I got an email from a friend in New York last week, asking me for suggestions on good political podcasts to download onto his iPod. I had turned him onto Slate's Political Gabfest during his trip to Austin a few months ago, and he wanted more.
If YOU want or need more politics to tune into during your drive to work, or on your jog around Lady Bird Lake, here are some of my faves. I hope you will share your favorites, too.
Slate's Weekly Gabfest
The three regulars on the Gabfest are Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson and David Plotz. They pick three topics and talk about each, then wrap it all up with "cocktail chatter" - one piece of information from each that you can take to a cocktail party. I used to find Bazelon's voice kind of grating, but now I just appreciate her always-thoughtful points. They're snarky, irreverent and smart.
KCRW's Left, Right and Center
This is structured like the Gabfest, in which the moderator picks about two or three topics for the panelists to discuss. The difference with Left, Right and Center is you have one person representing each point of view, where the Gabfest's allegiances are murkier. It includes Ariana Huffington from The Huffington Post, Tony Blankley from The Washington Times, Matt Miller from the Center for American Progress and Robert Scheer from the San Francisco Chronicle.
The New Yorker's Campaign Trail
This is a far less snarky, far more measured discussion about the latest in the presidential race. The observations run from conventional wisdom to unconventionally provocative. This podcast sounds the most like NPR. They stay on track much better than the Gabfest, which can wander every once in a while.
Each of these podcast updates once a week and runs no longer than thirty minutes. Now, it's your turn. Share your favorite political podcasts with me.
Governor Rick Perry spoke for the first time about his office's questionable policy of deleting emails from its server after seven days. This policy was the reason for The Purge series, and The Purge: Part One inspired open government activist, John Washburn, to request several weeks worth of the governor's emails as a challenge to the policy.
Because of the cost of the emails -- which are considered public records -- Washburn could only get four days worth. From just that snapshot, reporters have been able to find previously uncovered stories about Texas government:
The Star-Telegram found communication within the office about Governor Perry spending his time campaigning for Rudy Giuliani, among other things.
Perry was asked about the policy in a longer-than-usual press conference in his office this afternoon. Jay Root, the Star-Telegram reporter who first combed through the emails, asked Perry about the policy. In answering the question, he makes a slight personal dig at Root:
"If an email actually has some impact on an issue rather than 'so-and-so had a liquid lunch', which is salacious, and I know you love voyeurism. I mean, I know that about you," Governor Perry said. "The fact of the matter is that if we're allowed to make a decision about keeping records that are important, then I think we do that."
Congressional candidate Larry Joe Doherty is getting out his 4th quarter fundraising totals ahead of the FEC website. His campaign says he reported $151,115 in the 4th quarter. The average donation size was $490.63.
His cash-on-hand is $267,475.
US senate candidate Rick Noriega joked about borrowing money from sitting Senator John Cornyn. Perhaps LJD has a few thousand to spare?
Photog Todd and I visited a political science class today to hear what freshmen students had to say about the race for president. That's when our go-to political science professor, Brian Smith, brought up an interesting comparison. (You might recall he previously compared Hillary Clinton to "The Russian" in Rocky IV.)
If you're a Cowboys fan, who do you back in the Superbowl - the Giants or the Patriots? Cowboys fans generally don't like either team. If you're an Edwards supporter, are Clinton and Obama akin to the Giants and the Patriots?
State Representative Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, doesn't think so. He's already switched his allegiance to Barack Obama.
"I believe Barack Obama is the best person to move America forward. He brings balance, maturity and a coalition of Americans, especially young people. I believe that Barack Obama will lead America to its promise," he said in a statement.
Giuliani to Back McCain; Will Perry's Support Follow?
Texas Governor Rick Perry hasn't been shy about his support for presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani. But after placing third place in Florida tonight, Giuliani is expected to drop out of the race and back his longtime friend, US Senator John McCain, R-Arizona.
So... if Rick likes Rudy, and Rudy likes John, does that mean Rick likes John?
(That sounded like an LSAT question. Sorry.)
The answer is unclear right now.
"The governor will support the GOP nominee whoever that may be," said Perry spokesman Robert Black. "I haven't discussed anything beyond that with the governor."
As Austin City Councilwoman Jennifer Kim revs up her campaigning in the face of a re-election challenge, I have been confused for her at least half a dozen times. We don't actually look much alike. Then again, we are both Asian-American, and you know what they say about all Asians...
Tonight, Kim and I finally met. And we BOTH happened to be wearing gray suits. So I HAD TO get a picture with her, for anyone who was still confused. Kim apologized for my recent run-ins with her fans, I said I didn't really mind, it provided excellent blog fodder.
"I'm going to start running campaign commercials soon so you're probably going to get it more," said Kim.
State Sen. Kyle Janek, R-Houston, formally announced his resignation this afternoon, after serving in the Senate since 2003, and in the Texas House since 1995. He brought his father, his brother, his wife and his three young sons along for the announcement, because he says he is stepping down so he can spend more time with them.
"There's a time for everything, and this is the time. A friend of mine called me and said, "What, are you in trouble?" And I said yeah, they caught me stealing. I stole some time from Shannon and the boys and I'm gonna pay it back to them," he said.
He didn't shut the door on the possibility of running again when his kids get older.
Colin Strother is a campaign consultant for State Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, who's in a primary race against newcomer Brian Thompson in her East Austin district. After I saw that Dukes advertised for canvassers, it was clear that there would be an on-the-ground campaign for the district.
So I emailed Strother, asking how many volunteers signed up as a result of the ad. Strother responded and then some, and he never indicated at any point that he wanted to go off the record. Below is what he had to say in its entirety. Previously, I have summed up his comments or used a direct quote that he designated as a usable quote, but his full response speaks more honestly.
From: elisehu@yahoo.com
To: colinstrother@XXXXX.com
Subject: craigslist ad
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:34:57 -0600
Colin,
I just saw a screengrab of this craigslist ad for Dukes volunteers.
Do you have a number on how many volunteers responded to the ad and have joined the campaign?
Thanks,
Elise
----- Original Message -----
From: colin strother
To: Elise Hu
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 10:03 PM
Subject: RE: craigslist ad
are you serious?
From: elisehu@yahoo.com
To: colinstrother@XXXX.com
Subject: Re: craigslist ad
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:24:07 -0600
Yes. I'm covering the campaign and asking a question, political campaigns are open to questions and she's a public official. If you choose not to answer that's absolutely fine, I'm just asking.
Thanks,
Elise
----- Original Message -----
From: colin strother
To: Elise Hu
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 10:38 PM
Subject: RE: craigslist ad
Wow, defensive much? It sounded like a joke. It sounded like you were poking fun at people trying to make an issue out of us hiring campaign workers. I was just asking if you really wanted an answer.
If you want to follow the lead of Capitol Annex and BOR on every story, go ahead. If you call that "covering the campaign", so be it.
You're not the only one allowed to ask questions, Elise. Your poor attitude whenever I have questions are a major problem. I'm well aware that I can or cannot respond to questions...I'm not sure YOU understand that.
All I asked in this situation was if you were serious. You need to calm down a little bit.
Response to your inquiry for the record:
"We're activitely recruiting paid canvassers on college campuses, community organizations, Democratic groups, and craigslist.
From my experience, craigslist is a great place to recruit field folks. I know of several local groups that use it to great success.
We've been inundated with offers to volunteer. We've hired and trained sufficient paid canvassers to execute both our field and GOTV plans. I'm not at liberty to disclose the numbers of staff, be they paid or volunteer."
you're welcome.
c.
p.s. Dawnna will get re-elected on March 4th. Both of us are going to be around here for a long time. We'd both like to have a productive and friendly relationship with you moving forward. Let's each not lose our heads during this next 37 days.
State Rep Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, isn't the only candidate using CraigsList to find campaign workers.
Congressional candidate Larry Joe Doherty is also advertising on trusty CraigsList. LJD is in a Democratic primary battle against Dan Grant for a chance to take on US Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, for his seat.
We know Dukes is offering $8/hr, but LJD's ad says to call for compensation details. Hope it's a competitive rate, canvassers seem to be in demand.
Here's a sure sign of a contested primary. An ad on CraigsList for campaign canvassers.
Blogger Will found this craigslist ad from an "East Austin state representative"looking for campaign workers. Since there is only one East Austin state representative running a contested primary, it's clear said rep is State Rep Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin.
Advertised job perks:
$8 an hour
Hands-on, grass roots, out-in-the-field work
A great resume booster
55 more young people are registered to vote in Travis County, after State Senator Kirk Watson's "Register to Rock" event Saturday afternoon. He hired a bunch of bands to play at Stubb's AND offered a chance to win two free tickets to ACL Fest for anyone who registered that day. If you were there and have pictures, please email me and we'll put em up.
7:48pm: In ten minutes, President George W Bush will deliver his seventh and final State of the Union address, which we will heretofore call the S of the U.
FUN FACT: For the money line ("The state of our union is…"), President Bush has never used an adjective less than "strong" or "confident."
7:56pm: Since the S of the U address is before a joint session of congress as well as the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Justices of the Supreme Court, and the members of the President's Cabinet. One cabinet member must sit out so that if disaster strikes the Capitol, someone survives. I'm not sure who is tonight's designated survivor, but last year it was then-AG Alberto Gonzales.
8:01pm: Laura Bush is entering in a bright shiny red suit. It's the same color red as Hillary Clinton is wearing, but Bush's suit is shiny and Clinton's is not.
8:02pm: The cabinet is coming in now, there's a tight shot of Texan Alfonso Jackson, the HUD Secretary.
8:03pm: Now we're spending a lot of time on Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt.
FUN FACT: Elaine Chao was born in Taipei, Taiwan, and is married to the Senate Minority Whip, Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky.
8:06pm: I'm on "The Place for Politics" right now but am switching to Charlie Gibson on ABC because there's only so much one can take of Chris Matthews and his hyperboles.
8:08pm: Here we go... "Madame Speaker, the President of the United States." We'll do the bulk of this after the jump.
State Senator Kyle Janek, R-Houston, is expected to make his resignation announcement at 1pm tomorrow at the State Capitol. The official reason for his resignation? Family.
I sure will miss Senator Janek's keen sense of style. I always found him to be an excellent dresser. His ties aren't as awesome as State Senator Steve Ogden's, but they are generally pretty awesome.
It's State of the Union night! (As if you haven't already been reminded by The Place for Politics, The Best Political Team on Television, The Best Political Team in the World, The Best Political Team on Cable and every other crazy slogan on television.)
Tonight I'll get my standard liveblogging meal of KFC to liveblog for you starting at 8pm. The speech will be on KVUE, the spin will be on every "best political place" on television you can find.
As an added twist, I signed up for these crazy "lie detector" text messages that will be sending instant spin to my cell phone from the national Democratic party. I'm interested to see how that's going to go down, so I'll be sure to include some of those text messages in the liveblog.
Now, time for nostalgia.
Last year I watched the S of the U in the Doubletree Hotel bar with my friend, The Statesman's Jason Embry, where for the first time in what was to become many times, someone in the bar mistaked me for Austin City Councilmember Jennifer Kim.
The year before that I was working a night shift and I think I watched it with a group of college students at Furman to see what they thought of it.
Other State of the Union memories include the morning after the 2001 State of the Union, when running on Houston's Memorial Trail with my Team in Training coach Jack, who was outraged, OUTRAGED by how Hillary Clinton sat in the audience and didn't clap for President Bush when everyone else was. I think we talked about that for about two and a half miles.
Looks like the Kennedy endorsement speech is getting to a late start. I'm watching the cable folks talk in circles with their guests...pretty painful. So far Teddy's 22 minutes late, and the count continues.
It's the day before the Florida primaries, and Texas Governor Rick Perry is doing some last minute stumping for his candidate-of-choice, Rudy Giuliani.
But the internets and the cable networks are busy with US Senator Ted Kennedy, who's about to make a big speech endorsing his candidate-of-choice, Barack Obama.
The speech starts at 11:15am Texas time. Tune into any cable stations to watch it. I'm guessing CNN and MSNBC will be streaming it live, but I don't know for sure.
US Senator John Cornyn's campaign isn't cash strapped. Numbers dropped by the campaign on Friday show Cornyn raised $1.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2007, and has $7.5 million cash-on-hand. Not a small amount of money.
That's enough millions to run campaign commercials statewide for about six to seven weeks, unless advertising rates have dropped this year.
By comparison, Democratic candidate State Rep. Rick Noriega's fourth quarter take of $405,000 looks small, but as we've seen in this presidential election, money can't always buy you love. But many times it can. We'll see.
Houston police shut down portions of the Gulf Freeway and Memorial Drive as President Bush rushed in and out for a fundraiser at the home of Richard and Nancy Kinder. Kinder is director of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, and was president of Enron until 1996.
Figures on how much it cost the City of Houston to shut down roads and put in place extra police for the President's visit weren't available the week of the fundraiser. It wasn't until several weeks later when the city estimated the cost to Houston taxpayers for Bush's visit to raise money for Cornyn was $80,000. Also not a small number.
*George H.W. Bush represented River Oaks when he was a congressman in the sixties. Gotta love blogging -- endless cyberspace to throw out random trivia or go off on a meandering tangent.
The issue made for many a dramatic moment on both the House and Senate floors* during the 2007 session, and now, as expected, voter ID is back. The House Elections Committee, under the direction of State Rep Leo Berman, R-Tyler, will hold a hearing Friday morning to explore legislation to secure the vote and prevent voter fraud, perhaps by requiring more forms of ID to cast a ballot.
Opponents, most of them Democrats, say requiring photo ID at the polls disproportionately affects the poor, the elderly and minorities - the most likely to lack photo identification.
But supporters, most of them Republicans, say such requirements are necessary to prevent voter fraud.
If the [Indiana] law is upheld, voting rights advocates fear it will encourage conservative lawmakers across the country to enact equally restrictive measures.
The US Supreme Court will rule on the constitutionality of such laws by summer, a case sparked by a legal challenge to Indiana's voter ID laws, said to be the most restrictive in the nation. What will be the effect, politically? A GWU prof cites judges who say this will help throw elections in favor of Republicans.
UNRELATED: My previous post features the AP story about Texas being the worst carbon polluter in America. Which individual leaves the largest carbon footprint "in history"? See here.
*My personal favorite-House-floor-moment-not-counting-the-final-three-days would be when State Rep. Jodie Laubenberg flipped out and starting shrieking under questioning from State Rep. Rafael Anchia over an amendment to the CHIP bill.
The Associated Press' April Castro is now a member of an elite club. The "I-got-slammed-by-Rush-on-the-radio" club.
Last Friday, Castro's family in the small Texas town of Sonora (3,000 proud, baby) got calls from their friends, exclaiming, "Rush is talking about April Castro!"
Limbaugh didn't like a story she wrote about Texas being one of the worst polluters on the planet. According to her piece, Texas leads the nation in CO2 emmissions.Read the story here.
He calls Castro a "drive-by wacko babe" (there's something you need to put on your business card, April). And says this:
First, Texas gave America Bush. Now they're destroying Mother Erf; they won't buy into the global warming hoax; and they like big cars! Why, it's a disaster down thar, folks. Almost makes you cry, if you can stop laughing at all this.
Washburn describes it as "most of it drivel and dross, but others can now look for themselves and see if there is any "paydirt" in this chaotic, mash-up of data".
The latest issue of Austin's altenaweekly, The Austin Chronicle, hits newsstands today. It includes a meaty piece by Richard Whittaker about the HD 46 race between incumbent State Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, and newcomer Brian Thompson.
There's a lot to pick out of this piece, it's 1,384 words long. (That's about 13 hundred more words than a regular TV news story, but in my defense, simplifying does take a certain kind of talent, too.)
I recommend reading the piece in its entirety, but for the time-strapped out there, here are some tidbits we find in Whittaker's tome (I kid, I kid):
Who Knows A District?
Thompson has been accused of being a newcomer and Dukes of fleeing to the suburbs. A native of Birmingham, Ala., first-generation college graduate Thompson came to Austin in 2002 to attend the University of Texas School of Law. In 2006, he moved to East Austin. Dukes notes that her family has lived in East Austin since the 1800s, though she now lives in Pflugerville. Referring to Thompson as "the one that's lived in the district 13 months," Dukes dismisses the issue. "I've lived in that district for 44 years and five months. End of subject." As for her move, she said, "The district is the district."
Dukes Called 'Craddick D'; Spokesman Calls It 'Slur':
...Due to the support several of its members showed for Craddick during the unsuccessful challenge by Jim Pitts and later in the session, they have been tagged as Craddick Ds. [Colin] Strother, who is also Dukes' campaign spokesman, called it "comparable to using a slur, whether it be a racial or sexual. It's a lowbrow way."
Finally, some actual emails released as a result of John Washburn's original request!
God bless Star-Telegram reporter Jay Root, who has already combed through the four days worth of Texas Governor Rick Perry's interoffice emails requested by Wisconsinite John Washburn. Washburn did mail the CD of the emails to me, so I'll try to put them on an FTP server before the weekend.
Some highlights from the emails released by the Governor's office, which were sent between November 2 to November 5, 2007:
Emails about Ron Wilson, the former state lawmaker turned temporary assistant House Parliamentarian:
One e-mail from former Secretary of State Jack Rains, for example, sparked a heated discussion about the possibility of former state Rep. Ron Wilson, D-Houston, being appointed by Perry to a high-level state post, such as the Texas Department of Public Safety oversight commission or the University of Texas Board of Regents.
"I cannot imagine a worse Republican appointment," Rains wrote Perry's office Nov. 2 in response to a Star-Telegram report about a Wilson appointment. "I would hope every Republican will urge the governor to never consider this racist for any office."
After receiving a copy of the e-mail, Perry's appointments secretary, Ken Anderson, shot back that Rains, a veteran power broker in Texas Republican circles, had been drinking when he wrote the message.
"Ron might be called many things, but racist is NOT one of them," Anderson wrote of Wilson. "Jack must have written that late in the afternoon after coming back from one of his long liquid lunches." (See Rains' response in the story here.)
Emails about State Senator Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo:
In one series of e-mail exchanges, aides passed around a news article about state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo. In the Texas Weekly article, one of Zaffirini's opponents, former Webb County Judge Louis Bruni, calls the longtime senator an "evil, vindictive, mean woman."
"Can you believe this quote?" Kathy Walt, Perry's deputy chief of staff, wrote in an e-mail to fellow top aides.
"Truth can be mean," responded Perry spokesman Robert Black.
If you've read this blog before, you know John Washburn. He's the software developer in Wisconsin who also thinks it's mighty important for the public to be able to see the process by which its elected officials make decisions.
So he challenged the Governor's office policy of deleting emails from its server every seven days, and continues to fight for a change to this policy. (Stiles tells me the City of Houston, as an example, backs up all their city emails for two years, which Washburn has argued is a more appropriate time frame than seven days.)
Anyway, I think I've found another John Washburn, if you will.
Mike Conwell is another computer whiz, a database expert who lives and works in Austin. He volunteers his time as an election judge in a small precinct, and discovered a few years ago a lot of complaints about active registered voters in Travis County being randomly deleted from the rolls for one reason or the other.
As a result, he took on a four-year-long project of identifying voters in Travis County who were randomly purged from the rolls due to clerical error. He says the problems are as simple as careless data entry, mishandling registration or proof of residency forms, or not checking and double checking records before deleting what looks like a duplicate record, but is not.
Conwell told us today that he found 1,800 voters deleted from the rolls since 2004, who are still in Travis County and should still be registered. Travis County Tax Assessor-Collector, Nelda Wells-Spears, says he can't be right.
I should do my part in drumming up anticipation for Governor Perry's soon-to-be-released emails, since a blog journey of mine inadvertently motivated a Wisconsin-based open government crusader to "mess with Texas" last November.
One week's worth of Governor Rick Perry's office emails have been received by John Washburn in electronic format, just as requested. Of course, it cost him $611, which generous donors opened up their pockets to pay for, but soon, we'll all see what the Governor's office was sending, replying and forwarding during the first week of November, 2007. I'll let Washburn explain the files himself:
There were 1993 files occupying 233 MB. My first question is where are the other 3,000 to 6,000 emails the $568 dollars was supposedly paying for? The Governor's office estimated the emails for Friday November 2, 2007 to Monday, November 5, 2007 numbered between 5,000 and 8,000. Either the estimating process faulty or the Governor's office sent 3-6 thousand emails to the Office of the Attorney General for review as per this letter.
I am currently sorting through the files to see if they are responsive and, if not, why not.
My initial impression is that the set is not very responsive because email attachments were stripped even though attachments were part of the PIR. Also this was considered an email and responsive. Yes, you saw correctly. A screen shot of various .MSG icons was considered the same as providing the emails contained in those .MSG files.
The most charitable description I can give is that these files (most are PDF versions of email text cut and pasted into an MS Word doc) is that the organization is chaotic.
This all started when Washburn caught the first entry of The Purge, a blog series in which I thought we could journey together to discover what our state's various offices do with the emails on their public computers. The Purge began by examining the Governor's office policy of deleting emails every seven days, because Missouri Governor Matt Blunt was taking heat for it from his Democratic challenger, Missouri AG Jay Nixon.
That's essentially what Georgetown City Council said about a much-publicized proposal which would have required contractors hired by the city to offer proof that all their workers are US citizens. The council was scheduled to vote on the measure tonight, but after hearing public comment (mostly from opponents), council backed off. It decided instead to insert a clause in all future contracts that would require businesses to "comply with all applicable federal and state laws and local ordinances."
As Eye on Williamson cited, measures such as the original proposal have been struck down by the federal courts because constitutional questions about due process, and conflicts with federal law, which already prohibits the hiring of undocumented workers.
The issue has quieted for now, but the thwarted protest of the original proposal has sparked a federal lawsuit. The folks who protested on a public sidewalk earlier this month say police officers threatened them with arrest if they didn't leave -- officers cited a Georgetown ordinance which requires a permit for any protest on public property. That includes any “demonstrative event” in which “a sentiment, statement, opinion or thought-process is put forward to the public.”
Does this fly in the face of the First Amendment? Plaintiffs think so. The city spokesman reserved comment, as he hadn't fully read the filing when we asked him about it. We'll keep you updated.
He racked up a ton of Texas supporters, including Land Commish Jerry Patterson and AG Greg Abbott, but former US Senator Fred Thompson was never able to find his mojo on the stump. (Maybe because of persistent observations that he didn't care to be running for president in the first place.)
Anyway, he's out of the running now. (I would have posted this earlier, but I was too busy trying to figure out what happened to actor Heath Ledger.)
Thompson visited Texas back in September to raise money and talk with the press; he sat down with me for an interview that didn't really tell us much at all. (Let's be honest, right?) The one part of the interview where he was briefly engaging was then I asked him which "UT" was the true UT. (As you know he is from Tennessee, who's university also boasts of being "UT".)
See the video here
I also (true story) tried to get him to pose with me making his serious Law and Order face from the Law and Order intro, but he totally blew me off.
Larry Joe Doherty*, congressional candidate in the race for US Rep. Michael McCaul's seat, is hoping McCaul will vote to override President Bush's veto of SCHIP legislation tomorrow. (Probably not going to happen, but the Democrats are hammering sitting Republicans on their SCHIP votes every which way.) Here's some of LJD's letter:
Dear Mr. McCaul,
Tomorrow, the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote again to override the President’s veto of SCHIP, giving you a second chance to do what’s right for over 300,000 low-income children in Texas.
Health care costs are rising. The economy is stagnating. It hasn't escaped the attention of the voters I'm talking to that you'll jump for the one Texan who lives on Pennsylvania Avenue, while you turn a cold shoulder to thousands of Texas families back home.
HR 3963 was passed by large majorities in both the House and the Senate. You’ve shown your support for George Bush, now it’s time to show your support for all Texans. Supporting access to healthcare is the right thing to do for Texas children, and make no mistake about it, SCHIP saves money — money for families, money for businesses, and it saves taxpayers money as well. If you are unwilling to vote with your heart, then please vote with Texas taxpayers’ wallets in mind.
This sounds pretty much like it could have been written by any of the candidates running against a sitting Texas GOP congressmember, but it's been slow today and I haven't given much coverage to the TX-10 candidates, so there you are.
If you missed the SC Democratic debate tonight, you missed the best one of the series. My sitting through the 15,247 other Democratic and Republican debates this cycle has finally paid off. Watching this wonder of wonders on television makes all the other snoozefests worth it. If you missed it, this is basically what it looked like, only, for two hours long.
Of all the debates I opt not to liveblog, it's this one!?!? I probably wouldn't be able to keep up with all the madness tonight, anyway. The Democratic candidates are letting the attacks and rebuttals fly feverishly in South Carolina right now, and it ain't pretty. But debate anarchy is fascinating to watch.
Edwards decides to join Clinton in piling on Obama, which I believe is a first in a debate. Clinton and Obama are going at it point after point, the audience is participating with loud applause and even once booing Clinton, and while I usually note HRC's yelling during debates, it seems every candidate on stage is yelling and interrupting one another now.
I'm off for the MLK holiday on Monday, so expect little to no bloggage. My friend Sudeep is in town to visit, and as we wander around Austin, the business journalist in him is telling me all about how economic indicators point to a serious recession (employment numbers are no good already, and they're on the decline. Yikes.) If you want to read about it, Sudeep and his colleague Greg blog all about what a recession could mean to you, right here.
And quickly, re: Saturday's votes:
Huckabee's South Carolina's loss likely stings, and makes McCain more of a clear frontrunner in the way that he wasn't before Saturday. Weather sounds like a factor; it was cold, sometimes snowy and downright dreary on election day. But Thompson probably did more damage to Huckabee's chances than the weather could ever do, by splitting the Southern evangelical vote.
As for Nevada, it's interesting -- I mean, no one really knew how Nevada would "play" in the presidential nomination process, as this is the first time their caucus has come so early and the polling was so unreliable. Now Clinton can claim victory and given the delegate count, Obama doesn't claim defeat. But, I see it kind of like a football game where the losing team racks up a bunch of excellent stats but not the win. I'm sure you want your quarterback rating to stay up there and all, but isn't winning the game what people will remember?
You've likely read by now that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg stopped in Austin for a photo op/tour around a hospital's cancer center with Lance Armstrong and former Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona.
He insisted he's "not a candidate" for president. Well, technically, he said, "I don't know why you're asking me this question, I just said, I am not a candidate, couldnt be clearer."
So that's the news part. The part I wanted to share was that I spent this morning's press conference in the front row, with Bloomberg about two feet away, rustling the change in his right pocket.
All I kept thinking was, a.) Michael Bloomberg has change? I thought the smallest bills he carried were thousand-dollar-bills. And b.) I wonder if he could spare me some lunch money.
I wondered this out loud to the New York Post reporter sitting next to me. He said, "Oh hell, you could ask him for $10 million, he wouldn't even miss it."
In a post yesterday, I mentioned taking a closer look at the other Central Texas races and how last night's Democratic endorsement bonanza divided up among the candidates, but thanks to the Austin Chronicle's Lee Nichols, I don't have to.
Here's Lee's breakdown of the endorsements.
Meanwhile, props to my KVUE predecessor Lee McGuire, who is off breaking stories at our Houston sister station, KHOU.
Mid-afternoon, Lee picked up on whispers of a possible indictment of Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina in connection with an arson fire at his home. He confirmed not only the indictment news, but that fellow Republican, the email-embattled Harris County DA Chuck Rosenthal, is not going to prosecute the case. All before the five o'clock news.
The latest campaign finance reports are up and it looks like incumbent State Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin holds a significant fundraising lead over her opponent, Brian Thompson. She raised $ 73,972.18 between July and December to Thompson's $11,272.98.
But Thompson is quick to point out that Dukes' money comes from a who's who of Republican Speaker Tom Craddick's supporters.
Bob Perry - $1000
The Houston-based homebuilder is the largest political donor in the nation, who gives the bulk of his contributions to Republican candidates. In 2004 he gained notoriety for helping pay for the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads against Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.
Bill Miller -$1,000
Miller is Hillco Partner and a longtime Craddick friend and consultant. Sometimes he's his spokesperson.
John Nau - $1,500
Has given hundreds of thousands to Republican politicians and causes.
See the video story here.
I tried to reach State Rep. Dukes for the story but her consultant, Colin Strother, said she was too tied up with preparations for an upcoming MLK event. That's fair, so we included a statement in the story. Strother, however, sent another statement from Dukes after graphics began working on the first statement:
"I have never allowed a contribution to influence any vote. My district always comes first."
Strother himself added:
"Dawnna is uncommitted in the speaker's race. She has not signed a pledge card for any candidate. Any assumptions or assertions by Brian to the contrary are complete lies."
Your thoughts? I'm particularly interested in hearing from voters who live in the district. More money stats after the jump.
Brian Thompson, the political newbie challenging longtime State Representative Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, has picked up every endorsement from the gazillion Austin Democratic groups which actually made endorsements in a massive-endorsement-bonanza tonight.
Brian Thompson
"Gazillion" overstated it, it's really just the Capital Area Progressive Democrats, Capital Area Asian American Democrats, Texas Environmental Democrats, South Austin Democrats, Southwest Austin Democrats, and Austin Tejano Democrats.
Capital City Young Democrats will endorse at a later date; Austin Tejano Democrats couldn't come to a consensus, so there won't be an endorsement from them in the HD 46 race.
"It was a good night for sure," Thompson said. "I wouldn't have spent the time and effort to go into this unless I didn't think it was important, the opponent wouldn't have shown up if she didn't think it was important."
"These are the real motivators in the community. These are the people who are gonna vote and tell other people to vote, so we feel really good about this, for sure," Thompson added.
(BTW, thank you Brian Thompson for calling me back even though it's 11:45pm.)
More on how the endorsements divided up in other races, like TX-10 and Travis DA, tomorrow.
All right. Let's see here. Saturday night we have the Nevada caucuses and the South Carolina Republican primary. Monday there's a SC Democratic debate before Tuesday night's SC primary. Then the Republican candidates compete in Florida and then WHAM, it's Super Duper Calafragalistic Tuesday.
I'm starting to feel this presidential nominating process is like being on a treadmill I can't get off. I had a phone conversation today about how to find a bar/restaurant that would have campaign coverage on their TV screens Saturday night so that I could both get out of the house AND follow the returns. Is this some sort of sick addiction? Or is it just a great time to be a political junkie?
7:37pm: Sorry for the later-than-usual start, polls in Michigan close in about twenty minutes, which is the same time the Democratic debate starts. What a confluence of events.
7:41pm: Coverage on the cable networks has kind of started; Lou Dobbs is still talking about the American Dream "spiritually, physically and materially"... MSNBC has Keith doing his normal Countdown as they prepare to host the debate in a little bit, Fox has their election ticker up and it looks like only about three percent of precincts are in.
7:43pm: Fox News has a segment on what the blogs are saying, and they've called this "Blogitics"... I am guessing this is a made up word.
7:45pm: Curious which "brand" is selling better this political season: MSNBC's "The Place for Politics" or CNN's "The Best Political Team on Television".
7:49pm: Norah O'Donnell is again analyzing exit polls for The Place for Politics. She wore a purple velvet jacket for the NH primaries, tonight it's black leather.
FUN FACT: Norah O'Donnell recently gave birth to twins.
7:51pm: The big development from the exit polls shows very little D to R crossover voting, and fewer independents participating in the Republican primary than expected.
7:55pm: So far in Michigan, Mike Huckabee "hasn't done so hot," according to Brit Hume. He's in third place there. Huckabee is already in Columbia, South Carolina tonight, campaigning there as we get closer to the January 19th SC Republican primary.
7:59pm:Meanwhile in Las Vegas, the "big three" Democratic candidates have taken the stage.
8:01pm: Early returns in Michigan look good for Mitt Romney. Romney 38, McCain 31, Huckabee 16 with 8% of precincts reporting
8:03pm: Over on CNN, Wolf Blitzer is standing in the "CNN ELECTION SITUATION ROOM" (It's not really called that but I'm going to call it that). We're back to the massive pie charts on the screens tonight.
Oooohh, just in time for a PROJECTION (cue projection music). CNN can project Mitt Romney will win the Michigan primary.
FUN FACT: Michigan has the longest shoreline of any state except Alaska.
8:06pm: Our debate hosts tonight will be Brian Williams and Tim Russert, and Natalie Morales will be taking/asking questions from the audience. More projections for Mitt Romney, and more projection music.
8:08pm: Race is a question right out of the gate. Clinton takes it and is calling for joining together and singing kumbayah. Says it's because of the women's, civil rights and human rights movements that they are all there tonight. "We're all family in the Democratic party," Clinton says.
8:09pm: "I think Hillary said it well," Obama says in response. She's nodding. What is going on here? Are they gonna make out?
8:11pm: Timing worked out perfectly tonight. The Romney win was projected just in time to quit watching other networks cover the returns and focus solely on the Democratic debate.
8:13pm: Obama's debate performances have never been super-strong; so far he's on message but seems to be giving a flat delivery.
8:16pm: Clinton also not freaking out or anything. This is like a quiet dinner table discussion so far.
8:18pm: Now we go to a viewer question, read by Natalie Morales. Voter asks what a white male is to do when running against a woman candidate, and a black candidate.
Edwards takes it, of course, and says that Americans will make decisions on who people are and what they stand for and what they fight for; not specifically because of race or gender.
