They are Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, Attorney General Greg Abbott, Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson and Dale Wainwright, a Texas Supreme Court justice, according to an agenda.
Dave Welch, executive director of the U.S. Pastor Council, said Wednesday: “Pastors need to know how government works; most of them don’t.”
Last week we reported that Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst seemed to be having difficulty saying the word “secede.” Instead, they were saying “succeed.”
It sounds like Perry and his staff haven’t quite nipped this in the bud.
After a Perry speech in Austin today, the Dallas Morning News’ Christy Hoppe asked him about the late-night comedians’ jokes based on secession talk by folks (not by Perry) at last week’s income tax deadline day tea parties.
Listen below. Is the governor still saying “succeed” instead of “secede?” Again, we’re just asking, but it sounds like Perry says “I’ve said myself that I don’t think Texas is going to succeed. I don’t think that we should.”
And stay tuned for Perry’s zinger at Leno. And ask yourself this: Spontaneous or preloaded?
Gov. Rick Perry’s comments about secession have already made Texas the brunt of late-night talk show jokes. Now, members of the Texas House Democratic Campaign Committee are getting in on the laughs. They’ve printed these T-shirts, which they hope to offer for sale soon.
Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger said: “We hope they have more important things to do like getting back to work.”
The Senate Committee on Health and Human Services this morning approved creating a license plate that says “choose life.”
The anti-abortion measure, backed by Gov. Rick Perry, passed on a vote of 6-1. It now goes to the full Senate. There is a similar measure in the House.
Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, the author of the bill, said the goal of the license plates is to raise awareness about adoption. Carona, who is an adoptive father, said 19 states have such license plates.
The measure, if it passes, would let Texans buy a license plate that would benefit groups that provide counseling and other services to pregnant women considering placing their child with adoptive parents. Typically, specialty plates cost $30; of that, $22 goes to the designated cause.
Travis Floores, 15, a student at McNeil High School, urged senators to support the measure. Floores, who is adopted, said during public testimony that if his birth mother hadn’t chosen adoption, “I might not be here today.”
“There’s kids all over Texas that are just like me that deserve a place to go,” Floores said.
But Blake Rocap of NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, told senators he was opposed to the bill because of the lack of regulation of entities that would receive the money.
“It would be easier to support this bill if the funds were going to licensed maternity homes or other medical providers that were under state license and regulations,” Rocap told senators.
Texas has about 200 specialty license plates, including some supporting universities, Girl Scouts and the March of Dimes. The Texas Department of Transportation can require legislative approval if the plates would be controversial.
Here’s Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, talking about his bill urging the state to try to buy back Woodlawn, a historic mansion in West Austin, and turn it into the Texas Governor’s Mansion.
Under the bill - slated for committee hearing on Tuesday - the current Governor’s Mansion would be turned into a museum and a place for receptions after completion of ongoing repairs necessitated by a major fire.
Woodlawn was built in 1853 and served as home to two Texas governors, Elisha Pease in the mid-1800s and Allen Shivers in the mid-1900s.
Shivers deeded the house to the University of Texas and the state later bought it from UT after Shivers’ widow Marialice died in 1996. Austin businessman Jeff Sandefer bought it from the state in 2002 for $2.85 million. Travis County Central Appraisal District records lists its current valuation at $5.2 million.
No matter, says Sandefer, who told the American-Statesman on Monday, “We have no intent of selling our home at any price.”
Prospective Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Schieffer, the former Fort Worth legislator who later worked in baseball and as an ambassador, invites you to meet him at an Austin event for a beer, soft drink and/or snacks next month, though he’s not quite announcing his candidacy, a spokesman said.
Fetch the invitation I fielded here, which had me thinking we had a 1970’s-style campaign kickoff in the works.
Nope, spokesman Clay Robison said.
“He’s continuing to explore,” spokesman Robison said, adding that an official announcement is likely after the legislative session ending June 1.
The howdy event is from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. May 8 at Scholz Garten, 1607 San Jacinto Blvd.
The Texas House today opted not to take a vote on a proposal to dissolve the Office of State-Federal Relations and move its duties to the governor’s office. Instead, after more than 45 minutes of debate, representatives sent the measure by Rep. Dan Flynn, R-Van, back to committee for tweaks.
Flynn argued that his proposal would streamline lobbying activities.
But Rep. Tommy Merritt, R-Longview, said that since the office would have the same budget — $1.5 million for the two-year budget cycle — in the governor’s shop as it did as a stand-alone agency, there would be no streamlining.
Merritt said the proposal amounted to taking $1.5 million and giving it “to the governor so he can go play around in Washington, D.C.”
Some representatives said they were concerned about having less legislative oversight of the state-federal relations office.
“We seem to be giving away all of our authority here in this House to the governor’s office,” said Rep. Joe Heflin, D-Crosbyton.
But Frank Corte, R-San Antonio, a supporter of the measure, said that other entities already in the governor’s office must answer to the Legislature.
As my colleague Jason Embry reported in First Reading this morning: “The agency was a point of controversy a few years ago when it was revealed it had contracted with two lobbyists who had ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay. The legislation under consideration in the House today would put a number of restrictions on the state hiring outside lobbyists in Washington.”
Near the end of the debate, Rep. Jim Keffer, R-Eastland, veered away from serious discussion to make reference to Gov. Rick Perry’s comments last week about secession — comments that got Texas skewered on late-night TV.
“If we secede, can we use this office as a base for our ambassadorship?” Keffer asked.
Gov. Rick Perry this afternoon said he would sign into law a film incentives bill approved this morning in final version by the Texas Senate.
In a statement: the governor said: “I am pleased that lawmakers have passed legislation to maintain and strengthen Texas’ competitive position in the film, television and gaming industries, which have brought more than $1.2 billion to our economy over the past ten years.
“HB 873 will enable Texas to sustain a program that not only attracts economic investment, but develops the skills, infrastructure, and culture that Texas needs to gain a long term competitive edge in these industries.
“I applaud Sen. Bob Deuell and Rep. Dawnna Dukes for their hard work on this important legislation and look forward to signing this bill when it reaches my desk.”
Joining a growing chorus of criticism, state Sen. Rodney Ellis called on Gov. Rick Perry today to clarify his remarks yesterday about Texas seceding from the Union.
In remarks after an Austin speech to tax protestors, Perry seemed to leave the door open when discussing secession.
The guv said: “Texas is a unique place. When we came into the union in 1845, one of the issues was that we would be able to leave if we decided to do that.
“My hope is that America, and Washington in particular, pays attention. We’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, you know, who knows what might come out of that?”
In a statement this afternoon, Ellis said Perry’s comments were off-mark.
“There are some issues that simply should not be legitimated in any way, shape or form, and secession is one of them,” he said. “By not rejecting out of hand the possibility of secession, Governor Perry is taking a step down a very dangerous and divisive path encouraged by the fringe of Texas politics.
“It was only 12 years ago that Texas had a deadly stand-off with those urging secession. Governor Bush stood up to those fringe elements. I urge Governor Perry to ramp down the rhetoric and state unequivocally — as Governor Bush did in the 1990s — that secession is not only not an option, it isn’t going to be part of the political discussion.
Clay Robison, the Capitol correspondent and bureau chief who broke the story early this year that Fort Worth lawyer Tom Schieffer was mulling a run for governor next year, has signed on as director of communications for Schieffer’s gubernatorial exploratory committee.
Supporters of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s gubernatorial candidacy say it’s time for new governor. For Hutchison, change will be a key part of her message. For Gov. Rick Perry, it’s part of his problem as he seeks a third full term in office.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is scheduled to alight in Round Rock at midday Friday for a fund-raiser for her governor’s campaign hosted by the chairman-elect of the Round Rock Chamber of Commerce, Tom Vaughan, and his wife, Jana. U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, likewise is penciled in to be there; he earlier aired his support for Hutchison for governor.
Mr. Vaughan, a retiree, told me he’s supported GOP Gov. Rick Perry, but believes Hutchison deserves a shot in 2010. Hutchison and Perry are poised to face off in the March 2010 Republican primary.
“I’ve been a little disenchanted; I don’t think (Perry has) treated us as fairly as I think we should have been treated on our property taxes as well as our insurance; homeowner’s insurance specifically,” Vaughan said. And, he said, “he seems to be spending a whole lot of time on the border and not enough on education.”
On Perry’s behalf, his spokeswoman Allison Castle replied:
Under Gov. Perry’s leadership, the state has increased standards and accountability in our public schools to ensure Texas students are college and work force ready. He believes protecting our border from those seeking to do us harm is paramount. It’s not our responsibility but it is our problem, and if Washington would spend a fraction of the time and money on border security as they do on handing out blank checks to corporate America, then the state would not need to expend the resources we are today.
An invitation shows tickets available for $40 for givers 25 and younger up to $500 per person on the host committee. Hutchison’s campaign has more information at 512-236-8656.
A pretty typical day at the Capitol as folks seek to meet with their governor. Some get to meet with him. Others get referred to the scheduling office. Take a look at the video by the American-Statesman’s Ken Herman.
A wide-ranging poll by a group at the University of Texas suggests afresh that GOP Gov. Rick Perry would trail U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison if their March 2010 primary were held at this time.
The poll further suggests that Texans rate the economy and immigration as key issues. Surveyed Texans also leaned the most toward Attorney General Greg Abbott in an envisioned race to fill Hutchison’s Senate seat against other aspirants.
UPDATE: And, the poll results state, nearly 70 percent of the surveyed Texans agreed that voters should be required to present a government-issued photo ID at the polls before they are allowed to vote. Some 18 percent disagreed, 13 percent didn’t know. Forty-two percent said it’s true that existing law already requires presentation of a photo ID.
The poll, conducted by members of the UT-Austin Department of Government and its Texas Politics project, surveyed 800 Texas residents between Feb. 24 and March 6.
Dive in by fetching the poll results’ summary here.
Gov. Rick Perry described himself today as “a real tweethead.”
While researching my story in today’s paper about lawmakers who are on Twitter, I asked a spokeswoman for the governor whether it’s him or his staff posting tweets on his two accounts (Perry has both a campaign account and an account for his press office). The spokeswoman told me that staffers post on both accounts. But today she said she didn’t realize that the governor himself posts tweets from the campaign account.
Today, I got a direct message on Twitter from the governor (his office verified it’s from him):
“Hi Corrie, just an FYI… I am a real tweethead… write my own tweets… sometimes from my blackberry, a lot from my laptop.”
Matt Mackowiak, a spokesman who once looked poised to return to Texas to work on U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s gubernatorial campaign, announced today he’s not going to be working for her Senate office any longer.
His e-mail didn’t suggest he was packing up to work on her campaign.
Excerpt:
After two years, traveling to all 20 Texas media markets, over 217,000 emails (including 57,000 sent emails), fielding thousands of press calls, and writing, editing, and sending hundreds of press releases, today is my last day serving as press secretary in the office of U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX). It’s truly been an honor and a privilege to work in this office and in the United States Senate.
Mackowiak’s note says he expects to announce his next “professional move” at the end of this month. Reached by telephone, he declined to elaborate.
In advance of the March 19 premiere of an inside-look documentary on his 2006 run for governor, described here, Kinky Friedman says he’s close to starting a tour of visits with Texans about running for governor as a Democrat next year.
He forecasts an unorthodox—kind of like a moon shot—campaign strategy that would focus on rural voters who are far out-numbered by voters in the state’s urban centers.
Friedman told me today he’ll decide by the end of this month whether to start an exploratory committee—a step enabling him to raise money for a bid.
“It’s time to win,” Friedman said. “If I were to win the Democratic nomination, I have the best chance of winning” against Gov. Rick Perry or Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who are expected to face off in the 2010 GOP primary.
“I’m the only (prospective candidate) since Ann Richards who can excite the grass roots,” Friedman said. “If we run a generic Democrat, we’re going to get beat again.” Richards was governor from 1991 to 1995.
I asked him if he’d place Tom Schieffer of Fort Worth, the former ambassador, in the generic category; Schieffer started his Democratic gubernatorial committee on Monday. Friedman said he doesn’t know Schieffer.
So what’s he depending on before starting his committee?
Gov. Rick Perry is lending his support to a new foundation working to find a cure for a rare, inherited disorder called Batten disease.
Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle said the governor participated in a video for the Beyond Batten Disease Foundation, which is seeking to raise awareness about Batten and other rare diseases. The video, which may also become a public service announcement, is set to be made public this week, said Jeff Hunt, a spokesman for the foundation.
Batten disease is fatal and can lead to blindness, seizures, loss of motor skills and mental impairment, according to the foundation’s Web site.
Fort Worth lawyer Tom Schieffer, a former ambassador to Japan and Australia and baseball executive, stepped up in a blue business suit today and said he’s going to travel Texas exploring a run for governor next year as a Democrat. At a Capitol press conference, he also said he’s filing the required papers to start a gubernatorial campaign committee so he can raise money to fund his exploration.
“I expect after two or three months, I’ll make the final decision to run,” Schieffer said. “If this is going to happen, it’s going to happen because it’s become a cause, not a campaign.”
Fort Worth lawyer Tom Schieffer, who said Friday (in a Statesman article posted here) he might look into running for governor as a Democrat next year, plans to announce Monday he’s launching an exploratory committee to raise money and test his strength in the race expected to include Republican Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Austin lawyer Joe Longley said today.
Longley, a Schieffer confidant, said Schieffer will elaborate at an 11 a.m. Monday press conference at the Capitol.
Schieffer had said Friday he wanted to talk to his wife and son today before committing to a serious look at running for governor. By starting a committee, he’ll be able to raise campaign funds and talk openly about his candidacy.
Who the hey is Tom Schieffer? That’s one impression left by a poll of Texas voters by the Democratic outfit based in North Carolina that’s been posting results this week.
And Fort Worth’s Schieffer, a former ambassador to Australia and Japan, would have a tough time defeating either GOP Gov. Rick Perry or Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison for governor, according to Public Policy Polling. The firm tested Schieffer because he’s been quoted saying he might seek the Democratic nod for governor.
Some 43 percent of voters weren’t sure if they had a favorable or unfavorable impression of Schieffer, whose brother is Bob Schieffer, the CBS-TV newsman. Schieffer also was once a business partner of former President George W. Bush.
Hutchison leads Schieffer by 54-to-30 percent while Perry holds a 45-to-35 percent advantage, according to the poll.
The survey also looked at President Barack Obama’s approval rating in the state and found that 45 percent of voters approve of his job performance with 46 percent disapproving. His reviews are extremely polarized along party lines.
A Democratic pollster based in North Carolina says his poll of Texas Republicans shows U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison with a big lead on Gov Rick Perry for governor—the primary battle they stand to have next year.
“If the Republican primary were held today, Rick Perry’s tenure… would be coming to an end,” Raleigh-based Public Policy Polling said online today. Its survey suggests Perry trails Hutchison 56-31 percent among likely GOP primary voters.
The group polled 797 likely Republican primary voters from February 18-20. The
survey’s margin of error is +/-3.5%. Other factors, such as refusal to be interviewed and weighting, may introduce additional error that is more difficult to quantify.
Hutchison is viewed favorably by 75 percent of voters likely to vote in the Republican primary, while 60 percent have a positive opinion of Perry.
“Rick Perry is in grave danger of losing in the primary,” said Dean Debnam, president of
Public Policy Polling, with the big reason being Hutchison’s greater popularity.
“It would be hard for anyone to beat her in an election,” Debnam said.
(Unsaid: That’s before Perry’s camp tries to define Hutchison in the way that candidates “explain” opponents.)
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison R-Texas, has enlisted the political director of the Republican Party of Texas as her gubernatorial campaign’s communications director. Hans Klingler is expected to leave the party and join her Austin-based campaign in March.
Klingler (who’s related to the famous Klingler brother/quarterbacks) takes on the new job—which may require multiple vigorous exchanges with Gov. Rick Perry’s outfit—about 11 years after working as political director of Perry’s 1998 run for lieutenant governor; that’s the job Perry stepped up from when George W. Bush resigned as governor to move to Washington in late 2000.
According to a posting here, Klingler has long had a hand in Republican successes in Texas. He once worked for U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas. Past clients include Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. He also worked as an aide to various Texas House members.
I touched bases with Sen. Leticia Van de Putte today after fielding notice that former state Rep. Glen Maxey, D-Austin, is encouraging people to join a Facebook group devoted to drafting Van de Putte to run for governor next year. Keep a look out too for an Associated Press story exploring her career.
Van de Putte, essentially rehashing what she’s said before, told me this afternoon she hadn’t heard of the Facebook appeal and won’t think seriously about making a statewide run until after the legislative session ends June 2.
Interest in her potential underscores the reality that no Democrat of note has stepped forward about entering the 2010 governor’s race. It might even be that Texas has never been this close to a gubernatorial election without at least one major player in each party raring to go for it. At least, I can’t think of a similar circumstance in the past 30-plus years.
To be fair, Van de Putte hasn’t been quiet about possibly plunging into a statewide contest.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst reacted today to suggestions that federal stimulus money might be used to pay for the restoration of the fire-gutted Texas Governor’s Mansion:
“We can’t let the Battleship Texas sink … we can’t let the mansion stay in ruins …
“We’re going to have to repair this historical treasure, whether we take that dollar out of the stimulus or out of (general revenue).”
Facing a chorus of cash-strapped state agencies, the chairman of the budget-writing Senate Finance Committee suggested today that the pricey restoration of the fire-gutted historic Texas Governor’s Mansion should be paid for with federal stimulus money.
During questioning about the cost during a public hearing, Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, directed John Sneed, the State Preservation Board’s interim executive director, to “go find out if we can use the stimulus money to restore the mansion.”
“You’re not aware of any prohibition are you?” Ogden said.
“I’m not really an expert” on that money, Sneed responded.
“If you want to get this funded, you need to become one,” Ogden shot back.
Texas stands to receive as much as $16 billion in federal stimulus funds as part of a $787 billion measure signed into law by President Obama this afternoon.
Following the hearing, Sneed said he would begin researching Ogden’s directive. Previously, state funding had been requested to pay for $25 million of the projected $27 million cost, with private fundraising expected to cover the rest.
Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, said about $700 million included in the stimulus bill has been earmarked for unspecified public works projects, and thinks that’s the funds that Ogden has his eye on.
“Steve Ogden is a make-do guy,” Whitmire said. “It’s a very creative way to pay for the Mansion.”
Sens. Royce West, D-Dallas, and Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, said that with state finances so tight, thanks to the economic crash, the large price tag for the mansion restoration necessitates looking for funding sources other than the state’s general fund.
The mansion burned June 8 after a still-unidentified arsonist climbed a fence tossed a Molotov cocktail on the front porch. No arrests have yet been made.
“If they can find some stimulus money, then that’s great,” West said. But even at that, there’s still a question “whether the state should spend that much on restoring the mansion. That discussion is continuing.”
“It just kind of sticks in everybody’s craw how much money this will cost,” added Seliger.
At today’s hearing, Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, again questioned whether the state should relocate the governor’s home to another location and restore the mansion as a museum.
“We’re at a crossroads here,” Duncan said. “If we invest ($27) million and make it a more habitable and secure residence, why don;t we move away from that and use it as an historical residence.”
Sneed said that while a review of the mansion restoration project is underway — after the Senate Finance Committee members earlier this month criticized the proposed cost as too high — to purchase a secure site for a new governor’s residence may be just as costly as restoring the mansion as the official residence.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, slated to speak tonight in San Antonio and later this week in Denton County, opened the congressional recess from Washington by reminding news organizations today she’s got backing if she runs for governor from past presidents of the Texas Federation of Republican Women.
Her campaign touted endorsements from 11 past presidents of the Texas federation and presidents of the National Federation of Republican Women. They include Austin’s Gail Suttle, a hard-core supporter of Carole Keeton Strayhorn for governor in 2006, and Borah Van Dormolen of Salado, who lost last year to Cathie Adams of the Texas Eagle Forum in a race to serve on the Republican National Committee.
Rick Wiley of Hutchison’s campaign said Hutchison plans to be in Austin on Tuesday to work on fund-raising details. She plans to hold a fund-raiser in Dallas in early March, he said.
Could be that Congress is hearing plenty from constituents about the pending $800-billion-plus package sought by the Obama administration to juice the economy.
Then again, Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign created a Web site described as making sure opponents of the package are heard in the debate. On the “No Government Bailouts” site—here—foes can sign up and register opposition.
Perry spokesman Mark Miner said the campaign will get the names of people who sign up online to Washington, though Perry won’t be making a personal delivery.
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who’s said she’ll declare her candidacy for governor this summer, told reporters after an Austin appearance today that Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst showed bad judgment last week when they blasted bonuses paid to managers of University of Texas investments.
Hutchison said today: “The letter that was written the night before the hearing was not well thought out. And I think that it might have spurred some insensitive remarks that were made. And I think it was kind of a set up, and I think it was wrong.”
The letter from Perry and Dewhurst surfaced before businessman Robert Rowling, who chaired the University of Texas System Board of Regents’ panel monitoring the investments’ arm, was grilled Thursday by the Senate Finance Committee. Senators then heard Rowling vow to resign. He followed up with a letter of resignation from the board.
The Third Court of Appeals of Texas will hear oral arguments on Feb. 25 in an open records case filed by two newspaper companies to get access to the travel records of Department of Public Safety officers who protect Gov. Rick Perry.
A state district judge last year ruled in favor of the companies that own the Austin American-Statesman and the Houston Chronicle, ordering release of the documents.
The state appealed the judge’s order and argued releasing the records would jeopardize the governor’s security.
The state’s top two elected officials on Wednesday harshly criticized leaders of the University of Texas System’s outside investment company for moving to give more than $3 million in bonuses to staff members, including $1.05 million for the company’s CEO.
At issue are “performance incentive awards” approved by the board of the University of Texas Investment Management Company. Those awards were based on performance in the year that ended June 30, 2008.
Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said in a joint letter to the UTIMCO board Wednesday, “these decisions are irresponsible given the financial crisis that is spreading across our nation.”
“We can’t imagine how such compensation is justified considering that in the same month this meeting was held, reports surfaced that UTIMCO’s earnings for the year had dropped an estimated 23 percent,” Perry and Dewhurst wrote. “Second, we find it hardly defensible to issue bonuses of this size during a time when state agencies are being asked to tighten their belts.”
The two leaders pointed to a $1.05 million bonus for UTIMCO CEO Bruce Zimmerman and $2.3 million for other staff members.
Endowments and pension funds, such as the Teacher Retirement System and the Employees Retirement System, regularly give bonuses to top staff if performance goals are exceeded. Those goals are often judged not by overall earnings and losses, but performance as compared to other market indicators.
The bonuses in question were based on performance for the year ending June 30, 2008 — before the full collapse of the financial markets. During that time, UTIMCO’s Permanent University Fund had a return of 2 percent and the General Endowment Fund had a 2.4 percent return. That performance was in the top quarter of all endowments and pension funds nationwide.
The Permanent Univesity Fund contributes to the support of 18 institutions and six agencies in the UT and Texas A&M systems. The General Endowment Fund operates as an internal mutual fund and pays quarterly distributions to UT System components.
Perry and Dewhurst said they hoped to hear further explanation when UTIMCO leaders go before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday.
“In times like this, we expect leaders of our public investment funds to act with fiscal restraint and responsibility, especially when the funds you manage are posting double-digit losses,” they said.
The state’s top two elected officials on Wednesday harshly criticized leaders of the University of Texas System’s outside investment company for moving to give more than $3 million in bonuses to staff members, including $1.05 million for the company’s CEO.
At issue are “performance incentive awards” approved in November by the Compensation Committee of the University of Texas Investment Management Company.
Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said in a joint letter to the UTIMCO board Wednesday, “these decisions are irresponsible given the financial crisis that is spreading across our nation.” They said the full UTIMCO board should reject the committee’s recommendation.
“We can’t imagine how such compensation is justified considering that in the same month this meeting was held, reports surfaced that UTIMCO’s earnings for the year had dropped an estimated 23 percent,” Perry and Dewhurst wrote. “Second, we find it hardly defensible to issue bonuses of this size during a time when state agencies are being asked to tighten their belts.”
The two leaders pointed to a recommended $1.05 million bonus for UTIMCO CEO Bruce Zimmerman and $2.3 million for other staff members.
Perry and Dewhurst said they hoped to hear further explanation when UTIMCO leaders go before the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday.
“In times like this, we expect leaders of our public investment funds to act with fiscal restraint and responsibility, especially when the funds you manage are posting double-digit losses,” they said.
Gov. Rick Perry can count Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on his side for next year’s gubernatorial election, though that’s probably no guarantee that Republican women will stick by the fellow who won for governor in 2002 and 2006.
Palin endorsed him in a letter sent to Texas women last month —fetch it here.
It might have been a shock if Palin didn’t back Perry for re-election. After all, he celebrated the GOP vice presidential nominee after November’s presidential election while yielding his time with reporters to her at a Florida meeting of the Republican Governors Association (which he then chaired).
Arguably the most interesting aspect of Palin’s Perry-oration is its target audience, indicated in the letter’s opening: “Dear Texas Republican Women” (though I wonder if individual recipients will pause on the grammar; shouldn’t it start something like “Dear Fellow Republican Woman?”)
Perry’s camp said Palin’s letter was sent to members of the Texas Federation of Republican Women. Many in that crowd are likely to be considering, or leaning toward, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison for governor.
The letter never mentions Hutchison, but Palin notes Perry’s opposition to the Wall Street bailout that Congress and Hutchison approved.
Excerpt:
While a bunch of politicians have gone to Washington, hat in hand, seeking a bailout, Governor Perry has said we should stimulate the economy with tax cuts and maintain spending discipline. Rick Perry is true to conservative principles even when others think the party needs to go a different direction. I like that about him: he doesn’t care which way the wind blows, he acts on his beliefs.
Punchline:
That’s why I am supporting Governor Rick Perry for re-election. He does what is right regardless of whether it is popular. He walks the walk of a true conservative. And he sticks to his guns - and you know how I feel about guns!
The letter also celebrates job growth in Texas on Perry’s watch, his support for more domestic oil drilling and his anti-abortion beliefs.
Significantly, the letter stops short of asking for donations, which Perry can’t legally accept until after the gubernatorial veto period runs out in June. Instead, recipients can sign up as supporters.
That absent request indirectly underscores Hutchison’s advantage on Perry through early summer. Because she’s not a state-level officeholder, she can ask for money toward running for governor (and has been) while he must relent.
The arson-gutted Texas Governor’s Mansion will cost an estimated $27 million to restore to its former glory, officials confirmed this morning.
The first details of the long-awaited estimate were delivered to the Senate Finance Committee: $25 million in state funds, $2 million from private fundraising.
Included is a two-story addition, and a bunch of security upgrades including the closing Colorado Street in front of the mansion.
In addition to restoring the pre-Civil War manse, the oldest executive mansion still in use west of the Mississippi River, the cost estimate also includes funding for a list of security improvements.
Discussion by the committee is expected during a hearing this afternoon.
The mansion was heavily damaged by an arson fire June 8. Gov. Rick Perry and his wife were living elsewhere at the time because the historic building was undergoing $10 million in renovations.
The private fund-raising drive to restore the arson-burned Texas Governor’s Mansion looks like a cross-section of Texas, a new list of donors shows.
One of the smallest donations? Six bucks from a man who lists a state prison as his “organization.”
The largest? $250,000 from energy giant BP America.
Those details are contained in a list of individual donors, made public by Gov. Rick Perry’s office. Perry and his wife have given $5,000 so far, and pledged another $20,000.
“As the first lady has said, this (restoration project) is not about the Perry family, it’s about this truly historic building — and the list shows the variety of people who are contributing to the restoration fund,” said Allison Castle, a Perry press spokeswoman.
So far, 438 businesses and individuals have contributed just over $1.5 million, with another $1.5 million pledged, Castle said. No details of the pledges has been made public.
The circa-1856 mansion, the oldest executive mansion still in use west of the Mississippi River, was torched by an arsonist on June 8. No arrests have been made, as the investigation continues.
A cost estimate to restore the two-story brick landmark just southwest of the Texas Capitol has not been completed, officials said.
New details from the list: Former Gov. Bill Clements and his wife and former Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby’s family foundation have each donated $5,000, former Gov. Mark White is in for $1,000, the the family of Dan Moody, who was governor in the 1920s, $40,200.
Former Gov. Dolph Briscoe earlier wrote a $100,000 check.
Charles Butt, of HEB grocery fame, wrote a check for $200,000. A foundation established by the legendary, late Fort Worth oilman Sid Richardson contributed $100,000, as did oil titan ConocoPhillips.
Austin’s Michael and Susan Dell Foundation contributed $50,000, and so did the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, TXU chairman emeritus Erle Nye of Dallas, San Antonio insurance giant USAA and the Valero Energy Foundation.
The smallest contributions are for $2, from several individuals, and the lists includes many donations of from $10 to $100. County historical societies and preservation groups, small businesses and civic groups, political clubs, a Masonic lodge, even the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau also dot the list.
And the $3 gift — two of them, in fact, were made in the name of a Billy R. Sims, who listed his organization as “Allred Unit,” a prison near Wichita Falls.
Jason Clark, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said a Billy Ross Sims, 48, serving life for two Dallas murders, was assigned to the Allred Unit at the time the contributions were made.
Sims, imprisoned since 2001, could not be reached for comment.
First lady Anita Perry and the Independent Bankers Association of Texas announced an initiative Wednesday to raise funds for the fire-damaged governor’s mansion through collection boxes in local banks.
“In times of disaster and tough times, people tend to step up to the plate,” Perry said in a press conference.
The organization represents more than 2,000 banks in Texas. Perry said she hopes the posters and boxes will bring in several hundreds of thousands of dollars from Texas community members.
More than $3 million has been collected so far through private donations to rebuild the historical building, Perry said. The governor’s office previously said the Perry family pledged $20,000 to the restoration effort, which may take about two years to complete.
Perry would not comment on the total cost of the undertaking. In terms of how much more money needs to be mustered, “it would be in the millions,” she said.
An appropriations request will also go to the Legislature this session to set aside funds in the budget to fix the mansion.
In his State of the State address today, Gov. Rick Perry touted a legislative proposal that would require women seeking an abortion to first have an ultrasound.
The proposal by Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, and state Rep. Frank Corte Jr., R-San Antonio — which also calls for women to listen to the fetal heartbeat — passed the Senate in 2007 but stalled in the House. The bill says that it would not be mandatory for women to view the ultrasound image.
Perry urged lawmakers to support the legislation, calling it “another layer of protection for the most vulnerable Texans.”
“Issues of this complexity and moral weight are the sort of thing that we are sent here to address,” he said.
Patrick said hearing Perry push his plan is “music to these conservative ears.”
But Lesley Ramsey, director of the Texas Association of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, later said that the proposal “does not have the woman’s health or best interests in mind.”
“This legislation is a political tactic aimed at appeasing the governor’s primary base,” Ramsey said.
Five pages. That is all the space it took for Gov. Rick Perry to lay out his version of the $171 billion budget for 2010-2011.
He saved some paper by not writing his own budget. Instead, Perry adopted the budget submitted last week by the Legislative Budget Board.
That is a deviation from past years when he has brought forth his own draft, such as in 2003 when Perry offered a budget with all zeroes in response to the state’s $10 billion shortfall.
Perry said in Tuesday’s speech that he believes “Texas is best served if the governor and the Legislature work together over the next 126 days to jointly craft a budget that reflects our principled commitments to this state.”
He does pull out some budget priorities where he would like to see a boost in funding, such as teacher incentive pay and economic development money.
Gov. Rick Perry called for exempting more small businesses from the revised franchise tax approved in 2006.
“Our guiding priority must be shrinking, not expanding, the burden on small businesses that are the backbone of our economy,” Perry said in his State of the State address Tuesday.
Perry said businesses with less than $1 million in taxable revenue should not pay the tax. Currently, the threshold for a total exemption is $300,000 while those with revenues of less than $900,000 pay less than 1 percent tax rate paid by other businesses subject to the tax.
The Texas chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business quickly sent a release welcoming Perry’s recommendation.
“An increase in the exemption will send the message that businesses, start-up companies and aspiring entrepreneurs will not be harmed by state government while they are small and struggling to grow their business,” said Will Newton, NFIB/Texas executive director.
The tax is an integral part of the 2006 tax swap that reduced school property taxes. Lawmakers might be reluctant to make significant changes to the business since it brought in $4.5 billion in its first year, $1.4 billion less than $5.9 billion projected expected.
But expanding the small business exemption to those with less than $1 million would have a relatively small impact on the total amount brought in by the tax while providing relief to a lot of taxpayers.
In the first year of the revised tax, businesses with less than $1 million in revenue paid just $82.7 million — 2 percent of the total — yet they constituted almost 80 percent of the taxpayers, according to an analysis by the Texas Comptroller.
Gov. Rick Perry is set to deliver his State of the State address at 11 a.m. Tuesday in the House chamber.
All indications are he’ll talk about how much better the Texas economy is doing than other states, how lawmakers need to hold the line on spending, incentive funding in education and that he wants to put more money toward border security. Don’t be surprised to hear some Washington-bashing, too.
Please comment below: What issues do you think he most needs to address, and what does he need to say about them?
Several hundred Texans filled a hotel conference room in downtown Austin today in anticipation of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, challenging Gov. Rick Perry in the March 2010 GOP primary.
Her campaign summit amounted to part one of what’ll be a two-part day of muscle-flexing by the two; Perry is slated to address pro-life, anti-abortion marchers this afternoon outside the Capitol.
Before a four-hour closed-door gathering expected to feature polling on behalf of her effort and discussion of fund-raising, Hutchison spoke with reporters without criticizing Perry directly.
On issues over which they could tussle, she said she’s comfortable with her record on abortion issues and said that she’d be happy to debate Perry over her initial vote for a bailout/rescue of Wall Street; at the time, Perry said he opposed the move.
She revisited her desire for Texas to have more top-tier universities. She said Rice University should have incentives and support to increase its capacity, presumably meaning greater student enrollment.
Hutchison said: “People are looking for positive, happy warriors. And I’m a positive happy warrior.”
Asked if there’s any reason at this point for news organizations to say she’s not running for governor, Hutchison replied: “No.”
“I will have a formal announcement this summer, but in our state you have to file legal papers before you can ever ask someone to support you for governor.” She started a gubernatorial campaign committee in early December, saying then she was exploring a run for governor.
She said today: “I thought the signals were pretty clear, but it takes some people longer” to understand. “I’m not going to make a formal announcement until everything is in good shape and well-placed and we have time to contact everyone that we want to have on our team. We haven’t had time yet, but I think we’re making a very good beginning.”
Hutchison reiterated she hasn’t decided whether to resign her seat to run for governor, though she said she still could resign toward the end of this year.
U.S. Rep. John Carter, R-Williamson County, was in the Hutchison crowd. He sat with Hutchison at her press conference along with U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, and former Texas Reps. Henry Bonilla and Dick Armey. Others at a long table included Edd Hendee, a conservative Houston radio talk-show host, and Pat Oxford, a Houston lawyer co-chairing her campaign with Cathy Obriotti Green of San Antonio.
Carter, who likely counts on help from Hutchison in Washington on spending items he shepherds as a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said: “Her time has come.”
But he conceded a Hutchison-Perry showdown could be tough, saying: “It’s going to be a scrap.”
During a celebration in Seguin on Wednesday over Caterpillar Inc. intending a local project promising 1,400 jobs, Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst looked tight—as in close-knit. Each GOP leader praised the other one, as expected perhaps, and they jovially paused in hard hats (and by the way, I am nudged by a Perry aide that their matching ties are green, not yellow as I earlier posted):
Neither one strayed from saying the Texas economy is sailing compared to those in most states.
Perhaps their togetherness signals a legislative session that’ll lack in daylight between them—not a bad idea when the state’s senior U.S. senator is likely watching for conflict.
After the outdoor do, Peter Holt, a Republican benefactor and owner of the San Antonio Spurs, said he expects Perry and Dewhurst to hatch ideas related to ramping up the state’s commitment to higher education, though he didn’t have details.
“How are we going to get higher education more affordable again?” Holt said. “I think that’s going to be the (leaders’) focus over the next several years.”
Holt agreed that answering that question has been a perennial challenge.
Wearing matching dark suits, blue shirts and yellow ties, Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst donned yellow hard hats to help Seguin-area officials and hundreds of residents celebrate the planned arrival of a Caterpillar engines plant expected to deliver 1,400 jobs.
Perry, responding to a query from Kelley Shannon of the Associated Press, said he has little initial concern that his prized Texas Enterprise Fund providing incentives to companies that bring jobs to Texas won’t be funded by lawmakers writing the state budget this year.
Jason Embry wrote in today’s “First Reading” (peek here):
There could be trouble on the horizon for Perry… The base budgets released Tuesday by the House and Senate cut funding for his Emerging Technology Fund, and the LBB staff recommended more oversight of the program.
Perry didn’t refer to the technology fund directly, but said his support for that fund and the enterprise fund, created by the 2003 Legislature, hasn’t diminished. Perry said: “It’s hard to argue that it’s not working. What that amount is going to be, we’ll prioritize. It may be more, it may be less. But I can assure you the Legislature understands the importance of that tool.”
Dewhurst said money will be placed in both funds.
On a lighter note, Perry said he and Dewhurst deliberately coordinated their colors for the occasion featuring the Seguin High School band, choir and cheerleaders. They checked with each other this morning before heading south from Austin.
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s committee to explore a 2010 run for governor entered 2009 with nearly $8 million cash on hand. That total outflanked GOP Gov. Rick Perry’s $6.6 million balance as of Dec. 31, but she raised only a sliver from new donors.
Hutchison announced her gubernatorial committee Dec. 3 by saying she’d soon transfer $1 million from her federal campaign kitty to her state committee treasury. In a finance report submitted today, she reveals that she made two more December transfers totaling $6.96 million.
The moved money—nearly $8 million that Hutchison cannot shuttle back to her federal campaign fund—signals she’s truly not running for re-election in 2012, as she has said. It also arguably demonstrates a strong lean on her part toward taking on Perry in her party’s March 2010 primary—despite her decisions to bow out of showdowns in 2002 and 2006.
The transfers made up the bulk of nearly $7.9 million cash on hand Hutchison had in her state campaign fund as of Dec. 31. Her cash-on-hand could give her fundraising momentum, especially because she is permitted to raise money for her state committee during the legislative session that started this week while Perry, like all elected state officials, cannot legally do so.
But her finance report could leave questions about her initial fundraising oomph. That’s because her state committee raised $31,976 in new money in December, counting $20,271 in donated legal fees—a skinny enough haul to engage Mark Miner, Perry’s chief spokesman. (This is a corrected, updated sentence.)
Miner said of Hutchison’s start: “It’s clear her campaign is already faltering when they have to use their federal campaign dollars to bail out their dismal state efforts. It’s just like a Washington politician to use money intended for one purpose and spend it on another.”
Perhaps anticipating questions about her fundraising prowess, Hutchison’s committee said that as a leader of the Republican party, Hutchison is known for the time and support she provides to fellow Republican candidates. This past fall, the committee said, she assisted many state, local and national GOP candidates by hosting fundraisers for them.
Hutchison said with the finance report filing, “we are starting fundraising in earnest, and making a major step toward a campaign for governor. In the coming weeks, I will be taking additional steps toward a race for governor. This is a critical time for our state and nation. I am going to be traveling our state, talking to Texans from all walks of life, and working hard to make certain that the wisdom and opinion of people across our state is heard.”
Republican Gov. Rick Perry is reporting today that he entered 2009 with $6.6 million cash in his re-election kitty after raising $4.7 million from July through December. That’s up from nearly $3 million he had in his campaign treasury at the end of June.
Perry’s contributions and expenditure report surfaced this morning amid expectations Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison will reveal she’s transferred millions of dollars from her federal kitty to the state committee she established Dec. 3 to explore running for governor in 2010.
If she has made — or is making — a big transfer, the message from her side will be blunt: Game on for a Republican primary showdown with Perry.
I expect the retort from Perry’s camp will be that she made the shift of funds mainly to overshadow weak fund-raising in the wake of her December announcement. Their likely point: They don’t have access to a pile of money raised to run for the Senate.
Houston Mayor Bill White this evening declined to confirm an online report that he’s decided to offer himself as a U.S. Senate candidate.
‘l’ll keep you posted on those future plans. But for now, I’m focusing on keeping Houston moving,” White told me via an online exchange.
Separately, he said through his spokesman, Frank Michel: “I’m still looking at it (the Senate possibility). I haven’t made a decision.”
I contacted his office after The Houston Chronicle quoted anonymous sources saying White has resolved to run for the Senate and plans to announce as much next week. That story is here.
If White jumps in, he’d join John Sharp, the former state comptroller, as a major Democratic figure committed to chasing the seat that might not open up until Hutchison’s term enters its last year in 2012. Hutchison, however, has said she might resign late next year to run for governor in 2010.
It’s not a holiday letter—more like a call for cash.
Gov. Rick Perry appeals here for donations to his political kitty before Friday’s legal deadline for state officeholders to accept contributions. The deadline kicks in because the 2009 legislative session starts a month later.
Perry’s letter has got some vinegar plus a couple of spelling errors. Maybe he needed an editor.
Gov. Rick Perry says he’s sticking with who brung him.
That is, he’s going to proceed toward his bid for re-election in 2010 keeping New Hampshire-based consultant Dave Carney and pollster Mike Baselice and TV advertising man David Weeks, both of Austin, on his team.
This isn’t news—that would have been if Perry was divorcing one of his sidekicks.
But I wonder if it popped today partly because word surfaced yesterday that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s chief of staff, Marc Short, is taking a job with another office. If my hunch on timing is right, Perry’s announcement amounts to a finger flick at the senator who might challenge him for governor.
Mark Miner, Perry’s spokesman, said not so.
The point, he said, is to show the governor’s political team is poised for a re-election run.
Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, in Austin today for a motivational seminar, said that nationally, the Republican Party needs to welcome voters who may disagree with others over social issues such as abortion. The former mayor of New York, who floundered this year as a GOP presidential candidate, favors abortion rights himself.
He said today it’s too early for him to be thinking about running for governor of New York in 2010 or for president in 2012.
Giuliani, a partner in Houston-based Bracewell & Giuliani, called his leading Texas supporter, Gov. RIck Perry, an effective governor who’s part of the party’s national debate.
Republican Govs. Rick Perry and South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford sound off in today’s Wall Street Journal against federal bailouts of all kinds—and Perry’s spokeswoman, Allison Castle, said today that includes a plan floated by Democrats in Washington to send hundreds of billions of federal dollars to aid budget-strapped states.
Perry, slated to join other governors visiting with President-elect Obama in Philadelphia today, might directly tell Obama he’s not interested in a pile of federal money, Castle said, though she cautioned she doesn’t know if he’ll be given a chance to say so.
“He will say it if the topic comes up,” Castle said. “Certainly, if he’s asked.”
A day after Texas Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn announced an extension of federal aid related to Hurricane Ike — and Gov. Rick Perry’s response that the senators spoke prematurely — the White House last week said that the aid was coming.
President Bush made additional disaster assistance available to Texas communities affected by Hurricane Ike from Sept. 7 to Oct. 2 by authorizing an extension of 100 percent federal funding for debris removal, including direct federal assistance.
Peek at our updated Hutchison-Cornyn-Perry blog on this topic here.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry plans to be among more than 40 governors in Philadelphia on Tuesday giving President-elect Obama a briefing on the impact of economic troubles on state budgets.
According to published reports, the big do will be hosted by Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, chairman of the National Governors Association, and Gov. Jim Douglas (R., Vt.), its co-chairman.
There’ll be a hitch in Perry’s whine, though, because he won’t be complaining about the Texas economy.
Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle said Perry plans to revisit his faith in low taxes, limited spending and a reasonable regulatory climate. “Government doesn’t need to spend every penny that it has,” she pre-echoed. And “Washington has no business bailing out irresponsible companies.”
Including, say, the big automobile manufacturers?
“It would apply to every industry,” Castle said.
Perry may have previewed his message in remarks delivered at a Nov. 13 Republican Governors Association dinner in Miami. He told GOP governors there: “Shoveling billions of taxpayer dollars into companies that have essentially run themselves out of business is not a conservative value. Bailouts fly in the face of the free market principles that made our nation and our economy great, pander to well-connected special interests, and interfere with proven economic cycles that lead to innovation, new growth and future prosperity.”
That speech, by the way, had one dig at Obama: “Our country may have elected a president on the basis of his pretty words, but we all know that it takes more than words to govern.”
On Tuesday, Perry could have a little fun at the NGA’s expense by recommending that other states follow his lead by quitting the governor’s association. The Texas leader made that move some years ago.
Obama’s campaign announced today that prior to the bipartisan governors’ meeting, President-elect Obama will meet informally with members of the Democratic Governors Association in Philadelphia.
Texas U.S. Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn announced today the federal government has decided to pay 100 percent of the costs for debris removal in Texas counties affected by Hurricane Ike for a six-month period dating back to Oct. 26.
“This decision was made by… President (Bush) and will extend into the next administration,” Hutchison says in the senators’ joint press release. “After this six-month period, we will assess debris removal efforts to see if additional federal assistance is needed.”
But Gov. Rick Perry’s office later advised that no such decision has been reached.
Perry spokesman Mark Miner called the senators’ press release “factually inaccurate.” Spokeswoman Allison Castle said FEMA has given the state no such notice and the White House is unaware of the decision.
What the hey?
Hutchison spokesman Matt Mackowiak said Hutchison was assured this morning by Michael Chertoff, the U.S. secretary of Homeland Security, that the six-month extension is coming. He said too that FEMA’s administrator talked about the extension in Beaumont today.
Mackowiak added later Tuesday evening that Hutchison didn’t get assurance from Chertoff, but did discuss the issue. He stressed that the extension was announced in Beaumont, though there wasn’t immediately a local news report on it.
“It could be finalized by late tonight or tomorrow morning,” Mackowiak said. “The final notification will come from the White House. Our expectation was it would come today.”
UPDATE: The next day, Wednesday, the president made additional disaster assistance available to Texas communities affected by Hurricane Ike during the period of Sept. 7 to Oct. 2, 2008, by authorizing an extension of 100 percent federal funding for debris removal, including direct federal assistance.
Miner, sticking by his initial comments, said Perry’s office believes that the senators jumped the gun by announcing the aid before it had been approved by FEMA and the White House. Hutchison’s office had no immediate additional comment.
Perry last week aired disappointment at what he called the federal government’s lack of response to the state’s demand for 18 months of relief for debris removal, reconstruction and other hurricane-related needs.
A fair bet: The cost of Hurricane Ike’s wrath will be the subject of state-federal wrestling for months, especially during the 2009 legislative session starting in January. Such fussing could prove vivid if statewide elected leaders — all of them Republicans — disagree over how things are shaking out in Washington.
Could be too that disagreements extend to the hustings in the 2010 election year, when Hutchison could be challenging Perry for governor.
I write in my column this week, here, about Dallas lawyer Ken Emanuelson launching a Web site pitching Michael Williams, chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, for the U.S. Senate.
Williams ranks, of course, among many possible successors to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, who could resign her seat to gear up for a 2010 run for governor.
And he won’t necessarily have support from all quarters.
Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, a fellow Republican, rates Williams’ endorsement of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani for president as a weak point.
Calling Williams a “great guy and a tremendous asset to our party,” Patterson said his endorsement of Giuliani, a “pro-choice and rabidly anti-Second Amendment candidate for president, will pose a problem for him in a primary or special election. One can’t help but wonder if Michael’s endorsement was because Rudy was thought at that time to be the inevitable nominee, and being with the winner became more important than principle.”
GOP Gov. Rick Perry would likely appoint an interim senator after Hutchison’s early resignation. And it seems unlikely he’d hold a Giuliani endorsement against anyone. Perry, like Williams and State Comptroller Susan Combs, initially endorsed Giuliani for president.
Generally, speculation has centered on Hutchison resigning as soon as June.
But I heard a different scenario from a Republican operative that bears chewing over.
It could be that Hutchison stirs the waters by forming an exploratory committee in December or so to look into running for governor. She then hints or says that she won’t resign until late 2009 at the earliest.
Such timing would still allow her to focus on the 2010 campaign year while also preventing any foe from both running in the special election to succeed her in the Senate and then (after a loss) turning around to run for governor in the same field she hopes to lead. Depending on the timing of her resignation, it if happens, party candidate filing deadlines would prevent someone from doubling up, so to speak.
Emanuelson, by the way, said he’s never voted for Perry. Speaking for himself and not for the effort to draft Williams as a senator, Emanuelson said he lately has misgiving about Perry’s vision of toll roads criss-crossing Texas with the state acquiring farm and ranch properties to put together each route.
Emanuelson said that if Hutchison goes for governor, “she’s probably got it. It’s really difficult to think of somebody really challenging her for it.”
Houston Mayor Bill White, whose last term runs through December 2009, intends to address his post-mayoral political goals within the next few weeks, an aide said today.
“He’s going to make a decision in the near future,” said Michael Moore, White’s chief of staff. “It will be based on where he could do the most for Texas with his experience and abilities.”
I touched bases with Moore while preparing a column running in Thursday’s newspaper on jockeying among Texans who might want to succeed U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, if she resigns in advance of running for governor in 2010.
Moore said White, who wasn’t immediately available, is talking to people around Texas by telephone, sounding out his prospects. Most observers expect White to make a try for the Senate or for governor.
White’s goal is to settle his plans well before the end of this year, Moore said. “Days,” Moore said, “not weeks.”
White, a Democrat, will be taking a calculated risk if he airs his plans before the new year.
An outright declaration for governor, say, would put GOP Gov. Rick Perry and Hutchison on early notice of his seriousness—likewise giving White ample time to plan his run. But he’d also be putting anything he does as mayor in his last year in office in an especially political light, including anything the city seeks from the 2009 Legislature.
Then again, White’s pending decision could be less dramatic.
He might simply say he’s ruling out a position in President Obama’s cabinet and/or a bid for the Senate. Such a move would leave him plenty of time to mull a 2010 run for governor without jeopardizing his actions as mayor through 2009.
I may be wrong, but I distinctly remember Gov. Rick Perry assuming the chairmanship of the Republican Governors Association last year with the expectation he would serve two years in that role.
I know it’s absolutely true the association changed its rules in early 2007 to allow chairs to serve up to two years.
Dave Carney, Perry’s outside political consultant, advises that Perry has planned to yield the chairmanship for at least six weeks—even putting together the slate of officers chosen this morning.
“We have a ton of governors who want to serve,” Carney said. “With the (Texas legislative) session in ‘09, he never intended to serve two years as chair.”
Turns out too that The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder had Perry bowing out in an October post.
In a press release issued earlier today, the association said South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was elected by GOP governors as the new chairman with Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour becoming vice chairman.
Perry is dubbed the finance chairman with other governors filling other roles.
The word is out that Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is chairing the annual meeting of the Republican Governors Association in Miami, will hold a press conference Thursday morning with other governors including Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the former GOP vice presidential nominee.
Count on them to tell observers that Washington is different from state capitals. Spending is out of control. Republican leaders have lost touch with basic conservative principles. And the future of the party lies with state leaders such as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal.
Not expected: Particularly new policy ideas, though one never knows what leaders say at press conferences.
The Washington Post’s busiest political blogger did not list Texas Gov. Rick Perry among the nation’s top Republican governors to watch. Chris Cillizza’s list is topped instead by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, followed by Govs. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, Sarah Palin of Alaska, Mark Sanford of South Carolina and Haley Barbour of Mississippi.
Cillizza notes, though, that the Republican Governors Association meets next week in Miami. Perry chairs that group.
But U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, told a luncheon crowd at the University of Texas post-election conference on politics that she knew Sen. John McCain was in trouble when Sen. Barack Obama won the “Krispy Kreme” donut vote.
Her words: “I knew that it was going to be a bad night when the results of the Krispy Kreme election were announced and Obama had won. If John McCain couldn’t take the donut-eaters conference, I knew that we were lost.”
I couldn’t find an online description of a Krispy Kreme vote, though this site suggests giveaways of donuts and Starbucks’ coffee fueled Obama’s big day.
As I type, Hutchison is a few minutes into her remarks and hasn’t re-hinted at her desire to run for governor in 2010.
Will you have your fill of politics once Tuesday’s election is over?
For everyone needing more to chew on, the University of Texas has pulled together a day-long gathering Thursday featuring at least two possible candidates for governor in 2010: U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and Houston Mayor Bill White, a Democrat. State Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, also is expected as part of a panel.
In a surprise shakeup, former state homeland security chief and gubernatorial confidant Jay Kimbrough will take over Monday as chief of staff for Gov. Rick Perry, officials said.
Brian Newby, who had been Perry’s chief of staff, was named Wednesday by Perry to co-lead the Hurricane Ike Recovery and Coordination Effort. Newby was named chief of staff in July 2007, replacing longtime political adviser and confidante Deirdre Delisi, who Perry has since appointed to the Texas Transportation Commission.
Kimbrough, deputy chancellor and general counsel of Texas A&M University System, had served twice in recent years as Perry’s deputy chief of staff. In 2007, he made headlines as the hard-charging first conservator of the troubled Texas Youth Commission —a post to which Perry appointed him to begin cleaning up a sex-abuse and official cover-up scandal.
“I am excited that Jay is returning to my staff,” Perry said in a statement. “He is a man of integrity with a proven track record and my complete trust. Jay is a decorated combat veteran, a man of action and sound judgment, and will help lead us through the upcoming session.”
In December 2002, after serving as Texas’ first homeland security director, Kimbrough was named deputy attorney general for criminal justice by Attorney General Greg Abbott. In that post, Kimbrough continued to coordinate homeland security efforts for the state, working directly with the governor.
In the 1990s, Kimborough served then-Gov. George Bush during the conservatorship of the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse (TCADA). That agency was placed in conservatorship amid financial irregularities.
Kimbrough previously served as director of the Governor’s Criminal Justice Division and since 1966 has held a variety of posts in federal, state and local government.
A decorated Vietnam veteran, Kimbrough was awarded the Purple Heart for his service in the Marine Corps and served as a prosecutor in the U.S. Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He also is a former county judge and county attorney in Bee County. He also has served as the executive director of the Texas Commission on Private Security and TCADA.
Gov. Rick Perry is sending mixed signals on how he thinks Congress should act on the financial rescue plan that the Senate is considering tonight.
Earlier today, he put out this statement:
“In a free market economy, government should not be in the business of using taxpayer dollars to bail out corporate America. Congress needs to take off its partisan gloves and work together to bring both short and long term stability to the credit markets. They need to stop blaming each other and start thinking about solutions that put the taxpayers of this country first.”
One could reasonably conclude, by virtue of the fact that he said government should not use taxpayer dollars to bail out corporate America, that Perry was therefore against the rescue plan.
But earlier in the day, Perry, the head of the Republican Governors Association, and West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, head of the Democratic Governors Association, sent out a joint letter to Congress urging them to “leave partisanship at the door and pass an economic recovery package.”
The letter does not explicitly state that Congress should pass the bill before the Senate tonight, but it uses very similar language as those who have been urging passage of the so-called bailout plan this week.
Here’s a key part of their short letter: “It is time for Washington, D.C. to step up, be responsible and do what’s in the best interest of American taxpayers and our economy.”
They also said, “Americans across the country and in every demographic are feeling the pinch. If Congress does not act soon, the situation will grow appreciably worse. It’s time for leadership. Congress needs to act now.”
We sought clarification from Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle about whether Perry supports or opposes the Senate plan. She didn’t offer much.
“As the governor’s statement said, they need to take off the partisan gloves and work together to bring both short-term and long-term solutions to the credit markets and protect taxpayers,” Castle said. “The senators have to make their own decisions.”
Well, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison made the decision to respond to Perry’s solo statement.
Said Hutchison spokesman Matt Mackowiak, “Texans can only conclude that Governor Perry opposes the sales tax deduction, protecting them from the Alternative Minimum Tax, extending tax credits for refinery expansion and providing over $600 million in tax credits to help rebuild Texas communities damaged by Hurricane Ike, all of which are contained in this bill.”
Hutchison is voting for the rescue plan. She’s also likely to run for governor in 2010, an office that Perry may run for again himself.
With Hurricane Ike bearing down on Texas, and heavy rain forecast for Austin this weekend, the arson-gutted Governor’s Mansion should have a temporary roof in place by Friday, officials confirmed this afternoon.
Months of delays in installing a temporary roof on the historic structure — the oldest continuously occupied executive mansion west of the Mississippi — had been the focus of increasing criticism in recent weeks after rains in early August soaked some interior portions. Historic preservation groups had decried the lack of fast action to install a temporary roof.
John Sneed, the new interim director of the State Preservation Board, the agency that is overseeing the project, said today that construction started Tuesday on a large wood-frame roof structure that will be covered with plywood, then tar paper and then a waterproof tarp.
The temporary roof structure will be supported by temporary shoring installed inside the 152-year-old building, and not on the mansion’s brick walls that engineers earlier feared could have been weakened in the June 8 fire.
“It means … we will offer substantial protection from water infiltration,” Sneed said. “Things will be protected.”
The temporary roof will cover the top of the two-story building’s original 1852 section, Sneed said, and a waterproof tarp will protect the 1914 addition until a temporary roof can be completed over it, as well.
As an added protection, he said a special guttering system is being installed “so if water does get in, it will not harm anything.” Windows are also being sealed to ensure no water comes in there.
“We are very pleased with the progress made on this roof” in such a short time, Sneed said, crediting the expedited installation to the newly hired restoration project manager, Dealey Herndon, whose hiring was announced Monday.
With 35 years’ experience in historic preservation and 15 years’ experience in construction and restoration project management, Herndon is no stranger to high-profile restoration jobs.
From 1991 to 1995, she served as executive director of the Preservation Board during the $183 million restoration and expansion of the Texas Capitol. After that, she was a principal in an Austin-based consulting and construction management firm that handled several large restoration projects.
Cost of the temporary roof was not immediately available. Officials earlier said the costs of the fire cleanup and safeguarding the mansion until its restoration can begin. The mansion was undergoing a $10 million renovation project at the time it was torched June 8 by an arsonist who remains at large.
With Texas in the cross hairs of Hurricane Gustav, Gov. Rick Perry has suspended plans to attend next week’s Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.
Perry’s press secretary Allison Castle said this morning the governor was to host the Texas delegation’s Monday prayer breakfast, and was to address the convention.
“At this point, he’s not going,” Castle said. But if Gustav changes its path or the storm diminishes, she said, Perry could resume his earlier plans.
Mark Miner, former communications director to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, today got a promotion: the same job with Gov. Rick Perry.
Allison Castle was elevated from Perry’s deputy press secretary to press secretary.
She replaces Robert Black, who is leaving at the end of the month to start a public affairs consulting business. As press secretary, Black had also served as Perry’s communications director.
Miner served as Dewhurst’s director of communications during the 2005 and 2007 legislative sessions. After leaving Dewhurst’s employ, he worked in the private public relations field.
Miner previously worked as communications director for Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore. Before that, he served as director of communications for the Republican National Committee and worked in several campaigns in Virginia and California.
He is a 1987 communications graduate of Michigan State University.
Castle has served as a deputy press secretary for Perry since August 2007. She is a biology graduate of the University of Texas at Austin.
In announcing Miner and Castle, Perry also said that Katherine Cesinger will return to his press office as deputy press secretary to replace Castle. Cesinger has been serving as communications director for the Governor’s Competitiveness Council.
Cesinger will replace Krista Piferrer, who is leaving to become communications director for Baptist Child and Family Services in San Antonio.
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is wrapping up a press tour of Southeast Texas, her spokesman said by e-mail this afternoon. And no one in her realm will comment on a remark by an adviser to Gov. Rick Perry that she won’t challenge Perry for governor in 2010, Hutchison’s Matt Mackowiak said.
Dave Carney, Perry’s longtime political consultant, told me the other day that Perry, who has said he’ll seek a third full term in two years, is focused on raising millions of dollars and crafting a strong plan for a general-election showdown against a Democrat.
“Fundraising is the least of our problems,” Carney said. “I’m anticipating an aggressive general election. I’m not anticipating a problem in the primary.”
Carney said that until Hutchison does something beyond privately telling activists she’s inclined to run for governor, skepticism should reign.
“Until she actually does something real — resigns or runs — people will always be skeptical because we’ve been down this road,” Carney said, a reference to Hutchison’s looks at running for guv in 2002 and 2006.
When I reminded Carney that at least a few Capitol observers doubt Perry will follow through with his declared plans to run again, he replied: “The political chattering class has this inability to believe anybody would say what they believe or what they plan. He absolutely is going to run.”
Hutchison, meanwhile, stopped by a replica of the Governor’s Mansion in Liberty this afternoon.
Maybe she pointed out it’s in better shape than the Austin one, which was attacked by an arsonist in June. (Peek at the replica here.)
As expected around the Capitol, Gov. Rick Perry named Hope Andrade today to succeed Phil Wilson as the Texas secretary of state.
Perry’s office said the new secretary, whose full name is Esperanza “Hope” Andrade of San Antonio, started immediately. As secretary, she’ll serve as the state’s chief elections officer, the governor’s liaison on border and Mexican affairs, and Texas’ chief protocol officer for both state and international matters. The office also serves as the formal repository for official and business records, publishes government rules and regulations, keeps the state seal and attests to the governor’s signature on official documents.
Perry loosed the announcement this afternoon with Hurricane Dolly coming ashore.
UPDATE: His spokeswoman, Allison Castle, said the announcement had been set for more than a week. It followed Andrade’s private swearing-in by Perry this afternoon.
“The bottom line is the wheels of state government don’t stop turning,” Castle said.
She said Perry intends to visit the Rio Grande Valley in the wake of the hurricane Thursday. He is scheduled to start a family vacation next week.
I hear that Hope Andrade, a former member of the Texas Transportation Commission, is in Gov. Rick Perry’s sights as his choice to succeed the departed Phil Wilson as Texas secretary of state.
“It’s the worst-kept secret in town,” a Republican in the know said today.
That said, I couldn’t confirm the development this morning.
Andrade didn’t immediately return a call for comment. Perry’s office had no comment.
The state senator who would be consulted by Perry if Andrade is his pick insists he doesn’t know where she lives.
Boerne, near San Antonio, a Web search indicates.
Maybe state Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, was joshing with me.
Andrade, an entrepreneur appointed to the commission by Perry in 2003, served as the in-the-crosshair’d panel’s chair from January until her departure April 30. Her position on the five-member body was filled by Deirdre Delisi, Perry’s former chief of staff.
State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, said she’d welcome Andrade if she proves Perry’s choice. “I was hoping that he would tap her for something; she just has so much credibility,” Van de Putte said, adding that Andrade is “savvy about the border,” a factor that could help in the international relations that go into the job.
Andrade could be the second woman and second Hispanic chosen by Perry as secretary of state. The previous Latino was Henry Cuellar, a Democrat who went on to win a U.S. House seat. The previous woman was former state Rep. Gwyn Shea.
Two former governors and members of five former First Families are joining First Lady Anita Perry’s private fund-raising push to restore the arson-gutted Texas Governor’s Mansion.
At a Capitol press conference late this morning, former Gov. Dolph Briscoe presented Perry with a $100,000 check for the fund, which was launched on Tuesday. He joked that the amount was just a pittance of former Gov. Bill Clements, a retired billionaire Dallas oilman who succeeded him in office, will probably contribute.
“I wanted to get in early,” he said. “I was hoping Bill Clements would be here, my very, very good friend, because I know he’s going to put in many times what I did.”
Clements was not present.
Clements, a Republican who replaced Democrat Briscoe in 1979, was instrumental in restoring the Mansion during his first term. He served a second term, after Mark White, from 1987-91.
Other governors and first families in attendance said they plan to contribute, as well.
“(Did) you bring the checkbook?” White joked as his wife, former First Lady Linda Gale White, was introduced, after Briscoe made his surprise presentation.
During the brief ceremony, Perry read a letter from First Lady Laura Bush supporting the restoration project.
Perry said all contributions to the special fund — corporate and private — will be disclosed publicly. The fund-raising goal has not been set, pending the completion of a restoration plan by preservation architects and a decision by lawmakers on how much they want to appropriate.
Asked whether the Mansion, once restored, would become a museum with the governor relocated elsewhere, Perry said her feeling is that it should remain the official residence of Texas’ chief executive. It is the oldest executive mansion west of the Mississippi in continuous use “and I think … it should stay that way,” she said.
The 11 a.m. press conference in the ornate Governor’s Reception Room was decorated with a backdrop of large photos of former governors and their families at the Mansion, from that of Gov. Price Daniel in the early 1950s to George W. Bush in the 1990s.
Contributions are being solicited on the Web at www.texasonline.com and by mail at Texas Governor’s Mansion Restoration Fund, PO Box 12878, Austin TX 78711-2978.
Those with questions can call a toll-free telephone number: 1-866-751-5829.
Several readers reacted to today’s story on Anita Perry launching a private fund to contribute toward restoring the burned Governor’s Mansion by wondering whether a private insurer also was ponying up.
The understandable assumption: A private company held an insurance policy on the mansion much like firms insure private homes everywhere.
Wrong.
As reported by Statesman staff writer Mike Ward in early June, the mansion was self-insured by the state, basically meaning that if it fell prey to damage, the state would pick up the costs of restoration — no private insurer involved.
Ward wrote: “…because the state is self-insured, the restoration would be paid for by taxpayers and private donors - as have several mansion restoration projects in the past.”
In the shade of an oak tree hanging over the iron fence bounding the Governor’s Mansion, Anita Perry accepted a $10,000 donation this morning toward a newly created private fund devoted to restoration of the burnt landmark.
“We hope that all Texans will join us,” Perry said, saying too that there’ll be an effort to involve schoolchildren.
Perry introduced Pamela Willeford, former ambassador to Lichtenstein and Switzerland, as a key adviser to the fund-raising effort. Willeford has been a player in previous restorations of the Capitol and mansion.
Perry fielded the check from Julian Read, the Austin public-relations executive and former longtime aide to the late Gov. John Connally. Read is the president-elect of the Heritage Society of Austin, which made out the check.
Perry conceded she otherwise had little information—and Perry and other officials did not speak to any aspect of the search for arsonists believed to have caused the June 8 fire.
Perry said former governors’ families would be enlisted and that Laura Bush has expressed interest.
She said she didn’t know if she and Gov. Rick Perry will make a personal donation, that no one knows the ultimate cost of restoring the mansion, that she doesn’t know if there’ll be a target portion of the restoration to be covered by private dollars, and that she doesn’t know if expenditures from donations will be limited to paying for certain aspects of the restoration or not.
Workers have finished cleaning and shoring up the mansion’s first floor and are focused now on doing the same on the second floor. By the end of August, the building should be readied for removal of its damaged roof to be followed by the construction of a temporary roof that effectively seals the mansion up, enabling the state to maintain the interior humidity and temperature with temporary air conditioning and heating units.
About the same time, look for the State Preservation Board to settle how it wants to proceed with the restoration—including decisions related to how much state revenue to seek from the 2009 Legislature toward the project.
Read, whose daughters include Ellen Read, caretaker of the mansion, showed reporters a handwritten letter from a Georgetown veteran accompanied by $30 cash. Dan Graham wrote that he was “proud of my state and proud of my Governor’s Mansion.” He referred to his contribution as a “small, but from the heart, restoration contribution.” His money, along with $10 sent by another mansion fan, was rolled into the $10,000 check, Read said.
Robert Black, Gov. Rick Perry’s press secretary, announced this afternoon he’s departing to form his own consulting firm starting in September.
In a statement, Black said the new firm will specialize in public affairs, political and strategic communications.
“In a profession where decision making is too often determined by the fickle winds of popular opinion or the latest poll, it has been a privilege to work for Gov. Perry, who is willing to make the hard call and believes that leadership is not a popularity contest, but a moral responsibility,” Black said in the statement issued through Perry’s office.
From Perry: “Robert has been an indispensable clear voice and trusted adviser in my administration, and has demonstrated a real talent for effectively communicating my long-term vision for Texas, crafting messages in the daily battle of a campaign and guiding media strategy.”
No replacement was announced.
In addition to serving in Perry’s press office since 2003 — as deputy press secretary, press secretary and communications director — Black directed the governor’s communications efforts during his successful 2006 reelection bid.
He previously served as communications director for Attorney General Greg Abbott’s 2002 campaign, director of public information at the Texas Department of Insurance and communications director for the Republican Party of Texas for more than three years.
He previously worked in Washington for then-Majority Leader Dick Armey, as a press aide to Ari Fleischer at the Committee on Ways and Means, as an aide to two state senators and, in 1990, as a legislative assistant to now-Speaker Tom Craddick.
Democratic consultant Kelly Fero of Austin walks back through the 2002 Texas elections—including Laredo businessman Tony Sanchez’s sudden rise and big fall—in an interview with Nate Wilcox. Though the interview took place in 2007, it’s just posted online because it plays into a book, “Netroots Rising”.
An excerpt:
…when I was first talking to Tony, very early, still in 2000. Sanchez and I were at the Four Seasons and he told me he wanted to run the most negative campaign ever. It registered with me later, after he ran one of the most negative campaigns in history.
A lobbyist just back from out of town came across a white envelope in his mail with 25 bumperstickers tucked inside—just like the one pictured below. The guess here is that this sticker is directed at GOP Gov. Rick Perry, whose declared intention to run for a third full term in 2010 has previously been encouraged by a bumpersticker that says “Again in ‘10” with Perry’s campaign brand upon it.
I don’t have ordering information. And the lobbyist declined to be identified.
Perry spokesman Robert Black laughed at the sticker, saying: “That’s liberals’ wishful thinking.”
Gov. Rick Perry flew to Washington on Wednesday to welcome a cable network’s designation of the Texas economy as No. 1 in the nation; the state was No. 2 to Virginia last year.
CNBC said Texas has the best transportation system in the world, though its correspondent said the education system ranks 30th among the states. The network noted the state’s relatively low unemployment rate, its lack of a state personal or corporate income tax and that 58 Fortune 500 companies are based in Texas.
“Quite an honor,” Perry said in his interview segment from a Washington studio.
Asked to illuminate the education system’s ranking, Perry didn’t speak directly to the question. He said things are getting better. He also noted that a “substantial number” of students have parents whose first language isn’t English. Smiling, he said: “We’re seeing it headed in the right direction.”
Perry welcomed the distinction a day before Toyota announced it would temporarily suspend production of its Tundra pickup at a San Antonio plant.
That cloudy development could have a silver lining, though.
As reported by the Associated Press: “Toyota will suspend production of the Tundra pickup at its San Antonio truck plant and the Sequoia sport utility vehicle at its Princeton, Ind., plant for three months starting Aug. 8 because of declining demand. Next spring, it will stop producing Tundras in Princeton and will consolidate all truck production in San Antonio.”
Gov. Rick Perry today named Mary Katherine Stout director of his budget, planning and policy division.
Stout will join the governor’s office later this month from the Texas Public Policy Foundation, where she is vice president of policy. She directs the Center for Health Care Policy at the foundation, a think tank that advocates for limited government.
“Mary Katherine Stout brings legislative and policy expertise rooted in sound fiscal conservative principles,” Perry said in a statement. “Her work on a broad spectrum of policy issues at one of the leading conservative think tanks in the country provides her with a depth of knowledge that will be invaluable.”
Stout replaces Mike Morrisey, who was promoted in April to senior adviser, said Allison Castle, a spokeswoman for the governor.
“Texas continues to prove that lower taxes and a competitive economy make our state a great place to live and work,” Stout said in a statement. “Gov. Perry’s commitment to Texans’ freedom and prosperity has made us a leader among the states and I am proud to be a part of his administration.”
Stout came to the foundation in 2005 and before that was a policy analyst at the Texas Workforce Commission.
At the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Kalese Hammonds will be the foundation’s sole health care analyst when Stout leaves, spokesman David Guenthner said; Justin Keener will be the new vice president for policy and communications.
Keener has worked as a public affairs consultant and as an aide to House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, and state Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano. He starts at the foundation Aug. 1.
“I am excited to work with (the foundation’s) policy experts to educate Texans and their elected officials on how free markets and limited government provide the best solutions to our state’s challenges,” Keener said in a statement from the foundation.
Gov. Rick Perry on Monday offered his first public comments since the Texas Public Safety Commission on Thursday confirmed shortcomings in security at the Governor’s Mansion on the Sunday morning it caught fire.
Perry said he doesn’t know if technology missing in action at the time the mansion caught fire has been repaired or turned back on, but his instinct is that the Department of Public Safety has made needed staffing changes ensuring the burnt building’s security.
Referring to Thursday’s revelations by the commission that oversees the DPS—see the Statesman account here—Perry said: “We fairly well knew what the report was going to say from bits and pieces that we had picked up. Obviously we’re disappointed that there was not the response from some of those who realized that there were some lapses there and that the leadership had not accepted those.” It appears Perry was referring to reports of broken cameras and an absence of trooper training on how to turn on an infrared detector when the fire broke out June 8.
“That was my concern, is that there was a good report… of here’s what you need to do, you don’t have enough people there, and that those were disregarded. As the chairman (of the commission, Allan Polunsky) said, it was not the DPS’s finest day,” Perry said.
Elise Hu of Austin’s KVUE TV asked Perry if he’d like the DPS to see more funding so it doesn’t have staffing problems. Perry replied: “I don’t think funding had a thing to do with whether or not they had enough staffing at the Governor’s Mansion.”
What did? Perry said: “I don’t know. You need to ask the leadership over at DPS.”
Perry doesn’t appoint the law officer who runs the DPS. He does appoint the commissioners that oversee the agency — and who choose the day-to-day chief.
Reporters at the governor’s press conference this morning on “Texas Hold ‘Em” — an initiative to impose harsher penalties on truckers who “knowingly smuggle illegal weapons, drugs or humans” across the border — were itching to get to the big question: would Perry push DPS to release information on security lapses at the mansion?
Spokeswoman Krista Piferrer asked reporters to keep their questions related to the border initiative until the go-ahead for other questions came. It never came: Perry walked offstage without taking “off-topic questions” about 20 minutes into the press conference, followed by a mini-platoon of border patrol officers.
Spokeswoman Allison Castle said the governor’s office wasn’t trying to pull a fast one on reporters — the press conference had run longer than expected and Perry needed to rush off to a 11:35 meeting.
What was it?
A meeting with Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones, Castle said.
And what would the governor have hypothetically said about whether DPS should release information on security lapses at the mansion?
“We need to recognize that this is an investigation,” Piferrer later said over the phone. “We don’t want to do anything to compromise that.”
Perry may have also been in a hurry to get to a fundraiser scheduled for high noon that he was headlining for Tim Kleinschmidt, Republican candidate for the Texas House of Representatives.
The Texas Governor’s Mansion may be 152 years old, but its restoration in the aftermath of an arson-set fire nearly two weeks ago will have a 21st Century signature, officials said this afternoon.
Initial plans: To go “green.”
At a press conference at the State Capitol, Tere O’Connell, a preservation architect on the project, said upgrades to the building are under active consideration that would make the Greek Revival icon more energy efficient — much more so than was planned in a $10 million renovation underway when the fire occurred.
“We will be able to do even more of that work now,” she said.
Included will be replacement of the Mansion’s air conditioning and mechanical systems that were destroyed when the basement flooded during firefighting operations, additional insulation in the attic and crawl spaces and other “green” measures now in vogue in the building industry.
None of those changes, O’Connell and others said, will change the outward, historic appearance of the Mansion.
Not on the list of considered “green” changes are double-pane windows, which they said don’t add much to energy efficiency of old buildings like the Mansion.
At a Monday event in Austin, Gov. Rick Perry had remarked that the restoration would include “green” measures, but provided no other information. Today’s remarks provided the first detail.
In addition to the green building possibilities, project officials provided details this afternoon on the cleanup after the fire. They said efforts to shore up the first floor are still underway. After that, workers will move to the more heavily damaged second floor. Contractor John Braun said there is no timetable for removal of the Mansion’s collapsed roof and installation of a temporary roof.
A mold remediation expert has been brought in to begin drying out the water-soaked building and “get ahead of the mold growth now occurring,” according to O’Connell, who reported that the huge, historic mirrors over fireplace mantels on the first floor “are intact, undamaged.”
Despite heavy damage to the front porch, where the fire was started, the six trademark wooden columns can be saved, officials said. O’Connell said they have been carefully strapped to prevent further damage or deterioration as the clean-up continues.
Still no cost estimate or timetable for the restoration, officials said.
The fire-charred Texas Governor’s Mansion is structurally stable and the first steps toward eventual restoration of the 152-year-old historic icon began late this morning, within minutes after arson investigators lifted their tight cordon on the crime scene.
First priorities: Shore up the thick masonry-and-brick walls, install a temporary roof and begin drying out the water-soaked interior.
Biggest surprise: Many historical details of the first floor are relatively undamaged, from the spiral stairway to parlor doors to original fireplace mantels, officials said an initial inspection showed. That’s because they had all been covered and protected as part of a $10 million restoration project that had been underway when an arsonist set the front porch ablaze early Sunday.
Text of Gov. Rick Perry’s Remarks
Fire at the Governor’s Mansion
Austin
June 11, 2008
(NOTE: Gov. Perry frequently deviates from prepared text.)
Good morning. I have seen many things in my time as governor, but few sights have left a deeper impression on me than the charred remains of this genuine Texas treasure standing behind me. As I consider what was done to this once-majestic home, my heart aches beyond words.
As a Texan, I am angry that a part of my state’s heritage has been attacked. As a governor, I am saddened that a place that my family has called home has been so badly damaged.
I cannot begin to understand what would motivate someone to do this, but I do know that they will be caught, and they will be prosecuted for what they have done.
This beautiful structure has stood for more than 150 years as a symbol of our state’s commitment to representative government. A home where great Texans like Sam Houston, Lawrence Sullivan Ross, and Bill Clements once lived.
And as the current governor of this great state, I am committed to making sure that this tragedy will be but a small mark on the timeline of our state’s remarkable history. We will restore. We will renew. And we will rebuild this magnificent structure so that future generations may gaze upon its beauty and appreciate its history.
Texans have always rallied to a challenge. Be it a hurricane like Katrina and Rita or a space shuttle falling from the sky, Texas does not shrink from a tragedy. And we will meet this challenge as well.
For more than 150 years, this mansion has been a symbol of power and prestige for the greatest state in the union, and it will be again.
For more than 150 years, this has been a home where children have slid down the banister, chased their pets, and grown to adulthood. A place where families have celebrated holidays and welcomed friends…and it will be again.
For more than 150 years, this building has been the one constant as 40 different governors have passed through its doors, and it will be again.
For more than 150 years, the Texas Governors Mansion has been the home of good people, with grand ideas for a great state, and it will be again.
