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Stiles and I are both trying to watch the live stream of the Democratic US Senate debate on our computers and neither of us can hear anything. It looks like 186 viewers are online right now, trying to watch this debate. Can y'all hear it? Please let me know.
UPDATE: Livestream viewership down to 138. Perhaps Stiles and I aren't the only ones having audio trouble. While it's fun to watch Karen and Eileen sitting there and mouth some questions, I'm not getting anything out of this.
Democratic US Senate candidates Rick Noriega and Wrey McMurrey will meet for their only scheduled debate before the March primary in about half an hour. The debate starts at 8pm on the UT campus, and will be moderated by the DMN's Karen Brooks and Texas Monthly's Eileen Smith.
Don't feel like actually going to UT and probably getting a $25 parking ticket? Watch the debate from your own living room. All you need is an internet connection. Here's a link to the streaming video.
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.
Speaking of money, another pricetag for ya.
Back in November of last year, President Bush made a stop in the affluent Houston neighborhood of River Oaks* to raise money for US Senator John Cornyn.
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.
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.
More liveblogging after the jump.http://www.slate.com
Continue reading "Debate and DePrimary Livebloggin'" »
Just to review, a guy claiming to be a blogger named Jay Coxlie called US Senator John Cornyn's office seeking the Senator's public schedule. Turns out it was Democratic senate candidate Rick Noriega's deputy campaign manager, Rick Cofer.
Remember the spring of 2005, back when Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick was untouched by a nasty dog fighting scandal? Back when he was just the target of a lawsuit from a woman who claims he infected her with a... virus?
If you recall, the woman said she met Vick in a nightclub where he introduced himself as "Ron Mexico". I remember all the ESPN radio hosts ripping him to shreds for that one -- "Ron Mexico? What kind of fake name is that? Why not just call yourself Mike Canada?"
Which brings me to the choice of "Jay Coxlie" as a fake name. Cox... lie??? Read that one out loud. Perhaps Ron Mexico would have been less suspicious...
Meet Jay Coxlie. This is the photo he uses on Facebook. Jay asked me to be his Facebook friend this afternoon.
 Jay Coxlie?? |
A man identifying himself as a blogger named "Jay Coxlie" called the John Cornyn campaign asking for the Senator's public schedule. Turns out the call came from the phone of Noreiga's Deputy Campaign Manager, Rick Cofer.
"Misrepresenting yourself doesn't strike me as being in line with Texas values. If you're going to do that, it's probably best not to call directly from your campaign office. That's just a piece of advice," Cornyn press secretary Brian Walsh told The Statesman.
Cofer came clean. Sue Schechter, Noriega's campaign manager, said in a written statement that the call was "an overzealous attempt by a young staffer to find out information that should be available to the public. The means by which he did so are not acceptable and not consistent with the values Rick Noriega brings to this campaign."
 Rick Cofer |
It looks like Cofer's taking it all in stride, and someone created a nice Facebook profile for his alter ego. Some tidbits about Coxlie, according to his Facebook profile:
Interests? Banning plastic bags and blogging. Also, calling elected representatives.
Favorite movie? An Inconvenient Truth
Favorite music? Milli Vanilli.
Perhaps he can blame today's mishap on the rain. (I, too, am a fan of Milli Vanilli.)
If you've been too busy making the holiday party/holiday shopping rounds to get your normal dose of politics this weekend, here's a quick review... some "one-stop-shopping", if you will:
Abbott Sides with Craddick
After pushing back its release by several hours, the Attorney General eventually came out with his opinion on questions posed by Craddick's challengers after acrimonious final days of the session.
Craddick had argued he couldn't be removed by the 150 member body that voted him in; instead, that he was a statewide officer akin to Lt. Gov Dewhurst, who could only be removed by impeachment, which requires 2/3rds of the House AND Senate.
Abbott ultimately sided with Craddick on the question, in a move the DMN's Karen Brooks calls "a blow against insurgent lawmakers who tried to oust the speaker at the end of the legislative session".
Ronnie Earle Era Ending
The Travis County District Attorney announced Friday he would be stepping down at the end of his term, setting up a scramble in Austin for his job and speculation as to whether Earle will run for governor in 2010. AP's Kelley Shannon says it marks "an end to a three-decade reign in which he battled some of the biggest names in Texas politics".
Cornyn Officially In
Sitting US Senator John Cornyn filed his papers for re-election Saturday morning at the state GOP headquarters. The Houston Chronicle's RG Ratcliffe woke up early Saturday to attend the filing event, and files this report.
Ron Paul Rakes It In
On the 234th anniverary of the Boston Tea Party on Sunday, Ron Paul's Austin supporters marched from the Texas capitol to Lady Bird Lake, where they dumped tea into the water (temporarily) as part of a national one-day fundraiser, which wound up taking in $5 million for the Texas Congressman.
Nationally...
Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama won competing newspaper endorsements, Obama snagging The Boston Globe's, and Clinton picking up that of the Des Moines Register. (What do endorsements matter, you may ask. But in the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire, candidates have credited the endorsements for giving them a three to five point bump.)
Both papers agreed on McCain as their candidate of choice in the Republican race. McCain also won the backing of Democrat-turned independent Joe Lieberman, which will be official tomorrow. The Politico says the endorsement "is an effort to draw attention to the McCain campaign, which needs a splash."
What's Ahead...
Tuesday is election day in Tarrant County, where Democrat Dan Barrett and Republican Mark Shelton are facing off in the runoff for the Texas House seat of retired State Rep. Anna Mowery, R-Fort Worth. Moritz/Batheja of the Star-Telegram report "early voting has been relatively slow since it opened Monday."
The race has been full of surprises (Shelton wasn't expected to make the runoff), shenanigans (anonymous election day robocalling that criticized the record of leading Republican candidates), and money -- Craddick and his financial supporters coming to the aid of physician Mark Shelton, who has pledged his support to the embattled speaker.
Unrelated...
Perhaps Dallas Cowboys fans should ban together and put pressure on Tony Romo to ditch that Jessica Simpson, who I am blaming for the disaster at Texas Stadium on Sunday.
So, I wander onto left-learning Burnt Orange Report to find the top post written by none other than "French-looking, aristocrat-looking"* US Senator John Kerry.
(*Can you remember who said that about Kerry, before the primaries in 2004? Answer's after the jump.)
Lest you think he's been a Burnt Orange blogger all along, he says he's never posted on Burnt Orange before. He's a little pissed about the President being in Houston today to raise money for U.S. Senator John Cornyn. And he's also pissed because he says GOP senators are blocking a veterans appropriations bill that they used to support.
He's plugging a new site called Roadblock Republicans. I think it's safe to say they consider U.S. Senator John Cornyn one of the R-R's they want to "kick to the curb".
Continue reading "John Kerry, Temporary Texas Blogger" »
I was inspired to do this post by Texas Monthly's Paul Burka, after he ended a recent post like this:
There was never a scenario in which Watts could have been elected United States Senator. The Noriega scenarios may not be likely, but they do exist.
So, what are those scenarios, if they do exist? The Democratic campaign manager for Chris Bell '06 (Jason Stanford) and the former communications director for Republican Governor Rick Perry (Eric Bearse) offer their takes. (BTW -- Thanks, guys.)
The Prompt: Is there a scenario in which Rick Noriega could beat John Cornyn next fall? If not, why not? If so, what would have to happen?
For those of you who are like me and didn't read all of Virgil's The Aeneid during senior year of high school (Sorry, Mrs. Gatzlaff), here are...
Cliff's Notes on Bearse's comments:
1.) No, there are no likely scenarios in which Noriega can beat Cornyn, and this is why:
a.) Noriega is flawed because he isn't a centrist or a populist in reality
b.) Once Clinton gets the nomination, he's done, since she'll "drag down the whole ticket in Texas"
c.) Noriega lacks the resources to get a message out, vis-a-vis Chris Bell '06
Noriega might only lose by ten points if:
1.) He finds lightning in a bottle
2.) Cornyn makes major mistakes
3.) The GOP presidential nominee is so flawed that Hillary could be electable in Texas
Cliff's Notes on Stanford's comments:
1. Yes, there is a scenario, because of Noriega's compelling narrative and Cornyn's allegiance to Bush, who, as a GOP consultant told me, "is an unpopular president, even on his best day."
2. The scenario calls for "gobs and gobs of money". Running a TV ad statewide costs $1.4 million a week. Building it requires:
a.) Texas' Democratic donor base giving here in Texas
b.) National online donor community would have to build on an impressive third quarter for Noriega
c.) A "macaca" moment a la George Allen in Virginia
d.) National money funneling back to Texas
"The Alamo is still in Texas. Dare the Republicans to attack us here and make them surrender their seats in cheaper states or leave Cornyn undefended. They don't have enough money to do both. Democrats do," Stanford writes.
The full comments by each consultant are right after the jump.
Continue reading "Setting the Scenarios" »
Noriega attended an event in Houston this afternoon, where he made himself available for questions from the press. Here's the H-Chron's audio of the gaggle.
Below -- some of the questions and answers regarding today's shakeup in the Senate race. He has kind words for Watts, comments on the road ahead, and stops short of endorsing Carol Alvarado, the Houston city councilwoman who is running for his seat in the Texas House.
Opening remarks:
I have a great deal of respect for Mikal for putting himself out there... He and I are going to be working together and I'm very pleased for having his support.
What does Watts' withdrawal mean for your campaign?
It helps us better focus now on the in-state, which is that Texas needs to change. We've had six years now of just broken policies, whether it's the war policy or domestic policy. So now we'll be able to sharpen our message and our focus on sharing with every Texan why we need a change and we neednew leadership that has walked the walk, whether we're talking about the war, or border issues or working in a bipartisan way...
Does this make you the lock for the nomination?
Well, I'm going to continue to work hard. Obviously the filing deadline isn't until at least the 2nd of January, so I make no assumptions. So, other than that we have several days until the filing deadline, and I'm going to continue to work hard and travel the state and try to increase our support as we move forward.
Is Texas ready for a Hispanic senator?
I don't know the answer to that, I guess that's why we have elections. I can tell you this though -- I'm an American and I'm a Texan, and I think that we're at a time in our history where Americans and Texans are tired of folks trying to divide us. And they want leadership that tries to bring folks together, and that's what our campaign is going to be about.
Would you support Carol Alvarado to replace you in the Texas House?
I think Carol has been a tireless worker, she works extremely hard, she's a dear friend of mine. My predecessor when she stepped down said this district seat belongs to the people it doesnt belong to her, I think she set a good precedent when she said that. I think we have elections and the competition, and raising the discourse is important, so we'll see who all gets in. I will support whoever the nominee is out of the democratic primary.
Noriega has now released a statement.
I received a call from Mikal Watts this morning informing me he has decided to withdraw from the Democratic Primary race for the United States Senate.
As Teddy Roosevelt once said, the credit goes to the man in the arena. And Mikal Watts will always have my utmost respect for standing in the arena and highlighting how John Cornyn has let Texas down, placing political extremists and his financial contributors ahead of the people of Texas.
Of course, this is not the first time Mikal has been in the arena — he’s been a true friend to Democrats in Texas and throughout the nation, and has always had the courage to stand up for his convictions.
Today, Mikal made a very difficult and personal decision to put his family first. That’s a reflection of a strong character and a truly grounded leader.
Mikal and I made plans to sit down together in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, I’ll continue the campaign that we started together and fight for the vision for a better Texas that we continue to share..
This is pretty huge. Democrat Mikal Watts is backing out of his bid for U.S. Senate (he was engaged in an interesting race against State Rep. Rick Noriega for the Democratic nomination.) He's citing family reasons, see below:
For the last five months I have been exploring a race for the United States Senate because I believe that our junior senator, John Cornyn, has let Texas down and is more concerned with his cronies and friends in Washington than with what's best for Texas.
After spending the last several months putting everything into this campaign, I have seen the toll this effort has taken on my young children. For these reasons, my wife and I have made the decision that I will not be seeking the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate in 2008. I was brought up to believe that public service is a noble endeavor and I will continue to be involved at some level in the future. However, I realize that my time now should be devoted to serving my children so they may grow up in a healthy environment with both parents at home to meet their needs.
Continue reading "BREAKING: Watts Pulls Out of Senate Race" »
Daily Kos commissioned a new poll of likely voters on the U.S Senate race here in Texas. It was in the field this week (Sept 24-26). It shows Cornyn above 50% in a match-up with Rick Noriega, but it doesn't poll Cornyn v Mikal Watts (I guess the Kos Dems have already counted out Watts?)
The poll was conducted by Research 2000 for Daily Kos, with a margin of error +/- 4%.
If the 2008 election for U.S. Senate were held today, would you to reelect John Cornyn, would you consider voting for another candidate, or would you vote to replace Cornyn?
Reelect 40
Consider 15
Replace 35
If 2008 election for U.S. Senate were held today, for whom would you vote for if the choices were between Rick Noriega, the Democrat, and John Cornyn, the Republican?
Cornyn (R) 51
Noriega (D) 35
It seems if Watts were put up against Cornyn, the numbers wouldn't be much (if any) different, since respondents probably picked based on the R or D. I'd like to see more polling on Cornyn v Noriega versus Cornyn v Watts.
Full poll data from Daily Kos is here.
First, Democratic US Senate candidate Mikal Watts got himself a souped up new website. Now, it appears his opponent, State Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston, has also gone and gotten his site a new look.
The site has come a long way from the first day of the campaign. Back then, if I recall correctly, it featured a massively oversized photo on the "About" page. It looks like all the cell spacing and sizing issues are now resolved.
The Noriega site lacks the cool map thing with rollover features that Watts has. But Noriega does have a lot more embedded video, which I like.
The new and improved Mikal Watts campaign website is up and running. And it's fancy.
"We had some 12 year olds design it and it's amazing," joked campaign spokeswoman Kim Devlin.
Watts is running against State Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston, to be the Democratic nominee for US Senate. The winner of the March primary faces incumbent U.S Senator John Cornyn.
Now, I haven't spent a lot of time on the new Watts site, but I did take it for a short test drive and found a small issue. While the interface is easy to use and there's plenty of information available, I DON'T have a way to get back home.
What I mean is, if you are jumping from tab to tab, reading the different pages, there isn't a place where you can click to get back to the main index page. On many sites, you click on the main logo and get back home... but I tried it and it doesn't work.
Am I being too picky? Probably.
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