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Rep. Berman considering running for governor
State Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, said today that he’ll run for governor at the end of the 2009 legislative session if he doesn’t succeed in passing legislation targeting illegal immigrants.
“If we can’t get anything done next session because it’s blocked, I will run for governor at the end of the session,” he said in an phone interview from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, where he landed early this evening after attending the GOP convention in St. Paul, Minn.
Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office today released a document showing Berman has requested Abbott’s official opinion on whether a House member would lose his seat if he announces his candidacy for governor during the first year of a two-year term.
Berman said he wants to keep his House seat and that if Abbott rules that he would have to give up his seat to run for governor, that would factor into his decision whether to run.
Berman would like to penalize employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants. He’s also proposing a surcharge on money wired to Mexico.
“We have almost two million illegal aliens in Texas and no one’s doing anything about it,” Berman said. “A lot of people are very concerned, including myself. It’s costing Texans $4 billion a year and we think something needs to be done.”
The cost of illegal immigration is disputed; for example, a state comptroller’s report said undocumented immigrants added $17.7 billion to the gross state product in 2005.
During the 2007 legislative session, a package of anti-illegal immigration bills by Berman and other Republicans died in the House State Affairs committee. Chairman David Swinford, R-Dumas, said after meeting with lawyers from Abbott’s office that at least 20 bills were either unconstitutional or trumped by federal law.
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Texans suss McCain’s mostly soft-spoken speech
Dub it Sen. John McCain’s big flag and blue-screen speech (per below), launching the Republican presidential nominee and the nation into the two-month fall campaign season.
The handful of GOP Texas activists I caught just afterward each gave a thumbs up to McCain’s acceptance speech preceding the end of the convention.
They weren’t identical in what they liked.
Dallas lawyer David Schenck, an alternate delegate, awarded a solid “A” based on substance.
“It’s the best speech I’ve seen him deliver,” Schenck said, singling out as memorable McCain’s description of education as the civil right of the 21st century.
“This guy has the potential to to be the transcendent politician of this century” by moving the country beyond crass party politics, Schenck said.
Schenck, like other activists, conceded that McCain’s mostly soft-spoken speech didn’t match Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s Wednesday speech in drama. Her acceptance of the vice presidential nod was riddled with sarcastic pokes at Democratic nominee Barack Obama. (Palin, below, was with her family during the evening floor session tonight; many delegates snapped their photo.)
Schenck said: “If we’re going to vote on hairdos or delivery, John McCain is not our guy. Substance first.”
Cynthia Bebon of Edinburg in South Texas, a school district employee (shown at right), said she could take McCain better because he’s paired with Palin.
“This is a dynamic duo; that choice (of Palin) is what sealed the deal for me,” she said.
“He was not my choice from day one,” she said. “There are a lot of us out there that didn’t have the same (positive) impression. But he has wooed us like a guy courting a girl. He has wooed us over.”
“Heck, I want to go door to door for this guy.”
Bebon thought McCain started kind of slowly. She would have liked less on his POW experience and more from him on how he’s going to unite the nation. Still, she said, she’s enthused. She gave him a grade of A minus.
Patrick Finley, a Houston delegate, called the speech fantastic.
“He didn’t need to go ahead and go over the top; we had that last night,” referring to Palin’s speech. “He is a soft-spoken man. But you know, Teddy Roosevelt was soft spoken and carried a big stick.”
The statue below wasn’t an instant convention souvenir. It depicts Herb Brooks, coach of the U.S. hockey team that won the gold medal at the 1980 Winter Olympics. It happens to be outside an entrance to the convention site, the Xcel Energy Center.
It still seems a good way to close out the night from St. Paul.
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Delegate flags her hat, looks forward to McCain speech
Alvin delegate Sandy Golden decorated her cowboy hat with eight miniature Texas flags this afternoon before heading over for the convention’s last night, to be capped by Sen. John McCain’s acceptance of the GOP presidential nomination.
“Man,” Golden said, “he made a right choice on (Sarah) Palin,” the Alaska governor and the party’s vice-presidential nominee. “This campaign has already begun to make history.”
Golden didn’t seem worried McCain’s spotlight moment will pale in comparison to Palin’s Wednesday evening star turn.
“It’s going to be wonderful,” she said.
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UPDATED: Flowers from Alaska, gratitude to President Bush
The Texas delegation—including some Austin-area delegates who can be viewed in a slide show starting here— fielded flowers from Alaska’s convention delegation in honor of Texans faced with fallout from Hurricane Gustav. Below, Tina Benkiser, the state GOP chair, speaks over the flowers at breakfast this morning.
Outside the delegation’s last breakfast before everyone leaves St. Paul Friday, Bill Burch of Grand Prairie, a candidate for the Texas House, collected signatures on an oversized resolution of gratitude to President Bush.
The resolution refers to Bush’s “amazing courage, strength, and steadfast leadership.” It also looks forward to his re-settling in Texas, “having served his country well.”
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Obama not impressed by Republican convention
Barack Obama, speaking to voters today in York, Penn., said he wasn’t bowled over by the GOP convention to date:
“You wouldn’t know that this is such a critical election by watching the convention last night. I know we had our week and so, you know, the Republicans deserve theirs. But it’s been amazing to me to watch,” Obama said. “Over the last two nights, if you sit there and you watch it, you’re hearing a lot about John McCain - and he’s got a compelling biography as a POW. You’re hearing an awful lot about me, most of which is not true. What you’re not hearing is a lot about you.
Peek at his campaign’s video of his comments here.
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Ladies with appendages could have Texas roots
I wrote in the Statesman today about being distracted by some unusual-looking women on the sidewalks of downtown St. Paul.
It appears the ladies in question are part of a group that started in Texas. The Missile Dick Chicks were also reportedly part of a colorful parade this week.
From one account:
The parade also featured a fake Barbara Bush motorcade (complete with Secret Service agents), a black-clad group dressed in “V for Vendetta” masks blasting Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It” on a stereo, a lifelike polar bear puppet (aimed at VP candidate Sarah Palin’s lawsuit to remove the animal from the endangered species list), and a painted truck carrying the Missile Dick Chicks from Crawford, Texas, with one bewigged Chick riding a skyward-pointed missile painted with the words “Dr. Strange-McCain,” kicking her go-go boots as others sang “Bomb Iran” to the tune of the Beach Boys’ “Barbara Ann” and carried Cheney’s head in a bottle of formaldehyde.
Last night, I bumped into a man wearing what looked like a paper mache John McCain head who was urging delegates leaving the Excel Energy Center to make sure and vote three times in November, though he wasn’t clear how voters could do so.
“Two votes is not enough,” he told delegates. “We’ll win if you vote three times.”
Here is Tom Kennedy, who said he hails from the San Francisco area, in his McCain head:
Here he is with the head lifted:
A coincidental kind-of Texan note: A guy behind a coffee-shop counter this week (where they charged 99 cents for an iced-tea refill) was wearing a shirt inscribed: “Keep Minneapolis Weird.”
It felt weird paying extra for a second cup of tea.
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Republican pollster talks up Palin to Texans
Republican pollster Frank Luntz fit in with the Texas delegation to the convention at breakfast today, while floating advice for Sen. John McCain, slated to accept the party’s presidential nomination tonight.
Like delegates, Luntz was exhilarated by Sarah Palin’s speech Wednesday night accepting the GOP vice presidential nomination.
“Last night,” Luntz said, “Gov. Palin was perfect.”
He said the Alaska governor reached out to key swing voters — women aged 40 to 59 and people in the middle class — with her remarks. (Luntz also poked at Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who lives in the New York suburb of Chappaqua. “But did you know Chappaqua is Indian for ‘separate bedrooms?’” he gibed.)
McCain, Luntz said, needs to avoid reading from the teleprompter that most everyone else employs — suggesting he’d be best if he manages to treat the convention like one of his typical town-hall campaign events.
“Let me be blunt: Stevie Wonder reads a teleprompter better than John McCain,” Luntz said.
He said McCain’s leadership advantage over Democratic nominee Barack Obama is rooted in his survival of more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
“He spent five and a half years in prison, then went into politics? Most politicians do it the other way.”
Vietnam didn’t break McCain and no special interest or Washington lobbyist can break him, Luntz said.
Asked by a Texan to compare speeches this convention to Laura Bush’s well-taken speech at the 2004 convention, Luntz replied: “I will not pander; I will not. Sarah Palin’s speech was the most distinctive, most authoritative, most unorthodox and was the most powerful than any other convention speech I’ve seen since 1988,” when he said he attended his first national convention.
Before urging everyone to watch him on the Fox News Channel, Luntz said: “You’ve got to understand: The mainstream media isn’t mainstream. It’s left wing.”
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Palin wows Austin delegates amid cheers, tears
Sarah Palin looked nothing like a candidate besieged by skeptical news accounts of how John McCain came to tap her all in a hurry as his running mate. She likely also erased some unease over early-week distractions.
Texas delegates hailed Palin’s nearly 40-minute speech—fetch the text here—in St. Paul.
The Alaska governor left many delegates roaring and tearing up.
Robyn Tepper of Austin, an alternate delegate who’s executive director of the Texas Federation of Republican Women, said Palin’s speech brought her to tears.
“It was so great to see a woman standing up there, finally,” Tepper said. “And the right woman.”
Tepper singled out Palin’s reference to her newborn son, who has Down syndrome, followed by the nominee’s promise the McCain White House would care about special-needs children.
Davida Stike, an Austin delegate who’s president of the pro-life anti-abortion Texas Alliance for Life, called the speech by Palin accepting the vice-presidential nod “magical.
“People are very moved by her tenacity and just chutzpah; she is not going to back down from anyone,” Stike said.
Austin delegate Olga Lasher noticed men around her on the floor of the Xcel Energy Center going crazy as Palin spoke. “To hear her speak, and see the words come out of her, to see how strong she is, it just excited them,” Lasher said.
Mike McNamara, an Austin delegate, said: “It’s fantastic. The thing that came through to me that she was stressing was small-town people that make up America. That’s where she comes from and that’s what she represents.”
McNamara said he’s heard people compare the presidential race to a chess game.
“We just took their queen,” McNamara said.
Not so fast, of course; the election remains two months away.
It’s fair to say, though, that Palin held steady tonight, setting the stage for McCain to speak Thursday night and for party leaders to leave town with some optimism.
I jotted these Palin-speech highlights:
—Palin’s reference to her youngest child, who has Down syndrome and who remarkably appeared to be sleeping in his father’s arm during her speech. “Children with special need inspire a very, very special love,” Palin said.
—Palin digs-with-a smile at Democratic nominee Barack Obama including a contrast of her past job as a small-town mayor to Sen. Obama’s start as a community organizer in Chicago. Being mayor, she said, is “sort of like a community organizer except you have actual responsibilities.”
—Another (late-speech) dig: “My fellow Americans, the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of personal discovery.” (Does Obama cast the presidency as a personal journey? I’ll need a reminder, if that’s so.)
—Palin’s dis of Washington’s media elite, touching off rounds of boos in the hall.
—Her declaration that there’s “only one man in this election who has ever really fought for you,” prefacing a description of McCain’s torture as a prisoner in Vietnam.
McCain’s Texas operatives hope to have Palin to Texas for at least three campaign events, though there was no word this week whether they’d be private fund-raisers or opportunities for the public to see her.
Either way, demand for tickets stands to be strong.
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UPDATED: Joking about subpoenas to start Texas breakfast
Texas First Lady Anita Perry and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison were the prime breakfast speakers to Texas delegates attending the convention today. No news busted from either of them, though Hutchison gave reporters a fresh declaration of her desire to live and work in Austin. (She never said the word “governor,” though).
UPDATE: Watch excerpts from Hutchison’s speech and responses to reporters here.
The day started with levity — including a joke about Democrats and subpoenas offered by delegate Rene Diaz of San Antonio (pictured below) before he gave the prayer.
Listen to his joke by fetching it here.
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UPDATE: Texans Williams, Hutchison caught in flux of schedule
Michael Williams, chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, spoke with convention officials this morning and learned that his initial dual roles at the confab could be tweaked.
Meanwhile, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s speaking slot tonight may also be changed. “In flux,” her spokesman said today. “Senator Hutchison offered to give up her speaking slot, if need be,” said spokesman Matt Mackowiak.
UPDATE: Hutchison was removed from tonight’s program by the party. Mackowiak said she remains open to speaking to the convention on Thursday night.
She is proceeding with the rehearsal from the podium, so she’s prepared.
Convention organizers are trying to cram four days’ events into three days. Monday, day one, was truncated as Hurricane Gustav came ashore.
Williams said after his phone conversation with a convention official that he might be delivering a speech tonight rather than Thursday night, as originally scheduled. His five-minute length could change too.
It wasn’t clear to me in our conversation whether Williams expects to retain his intended role as a nominator of Sen. John McCain for president.
“Now in flux,” Williams summed up. “That’s why I brought my laptop.”
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Williams could have two TV moments tonight
Michael Williams is tentatively poised for up to two moments tonight before a national TV audience at the convention.
The chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, who seeks re-election in November, expects to speak to the convention shortly after 7 p.m. Later in the evening, he’s penciled in to help nominate U.S. Sen. John McCain for president.
Williams checked out the podium this afternoon; snapshots are below.
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TAB trial tentatively set for Nov. 10
State District Judge Mike Lynch on Wednesday tentatively ordered a trial for the Texas Association of Business on charges that it made illegal corporate contributions to its own political action committee.
In effect, the state’s largest business organization is accused of paying its officers with corporate dollars while they were politicking for a slate of legislative candidates in 2002.
The defense argued that the group’s actions were protected free speech, while prosecutors claim the association violated the state ban on spending corporate money in connection with campaigns.
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Hat guidance in advance of first evening session
David Barton, a state party leader (pictured below), advised Texas delegates this morning on hat etiquette in regard to the straw-brimmed hats they all were handed to wear each day on the convention floor.
The hatted Texans should be noticeable on telecasts of the first evening session of the convention tonight.
Barton quoted Bible passages to underscore his counsel that women in the delegation can keep their hats on during both the opening prayer and pledge of allegiance. Men should take them off.
To the men, Barton added: “If you get introduced to a lady, tip your hat or take your hat off.”
Robin Armstrong, the party vice chairman, added his own advice after lunch at the delegation hotel. “We’re Texans,” he told delegates. “If we don’t have hats at the convention, we’re essentially naked.”
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Texans don ribbons noting Hurricane Gustav
State Sen. Florence Shapiro, posing with Miss Texas below, was among Texans donning blue ribbons inscribed: “Our hearts are with our neighbors.”
Tina Benkiser, the state party chair, said the ribbons are to be worn on the convention floor tonight to signal concern for those affected by Hurricane Gustav.
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Noriega compares Cornyn and Bush and his own wife
Courtesy of the Tyler daily newspaper (peek here), I came across Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Rick Noriega’s Labor Day swing at Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the guy he’s trying to unseat.
“John Cornyn has agreed with Washington 96 percent of the time and I don’t know anyone who agrees with someone else 96 percent of the time,” Noriega said. “I don’t even agree with my wife that much.”
Noriega meant that Cornyn has voted with President Bush that often—not, say, the late great president.
Kevin McLaughlin, Cornyn’s campaign spokesman, responded today: “John Cornyn voted with Texans 100 percent of the time, which is more than Rick Noriega can say after a lackluster decade in the Texas state house.”
McLaughlin was silent on how often Cornyn agrees with his wife, Sandy, though he said they’ve been married 28 years.
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Rove to Texans: ‘Let’s get our mojo back’
Karl Rove closed his remarks to Texas delegates today by conceding that Republicans have lost ground in the Texas House, where Democrats have made inroads two elections in a row, and pitching for a comeback.
“Let’s admit it,” the former White House senior adviser said. “We lost a little bit of our mojo.”
Rove then spelled out differences he sees between Democratic nominee Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee, themes hammered earlier by state Sen. Florence Shapiro of Plano and Roger Williams, the former Texas secretary of state (whose forceful style ignited delegates).
He also recapped the painful recollections of a Vietnam veteran imprisoned at times alongside McCain in that era.
Rove closed by saying: “Let’s get our mojo back.”
This election “is our opportunity,” Rove said. “The state is full of our people. It’s full of people who think like we do.”
Listen to his closing by fetching the sound file available by clicking here.
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Dewhurst paints Texas as booming
It was a little like being in the Texas Senate chamber during a legislative session when Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst told Texas delegates at breakfast today in St. Paul that the Texas economy is booming.
The similarity: Dewhurst was delivering a message very similar to what he shared at breakfast Monday. That’s the Dewhurst drill in the Senate.
Today, Dewhurst, flanked by delegate Joel Fisher of Austin, also signed a hat for Brigitte Izzo, an alternate delegate from The Woodlands.
To elaborate on the state’s economy, Dewhurst brought forecasts he attributed to the Federal Reserve in Dallas:
In the next 20 years, nearly half the nation’s population growth will occur in three states, he said: Texas, Florida and California.
The Texas population will nearly double to about 50 million people in the next 40 years.
In 2007, Texas accounted for one in three new jobs created in the United States. The state’s rate ran at 35 percent to 36 percent of the nation’s new jobs through the first six months of this year.
Finally, 29 states are running budget deficits. Texas, he reminded, has a revenue surplus.
“We’ve really got a great state and I know you know that,” Dewhurst said.
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Spellings not leaning toward running in ‘10
Margaret Spellings, the one-time Texas school lobbyist who has been the U.S. secretary of education, swung by the Texas delegation’s breakfast today, advising afterward not to look for her on a Texas ballot any year soon.
Spellings saluted Sen. John McCain and his intended running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (who Spellings inadvertently called Sen. Palin), closing with a reminder to her old Texas friends that she and her husband, Robert, plan to re-settle in Texas.
“Save a spot for me because I’m coming back as soon as I can,” Spellings said.
She said afterward she hopes to take a job related to education.
Singling out achievement gaps between students that need to be closed, Spellings said: “We as Americans have to confront this achievement gap, especially in places like Texas where we’re more and more diverse by the day. If we don’t, we’re not going to be the world’s leader, we’re not going to be the world’s greatest civic democracy.”
“My husband informs me that I’ve done all the public service that we can afford. So I am going to have to get a real job of some kind,” she said.
Asked if she wants to run for office in 2010, she replied: “No. I’ve been in public service for 15 years now. I’ve got to think and settle and rest and whatnot. I hope my career will afford me the opportunity to be of public service again someday.”
Spellings, who has one child in high school and another in their senior year in college, said: “I’ve got to be able to pay for them to get into and out of college.”
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Perry sending Anita to St. Paul
Gov. Rick Perry told Texas delegates via a telephone hook-up this morning that his wife, Anita, will be arriving in St. Paul in his stead by the end of the day. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst will continue to fill in as the head of the state delegation.
Regarding Hurricane Gustav, Perry said: “We dodged a bullet, so to speak, on this” in Texas, though 280,000 people evacuated from East Texas locations.
Delegates applauded as Perry said: “It really showed the world what it means to be a Texan, that will go the extra mile to help our neighbors.”
Perry also pitched for hurricane-related donations to this site.
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Bauer excoriates media coverage of Palin
Gary Bauer, who heads an educational foundation and ran for president in 2000, drew an ovation from Texas delegates at breakfast on day two of the convention after excoriating what he called the news media’s inappropriate focus on Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s family —in particular, the revealed pregnancy of the governor’s 17-year-old daughter, which was announced Monday by Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign.
Bauer, who poses (below) with the current Miss Texas, Rebecca Robinson of Buffalo, called the previous 24 hours’ coverage disgusting.
Rather than poking at abstinence sex education as a possible factor in the young lady’s pregnancy, Bauer suggested, reporters should be noting the message delivered by the mother’s plans to have the baby. She also intends to marry the father.
“Every American family is rassling with this issue. … Every American family deals with problems,” Bauer said. The Palins, he said, “have already taught American something about what the sanctity of life means.”
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UPDATED: Ron Paul says GOP making it hard for me to attend
U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who dropped his presidential candidacy in June while laying plans for a kind of simultaneous counter-convention to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, kind of told CNN this morning that the GOP has told him he can come to the convention floor only “under very, very restricted conditions.”
UPDATE: Paul spokesman Jesse Benton said later that Paul can go to the floor like any Republican House member. But, Benton said, the party has yet to agree to permit Paul to be accompanied by a political aide and someone to keep watch over him.
“We thought we had an agreement over the weekend” enabling Paul to circulate with two aides on the floor among some 260 delegates in his camp. “It looks like there is a hang-up.”
Paul, who seeks re-election this November, hasn’t previously come close to endorsing (or even praising) Sen. John McCain, the presumptive GOP presidential choice, or the Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama.
Didn’t happen today either.
“I like when they shift their positions, but then you don’t know where they are,” Paul said.
He wished aloud for the nominees to talk about issues such as governmental intrusions on personal liberties, monetary policy and limited government in general.
“We ought to be talking about these things,” he said. “I don’t think they’re very interested.”
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Latest comments
I think that the vast majority of these illegal aliens, undocumented, workers, whatever you want to call them, are hard-working people who just want to improve their lives and the lives of their families.
And I know that a lot of them write better
... read the full comment by William Trent | Comment on Rep. Berman considering running for governor Read Rep. Berman considering running for governor
Everyone remember that Berman is from the Bronx. He is dang near an illegal here in Texas as well. His HD deserves better representation. Heck, we all do.
... read the full comment by WOScholar | Comment on Rep. Berman considering running for governor Read Rep. Berman considering running for governor
” illegal aliens ” is just that ILLEGAL..did they come into the US the right way? It doesn’t take a genious to see they are ILLEGAL IMAGANTS OR ALIENS as you want to put it. Im by no means racist my son in law is from Mexico…but
... read the full comment by joy | Comment on Rep. Berman considering running for governor Read Rep. Berman considering running for governor
Sorry folks!!!!! Nothing will be done about the problem. Americans need these people to clean up after them and take care of their children since they are so caught up with their own lives. Good luck to all of those that wish to get rid of these fine folks.
... read the full comment by I love it | Comment on Rep. Berman considering running for governor Read Rep. Berman considering running for governor
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