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August 2009
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October 2008 ArchivesA new poll out by the Texas Politics Project at UT shows that McCain leads Obama among Texas likely voters by a 50% to 41% margin. But 23% of respondents believe Obama - a Protestant - is Muslim. Senator John Cornyn holds a nine-point lead over Democratic challenger Rick Noriega, at 45% to 36%. The poll surveyed 550 registered voters in Texas Oct. 15-22 over the internet, (which has been a source of some criticism.) It has a margin of error of 4.2 percent. ...The number of registered voters in Texas climbed this year from 12.7 to 13.5 million since this year's March primaries. That's a six percent jump. "I am excited about the growth we have seen statewide in voter registrations since March," said Secretary of State Hope Andrade. "Texans recognize the importance of this election and are already exercising their right to vote in record numbers during early voting." The SOS says more than two million Texas voters have already cast ballots in early voting, which ends Friday. ...Congressional Quarterly has updated its competitiveness ratings in the US Congress balance of power scorecard to reflect the latest changes in the election climate. Here's where they classify the Texas races that aren't safely R or D. NO CLEAR FAVORITE Congressman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, will air a new ad starting tomorrow going after challenger Larry Joe Doherty's campaign against him. "Desperate people will say almost anything," McCaul begins. "My opponent's attacks detract from the real issues." He then approves his "positive" message at the end. Check it out before it hits the airwaves: US Senator John Cornyn's campaign has been cycling eight different television commercials in Texas TV markets in recent weeks (two of them featuring cows). Democratic opponent Rick Noriega hasn't had the kind of cash to spread his message as widely as Cornyn, but he's on the web with a Halloween-themed ad featuring the much-maligned fringe jacket worn by Cornyn in the Big Bad John viral video. ...It's a Barack O'Lantern. Thank you to KVUE viewer Rachel for sending this. She carved it at the Dripping Springs Pumpkin Carving Contest.
After famously not naming any newspapers or magazines she's currently reading, McCain running mate Sarah Palin told People magazine she's "not a bubblehead" and is currently reading "The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11". That's the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by the Austin-based writer Lawrence Wright. For your convenience, I linked you to the Texas Monthly talks piece with Wright f... Rep. Michael McCaul's opponent is up with a new commercial criticizing the congressman's role in the current economic crisis. Since congressional district 10 stretches from the Austin market into the Houston market, I'm not clear whether this is just in one market or in both. (Houston's far more expensive.) The commercial was produced by Doherty's consultants, Message, Audience and Presentation (James Aldrete's outfit out of Austin). Yes, this is not ideal timing for a political reporter. But I'll be out of the country for this next week and only able to blog sporadically. Good thing this world wide web creation is actually worldwide... staying connected should be pretty simple! ...A big thank you to the editors at The Austin Chronicle, who gave me a Critic's Pick Award in this year's Best of Austin issue. The category for which I (perhaps ironically) won? "Best TV Reporter Who Can Write". The write-up: The sound-bite world of TV news can make the on-camera talent look a little superficial, but that's just image. When KVUE's Elise Hu isn't skillfully trimming down policy nuance for the idiot box, she's raisin... The 30-day-out federal campaign finance reports are trickling out, and U.S. Rep Michael McCaul, R-Texas, is sitting on almost 600K for the final stretch. McCaul reported $597,740 cash on hand in his third quarter filing. He raised $283,000 in the third quarter from 406 individual donors. So the average size of a donation to McCaul was $697. "I am pleased with our fund raising efforts and the number of individual contributors to our campaign," McCaul said. "It shows our message of reform and responsible government is resonating with the residents of the 10th Congressional District." Challe... As millions of Texans prepare to vote in this year's presidential election (early voting starts next Monday), a state Senate panel will hear testimony arguing that all those eSlate voting machines upon which you cast your ballot are easily hacked and need to go. Dr. Dan Wallach, Associate Professor of Computer Science at Rice University, has argued that even with the multi-pronged testing performed before elections, the machines still have "severe security vulnerabilities which allow for undetectable tampering of election results". Yikes. Problems with e-voting machines have led to decertifications... The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has upgraded the Doherty challenge to U.S. Rep Michael McCaul, R-Austin to a more competitive status. The campaign arm, operated out of D.C., is going to give Doherty more financial and strategic support as part of its "Red to Blue" program. "Larry Joe Doherty, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Congress in Texas' 10th Congressional District, has taken what was believed to be a non-competitive district and, through the strength of his campaign, is now in position to win on November 4th," wrote Doherty spokesman Jon Niven. ...The former president will be at a Dallas event Tuesday night to stump for US Senate candidate Rick Noriega. For those of you who are in Dallas, the rally will take place at Thomas Jefferson High School. Doors open at 5:30pm, event starts at 6:30pm. The event will also feature a whole slate of North Texas Democratic candidates, including state Reps Allen Vaught and Kirk England, who both face tough re-election battles. ...After the candidates got off stage, the Cornyn and Noriega campaigns each sent emails to reporters declaring their candidate had won the debate. Here's Noriega campaign manager Mark Bell: "I support the status quo." It shouldn't come as a surprise: On every issue -- the economy, health care, energy and gas prices -- Texans know that they're not better off than they were when Cornyn took office." Here's Cornyn spokesman Kevin McLaughlin: Well, that was quick. The University of Texas-Austin suspended its longstanding rule banning signs in dorm rooms on Thursday, after two students' refusal to take down their political signs sparked community outcry. On Wednesday, Connor Kincaid and his cousin Blake Kincaid were barred from registering for classes next semester as a penalty for breaking the UT rule. "They didn't show any signs of backing down whatsoever," said Connor Kincaid. But the university reversed course Thursday morning. UT President Bill Powers called for the immediate suspension of the rule banning signs in d... Senator John Cornyn's campaign sent supporters an email this morning with "things to watch for in tonight's debate" between the Senator and the state Rep. from Houston. It's clear the Cornyn camp has paid close attention to every word uttered by their opponent. They prepared a list of Noriega's malapropisms and cliches to listen for tonight: "We need to kill the snake while we have the hoe in the hand." Democratic senate candidate Rick Noriega is on Austin TV and in other markets in Texas with his first campaign commercial of the cycle. It's called "Fed Up", an ad that accuses Republican US Sen. John Cornyn of failing Texas families.. Meanwhile, Cornyn's campaign unveiled ... Meet Connor Kincaid. He's a sophomore at UT, majoring in music. He likes Barack Obama and other Democratic candidates. He and his cousin/roommate Blake posted two burnt orange posters, measuring 11"x17", on their dorm room windows. See our video story here.
Those signs could now cost Connor and Blake the... Is a U.S. Senate seat in Texas worth battling it out for? The head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee says no. From MSNBC's First Read blog: Sen. Charles Schumer, (D-NY) head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, spoke to reporters this morning about his party's prospects for increasing their numbers this cycle. He seemed ready to count his chickens before they've hatched when he said, "The wind is more strongly at our backs than ever before." First, KVUE.com will stream the debate live. Meanwhile I'll be liveblogging mini-analysis here on this page with the help of Twitter. For anyone who's unfamiliar, Twitter enables people to microblog updates of whatever they're doing or thoughts that come across their minds with posts of 140 characters or less. Anyone on Twitter can communicate/comment on other people's observations with a simple tag. Twitter will enable me to liveblog tonight without having to constantly republishing the blog. Only the ten most recent "mini-post... George H.W. Bush came out today in favor of Austen Furse, one of the Republicans running in the special election for State Senator Kyle Janek's Houston-area set. "Austen Furse served the American people with distinction as White House Director of Policy Planning. His intellect, his commitment to core values, and his ability helped us craft common sense, conservative policies to fit the most complex problems. He is a hard-working and industrious man of integrity. I am proud to support his candidacy for the Texas Senate, and am confident he will serve the voters of Senate District 17 with the same skill an... Debates are like chili cheese dogs, right? You can never have too many? This Thursday, Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas, and his Democratic Challenger, State Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston face off on statewide TV. It is the first of two debates. This Thursday's debate will be hosted by the PBS station in Houston. The second debate, scheduled for October 16th, will be in Dallas and hosted by the PBS station there. Both debates start at 8pm and will air on PBS stations statewide. If you are throwing a debate watch party for either of these Senate debates, let me know and I'll include it in a post.... As Sarah Palin would say, "shout out" to my friend Rick Dunham up there in Washington, D.C. His Texas on the Potomac's list of the ten closest Senate races features the Texas race between John Cornyn and Rick Noriega. The race barely made the list, but it did, so here's the writeup: 10. Texas. Republicans say they aren't in the least worried that freshman John Cornyn could lose. For a long list of reasons, Cornyn should win (Texas remains a Republican st... You can enjoy the second of the three presidential debates tonight with friends. The Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar will show the debate on its giant hi def movie screen and the full food/drink menu will be available. Doors open at 7:15. You can purchase your $5 ticket here. Meanwhile, Texans for Obama and other area Democratic groups will throw a watch party at the Long Performing Arts Center, in the Michael and Susan Dell Hall. 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Last week the Cornyn campaign started running a new ad featuring the Senator in a field of cattle. If you haven't seen it: This morning, Cornyn opponent Rick Noriega released a web ad to respond to the "Cows" commercial. Let us know what you think. Sure, most of hyper-political Travis County is already registered to vote. But if you have moved from a different county since the last time you voted, the Secretary of State's office wants you to re-register. And if you haven't voted because you just turned 18 or because of other reasons, TODAY is the last day to get registered to vote in this year's presidential election. You must register in person with a deputy registar, or by mailing in a form that's postmarked TODAY. The deadline is MIDNIGHT. The Travis County Elections office will sta... I don't know how they swung it, but Austin band Spoon, which is a pretty big deal, is going to play an event for Democratic Railroad Commissioner candidate Mark Thompson. Spoon will be joined by Gary Clark Jr. at Sixth Street venue The Parish sometime "in mid-October", according to the Thompson campaign. "It will be a chance for Texas Democrats to enjoy some of the best new music from a Texas band that wants to do its part for Democrats and for balance on the Railroad Commission," said Cody Garrett, spokesman f... A campaign commercial from state Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs just aired during the KVUE "Nightbeat" newscast. He's on the air with a straightforward ad focused on jobs. His delivery is great here - quite natural. Sometimes these talk-straight-into-the-camera ads come off either a.) too "used car salesmanish" or b.) wooden. Click on the screengrab to watch the ad on Rose's site.
Austin-based bumper sticker company, Bumperactive, designed an Obama-themed bumper sticker for all fifty states. Then someone was willing to plaster them all over her ride.
More pictures of the car and the owner, Holly, are here. Speaking of Obama.. ouch m... |
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There's too much politics in Texas to fit into a newscast, so the fun continues here.
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