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Crowd goes wild for Palin
For Palin, a welcome as big as Texas … KBH team mocks Perry team in spot … Democratic debate tonight
Austin weather from News 8 Austin’s Maureen McCann: Cloudy with scattered showers likely. High of 63.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it. Also, you can follow me on Twitter for news updates around the clock.)
Weekend highlights and the day ahead
The biggest rock star in the Texas governor’s race is neither Texan nor running for governor. Discuss!
(It helps to have watched “Saturday Night Live” in the early nineties if you want to get the jokes around here.)
The rock star of the weekend was Sarah Palin, who stumped with Governor Rick Perry in suburban Houston on Sunday before a crowd of roughly 8,000. You can read all about it in my story from the print edition of this morning’s Statesman.
Also, before you go any further, be sure to watch Ken Herman’s video from the Palin event.
Some additional quick impressions from the event and conversations with those in the crowd:
This was about as close as you’ll see to a Hollywood-like event in a Texas governor’s race. Perry and Palin entered down a center aisle like a couple of fighters walking to the ring, the lights turned down and George Strait’s “Heartland” blaring through the speakers. (The song was a welcome break from the overplayed “God Bless Texas.”) Team Perry was crowing about the size of the crowd as compared to the much smaller audiences that came out for Hutchison’s kickoff and her Houston event with Dick Cheney (neither of which was on a weekend). Perry and Palin didn’t fill the joint, but the joint was pretty big.
The VIPs on the stage included Texas GOP chairwoman Cathie Adams, former chair Tina Benkiser, David Barton and Railroad Commissioners Michael Williams and Victor Carrillo. Palin’s young daugher Piper was also on stage. The juxtaposition of Benkiser and Ted Nugent, who played the national anthem on his guitar right in front of her, was quite something.
This was of course a Perry crowd, but several people I talked to in the audience said they wished Hutchison would just stay in the Senate. Could there be a critical number of Republicans who vote for Perry because they want Hutchison to stay?
“We need the Republican seat in the Senate,” said Jerusha Fields of Katy.
Her father, James Simon, was there also and is a big Perry fan. But, interestingly, he said he would not vote for Perry because he believes Perry allowed for the execution of an innocent man in Cameron Todd Willingham, who was put to death in 2004. Major questions have been raised about the investigation that led to Willingham’s conviction.
Back to Hutchison. Kara Carroll of Plano said she wished Hutchison wasn’t running. “If she was the only one running, it would be different. But I don’t think she should divide the party,” Carroll said.
Now would be a good time to point out that Palin also said over the weekend that contested Republican primaries are good for the party, and to point out that Palin herself took on an incumbent in the Republican primary in Alaska.
Nonetheless, Team Perry put together an impressive event that will likely dwarf any other rally in this gubernatorial campaign.
• Hutchison turned some heads during the Super Bowl with the Austin debut of a new TV ad that pokes fun at the Perry campaign team. The ad features three fictional Perry staffers: Mark (Miner?), Rob (Johnson?) and Mike (who is Mike?)
Watch it here:
The ad is a pretty good little spoof for those of us in the Austin bubble. But will it make any sense outside of Austin? On my way from the Palin event to Fort Worth for tonight’s Democratic debate, I was watching the Super Bowl in Houston when the commercial aired in Austin. (I know because I quickly got calls and texts.) The spot didn’t air in Houston at that time. The commercial slips in some nice licks about the Perry’s administration seeking federal bailouts and Perry writing a letter the day of the Wall Street bailout asking Congress to approve a financial rescue plan. Kind of makes you wonder why Hutchison didn’t hit those issues in her earlier spots.
• One more video. Remember on Friday how I posted the Perry video knocking Hutchison for the taxpayer money spent on travel costs. The Hutchison campaign produced its own making fun of what it calls Perry’s “life of luxury.” Here it is:
• The first and likely only televised debate of the Democratic primary for governor is tonight at 7 p.m. For a good preview of the debate, you can listen to the Statesman’s W. Gardner Selby and Ken Herman and KUT’s Ian Crawford in the Texas Political Parlor.
Very interesting to see what Bill White does tonight. Does he try to ignore Farouk Shami and aim his fire directly at Gov. Rick Perry? White appears to be on his way to the Democratic nomination, so his No. 1 objective has got to be to make it through the night without major gaffes. As for Shami, he is entirely untested in this format. Can he talk about anything other than job creation? He’s got to find a way to knock White off his game. Won’t be easy.
Check out our preview from the print edition to get ready for the debate and find out where you can watch/listen to it.
• Perry said in the second Republican debate that his 2007 order for school girls to get the HPV vaccine was not mandatory. The PolitiFact Texas staff looked into this claim and found it to be “barely true.”
Countdown
8 days until early voting begins.
22 days until the March 2 primary.
In the news
A call to eliminate property taxes might resonate with many taxpayers, beleaguered by the demands for more money from schools, cities, counties, emergency districts and more when their wallets are thin. But critics say the freedom Medina promises would come at a huge cost to local taxpayers because they would lose a critical element of control over the governments closest to them. Austin American-Statesman
Lawmakers in firearm-friendly Texas are embroiled in a debate over how to make the state Capitol safer: get rid of guns or encourage even more. Wall Street Journal
The two main Democratic candidates for governor are punching hard. But Bill White and Farouk Shami are attacking Rick Perry as much as each other - particularly on education. Dallas Morning News
She wanted to practice law. Instead, she became a television reporter, then one of the people reporters cover. But ask U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison about her life’s turning points — as we have all the major candidates for governor — and she starts with her 8-year-olds. Peggy Fikac
Now, questions about who might replace him aren’t idle: Wentworth is a contender for chancellor of the Texas State University System, for which he was a regent in the 1980s. Greg Jefferson
Texas has no rules about who can perform laser teeth-whitening. Holmes is a licensed cosmetologist, but she doesn’t need any type of license to operate the light machine. And because there are no state rules, if anyone complains about teeth-whitening practices at a clinic, spa or any other place (like a mall kiosk), state officials have no choice but to turn them away. Fort Worth Star-Telegram
President Obama said Sunday that he would convene a half-day bipartisan health care session at the White House to be televised live this month, a high-profile gambit that will allow Americans to watch as Democrats and Republicans try to break their political impasse. New York Times
Everything else
Head Coach Sean Payton made a number of gutsy calls — most notably an onside kick to begin the second half — and the Saints won the Super Bowl, 31-17. Austin’s own Drew Brees was a deserving MVP.
Women’s basketball: Texas 81, Texas Tech 51
The reeling Texas men’s team hosts top-ranked Kansas tonight at 8 on ESPN.
Weekend box office: 1. “Dear John” 2. “Avatar” 3. “From Paris With Love”
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Here comes Sarah Palin
Controversy precedes Palin’s visit … Perry team knocks Hutchison on travel … Farouk Shami’s pants are on fire
Happy early birthday to Justin W. Williamson (Saturday), Southwestern Class of ‘12, and Sherry Sylvester of Texans for Lawsuit Reform (Sunday).
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it. Also, you can follow me on Twitter for news updates around the clock.)
BREAKING: Nationally, for the month of January, the country lost 20,000 jobs. And the number of jobs lost in December was adjusted upward, from 85,000 to 150,000. For January, unemployment rate fell from 10.1 percent to 9.7 percent, Erin Burnett reports on MSNBC.
Thursday highlights and the weekend ahead
Sarah Palin’s appearance at a Sunday campaign rally with Gov. Rick Perry in suburban Houston on Sunday could be the single biggest event of the 2010 Republican race for governor. This is not a campaign marked by big crowds or raucous events for any candidate, but the Palin event could well draw several thousand people just a few hours before the Super Bowl.
But the run-up to the event has not been good for Team Perry. After Palin harshly criticized White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel for his use of the word “retarded,” it came to light that Perry strategist Dave Carney has used the same word. And aging rocker Ted Nugent, who is going to perform at the Perry/Palin event, has quite a history of using the word also. Aman Batheja has a good wrap-up of all this today in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Here’s something that has received less attention: Perry has built his campaign around criticizing Kay Bailey Hutchison’s vote for the financial rescue package in the fall of 2008. But while she was running for vice president and afterward, Palin voiced support for that package also.
In October 2008, Palin told CNN, “Now, as for the economic bailout provisions and the measures that have already been taken, it is a time of crisis and government did have to step in playing an appropriate role to shore up the housing market to make sure that we’re thawing out some of the potentially frozen credit lines and credit markets, government did have to step in there.”
Then after the election, in November 2008, Palin had this exchange with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer:
BLITZER: What about the $700 billion bailout of the financial industry? Was that the right thing to do with hindsight, based on what you know right now, or the wrong thing to do?
PALIN: I still believe it was the right thing to do to be able to propose this rescue package, certainly in the home mortgage industry, because with foreclosures up 71 percent compared to where we were last year on foreclosures, this is bad ultimately for our entire economy. And it doesn’t do any neighborhood, or any community, any state, any good to see the rate of foreclosures that we have. So with home mortgages and overall with the general bailout plan, yes, I think it was the right thing to do. The federal government had to take some action. But it cannot be assumed again that taxpayers can be looked to for all of the bailouts as more and more corporations, companies, entities come forward with their hand out for government to continue to bail.
Brad Watson of WFAA in Dallas asked Perry about Palin’s bailout support a couple of weeks ago. Here is Watson’s story:
Will be interesting to see if the Hutchison bailout vote is part of the critique that Perry and Palin offer on Sunday.
• Here’s the message that Team Perry will push today: Hutchison has spent thousands of taxpayer dollars to reimburse lobbyists, corporations and donors for providing use of their planes. The Perry campaign also says Hutchison has often billed taxpayers for private planes when she could have used commercial air.
Here’s a video the Perry campaign has put together on all this:
• PolitiFact Texas gave Democratic gubernatorial candidate Farouk Shami a “Pants on Fire” rating Thursday for his claim that former Houston Mayor Bill White “is discriminating. He’s taking jobs from African Americans and giving them to his friends.”
Also, while campaigning in San Antonio on Thursday, Shami took offense to the fact that White mentions in his television spot that he was born in San Antonio. “I take that as a racist comment,” Shami said, according to The Associated Press. White spokeswoman Katy Bacon called the Shami assertion “ridiculous.”
Stat of the day
Texas has spent $3.7 million to weatherize just 47 homes through December under a program set up by Congress a year ago in economic stimulus legislation. This amounts to a taxpayer cost of $78,000 per home. Source: Texas Watchdog
Countdown
11 days until early voting begins.
25 days until the March 2 primary.
In the news
Like much of the rest of the nation, Texas has gotten tougher on teen drivers in recent years making them prove they are staying in school, restricting their late-night trips and limiting how many other kids they can have in their cars. Now, Gov. Rick Perry says he wants to bump up the requirements to reduce the number of high-school dropouts in Texas. Austin American-Statesman
For 2010, however, Rose faces a first in his political career: an opponent in the Democratic primary, the winner of which will face Republican businessman Jason Isaac in the November election. Next month, Rose squares off against Andrew Backus, a Driftwood hydrogeologist and rental property owner and manager. Backus is also a candidate with a political ax to grind against Rose. “I’m running because of my personal experience trying to deal with (Rose) on groundwater issues and the disingenuousness I’ve experienced with him on this issue,” Backus said. Austin American-Statesman
About a month after filing a $58,000 tax lien against state Rep. Charles “Doc” Anderson, R-Waco, for unpaid personal income taxes, the Internal Revenue Service took further action against the veterinarian for failing to pay taxes withheld from employees’ paychecks for the final two quarters of 2008. Waco Tribune-Herald
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has blasted Gov. Rick Perry in recent debates and television ads as driven by the desires of lobbyists, but at least 23 former Hutchison aides have gone onto lucrative lobbying careers in Washington, according to Senate records. Dallas Morning News
The Texas Department of Public Safety is planning to use federal stimulus dollars that Gov. Rick Perry begrudgingly accepted from Washington to plug a hole in the border security budget. Texas Tribune
The Texas Ethics Commission fined state Rep. Abel Herrero $2,800 for improperly reporting his political spending in filings made between 2006 and 2008. The Robstown Democrat was the last of seven people fined for violations of campaign finance laws by the commission in January after hearing complaints at its Dec. 2 meeting in Austin. Texas Watchdog
The president of Toyota apologized at a hastily arranged news conference Friday night for the quality problems that led to the recall of more than nine million vehicles worldwide, and pledged the Japanese automaker would soon announce steps to address brake problems on the 2010 Prius. New York Times
Everything else
Portland 96, Spurs 93
I really don’t have a good feel for who’s going to win the Super Bowl, but I will go ahead and predict that the Colts prevail 31-27.
New in theaters: Dear John, From Paris with Love, The Yes Men Fix the World.
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Shami plays electability card against White
Shami uses familiar line … New Hutchison ad hits Perry hard … One lawmaker still supporting Hodge for re-election
Austin weather from News 8 Austin’s Maureen McCann: Occasional rain, letting up late in the day. Cool with a high around 50.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it. Also, you can follow me on Twitter for news updates around the clock.)
Wednesday highlights and the day ahead
Democrat Farouk Shami’s campaign sent out an e-mail Wednesday night titled, “Attention Democrats: Bill White Can’t Win in November.”
The message cited head-to-head questions in the latest Rasmussen poll that showed White, largely considered the Democratic frontrunner for governor, trailing hypothetical matchups with the three Republican candidates.
A few points to remember here: Yes, it appears this is going to be a tough year for Democrats, but White has hardly begun to mount a full-force campaign for general election voters. The poll was conducted the same day that White’s first TV ad in the gubernatorial race hit the airwaves. I’d also point out that polls conducted around this time last year showed U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison with a major lead on Gov. Rick Perry. And as we all know, that’s not how things stand today. So let’s not get too excited about polls conducted well before a race begins.
Also, the Shami release included this line from Shami himself: “It is time to end politics as usual. This poll is proof positive that the Texas Democratic establishment couldn’t lead a silent prayer, much less designate our party’s standard bearer.”
“Couldn’t lead a silent prayer” is a good line. It was especially good when Chris Bell used it over and over again, in regard to Perry, in 2006. With all due respect to the former congressman, any irony in the fact that a guy making an electability argument is channeling Chris Bell?
• Hutchison has a new ad out, and those who say she hasn’t taken the fight directly to Perry enough could like this one. It highlights the movement between Perry’s office and the lobby. Watch it here.
Or, here’s the ad itself:
• State Rep. Terri Hodge, D-Dallas, entered a guilty plea on a tax-evasion charge Wednesday, ending her pursuit of elected office. She pledged to never seek public office again, and the Dallas Monring News has the story.
A number of Dallas-area members of the Legislature who had endorsed Hodge publicly switched Wednesday and backed Eric Johnson, the only Democrat actively seeking the nomination (no Republican signed up). But Rep. Barbara Mallory Caraway, D-Dallas, told Johnson on Wednesday that she still supports Hodge. Even though her deal with prosecutors requires her to never seek public office again.
• CNN reports that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who is coming to Texas this weekend to campaign with Perry, condemned language allegedly used by Perry’s chief strategist, Dave Carney.
Hutchison campaign manager Terry Sullivan says that Carney, in a conference call about the debates, said during a debate-negotiating session that it was “retarded” that a candidate’s holding room be in a separate building from the debate itself. Palin offered a harsh rebuke recently when it was reported that White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel used the same term.
Palin spokesman Meg Stapleton condemned the language as “disrespectful,” but did not say that Carney should lose his job.
“While it seems few can comment on the veracity of the conversation, Gov. Palin believes crude and demeaning name calling at the expense of others is disrespectful,” Stapleton told CNN in an e-mail.
Countdown
12 days until early voting begins.
26 days until the March 2 primary.
In the news
This isn’t the governor’s race we thought we were going to get. The GOP primary between Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison was supposed to be a clash of the two biggest political titans in our state, a years-in-the-making fight for the soul of the Republican Party. But the insurgent candidacy of political activist Debra Medina has fundamentally changed the race. Austin American-Statesman
What stands out about Hodge is that her price was so pathetically cheap. In exchange for her endorsement of lucrative tax credits for their housing projects, Hodge let developers Brian and Cheryl Potashnik pay her rent and utilities. They bought her new carpeting. It came to about $27,000. Hodge pleaded guilty Wednesday to not reporting the income on her federal tax return, there not being an official tax form for the declaration of sleazy graft. Jacquielynn Floyd
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood blamed Texas officials Wednesday for the state’s failure to win federal aid for a high-speed rail system linking its major cities. Houston Chronicle
Rarely do Texas senators try to trade in their Capitol Hill clout to become governor of the Lone Star State. Sam Houston made the switch in 1859. Sen. Price Daniel did it in 1957. That’s the entire list. Half a century later, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is hoping to follow in the footsteps of those two Texas legends. But she is learning that her skills in the capital’s corridors of power have been a mixed blessing in the current Republican gubernatorial primary race against incumbent Rick Perry and conservative insurgent Debra Medina. Houston Chronicle
Everything else
ESPN ranks the 2010 college football recruiting classes: 1. Florida 2. Texas 3. Alabama 4. Auburn 5. Oklahoma. Texas A&M came in at 17.
Mavericks 110, Golden State 101.
Spurs 115, Sacramento 113.
Men’s basketball: Texas A&M beat Missouri, Baylor beat Iowa State.
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Signs of trouble for Hutchison
Rasmussen poll shows Perry in mid-40s … Is Medina peaking? … Medina hooks up to the Truth-O-Meter
Austin weather: Chilly and breezy and it’s going to rain — heavily at times. High of 50.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it. Also, you can follow me on Twitter for news updates around the clock.)
Tuesday highlights and the day ahead
By now you’ve probably heard about the Rasmussen poll released late Tuesday afternoon. Conducted Monday among voters who say they’re likely to take part in the Republican primary, it showed 44 percent for Gov. Rick Perry, 29 percent for U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, 16 percent for Debra Medina and 11 percent undecided. As compared to the Rasmussen poll taken two weeks ago, Perry is up a point, Hutchison is down four points and Medina is up four points.
While there are legitimate questions to be asked about an auto-dial poll like Rasmussen, these numbers are consistent with what I’ve heard from some operatives (including some who don’t work for Perry), and it is instructive to look at this Rasmussen poll compared to previous Rasmussen polls.
It is also important to look at the poll in this context: it comes after a period in which Hutchison has spent more money than Perry. She spent $3.4 million in the first three weeks of January, Perry spent $1.9 million. But Rasmussen shows that voters’ view of her is increasingly unfavorable.
In the Rasmussen poll conducted Nov. 11, 75 percent of likely Republican primary voters said their view of Hutchison was very favorable or somewhat favorable, whereas 23 percent said their view of Hutchison was very unfavorable or somewhat unfavorable.
In the Rasmussen poll conducted Monday, 67 percent of likely Republican primary voters said their view of Hutchison was very favorable or somewhat favorable, whereas 31 percent said their view of Hutchison was very unfavorable or somewhat unfavorable.
Perry’s favorable/unfavorable number has improved from 75/24 in November to 80/19 on Monday.
Medina’s favorable/unfavorable number was 50/29 in Monday’s poll, with 21 percent of voters still not sure about her. Her favorable/unfavorable number was not tested in November.
Obviously, Medina is having a greater impact on the race than we expected, and could well push it into a runoff. However, this question remains: How much higher can she go? There won’t be any more televised debates. She doesn’t have the money to mount a serious advertising campaign on television. At this point, Medina is relying on buzz, media attention and whatever kind of grass-roots organization her campaign can afford to build. The more Republican primary voters see Medina, the more they like her. I’m just not sure they’re going to see her much more.
I spent several hours last night talking to Medina supporters around the state, and I’ll have much more about what they said in my column in Thursday’s print edition. My general impression, and this is entirely unscientific, is that some of Hutchison’s punches are landing on Perry. But those attacks, whether about toll roads or property rights or the HPV vaccine, are pushing some voters toward Medina instead of Hutchison. Anti-incumbent voters see both Perry and Hutchison as incumbents, even though Hutchison is running for a job she’s never had. Medina impressed in the debates, while Perry’s demeanor in the first debate particularly turned off some voters.
Also, the Perry ad that shows Hutchison saying she didn’t want to write a blank check for $700 billion, then shows her voting for the TARP rescue package, was mentioned again and again by voters who said they’re not backing Hutchison.
Anyways, more on that in print tomorrow.
• Our series of stories on the leading candidates for governor continues today with a look at Democrat Bill White. As with all of the candidates, you can read about where he came from, his record in law and government and his personal style. All of these stories, and some very interesting and fun photo galleries can be found by clicking on this link, and, again, I highly encourage you to see the great presentation put together by our photographers and designers in the print edition.
• The PolitiFact Texas team today examines Medina’s assertion that a prank phone call caused “400 children to be taken from their parents… without warrant.” The staff found her claim to be half-true. Find out why.
• Trouble continues for Rep. Terri Hodge, D-Dallas, who is trying to fend off lawyer Eric Johnson in the March primary. I reported last month that Hodge’s end-of-year campaign finance report appeared to overstate her cash on hand, which Hodge reported as $49,000. A corrected report shows her cash on hand at that point was just $12,000.
• Politico’s Mike Allen has an interesting scoop in this morning’s Playbook: “A politically diverse group of bloggers, commentators, techies and politicos this morning will launch an online campaign urging President Barack Obama and the GOP leaders of Congress to hold regular, televised Question Time, modeled on Friday’s Baltimore exchange. Original endorsers include Grover Norquist and Eli Pariser, Joe Trippi and Mark McKinnon, Markos Moulitsas and Ed Morrissey, and many more, including Ari Melber, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Ana Marie Cox and Nate Silver. The steering committee is made up of Micah Sifry, David Corn, Mike Moffo, Mindy Finn, Jon Henke and Glenn Reynolds.”
Countdown
13 days until early voting begins.
27 days until the March 2 primary.
In the news
While Debra Medina’s campaign fund-raising cannot compete with the big-money machines of her Republican primary competitors, she has smoked them over the past month in terms of contributions from small donors. Austin American-Statesman
John Bradley, the controversial district attorney appointed by Gov. Rick Perry last fall to head the Texas Forensic Science Commission, did score one victory in Harlingen on Friday while presiding over his first meeting. Rick Casey
Texas could face a $16 billion shortfall in its next two-year budget. The federal spending plan the White House laid out on Monday probably won’t make a dent in that - though Texas and other cash-strapped states could get help later this year. Dallas Morning News
Debra Medina never made it inside. Nor did she deliver a speech. The neophyte candidate, whose demeanor combines the no-nonsense efficiency of an experienced nurse with the zeal of former independent presidential candidate H. Ross Perot, spent nearly three hours talking politics and policy with the people in the parking lot. Without the traditional campaign handler to hustle her along, she talked about property taxes, home schooling, school vouchers, abortion, decriminalizing drugs — talked until most everyone there had spoken to her about whatever was on their minds. Houston Chronicle
Lunch at Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s campaign office in Austin was on the tab of rival Rick Perry’s campaign Tuesday. But the delivered platter of pulled pork sandwiches was no friendly gesture. It was instead a devilish nod to Hutchison’s designation as runner-up in the 2009 “Porker of the Year” poll released Monday by the Citizens Against Government Waste, a Washington-based watchdog group that tracks and criticizes budget “pork.” Dallas Morning News
The Cactus Cafe, an iconic music venue and bar in the student union of the University of Texas, could find a new home at the alumni center on campus. Austin American-Statesman
The nation’s top two defense officials called Tuesday for an end to the 16-year-old “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, a major step toward allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the United States military for the first time. New York Times
Everything else
Today is National Signing Day in college football. As of Jan. 20, Scouts Inc. ranked the top five recruiting classes like this: 1. Florida 2. Texas 3. Alabama 4. Georgia 5. Auburn. (Texas the only non-SEC school in the top five!) Oklahoma was ranked sixth and Texas A&M 14th.
Rockets 119, Golden State 97
Men’s basketball: BYU 76, TCU 56
Texas A&M plays Missouri in men’s basketball tonight, 8 p.m. on ESPNU.
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Who will vote in the GOP primary?
Campaigns spar over turnout … Hutchison hooked up to the Truth-O-Meter … Statesman kicks off series on gubernatorial candidates
Happy birthday to U.S. Sen. John Cornyn
Austin weather: There’s a 30 percent chance of rain today, 40 percent chance tonight and then it’s really supposed to rain Wednesday. Temperatures won’t get much past 50 this afternoon.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it. Also, you can follow me on Twitter for news updates around the clock.)
Monday highlights and the day ahead
BREAKING: Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow in Pennsylvania this Groundhog Day morning. Six more weeks of winter.
• Speaking to the Texas Farm Bureau yesterday in San Marcos, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said, “I know that without you I would not be here, that you are sticking with me in a very tough race. I need to ask you to reach out beyond farm bureau members and help bring people in to the polls that don’t usually vote in Republican primaries.”
Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign was quick to say that Hutchison was suggesting that she couldn’t win among Republicans.
But both campaigns have said for months that hundreds of thousands of people who don’t regularly vote in the Republican primary will vote in this one.
Fewer than 700,000 people voted in the 2006 Republican primary. As I reported in December, the Perry campaign expects about 1.2 million people to vote in the March primary. The Hutchison campaign expects a turnout of about 1.5 million. Key players in each campaign said they expect the additional voters to be those who vote for Republicans in general elections and occasionally in the GOP primary.
I don’t see anything in Hutchison’s comments that suggests she wants Democrats to vote in the Republican primary (although Democrats have every right to do so under Texas law). And I don’t see how Hutchison encouraging her supporters to bring along friends who wouldn’t normally go to the polls is any different from the Perry campaign spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on its Home Headquarters program, which is designed to recruit voters who need a little prodding to get to the polls.
As the Perry campaign says about its Home Headquarters program on its Web site, “You’ll be able to use our website to design handouts, e-mails, mail pieces or signs specifically designed for your friends, family and neighbors. You know what information your mother or brother needs to get in order to support Governor Perry. You know how best to get each of your 12 people to vote (maybe you’ll need to drive them to the early voting location, maybe a phone call in the morning before they leave for work or at the office before they head home).”
• Republican Debra Medina is hoping to make a big splash today with her Medina Money Bomb, which encourages small donors to give today. According to the Statesman’s Kate Alexander, the event is pegged to the Feb. 2 anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the U.S.-Mexican War in 1848.
• Check out the latest post from the folks at PolitiFact Texas. They tackle Hutchison’s claims on whether the state is using the e-Verify program to check workers’ immigration status.
• And I definitely encourage you to pick up a copy of our print edition over the next two weeks. Today we launch a series of in-depth profiles about the five major gubernatorial candidates, and we start with some excellent stories about Democrat Farouk Shami. You really need to see the stories and accompanying photos by the highly accomplished Jay Janner in print to get the full effect.
We will tell you about each candidate in three stories. The first is the story of how they got here — their early lives, where they came from, turning points before they got into politics. This story is particularly strong today, as Corrie MacLaggan talks about how a young Shami lost three brothers right before his eyes in a tragedy that no child should have to endure, how his parents threatened to disown him when he said he wanted to work in the hair industry and how a young Shami was told by his parents that he had been engaged for years to someone he considered a sister.
Each profile also takes you through the candidates’ records, whether it be in politics or business or as a political activist. And the third piece is a little lighter, as we look at the candidates’ style — how they dress, how they talk, how they interact with others.
The goal is to tell you more about these candidates than you usually get in lengthy profiles that often amount to laundry lists of their accomplishments and setbacks. We have the Democratic candidates this week and the Republican candidates next week. And each will be accompanied by a photo gallery of the candidates through the years. You can see Shami’s gallery here.
Stat of the day
Many students go to community colleges expecting to pick up some basic courses and transfer to two-year universities. But as Brian Thevenot writes in a very good Texas Tribune story, “the majority of students don’t transfer at all, and only 15 percent who start community college full-time go on to earn four-year degrees within six years, according to the latest available state data tracking full-time students over the long-term. Even fewer earn two-year degrees from two-year colleges: just 11 percent statewide. An additional 5 percent earned professional certificates in vocations that range from nursing to welding. So all told, just three out of 10 full-time community college students end up with any credential after six years. And that figure doesn’t include tens of thousands of part-time students — the majority at many campuses — who experts say are even less likely to finish.”
Countdown
14 days until early voting begins.
28 days until the March 2 primary.
In the news
Lobbyist is often a dirty word during elections, and State Board of Education member Ken Mercer has been repeatedly hurling the term at his Republican primary opponent in an effort to sully him. Tim Tuggey, who is mounting a strong challenge to Mercer, deflects that attack with an explanation that he is a business lawyer who must sometimes lobby elected officials on behalf his clients. Austin American-Statesman
Attorneys for the Texas convict whose escape in December led to housecleaning of several top officials filed a lawsuit today alleging that authorities are violating his rights at an Amarillo prison in trying to determine how he got a pistol to make his way to freedom. Austin American-Statesman
Texas lawmakers on Monday hammered home that without a new funding method, the Texas Department of Transportation will be unable to build any new roads beyond 2012 and will not have enough money to properly maintain existing roads within two to three years. San Antonio Express-News
Whether the next governor is a Democrat or a Republican, the greater Houston area will play a major role in deciding that outcome. Houston Chronicle
The Dallas Cowboys didn’t reach the Super Bowl this year, but dozens of government officials from North Texas will make the trip to Florida. About 50 city employees and elected officials are flying to the Miami area this week for the last Super Bowl before the nation’s biggest sporting event comes to Arlington. Most will travel on the taxpayers’ dime, and they’re using a variety of ways - from federal grants to tourism funds - to pay for the trips. Dallas Morning News
House Criminal Jurisprudence Chairman Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, is miffed that the new chairman of the Texas Forensic Science Commission advised one of Gallego’s invited witnesses not so show up for a recent legislative hearing. Commission Chairman John Bradley said he did not interfere. Houston Chronicle
Everything else
Texas picked up a big win in men’s basketball, beating Oklahoma State, 72-60.
Utah 104, Mavericks 92.
The Houston Chronicle reports that Texans’ owner Bob McNair is working on a multi-year extension for coach Gary Kubiak, who is entering the final year of his contract.
“Avatar” and “The Hurt Locker” lead the Academy Awards with nine nominations each, including best picture and director.
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Final thoughts on Friday’s debate
Belo debate put Perry’s record on display … A rocky start for the new Forensic Science Commission … Hutchison meeting with editorial boards
Austin weather from News 8 Austin’s Maureen McCann: Intervals of clouds and sun with a slight chance of a shower. High 58.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it. Also, you can follow me on Twitter for news updates around the clock.)
Weekend highlights and the day ahead
We saw Friday night in Dallas exactly why it’s important to have televised debates in a gubernatorial race.
The debate forced Gov. Rick Perry to defend some of the most controversial decisions he has made in office. And Perry didn’t run away from any of them. He defended his order for HPV vaccinations for sixth-grade girls as the product of his pro-life philosophy. He defended his decision to sign legislation allowing in-state tuition for the children of illegal immigrants as a measure that helped young people who are working hard in the classroom and toward citizenship. He defended the Trans-Texas Corridor as a plan that was needed so that the transportation issue would no longer be kicked down the road. And he vigorously defended the Texas Enterprise Fund, saying it had brought thousands of jobs to the state.
Now, you can decide for yourself whether you like those explanations, and what Texans decide on that question could go a long way in determining whether Perry wins this primary. And we can question whether the format gave Perry’s opponents — U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Wharton activist Debra Medina — ample opportunity to prod Perry on those issues, or whether Hutchison and Medina made as much of their opportunities as they could have.
Yes, whether someone knows the first governor of Texas is probably not a good predictor of how he or she will do in the job, and yes, fortune smiled on Medina when she got the question about whether she would support a state income tax. But I was impressed with the debate as a whole because the panelists made things a little hot under the collar for each of the candidates. Each candidate had to talk to a statewide audience about issues they would rather not discuss.
And that’s why we have debates.
One other point: While she may not have the money to compete on the airwaves, Medina again asserted herself enough that reporters will cover this much more as a three-person race over the next month than the two-person race that many of us expected. I’ve seen some polls suggesting she is pulling support from Hutchison and others suggesting she is pulling support from Perry. I guess we’ll know for sure in a month.
• Rick Casey has an extraordinary column in the Houston Chronicle this morning. While much of the Texas press corps was focused on the Republican gubernatorial debate on Friday, Casey went to the first meeting of the Forensic Science Commission under its new leader, Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley. Remember that it was Bradley whom Gov. Rick Perry named the new chairman of the commission just days before it was supposed to hear a key report from an arson expert about the investigation that led to the conviction and execution of Cameron Todd Willingham.
Casey reports that Bradley tried to keep a film crew out of the meeting, only to be relayed a message later from the attorney general’s office that he could not do so. He also describes how members of the panel rebelled against Bradley’s plan to name members and chairmen of the panels assigned to each case. Give it a read.
• Last week, we broke the news that Perry would not meet with newspaper editorial boards in order to seek their endorsements before the primary. At the time, I noted that Hutchison had not accepted any invitations from editorial boards, either.
She has started to accept them. Hutchison is scheduled to meet with the American-Statesman editorial board this afternoon. Debra Medina met with the board last week.
• Apparently the message hasn’t gotten through yet to politicians and a number of political operatives in this state: If you fail to tell the truth, chances are pretty good that you’re going to get caught.
That’s why the good work done by the good people at the Statesman’s PolitiFact Texas is so important. Their latest catch: The Texas Republican Party claims that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White “presided over” the construction of what may be the world’s largest abortion clinic. The staff also hooked the national Democratic Party up to the Truth-O-Meter after it made claims about Texas’ uninsured rate, homeowners’ insurance costs and tuition increases.
• Today we hit another deadline for fundraising reports due to the Texas Ethics Commission. Donors and political action committees who don’t want the public to know what they’re up to often wait until the day after this report is due to really let the dollars start flying into campaigns. That’s because by the time we get to the next report, early voting will be halfway over and there won’t be much time for any news about where candidates are getting their money to break through and impact the race.
Countdown
Today is the last day to register to vote.
15 days until early voting begins.
29 days until the March 2 primary.
In the news
R. Bowen Loftin gets up every morning at 4:30 and hits Gold’s Gym by 5. “I do the elliptical machine for 35 minutes at a pretty good clip,” Loftin said. “Then I do upper and lower body and abs for 25 minutes. I work out one hour exactly, and then I come home and clean up and go to work.” He might need that discipline, stamina and strength as the next president of Texas A&M University. The school’s governing board named him the sole finalist for the position Jan. 21 and is all but certain to firm up the appointment after a three-week waiting period required by state law. Austin American-Statesman
After the Statesman reviewed five years’ worth of publications — about 5,000 titles — whose rejections were appealed by inmates to the agency’s headquarters in Huntsville and obtained through open records requests, one thing is clear: Texas prisoners are missing out on some fine reading. Austin American-Statesman
The Texas House is Republican-led and about as conservative as any political body in the country. But for some in the state’s GOP, it’s not nearly conservative enough. A wave of anti-establishment fervor — first harnessed last year with the grassroots conservative “Tea Party” movement — has led to a surge of challenges to Republican state House incumbents in the March 2 primary elections. Challengers say the GOP veterans are too moderate and have repeatedly failed to meet conservative benchmarks. Associated Press
Texas motorists charged with certain driving violations owe the state more than $1 billion in surcharges, and many of the 1.2 million people on the unpaid list are driving without valid licenses and at risk of arrest. Dallas Morning News
The White House will predict a $1.6 trillion U.S. budget deficit in the 2010 fiscal year, a fresh record and the biggest since World War Two as a share of the economy, a congressional source told Reuters on Sunday. Reuters
The Obama administration is proposing a sweeping overhaul of President Bush’s signature education law, No Child Left Behind, and will call for broad changes in how schools are judged to be succeeding or failing, as well as for the elimination of the law’s 2014 deadline for bringing every American child to academic proficiency. New York Times
White House advisers thought that if they asked that cameras and reporters be allowed in for the usually closed Q. and A. with the president at the annual retreat of House Republicans, the Republicans might say no and look obstructionist. But the Republicans realized what the White House was up to, got irritated and opened up the exchange in Baltimore to show they weren’t scared of the smart, facile and newly warmblooded Barack Obama. And during the next hour and a half, our government did not look quite so lame. Maureen Dowd
The ability of a single e-mail to shape a message illustrates the power of the conservative network — loosely affiliated blogs, radio hosts, “tea-party” organizers and D.C. institutions that are binding together to fuel opposition to President Obama and, sometimes, to Republicans. Washington Post
Everything else
Denver 103, Spurs 89
Phoenix 115, Rockets 111
Texas plays Oklahoma State tonight in men’s basketball, 8 p.m. on ESPN.
Texans’ QB Matt Schaub threw a pair of touchdown passes and was named MVP of the game as he led the AFC to a win in the Pro Bowl on Sunday.
Weekend box office: Avatar, Edge of Darkness, When in Rome.
Beyonce won six Grammys on Sunday night, but Taylor Swift won the big Album of the Year prize. Read more here.
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Second GOP debate is tonight
Candidates meet tonight on Belo stations … Medina calls Perry jumpy and fidgety … Can Shami name the comptroller?
Happy birthday to Rene Lara.
Austin weather from News 8 Austin’s Maureen McCann: Morning rain with a slim chance of sleet mixing in briefly… followed by afternoon clearing. Windy and colder with highs near 46.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it. Also, you can follow me on Twitter for news updates around the clock.)
Thursday highlights and the day ahead
The Republican candidates will meet for their second and likely final televised debate tonight (at least before the runoff). Sponsored by the Dallas Morning News and television stations owned by the Belo Corp., it can be seen live here in Austin at 7 p.m. on KVUE.
Debra Medina tells the Wall Street Journal this morning that Gov. Rick Perry acted like a “jumpy, fidgety frat boy” in the first debate. Regardless of whether that was an apt description, expect a more serious, focused Perry tonight who is likely to hammer away at both Hutchison and Medina. He will talk about bailouts and Washington spending and federal deficits. He needs a better answer when his opponents bring up the jobs lost in 2009 and the rise in the state’s unemployment rate, which is now at its highest point in more than 20 years. He also needs to more clearly explain that the tax package passed in 2006 was a net tax cut worth billions of dollars.
Hutchison needs to be better prepared for questions about abortion. She needs to continue to hit Perry on the downturn in the economy over the last year. If she returns to the idea that Perry isn’t preparing the state for the future (expressed at the end of the last debate), she needs to hit it earlier and flesh it out more. And it will be interesting to see how she addresses news this week of several companies who receive money from the Texas Enterprise Fund not hitting their job goals. Is a debate about whether the Enterprise Fund is working as promised too in-the-weeds for a statewide audience?
And then there is Medina, who made a name for herself in the first debate. Her opponents and the questioners pretty much gave her a pass on her ideas last time. In the first debate, Medina went beyond the issues that excite her core supporters (such as an intense states’ rights campaign against the federal government) and hit Perry on issues that appeal to a broader group of Republicans, such as growth in government and the Trans Texas Corridor. That approach seemed to work for her. The other question for Medina is, will this be her last shot? She doesn’t have the money to compete with Perry and Hutchison on television. She’s going to continue to be in news-media coverage of the race going forward, but she needs to do something tonight that will leave enough of an impression with voters that they stick with her even if they don’t see many of her TV spots.
The debate will be held in a small studio with no audience. The candidates will be standing. It will last one hour. I will Tweet some during the debate (probably not as much as last time), and you can follow a live chat on Statesman.com with Statesman editorial writer Alberta Phillips and senior editor John Bridges.
• We’ve got a debate on the Democratic side. Bill White and Farouk Shami will meet Feb. 8, a Monday night. Sponsors are KERA and the Star-Telegram, who sponsored the first Republican debate.
• And speaking of the Democratic race: Farouk Shami stopped by to meet with the American-Statesman editorial board on Thursday. Asked to name the state comptroller and the state attorney general, he could not. You can read more and watch the video here.
• The PolitiFact Texas staff has put up some good items over the couple of days, including looks at claims on income disparities, Roe v. Wade and the national debt ceiling. Check it out.
• U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-New York, said on “Morning Joe” this morning that Republicans are the opposition, but the Senate is the enemy. For the record, he totally stole that from Leo McGarry on “The West Wing.”
• Corrie MacLaggan and I joined KUT’s Ian Crawford in the Texas Politcal Parlor on Thursday. We discussed tonight’s debate and Medina’s use of campaign funds to buy clothes. You can listen to/download the podcast here.
Stat of the day
Hurricane Ike caused more than $15 billion in damages nationwide, making it the most expensive weather catastrophe in Texas and the third-costliest hurricane to strike the United States, according to insurance industry officials. That number doesn’t include losses to those who didn’t have insurance. Source: Houston Chronicle
Countdown
3 days until the last day to register to vote.
18 days until early voting begins.
32 days until the March 2 primary.
In the news
One week after a man opened fire with a pistol outside the Texas Capitol’s south entrance, legislative leaders took a possible first step toward beefing up security at the storied landmark with checkpoints and more surveillance cameras. Austin American-Statesman
Endowments at several Texas universities lost about a quarter of their value last year, a new study shows. But college officials say they’re better off than those scary-looking endowment numbers suggest. Dallas Morning News
Debra Medina has come out of far right field to add some fire and suspense to the GOP governor’s primary, and many believe, tilt the outcome. Dallas Morning News
A state senator’s pursuit of documents he believes will lead to a criminal investigation of senior staff members of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is in the hands of an appeals court that heard arguments this week about whether the records should be public. Houston Chronicle
Have you noticed that no criticism of Rick Perry seems to stick? Paul Burka
An obscure candidate with backing from the “tea party” movement threatens to deny a decisive victory to either Texas Gov. Rick Perry or Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the battle for the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Texas. Wall Street Journal
Everything else
Mavericks (30-16) lost to Phoenix, 112-106.
Spurs’ Tony Parker will miss several games due to an ankle sprain.
New in theaters: “The Edge of Darkness,” “La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet,” “My, My Son, What Have Ye Done” and “When in Rome.”
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No First Reading today
I will be back Friday with a preview of the Republican debate and a look at everything else going on.
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Perry backers seek to slow Medina
Austin weather: High of 65, 50 percent chance of rain, which is likely to come tonight.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it. Also, you can follow me on Twitter for news updates around the clock.)
Tuesday highlights in the day ahead
Rep. Leo Berman, a Tyler Republican and supporter of Gov. Rick Perry, wrote a letter that was published in his hometown newspaper Tuesday urging Republicans not to get too excited about supporting Debra Medina, who is challenging Perry in the GOP primary along with U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
Berman said he credited Perry with the health of the Texas economy. Then he compared Medina to former presidential candidate Barack Obama: “Many concerned citizens, who currently number among the members of the new grassroots organizations, complained that Obama did not have the background or experience to serve as president of the United States. Some of these same citizens are now prepared to turn over the trillion-dollar Texas economy to an inexperienced candidate, who has no legislative or executive background, to serve as the chief executive officer of this great state. While I admire her passion and believe she has future potential, now is not the time to discount Perry’s strong leadership.”
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Perry supporters take shots at Medina since her expectation-exceeding performance in the first Republican debate. As I reported yesterday, Sen. Dan Patrick fired off a series of Tweets aimed at Medina, including this one: “I have questioned why she is running in the R primary when she should be running as an Independent or Libertarian.”
And last week on the Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, Michael Landauer took note of this comment: “Medina all the way!!! She will speak the truth about 9/11. Namely, that Bush knew and that it was step one to boosting his bank account and his buddies’ war machine economy. Neither Perry nor Hutchison will speak this truth. Only Medina. It is also time to legalize marijuana now. Release all the drug possessors from prison. Only Medina is willing to admit this plan is the only way to balance the budget. Shut down our borders. Let nobody in, nobody out. Do NOT let any foreign goods on our soil. Root out the trilateral commission from the highest ranks of government and send them all to prison.”
Landauer noted that the comment came from the same IP address as a series of pro-Perry comments, such as, “Rick Perry is awesome. Texas is the best state in America! WOOT!”
Woot indeed. Medina is still a distant third in the governor’s race, polls show. But there’s no doubt that she has caught on with some anti-incumbent, anti-establishment voters. Many of the operatives I talk to each day believe the Republican primary, based on its current trajectory, is headed for a runoff. And as has been noted here and elsewhere, runoffs are often troublesome for incumbents.
• Politico asked Tuesday night: “Who would co-sponsor a bill, and then vote against it?”
Apparently six Republican senators, including our own Kay Bailey Hutchison. The six withdrew their support for a plan endorsed by President Barack Obama that would have formed a task force on the deficit to try to force tough choices on Congress. A Hutchison spokesman told Politico, “She is no longer a co-sponsor, due to concerns that it would allow for tax increases, not focused on spending cuts.”
• As Texans for Public Justice prepared Tuesday to release an extensive report on the Texas Enterprise Fund, Perry’s office attempted something of a pre-emptive strike, putting out a press release at 4:45 saying that several of the businesses who received state money through the Enterprise Fund had reworked their deals.
From Kelley Shannon at the Associated Press: “More than 20 companies receiving taxpayer-funded Texas Enterprise Fund grants failed to meet their job creation promises in 2008 or struggled to do so as the recession took hold, according to a report released Wednesday. Texans for Public Justice found that some companies were not providing the number of jobs they had pledged. Other firms, such as Lockheed Martin Corp., re-negotiated their deals with Gov. Rick Perry’s office to reduce their promised number of jobs or to obtain more time to reach their goals.”
• How much have things changed in two years? In the second half of 2007, then-Speaker Tom Craddick raised $820,000. In the second half of 2009, he raised $1,250.
• Whichever reporter has time to dig through their archives first could have some fun with this one: Democratic operative Jason Stanford, who as Chris Bell’s campaign manager four years ago took a lot of shots at Kinky Friedman, is going to work for Kinky Friedman, doing communications starting today.
• Obama will give the State of the Union address tonight at 8 p.m. Mike Allen of Politico reported on Twitter this morning that we should expect the speech to last an hour, with applause.
That’s a lot of speech.
From Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post: “One of Obama’s main challenges will be to assure Democrats that he understands the political peril they are in and he is moving to help them — primarily by focusing almost exclusively on the economy and job creation particularly for the middle class. The proposals the White House has already previewed — a three-year freeze on most domestic spending, more money for military families, a series of tax cuts and credits aimed at middle class families — have a strong populist tint and White House aides have made clear in the day leading up to tonight’s speech that the president will seek to make the case that he — and Democrats by extension — are standing up for the average American against Republicans and big business. Obama is not a populist by nature and may well struggle if he tries to deliver a campaign-style speech in a chamber where Republicans will be looking to make their opposition to his proposals known.”
Newly elected Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell will give the Republican response.
Stat of the day
A study of 2006-07 data by the Texas Center for Educational Research put the average teacher turnover for all charter schools at 43 percent, compared to 16 percent for traditional public school districts that year. Source: Texas Tribune
Poll watch
In a new poll from NBC News and the Wall Street Journal, 28 percent of respondents believe the federal government is “working well” or even works “okay,” versus seven in 10 who think it’s “unhealthy,” “stagnant” or needs large reforms.
Only 27 percent say they blame Obama for not being able to find solutions to the country’s problems. By contrast, 48 percent blame Republicans in Congress and 41 percent blame congressional Democrats.
Countdown
5 days until the last day to register to vote.
20 days until early voting begins.
34 days until the March 2 primary.
In the news
GOP gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina said today that she used campaign dollars on clothing “because I’m a poor small-business provider not usually wardrobed like people would expect a gubernatorial candidate to be wardrobed.” Austin American-Statesman (link includes video of Medina discussing her wardrobe purchases)
A condemned San Antonio law enforcement killer sent a photo of himself out of Texas’ death row two years ago using a smuggled cell phone, officials said Tuesday. The case confirms what prison officials have long suspected, that convicts — even those on death row, which is supposed to be the most secure part of Texas’ massive prison system — have had Internet access with smuggled cell phones. Austin American-Statesman
Kay Bailey Hutchison has railed against the Trans-Texas Corridor, but she counts one of the state’s premiere toll-road builders among her major financial contributors. Dallas Morning News
Gov. Rick Perry casts his leading Republican challenger, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, as a fiscally irresponsible lawmaker who’d bring a free-spending approach to state government. Amplifying that theme, Perry’s campaign said Nov. 30: “Hutchison has voted nine separate times to raise the national debt ceiling.” We wondered if that was so. Austin American-Statesman
State Senate hopeful Darren Yancy — a Burleson Republican who works in insurance and real estate — had his broker’s license suspended last summer after investigators determined he violated 10 provisions of the state’s real estate code while trying to sell a child-care facility. Waco Tribune-Herald
In at least three places on the Web, Yancy spells Waco’s home McLennan County as “McClennan.” Waco voters might not remember his name. Bud Kennedy
Everything else
Mavericks (30-15) beat the Bucks, 108-107.
Kansas State beat Baylor in men’s basketball, 76-74.
Texas hosts Texas Tech tonight at the Erwin Center, 8 p.m. on ESPNU.
Texas A&M will travel to Oklahoma State tonight, 6:30 p.m. on ESPN2.
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Members of Congress putting money into Lege races
Looking at the money in the legislative races … Lobbyists help MALC with digs … Did Hutchison accurately count how many health agencies we have? … Dan Patrick Twitters in the middle of the night
Happy birthday to Jennifer Harris of ROSS Communications and John Reynolds of the Quorum Report. And speaking of QR, happy late birthday to Harvey Kronberg, whom I missed yesterday.
Austin weather: Mostly sunny, southerly wind, high of 69.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it. Also, you can follow me on Twitter for news updates around the clock.)
Monday highlights and the day ahead
Since 2011 is a redistricting year, we’re going to see an unusually high amount of money coming into Texas legislative races from members of Congress — particularly since either party could win control of the Texas House this year.
It has started already. U.S. Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, gave $25,000 in the recent fundraising period to the House Democratic Campaign Committee. Meanwhile, Republican U.S. Reps. Pete Sessions, Mike Conaway and Lamar Smith each gave $5,000 to the Texas Republican Representatives Campaign Committee.
Now that the filing period is over and members of Congress know who they will or will not face in their primaries or general election, expect more of them to put thousands of dollars from their campaign accounts into Texas legislative races.
While we’re talking about legislative races, it’s a little tough to keep up with all of the various committees that have sprung up, or been reborn, to help Republicans win and defend House seats. But I’m going to try.
At the end of the year, the Texas Republican Representatives Campaign Committee had $32,000 on hand. (Perhaps some of that could be spent on a more concise name?)
The Associated Republicans of Texas had $50,125.
GOPAC, which Rep. Phil King is spearheading, had $67,000.
UPDATE: The Texas House Republican Committee had $34,000 on hand. Apparently the committee’s fundraising is reported under the Republican Party of Texas, so I mistakenly reported earlier that it had not raised any.
Over on the other side of the aisle, the House Democratic Campaign Committee had $190,000. And Annie’s List, which supports Democratic women, had $187,441.
But here’s the big number: Speaker Joe Straus had $2.6 million. That has to be highly comforting to any Republican incumbent in a primary or general election, or, for that matter, to Republicans vying for open seats.
One other interesting note: H-E-B CEO Charles Butt gave $10,000 to Straus in the last half of 2009. But Texans for Better Education, which is primarily funded by Butt, gave $25,000 to the House Democratic Campaign Committee. The goal of the HDCC is to elect a Democratic majority, and the first order of business for a Democratic majority would be finding a new speaker.
• U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said in the first Republican debate for governor, “We have over 300 state agencies. Forty-five of those agencies are related to health care.”
Well the folks at PolitiFact Texas found that statement to be false: “We found three published state lists that put Hutchison’s claim of 45 health-related agencies in question. According to an appendix to the latest state budget and compilations by the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts and the Texas State Library and Archives, Texas has no more than 15 health-related agencies including the mammoth Health and Human Services Commission, which oversees smaller units. One way Hutchison gets to a higher number is by counting components of some agencies as if they were separate entities. For instance, Hutchison includes on her list the Executive Council of Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy Examiners plus the Texas Board of Occupational Therapy Examiners and the Texas Board of Physical Therapy Examiners. A council spokeswoman told us that those three entities amount to one state agency.”
• The American-Statesman’s editorial board says this morning that it is time to require visitors at the Capitol to walk through metal detectors: “For a long time, one of the best things about Austin has been the ability to walk into the Capitol and wander around in a relatively relaxed atmosphere in which the Department of Public Safety did as good a job as it could of non-invasive security. But the truth is there has been nothing to stop an armed nut — or a constituent with a grievance — from walking in and opening fire.”
• Debra Medina continues to draw attention in the Republican primary. After she did a Lubbock radio interview, state Sen. Dan Patrick, a Houston Republican and ardent supporter of Gov. Rick Perry’s, posted a series of Tweets about Medina in rapid succession at about 3 a.m. today:
“Medina told a radio station in Lubbock today that she cannot promise to support Rick or Kay if they win in Nov-saying there might be others.”
“She made my point today that she is not a true Republican. Who is she going to support the Dem or an Independent ?”
“I have questioned why she is running in the R primary when she should be running as an Independent or Libertarian.”
“She asks Republican voters to vote for & trust her, but she will not support the voters will if she doesn’t win-that will only help White.”
“Posted part of the interview on my facebook If she supports a 3rd party in Nov, that cannot win, she could help White win in a close race.”
BREAKING THIS MORNING: Pope Benedict XVI announced this morning that Auxiliary Bishop Joe S. Vásquez, who has been serving in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston since 2002, will be the new bishop for the Diocese of Austin, the Statesman’s Joshunda Sanders reports.
Stats of the day
Texas has the fourth-lowest debt burden in the United States, trailing only Utah, New Hampshire and Nebraska. Source: Forbes.
Texas had the 4th highest teen pregnancy rate in the country in 2005, according to a new study. That’s up one notch from 5th highest in 2000, according to new data from the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights and is a leading source of data on abortion-related trends. Source: Dallas Morning News
Poll watch
In a new poll from CNN/Opinion Research Corporation, 45 percent of people questioned said Democratic control of Congress is a good thing, with 48 percent disagreeing. The margin is within the survey’s sampling error. But the results are a shift from last June, when 50 percent felt that Democratic control of both chambers of Congress was good and 41 percent felt it was bad for the country.
Countdown
6 days until the last day to register to vote.
21 days until early voting begins.
35 days until the March 2 primary.
In the news
In a rebuke of the state’s media establishment, Gov. Rick Perry will not meet with newspaper editorial boards to ask for their endorsements before the March 2 GOP gubernatorial primary. Austin American-Statesman
Responding to a directive from state leaders, the University of Texas is developing a plan to cut 5 percent, or $29 million, from the state-funded portion of its two-year budget, UT President William Powers Jr. said Monday. “It’s a sizable amount of money,” Powers said at a meeting of the Faculty Council. “This is not good news.” Austin American-Statesman
One of the state’s most powerful and connected lobbying firms has given thousands of dollars’ worth of free office rent to the state Mexican American Legislative Caucus and its nonprofit foundation despite state laws that prohibit campaign contributions to lawmakers during the state legislative session. These donations raise questions about a serious conflict of interest: Can lobbyists funnel money to a group of lawmakers during the few months when they are crafting and voting on bills that could benefit, or harm, those same lobbyists? Texas Watchdog
Marc Katz planned to raise “millions of dollars” from out-of-state family members for his bid to become the Democratic lieutenant governor candidate. But the Austin restaurant owner showed less than $7,000 on his first campaign finance report - and more than $5,000 of that came from himself. Katz says he changed his mind about taking a bunch of money from out-of-state-family because the plan backfired. Houston Chronicle
If you’ve been paying attention to Texas politics, you know that candidates collected millions in campaign cash during the last six months of 2009, and that the men and women at the top of the ballot — the ones running for governor — are at the highest point on the political food chain. Who’s feeding them? Who wrote the most — or the largest — checks? We looked at the latest Texas Ethics Commission filings, filtered out contributions to PACs and trade groups and came up with a list of the top 20 donors to elected officials and other candidates from July to December of last year. Texas Tribune
Federal inspectors scouring tax returns that contain a credit for first-time homebuyers have found something curious about claims from Texas. Nearly 1,000 were filed by people employing a special taxpayer identification number primarily used by illegal immigrants, who are not entitled to the credit. Dallas Morning News
If you are John Cornyn, the 36 hours from last Tuesday night through Thursday morning had to be the best time of your life. David Broder
Everything else
Rockets (24-20) lost to the Hawks, 102-95.
Spurs (25-18) lost to the Bulls, 98-93.
Andy Roddick lost to Marin Cilic at the Australian Open.
Texas Longhorns fell to No. 6 in the AP and coaches’ polls following two losses in men’s basketball last week.
Obama to ABC: “I think both teams are terrific. I guess I’m rooting a little bit for the Saints as the underdog, partly just because when I think about what’s happened to New Orleans over the last several years and that the team means so much to them, I’m pretty sympathetic.”
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Five House members who could lose in March
March Endangered List returns, heavy on Democrats … Democratic gov debate in the works … Learning more about Darren Yancy
Happy birthday to Scott Haywood.
Austin weather: Mostly sunny and pleasant this afternoon, high of 67.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it. Also, you can follow me on Twitter for news updates around the clock.)
Weekend highlights and the day ahead
It’s been a couple of months since I took a look at the House members most at risk of losing their primaries, mostly because I wanted to see what the first round of fundraising reports would show. Those reports are now in, so I give you your updated list. Remember that these are just lawmakers who are at risk of losing in the primaries on March 2. I will probably do a final update about a week before the election.
We rank them five to one, with No. 1 in the most danger of losing.
(5) Rep. Tara Rios Ybarra, D-South Padre Island. Rios Ybarra appears to be strong. She’s been working her district hard and she’s in good financial shape. The bulk of the votes are on her side of the district. But her opponent, J.M. Lozano, is already drawing big bucks from trial lawyers. One question here is whether the incumbent’s well-publicized divorce will factor in. Interestingly, her ex-husband, South Padre Island doctor Richard Joe Ybarra, has contributed $500 to Lozano.
(4) Rep. Al Edwards, D-Houston. For the third time in as many elections, Edwards and Borris Miles will meet in the Democratic primary. Each has won one round. When Miles lost in 2008, there were legal clouds overhead that have since cleared. Miles isn’t raising much money, but apparently he doesn’t need to: He loaned himself $150,000 in November. If he wins, we should all keep an eye on how much money he raises from the lobby to repay himself (as we should with any candidate who mostly funds his campaign with loans). Edwards’ fundraising is curious as well. He has less than $15,000 on hand, yet he has made almost $3,000 in “charitable donations” to 13 churches and ministers’ groups. Edwards got 61 percent of the vote two years ago, so Miles has a lot of work to do.
(3) Rep. Delwin Jones, R-Lubbock. Jones got 63 percent of the vote in his 2008 primary win. But he has drawn two opponents this year — Zach Brady and Charles Perry — who have already spent more money than his opponent spent two years ago. Expect Speaker Joe Straus to work hard to protect Jones, meaning he should have plenty of money. But will the tea-party wave wipe out one of the most moderate Republicans in the House?
(2) Rep. Dora Olivo, D-Richmond. Neither Olivo nor challenger Ron Reynolds appears to have raised much money so far. And some political-action committees will probably help Olivo because she is an incumbent. But this race has to be on the list if for no other reason than it was so close when these two met in 2008. Olivo won by fewer than 200 votes.
(1) Rep. Terri Hodge, D-Dallas. The Dallas Morning News blistered Hodge as it endorsed her Democratic opponent, lawyer Eric Johnson. No telling if this will register with voters, but Johnson’s campaign manager said he has filed an ethics complaint against Hodge for overstating how much cash she has on hand. Hodge appeared to have around $20,000 at the end of the year, while Johnson had more than $100,000. And then there’s the issue of Hodge’s federal indictment on bribery charges. Most of the Democratic House members in Dallas have endorsed Hodge, so perhaps they know something about her strength that I don’t, but from here it looks pretty tough for her.
Moving on to a few other items …
• We all know that campaign contributors get more access to politicians than most of the rest of the population, but it usually isn’t spelled out this plainly: In a recent fax to contributors, Jim Lee, one of the leaders of Gov. Rick Perry’s finance team, offered an invitation to a meeting with Perry in Houston this Wednesday. “This strategy meeting will be limited to a small group of Houston’s top business leaders. Thus, you will have plenty of time to have meaningful interaction with the Governor to discuss any topics of your concern.”
Cost to attend: $7,500.
The Perry campaign pointed in response to a Jan. 6 fundraiser for Hutchison in Dallas with Henry Kissinger. Those who gave at least $5,000 were allowed to take part in a roundtable with Kissinger and Hutchison.
• Republican Darren Yancy, the only candidate actively running for the Texas Senate seat now held by Waco Republican Kip Averitt, has been rather litigious in recent years, according to a story in the Waco Tribune-Herald this morning by Michael Shapiro. Yancy recently sued a youth-sports association after his son was kicked in the shin after a baseball game. The suit was thrown out.
• Dallas-area public television station KERA, which hosted the first Republican debate for governor, is working with candidates to try to schedule a Democratic debate before the March 2 primary. Don’t know much more than that, other than the fact that Felix Alvarado has told organizers he will not participate in a debate unless all candidates (and there are seven of them) are invited.
• The Statesman’s Ben Wear has a good look at the debate over transportation policy in the Republican primary for governor: “Hutchison’s campaign is treating the corridor plan — and its potential taking of farmland — as if it still has a pulse, foreign toll road leases like they’re proliferating, and toll conversions as if they have a chance of happening (even Perry has disowned the strategy, and they now require a public vote). She’s right in that Perry did want to do all those things, and probably still would if the politics were right. But they’re not. Beyond that, the senator is proposing what would be hugely expensive cross-state high-speed rail lines (which would take farmland as well) without saying how she’d pay for them. Or, for that matter, for highways, given her stated distaste for private toll road leases and for a higher gas tax.”
Countdown
7 days until the last day to register to vote.
22 days until early voting begins.
36 days until the March 2 primary.
Poll watch
Paul Burka wrote over the weekend about a poll in Joe Crabb’s Kingwood-area legislative district that shows Perry up 11 points on Hutchison there. No mention of Debra Medina.
Only 7 percent of registered voters think Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will leave California government in better shape than he found it, while 59 percent believe he will leave it in worse condition, according to a Field poll released Sunday.
In the news
Even for Washington types — you know, the ones who’ll spend $640 on a toilet seat or $436 for a hammer — the possibility of paying $2.31 billion to reach constituents with a recorded phone call might seem a bit on the pricey side. Austin American-Statesman
A pivotal Republican primary for the State Board of Education has drawn an unusual amount of interest and money from some prominent business leaders. Austin American-Statesman
The impetus for today’s lesson is GOP gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina’s recent debate comments reminding us that she carries a gun in her vehicle but does not take it into grocery stores. As we all know, packing a pistol in a grocery store potentially makes you the second most-disruptive force in the store, second only to that lady (Hold the e-mails. It’s always a female.) in front of you packing a portfolio loaded with carefully catalogued coupons. There oughtta be a law. Ken Herman
Houston oilman Robert Adam Mosbacher, perhaps the Republican Party’s greatest-ever fundraiser and a member of the cabinet of longtime friend President George H.W. Bush, died Sunday of pancreatic cancer. He was 82. Houston Chronicle
A consulting company that helped Texas write bidding rules for its upcoming lottery operator contract was simultaneously getting paid by GTECH Corp., the current vendor that intends to compete again for the state’s lucrative lottery deal. Associated Press
The influence of money in politics is already so pervasive that a cynic could conclude that this week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision won’t make much difference. It struck down federal laws and very similar Texas laws. Rick Casey
Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign has unknowingly paid convicted felons as part-time workers under its incentive program to turn out voters for the Republican primary. Dallas Morning News
When George W. Bush left the White House, his approval rating was in the tank and Will Ferrell was raking it in as his swaggering doppelgänger on Broadway and HBO. Yet last weekend, almost one year after taking a helicopter back to Texas on Inauguration Day, Bush stood in the Rose Garden with President Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, ready to take a credible turn as a senior statesman raising money for disaster relief in Haiti. The White House moment - followed by appearances with Clinton on Sunday morning TV talk shows - was the first tangible sign that Bush has made progress shifting his public persona from late-night punch line to a more dignified pantheon. Dallas Morning News
Everyone with knowledge of the Bushworld-Perryworld divide had a theory. At least four emerged as plausible. Texas Tribune
Republicans are luring new candidates into Congressional races and analysts say the number of seats up for grabs in November appears to be growing, setting up a midterm election likely to be harder fought than anyone anticipated prior to the party’s big victory in Massachusetts last week. New York Times
Does health care matter? Not as much as you’d think after this yearlong crusade. In the Post/ABC poll, the issue was second-tier — at 24 percent. Obama has blundered, not by positioning himself too far to the left but by landing nowhere — frittering away his political capital by being too vague, too slow and too deferential to Congress. The smartest thing said as the Massachusetts returns came in Tuesday night was by Howard Fineman on MSNBC: “Obama took all his winnings and turned them over to Max Baucus.” Frank Rich
Everything else
Colts and Saints will meet in the Super Bowl in two weeks. The first early line I saw said Colts by 5.
Mavericks (29-15) beat the Knicks, 128-78.
“Avatar” wins the weekend box office for the sixth straight week, surpassing “The Dark Knight” for No. 2 on the all-time list. Only “Titanic” remains ahead of it.
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No FR today
I will be back Monday.
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Perry and Hutchison draw money from DC
What we’re learning from campaign reports … A bad day for Terri Hodge … Which of your senators is telling the truth?
Happy birthday to Judge Elisabeth Earle.
Austin weather from News 8 Austin’s Maureen McCann: Becoming mainly sunny. Continued mild with a high 74.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it. Also, you can follow me on Twitter for news updates around the clock.)
Wednesday highlights and the day ahead
We all know that Gov. Rick Perry is no fan of Washington, D.C. In fact, on Wednesday he held an event in Fort Worth to offer his critique of President Barack Obama’s first year in office. Perry hasn’t stopped there with his Washington critique, framing his re-election challenge from U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison as a Texas-versus-Washington fight.
I’ve reported previously in this space that Perry has held fundraisers in the nation’s capital. Kate Alexander, the Statesman’s data guru, ran some numbers and found that, in the second half of 2009, Perry raised $37,500 in Washington, while Hutchison raised $19,900. For all of 2009, Hutchison raised $45,165 from Washington and Perry raised $38,225. (As a sitting governor, Perry was barred from raising money for almost all of the first half of 2009 because of the legislative session.)
It should also be noted that in November, Hutchison transferred $600,000 from her U.S. Senate campaign account to her gubernatorial account. Most of that money was raised in Texas, but some of it came from Washington, which means that, for the year, her lead over Perry in Washington money was likely a little larger.
• More good stuff from Kate Alexander: The Perry campaign paid $360,000 in the second half of 2009 to 305 people deemed “part-time field staff.” It’s the product of the Perry Home Headquarters Program, in which supporters can get paid for enlisting their friends to find people who will vote for Perry. Read more here.
• A source close to the Hutchison campaign confirmed Wednesday that former President George H.W. Bush will endorse Hutchison soon. Meanwhile, Team Perry announced that the governor will appear with Sarah Palin in the Houston area in the hours leading up to the Super Bowl on Feb. 7.
• Asher Price writes in today’s Statesman about that $150,000 donation that Farouk Shami gave to Hank Gilbert’s campaign for agriculture commissioner after Gilbert dropped out of the governor’s race and endorsed Shami.
Price reminds us that at one time, when both Shami and Gilbert were in the governor’s race, a Gilbert Web site accused Shami of trying to buy the Democratic nomination. But a Gilbert spokesman now describes that criticism — the criticism that came from the Gilbert campaign — as “typical political crap.”
Hard to believe people are cynical about politics.
• Rough day Wednesday for Rep. Terri Hodge. First, I reported that she had overstated her cash-on-hand by thousands of dollars and would have to file a corrected report with the Texas Ethics Commission.
But more importantly, her hometown newspaper gave her a stinging rebuke as it endorsed her opponent in the Democratic primary, lawyer Eric Johnson. From the Dallas Morning News: “Hodge, who said in an interview that property rights are a more important issue than sending children to college, has a lackluster legislative record and relatively little to show for her years of service. She has worked in the margins in the House, focusing much of her energy on issues related to prisons. She has been on the right side of several criminal justice issues, but her grasp of other key topics is tenuous. Hodge, 69, said last year that she had learned how to amend others’ bills - a basic parliamentary maneuver that most legislators pick up during their rookie session, not 13 years after arriving in Austin.”
• I hope you’re checking out the great work posted daily at PolitiFact Texas. Today our two U.S. senators face the Truth-O-Meter, and only one of them is telling the truth.
• BREAKING THIS MORNING: NBC News reports that John Edwards has admitted paternity of his mistress’ baby and John and Elizabeth Edwards are separated.
Stat of the day
Since 2000, 75 workers have been fired from state institutions for the disabled for extreme abuse or neglect. Of those, 13 have been charged with crimes. Only two have served jail time. Source: Texas Tribune
Countdown
11 days until the last day to register to vote.
26 days until early voting begins.
40 days until the March 2 primary.
In the news
Sharon Keller, the state’s highest criminal judge, should not to be removed from office or even reprimanded for her role in a 2007 controversy that resulted in Texas executing an inmate without his final appeal being heard in court, a special judge said. Austin American-Statesman
The Internal Revenue Service is auditing the University of Texas, Texas A&M University, Lamar University in Beaumont and a number of other universities across the nation. Austin American-Statesman
Proposed 3.95 percent tuition hikes in 2010-11 and again in 2011-12 are needed to stave off further cuts to University of Texas programs and staff, according to recommendations by students, administrators and faculty that were presented at a public forum Wednesday evening. Austin American-Statesman
A politician can’t miss by praising the military, right? Maybe wrong, says one vet. Ken Herman
Sharon Keller, the controversial chief judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, has escaped yet another controversy. I’m confident more will come. Rick Casey
Since Michael Nicholson was suffocated and killed by a Lubbock State School worker last June, his brother has played investigator, medical examiner, detective and attorney. He has pleaded for police and prosecutors to take up the case, which they did this fall. But with each day that passes, David Nicholson fears that the man who killed his profoundly disabled brother — and the other employees who stood by and watched it — will join the ranks of state workers who are never convicted for their acts. “The physically and mentally handicapped are not equally represented under the laws of Texas,” David says. “And nobody seems to want to do anything about it.” Texas Tribune
Like one of those preschool picture books, Rick Perry’s latest list of big-money donors invites a question: Which one doesn’t belong? Included among the governor’s usual givers, staunch Republicans all, is John McHale, an Austin high-tech millionaire with a long history of giving to Democrats. Dallas Morning News
Farouk Shami, Democratic candidate for governor, acknowledges wearing a scarf around his neck that was embroidered with “Palestine” on one end and “Jerusalem is Ours” on the other. Dallas Morning News
Grass-roots political activists claiming ties with the conservative Tea Party movement are challenging 11 of Texas’ 32 members of Congress this year in contests that will gauge the backlash against incumbents. Houston Chronicle
There is no way for Democrats to spin an upside to losing their 60th vote in the Senate. Politico
Everything else
Mavs (28-14) beat Washington on Wednesday.
Spurs (25-16) lost to the Jazz.
Third-ranked Kansas edged Baylor, 85-71, in men’s basketball. Texas Tech beat Iowa State, 78-71.
Wow is this late-night stuff getting fierce. David Letterman has really turned up the criticism of Jay Leno and NBC. Leno fired back Wednesday, “Letterman has been hammering me every night. Going after me … Hey Kev, you know the best way to get Letterman to ignore you? Marry him. He will not bother you. He won’t look you in the eye.”
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What does Massachusetts mean for us?
Today is one of those rare days when the demands of the print edition won’t allow me to put together a full-scale edition of First Reading. There will be more days like this between now and March 2, but I will try to keep them to a minimum, and I appreciate your patience. (Sorry, let me explain to some of my younger FR readers what “print edition” means: we actually print a lot of the stuff on this Web site on paper and sell it for a very low price. We’ll even deliver it to your home. Give it a shot.)
Still, I wanted to briefly address Republicans’ remarkable win in Massachusetts last night. Republican Scott Brown handily won the Senate seat held for more than 40 years by Ted Kennedy, perhaps derailing the push for the kind of health-care reform that was Kennedy’s life work.
So in the three biggest elections since the 2008 presidential race, Republicans have won governors’ races in Virginia and New Jersey and the Senate race in Massachusetts. All of those jobs were previously held by Democrats.
My first instinct was to sit down and write that this is a horrible sign for Texas Democrats. And it may be. This looks like a national Republican year, and that matters. The last two election cycles were great for Democrats nationally, and here in Texas, Democrats scooped up seats in the state House and key county offices in urban areas. Now Texas Democrats are working against the national mood, not riding it.
But here’s the other side: One year ago today, an incredibly popular Barack Obama took the oath of office. And in the coming days, if you watch CNN, MSNBC or Fox News for any amount of time, you’ll hear plenty of chatter about how he’s lost his appeal, about how he’s damaging his party and how Democrats might lose the U.S. House this year. The point is that things can change quickly, and we shouldn’t rush to judgment about what will happen in Texas in more than nine months based on what happened Tuesday in Massachusetts. The national mood will matter, but Texas elections will be contested on Texas issues.
A couple of other points: U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s campaign was quick to point out Tuesday night that a Rasmussen Reports poll just before the election showed Democrat Martha Coakley up 2 points on Republican Scott Brown in the Massachusetts race. Rasmussen, of course, just put out a poll that shows Hutchison trailing Gov. Rick Perry by 10 points among voters who say they’ll take part in the Republican primary.
Which brings me to one other point. Hutchison and Perry quickly released statements Tuesday night congratulating Brown on his win. Hutchison even sent him some money during the campaign. But the Texas Republican who is in best position to take advantage of Brown’s victory is our other senator, John Cornyn. Some bloggers say Cornyn had little do with Brown’s win, and that may well be true. But this win came on Cornyn’s watch as head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. And if Republicans make big Senate gains in November, Cornyn’s national rise will only accelerate.
OK, stick with me, and I’ll try to be back with all the FR bells and whistles on Thursday. Oh, and Maureen McCann asked me to tell you it will be cloudy and mild with drizzle and fog on Wednesday. Showers possible in the afternoon, high of 71.
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Debra Medina isn’t going away
Medina in the second debate, but who is she hurting more? … McKenzie says GOP candidates for governor aren’t welcoming moderates … Decision day in Massachusetts
Austin weather from News 8 Austin’s Maureen McCann: Mostly cloudy with areas of drizzle and fog. Warmer with a high around 72.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it. Also, you can follow me on Twitter for news updates around the clock.)
Monday highlights and the day ahead
Debra Medina has always been the third person in the Republican campaign for governor. In politics you need name ID and money, and compared to her opponents, she has no money and limited name recognition. Which is why she is still the third person in the race.
But Medina’s performance in Thursday’s debate was strong enough, and her supporters are motivated enough, that she is not going to disappear as this campaign heads down the stretch. She may not determine who wins, but she cannot be ignored.
Organizers of the second debate reversed course Monday and said they will include Medina when the Republican candidates take the stage Jan. 29. Her presence on that stage not only will put her again in front of a statewide audience, but it will give her a greater role in news coverage of the race before and after the debate as well.
Medina’s supporters had flooded the hosts of the debate, the Dallas Morning News and Belo TV stations, with complaints after it was announced that she would be excluded, Gromer Jeffers Jr. reports this morning.
On paper, Medina does more damage to Gov. Rick Perry than U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Some of her best jabs in Thursday’s debate — her knowledge of the Advance Directives Act, her talk of government jobs versus private-sector jobs, her discussion of the growth of state debt and state spending — took aim at Perry. Not to mention the fact that she comes from the tea-party crowd, and this of course is a crowd that Perry has courted aggressively.
Which leads us to this: About 600 people gathered at the Capitol on Saturday for a states’-rights rally. Norman Shugar, who is 77 and came to the rally from Houston, told the Statesman’s Mike Ward, “The Republican Party tried to use us, but we’re onto them now. I was for Perry. Now, I’m for Medina.”
There was also a sign at the rally that said, “Perry: The Next Unemployed Texan.” Read more in Ward’s story.
So Medina is a threat to Perry. But she’s a threat to Hutchison also.
A new Rasmussen Poll of likely Republican primary voters showed Perry with 43 percent, Hutchison with 33 percent, Medina with 12 percent and 11 percent undecided. The poll was taken after Thursday’s debate and released Monday. The last Rasmussen poll, released in November, showed Perry at 46 percent and Hutchison at 35 percent, with Medina at 4 percent and 14 percent of respondents not sure. So Medina isn’t just grabbing up Perry voters, but rather she’s taking some of the undecided voters that Hutchison desperately needs to break her way.
So who does Medina help more? When I asked Democratic consultant Jason Stanford that question Monday night, he replied, “She pulls anti-Washington, right-wing votes from Perry and anti-Perry votes from Kay Bailey. But since she pulls Perry down from 50 percent plus one vote and forces a runoff, then she hurts him more.”
Paul Burka wrote Sunday, “I think Hutchison is in more danger from Medina than Perry is. Medina is younger and fresher than Hutchison. She has a little of Sarah Palin in her, an element of sincerity with considerably more intelligence. If she can raise money from Ron Paul’s mailing list, she might be able to make a move.
“Assuming that these numbers hold up over the next few weeks, the Republican primary race appears to be headed toward a runoff. This is very dangerous territory for an incumbent.”
One more thing about the Rasmussen poll, and I would argue this is its most telling question. Perry and Hutchison get almost identical favorable/unfavorable marks. But among voters who say they plan to vote in the Republican primary, 68 percent say they strongly approve or somewhat approve of Perry’s job performance. Just 31 percent say they somewhat disapprove or strongly disapprove.
This thing isn’t over, but Hutchison’s got a lot of work to do.
• It’s a pretty good hint that when the government releases news after 8 p.m. on a Friday, they’re hoping nobody will notice. And so we had the death (or at least the coma) of the effort to expand the Governor’s Mansion, which was disclosed through a short-on-details press release that reached my inbox at 8:02. Fortunately we got it in the paper anyway.
• As expected, Farouk Shami has found quite a fan of his gubernatorial campaign in the form of, well, Farouk Shami. The Democratic candidate loaned his campaign and his exploratory committee $5.45 million through the end of the year, according to reports on file with the Texas Ethics Commission. He also donated $150,000 to Hank Gilbert, who dropped out of the governor’s race, switched to the race for agriculture commissioner and endorsed Shami.
• Huge day in Massachusetts today as Republican Scott Brown and Democrat Martha Coakley battle to replace the late Ted Kennedy. The pundits say Brown has the momentum, and if he wins, Democrats lose their critical 60th vote. If Brown wins, “I think you could make a pretty good argument that health care might be dead,” Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-New York, said this morning on MSNBC.
Poll watch
Some of the good stuff from inside the Rasmussen poll released Monday:
Men: 45 percent for Perry, 33 Hutchison, 13 Medina, 9 not sure
Women: 41 Perry, 34 Hutchison, 11 Medina, 13 not sure
Conservatives: 53 Perry, 25 Hutchison, 11 Medina, 11 not sure
Moderates: 23 Perry, 51 Hutchison, 17 Medina, 8 not sure
Countdown
13 days until the last day to register to vote.
28 days until early voting begins.
42 days until the March 2 primary.
In the news
A gap in the way Texas cared for pregnant women sometimes cost some of the state’s most innocent residents newborn babies their lives. To remedy that, part of a law that took effect this month requires health care providers to test pregnant women for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, at some point during the last three months of pregnancy unless the woman objects. Austin American-Statesman
We now know three things about the Texas GOP gubernatorial race: 1. Only right-wing Republicans are being invited to participate. 2. The two lead candidates seem interested primarily in wiping out the other and, secondarily, the future of Texas. 3. We have a tea party candidate who seems driven primarily by her view of the world and, secondarily, her need for power. William McKenzie
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison on Monday called for the end of cronyism in Austin, proposing several initiatives that she said would make state government and the governor’s office more transparent and accessible. San Antonio Express-News
The federal government is about to hand out a river of cash to states willing to build a network of bullet trains, as the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress seek to slowly ease the country’s dependence on automobiles and airplanes to make short trips between its biggest cities… But while the federal grants won’t be announced until later this month, or early February, word already has emerged that Texas’ chances of snagging much of what it has requested are slim. Dallas Morning News
Collectively, they are the long-shot Democratic candidates for governor who could win their party’s nomination only through the kind of lightning-strike luck that would turn them into the feel-good movie of the year. Houston Chronicle
In the largest anti-abortion protest held in Houston in years, several thousand people on Monday marched, prayed and kept silent… After the protesters had walked silently through the Third Ward and encircled the sidewalks of the new six-acre facility, organizer Lou Engle used the Martin Luther King holiday to accuse Planned Parenthood of locating the new facility in a predominantly Hispanic and black area to target minorities for abortion services. Houston Chronicle
Everything else
The top-ranked Texas Longhorns lost to 10th-ranked Kansas State in men’s basketball Monday, 71-62.
Mavericks (27-14) beat the Celtics.
Rockets (23-18) beat the Bucks.
Spurs (25-15) beat the Hornets.
Cowboys are bringing back Wade Phillips to coach for another year, the Dallas Morning News reports.
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Can anyone claim victory?
Some punches landed but everyone still standing … Long list of issues not covered … Little talk about solutions
Happy birthday (Saturday) to Democratic consultant Harold Cook.
Periods of rain, heavy at times. Localized flooding possible. Cooler with a high around 53.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it. Also, you can follow me on Twitter for news updates around the clock.)
Thursday highlights and the day ahead
Did anything you saw Thursday night change the trajectory of the Republican race for governor?
It is difficult to think of a moment from this debate that we will all remember in a year. Hutchison struggled on the abortion issue and should have been more prepared with an answer that would have allowed the debate to move on. But at most other points, she seemed to know what was coming from Perry and she responded accordingly. She landed some punches on taxes, both the new business tax and property taxes, and she blocked Perry on the bailout. She also counterpunched nicely on jobs, when Perry pointed to job gains in 2008 and she pointed to job losses in 2009. In terms of her general style, she spoke with more poise and discipline that she has at most points during the campaign. And she escaped without any prolonged discussion of her indecision on when and if to resign from the U.S. Senate.
In her closing argument, Hutchison laid out a simple rationale for ousting Perry: He’s not preparing Texas for the future. But this message would have meant much more if she sounded it repeatedly during the debate. She didn’t.
Perry was loose, and while at times he seemed to be enjoying himself, he also seemed rattled at several points. He offered clarity on the abortion issue while Hutchison struggled mightily. He effectively raised the fact that Hutchison is spending some of her time fighting him instead of spending all of her time fighting the Democrats on health care, he noted that she has voted to raise the debt ceiling and he effectively described Texas as a land of opportunity. He landed a clean punch on the auto industry bailout. His lowest point was arguably when Debra Medina pointed out that he had not overturned the Texas Advance Directives Act and when the Johns Hopkins University student (who certainly seemed to enjoy her 15 minutes) pointed out that it had become law when he was lieutenant governor.
Medina showed a basic knowledge of state issues, and she clearly communicated that she wants to replace the property tax with a broader sales tax. That position alone will connect with some Republican voters.
Two funny moments stand out: The first came when Medina said she does not take her handgun to the grocery store but wishes she did. The second was when Hutchison complained that Perry was criticizing other Republicans. Perry grinned and nodded.
The panelists (particularly Davey Jo Montgomery) did a good job with their limited opportunities to ask questions. The Facebook question about unemployment was a good one. But there were no questions about public education or insurance rates or electricity rates, as Democrats were happy to note. There really wasn’t much about transportation. And none of the candidates offered much in the way of what specifically they would like to do in office or how they would cope with the state’s $15 billion budget shortfall.
Two weeks from tonight, we’ll get Hutchison and Perry in a studio, no audience. Expect the heavier artillery to come out then.
Countdown
17 days until the last day to register to vote.
32 days until early voting begins.
46 days until the March 2 primary.
In the news
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison challenged Gov. Rick Perry’s tax-cutting credentials Thursday in the first debate of the Republican gubernatorial primary, but she struggled to explain her support for some abortion rights. Austin American-Statesman
The short version: no runs, no hits, no errors and nary a word about solutions. Ken Herman
Maybe the question is: Was there a winner? Well, the format was a winner. The questions from viewers, from members of the audience, and from one panelist to another, made for a lively if not necessarily enlightening debate. Paul Burka
Kay Bailey Hutchison had to convince Republican primary voters of two things in Thursday’s debate: why they should boot Rick Perry out of the governor’s office and why they should put her in. Wayne Slater
Former Houston Mayor Bill White is showing some fundraising prowess in his Democratic run for governor. His campaign said Thursday he raised $6.2 million in the last half of 2009, including $3 million in transfers from his campaign for U.S. Senate. He abandoned the Senate campaign in December when he jumped into the race for governor. Associated Press
John Bradley, district attorney of Williamson County and the controversial new head of the Texas Forensic Science Commission, lost a court battle last week in a ruling that probably pleased most of the other members of the commission. Rick Casey
The next senator from SD-22 could be the incumbent, Sen. Kip Averitt, R-Waco, Republican challenger Darren Yancy, or a Republican or Democrat whose name is not on the ballot. Texas Tribune
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Averitt ends re-election bid
Huge news out of Waco … Debate tonight … Perry’s call on education reform
Happy birthday to U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul.
Austin weather from News 8 Austin’s Maureen McCann: Cloudy with showers likely, high of 62.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it. Also, you can follow me on Twitter for news updates around the clock.)
Wednesday highlights and the day ahead
The Waco Tribune-Herald reports this morning that Senate Natural Resources Chairman Kip Averitt, R-Waco, says he is ending his re-election bid, citing health reasons. It’s unclear whether he can get off the ballot, but even if he can’t, his decision leaves Burleson insurance agent Darren Yancy as the only active Republican in the primary, and there is no Democrat running.
From the Waco story: “He issued a statement to the Tribune-Herald that said in recent years he has struggled to balance health and the interests of his family with his role as a public servant. ‘I have been advised that I must now put my health above all else — for me and my family — and it is with deep regret that I announce today the cessation of my Senate campaign,’ the release states.
Averitt is chairman of a major committee and has been part of a key block of moderate Republican senators that has exerted significant influence in recent years. He is widely respected on all sides of environmental issues, and his departure will have big implications for fights over water rights in Texas.
• Statewide, the big story is tonight’s 7 p.m. debate among the three Republican candidates for governor. Here in Austin, you can watch it live on KVUE, KLRU or News 8 Austin.
If Perry is indeed ahead, the most important goal for him is probably to avoid gaffes. Hutchison needs to land a punch or two. Here’s more about what each candidate needs to do:
Perry: He is trying to frame the campaign as Texas vs. Washington. Perry needs to convince the audience that he has put Texas in better shape than almost any other state. If the polls are true and Perry is in fact ahead, his most important task may be to avoid a major gaffe that will make the debate more than a one-day story. He also needs to protect himself from getting drawn into any prolonged exchange with Medina.
Hutchison: Texas Republicans have voted in past elections for both Perry and Hutchison, and now Hutchison must convince them that they like her more. She needs to articulate a few clear, compelling reasons why Republicans should replace Perry with her — something that could change the narrative of the campaign. She also needs to neutralize Perry’s Washington attacks by highlighting the ways she has used that post to help the state and advance conservative principles.
Debra Medina: Expect her to hammer both of her opponents as establishment politicians and attack Texas government as too costly and too big. She needs to move beyond soundbites and demonstrate a working knowledge of state issues.
Keep a close eye on Statesman.com during and after the debate. We’ll have a live chat during the debate, stories up afterward and a full run-down in tomorrow’s FR and print edition.
• The Politifact Texas staff has posted more good work, as Gov. Rick Perry and Democrat Bill White have been hooked up to the Truth-O-Meter with new entries. Check it out, and be sure to include the site Friday as you look for post-debate analysis.
• Sen. Kirk Watson issued a letter Wednesday endorsing Amy Clark Meachum in her race for district judge in Travis County. Wrote Watson, “We need judges that live up to the highest ideals of impartiality. We need judges who will preside so that attorneys and the citizens they represent feel welcome and comfortable, not intimidated. We need smart, hard working people willing to serve. I’m endorsing Amy Clark Meachum for District Judge in the 201st District Court because I believe she will be that kind of judge.”
Countdown
18 days until the last day to register to vote.
33 days until early voting begins.
47 days until the March 2 primary.
In the news
Texas will not compete for a federal education grant that could have reaped the state as much as $700 million, Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday. He said the $4 billion Race to the Top program required too much of the state and offered too little. Austin American-Statesman
I’m part of a team lighting the landscape in a fresh way. PolitiFact Texas — launched this week at politifacttexas.com — truth-tests anything that can legitimately be examined in the way of assertions by people in state and local affairs. Its Truth-O-Meter will rate multiple statements as True, Mostly True, Half True, Barely True, False and Pants on Fire in cases of ridiculous over-swinging. W. Gardner Selby
The state ought to slow down proposals to expand the Governor’s Mansion, House Speaker Joe Straus said in the inaugural TribLive event this morning, creating an obstacle to an idea endorsed by First Lady Anita Perry that has stirred historic preservationists in Texas. Texas Tribune
Students, parents and lawmakers lobbied the State Board of Education on Wednesday for more diversity in Texas’ social studies curriculum. The board is weighing classroom standards that will determine how history is taught in public schools for the next decade. Associated Press
Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sarah Palin have helped shift the landscape, but gender issues are still tricky for male candidates in political debates. Rick Perry may discover the pitfalls when, for the first time in his long political career he’s the only man on stage tonight against two female contenders. Dallas Morning News
A new study of state flagship universities says that while the University of Texas has increased minority and low-income student enrollment, it still has a long way to go to reflect the state’s changing demographics. Dallas Morning News
Everything else
Will Muschamp says he’s not interviewing at Tennessee.
Texas men (16-0, 2-0) beat Iowa State in basketball, 90-83.
Rockets (22-17) win in triple overtime over the Timberwolves.
Spurs (24-13) beat Oklahoma City.
Mavericks (25-13) lose to the Lakers at home.
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Perry set to say he won’t seek federal money for schools
Texas poised to skip Race to the Top … Introducing PolitiFact Texas … State officials say putting more eligible people on food stamps isn’t their goal
Austin weather: Cloudy, slight chance of rain, high of 60.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it. Also, you can follow me on Twitter for news updates around the clock.)
Tuesday highlights and the day ahead
Continuing his yearlong fight against Washington, Gov. Rick Perry is expected to announce today that Texas will not compete for a piece of a highly coveted $4 billion education grant program known as Race to the Top, the Statesman’s Kate Alexander reported late Tuesday.
Perry has scheduled a major announcement for this afternoon at an education service center in Houston.
Alexander reports, “Texas could snag as much as $700 million, if it were to win one of the select few awards aimed at fostering education reform. Many states have been going to great lengths to improve their chance at winning some of the grant money. Not Texas.
“Both Perry and Education Commissioner Robert Scott have harshly criticized the program’s rules, and Scott suggested that one provision was a harbinger of a federal takeover of public schools. Scott, reached Tuesday evening, rebuffed a question about the grant application and quickly ended the call… The governor’s justification for not competing is that too little money is on the table to implement significant reform in a state with 4.7 million students, the officials said.”
As Alexander notes, Texas was bullish on the money last March. Scott told a legislative committee, “Texas is very well-positioned in terms of the work we’ve done over the past several years to take advantage of this. We can bring to completion some of the reform work we’ve been working on.”
But the tone has turned decidedly negative since summer, when the initial rules were released. Texas would take a hit in the scoring because it is one of only two states not participating in a state-led effort to develop national curriculum standards for math and English.
The Houston Chronicle reported last week that the Texas Education Agency has already spent 700 to 800 hours preparing the state’s application for Race to the Top funds, and several superintendents expressed frustration with Perry’s posturing. “It’s very sad and very disappointing,” said Houston Superintendent Terry Grier. “Given today’s economy, we don’t need to sit on the sidelines.”
• I am extremely pleased today to point you to the launch of PolitiFact Texas, an ambitious and comprehensive fact-checking partnership of the Austin American-Statesman and PolitiFact.com, a Pulitzer-Prize-winning Web site of the St. Petersburg Times. The site will be led by one of the best journalists I’ve ever had the pleasure to know and work with, W. Gardner Selby.
From John Bridges’ story in this morning’s paper: “Our Texas Truth-O-Meter will examine claims made by elected officials, candidates and others in the political arena and decide whether those statements are True, Mostly True, Half True, Barely True or False. The most ridiculous claims earn a special honor — a Pants on Fire rating.
PolitiFact is a different breed of journalism, said Bill Adair, the founder of the national site.
“It’s different because we make the call,” said Adair, who serves as the national PolitiFact editor and Washington bureau chief for the St. Petersburg Times. “‘In the past, we simply passed along the falsehoods and assumed citizens would sort it out. But in our complex media world, people are bombarded with information and don’t have time to sort out. I think it’s our role to do that. We’re doing the homework for them.”
The Statesman’s venture is the first expansion of PolitiFact into another state.
In today’s print edition, the PolitiFact Texas staff put two statements to the test: An assertion from Gov. Rick Perry about job creation and a claim from U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison about her role in putting more agents on the border. (Spoiler alert: Perry’s claim is deemed false and Hutchison’s is deemed barely true). PolitiFact items will regularly appear in the Statesman print edition, plus there will be many more online.
For example, on the PolitiFact Texas site right now, you can read the staff’s investigation of claims made by Hank Gilbert, the Republican Party of Texas, Barbara Ann Radnofsky, Marc Katz, Farouk Shami and Lamar Smith. Which of those politicians received the first “Pants on Fire” designation? Check it out.
• Democrat Bill White weighed in yesterday evening on the proposed expansion of the Governor’s Mansion. He wrote on his Facebook page, “What do you think of Governor Perry’s decision to expand the Governor’s Mansion and alter its historical character? 9000 square feet would be big enough for Andrea and me, and has been sufficient for Texas Governors for generations. Dollars saved could be used to fill the state’s budget gap.”
• The Belo Corp. and the Dallas Morning News announced Tuesday that they will host a Friday night debate on Jan. 29 in Dallas between Perry and Hutchison. The debate will be carried in Austin on Belo-owned KVUE.
From Christy Hoppe’s story: “The format of the debate will include questions from reporter panelists, as well as questions from citizens. The candidates also will be asked to address each other’s political advertising and address issues speaking one-on-one to each other. Candidate Debra Medina, who has polled between 4 and 7 percent support among likely Republican voters in recent polls, did not meet the sponsor’s criteria to be included in the debate.”
Countdown
19 days until the last day to register to vote.
34 days until early voting begins.
48 days until the March 2 primary.
In the news
Rescue teams struggled in the early morning darkness Wednesday to make their way through the rubble of collapsed buildings after a devastating earthquake struck Haiti late Tuesday afternoon. New York Times
Texas could be providing food stamps to 650,000 more people and could increase the amount of federal money it receives for the program each year from $4 billion to $5 billion if the state increased its participation rate to the national average, according to President Barack Obama’s top food stamp official. But Texas officials, who are struggling with a strained application system, say increasing participation is not their goal. Austin American-Statesman
Gov. Rick Perry raised more than $7 million in the last six months and goes into the final stretch of the GOP primary for governor with $11.6 million in the bank. Dallas Morning News
Let’s make sure we all understand the historical significance of Thursday night’s GOP gubernatorial debate featuring Gov. Rick Perry, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and someone else. What we have here is the first-ever debate in the first-ever, high-profile Texas GOP primary involving one incumbent (Hutchison) trying to unseat another incumbent (Perry). And to add to the fun, Hutchison and Perry seem to have developed a sincere dislike for each other. All the better for must-see TV. Ken Herman
Farouk Shami, the Houston hair care magnate running for governor, wants you to know that he is not a Muslim. He also wants you to know that he is not a Quaker. One more thing he wants you to know: The Texas media, possibly out of “something darker and racially motivated,” is engaging in a disservice to Texas Democrats by promoting a “media sideshow surrounding Shami’s religious beliefs.” Rick Casey
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison said Tuesday her plan for security along the Texas-Mexico border includes expanding state participation in Homeland Security programs that let local law enforcement enforce some federal immigration laws and that verify whether a person can legally work in the country. Associated Press
The leader of an al Qaeda cell in Yemen has been killed in clashes with security forces, the Yemeni government said Wednesday. CNN
Everything else
Rockets (21-17) lose to Charlotte, 102-94.
Spurs (23-13) beat the Lakers, 105-85.
Lane Kiffin, head coach for one season at Tennessee, is headed to USC.
Conan O’Brien says he wants no part of a “Tonight Show” that starts a half-hour later than it always has. Here’s the story from the New York Times.
He began his show last night, “My name is Conan O’Brien and I may soon be available for children’s parties.”
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Symposium starring Perry and Palin canceled
San Antonio event called off … Hutchison to talk about border security today … Are Dallas-area Democrats putting themselves at risk?
Austin weather: Mostly sunny, high of 57.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it. Also, you can follow me on Twitter for news updates around the clock.)
Monday highlights and the day ahead
Those of you anxious to see Gov. Rick Perry on stage with Sarah Palin are going to have to wait a little longer.
As I reported last night on the Postcards blog, a Jan. 22-24 event put on by tea-party groups in San Antonio that was to feature the governor and the former governor has been canceled.
Tea Party Support, which was putting on the National Conservative Symposium, posted this on its Web site: “Due to circumstances beyond the control of Tea Party Support, we are forced to cancel the National Conservative Symposium. More information will follow soon. Please check back. We have started processing refunds.”
The event was also to star conservative commentators Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin and Laura Ingraham.
We still expect that Palin (who just signed on as a Fox News contributor) will be in Texas stumping for Perry at some point in the next several weeks.
• Corrie MacLaggan has an important story on the front page of this morning’s Statesman.
MacLaggan reports that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Farouk Shami is not, as his campaign claimed earlier, a Quaker. Shami declined to label himself with one religion on Monday, even though his son and grandson told MacLaggan that he is Muslim.
The story is significant not because Shami may be a Muslim, but because, according to two former campaign aides, he described himself as a Quaker to one of the former aides, and that description was relayed to the press. After it was reported in November, the campaign made no attempt to correct the notion until asked about his family members’ assertions that he is a Muslim. The campaign said he is not a Quaker only after MacLaggan asked about his family members’ comments.
What’s most important is that this is not the first time we have reason to question what Shami and his campaign are telling the press (and more importantly, voters) about him. He told the Statesman’s Ken Herman that he voted in 2008 for Barack Obama. But officials in his home county told Herman that Shami did not vote that year.
• Most of the Dallas-area Democratic delegation in the Texas House has lined up behind indicted Rep. Terri Hodge, D-Dallas, as she faces a primary challenge from Eric Johnson. But are some of them doing it at their own peril?
As part of a recent fundraising appeal, the Dallas County Republican Party wrote, “Inexplicably, Democrat politicians continue to endorse a state representative who has been indicted for public corruption.”
That state representative is Hodge, but she doesn’t appear to be the real target of this attack. Her district is going to be represented by a Democrat, whether she or Johnson wins the nomination. But what’s interesting is that other Democratic legislators are being disparaged (albeit not by name, yet) for supporting her.
Supporters among her colleagues include Dallas-area Reps. Carol Kent, Robert Miklos and Kirk England. Each holds a seat that, not too long ago, was held by a Republican. It will be interesting to see how much their support of Hodge is used against them, if at all, as they face Republican challengers in the fall.
• U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison will be in Longview and Houston today to talk about border security.
• Want to submit a question for this Thursday’s Republican gubernatorial debate? You can do so here.
Stat of the day
No Harris County commissioner has lost a re-election bid since 1974. Source: Houston Chronicle
Poll watch
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 30 percent of voters think it was a good idea for the government to provide bailout funding for banks and other financial institutions, while 56 percent hold the opposite view and believe it was a bad idea. These findings are virtually unchanged from April of last year.
Lawrence O’Donnell said on MSNBC this morning that the Obama health care plan polls at 43 percent approval. In Massachusetts.
Countdown
20 days until the last day to register to vote.
35 days until early voting begins.
49 days until the March 2 primary.
In the news
The health care overhaul bill is controversial, but is it unconstitutional? Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott contends that portions probably are — particularly proposed tax penalties for the uninsured that he says threaten individual liberty and a sweetheart deal for Nebraska that he calls “uniquely contemptible and corrupt.” Several legal scholars, however, say Abbott’s constitutional analysis falls short because it underestimates congressional power and relies on a selective reading of prior Supreme Court rulings. Austin American-Statesman
Farmers Insurance agreed Monday to scale back a double-digit rate hike for homeowners coverage in Texas. But the company will get to keep millions of dollars it has collected the past six months, even though the state declared those premiums excessive. Dallas Morning News
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s planned appearance in Las Colinas this week has upset some Irving residents. But their ire has nothing to do with the national dustup Reid faces from his race-related remarks about President Barack Obama. Dallas Morning News
“Is this serious?” he asked, laughing into the phone. “There are far more qualified, experienced public servants.  . . . I’d run Mike Leach for Senate before I’d run Craig James.” Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Texas educators forcibly pinned down students with disabilities as many times in 2009 as they did in 2008, despite efforts to curb the practice in public schools. The static numbers hide dramatic drops in restraints in many large school districts. Because many smaller school districts reported restraints for the first time in 2009, statewide numbers remained virtually unchanged. Texas Tribune
A coalition of top religious leaders, including Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, on Monday urged the heads of local congregations and synagogues to help persuade their faithful to support a push for comprehensive immigration reform. Houston Chronicle
Wall Street firms aren’t the only banks that had a banner year. The Federal Reserve made record profits in 2009, as its unconventional efforts to prop up the economy created a windfall for the government. The Fed will return about $45 billion to the U.S. Treasury for 2009, according to calculations by The Washington Post based on public documents. That reflects the highest earnings in the 96-year history of the central bank. Washington Post
The strategy that Mark McGwire used on Monday to lay out his admission to using steroids demonstrated that lessons were learned from other baseball stars who preceded him in making mea culpa about their drug use. New York Times
There are more places to go for local news but less news to find there, and the great majority of actual reporting still comes from newspapers. New York Times
Everything else
Texas is now ranked No. 1 in men’s basketball.
Is Drayton McLane trying to sell the Astros?
American Idol returns tonight on Fox. And Simon Cowell says it is his last season.
It’s the second Tuesday in January. Which means we’re only about one year and 140 days away from the next round of sine die parties.
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Perry for president?
Magazine’s cover story already turning heads … state’s hurricane plan questioned … Perry in the loop on Mansion expansion
Happy birthday to Rep. Ralph Sheffield, Cassie Holman (who works for U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul) and Texas Workforce Commission Chairman Tom Pauken.
Austin weather: Partly cloudy, high of 55.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it. Also, you can follow me on Twitter for news updates around the clock.)
Weekend highlights and the day ahead
In the weeks leading up to the long-awaited March primary, voters all over Texas will see this headline on the state’s most important magazine: “Perry for President?!?”
And so we begin this week with the Texas Monthly cover story that, as it hit the Web over the weekend, quickly turned heads around the country. Never mind Gov. Rick Perry’s upcoming primary challenge from U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison or, if he survives that, a general election challenge from a Democrat (likely Bill White). Paul Burka argues, with considerable evidence, that the governor is well-positioned to rise to the top of what appears to be a somewhat weak field of GOP presidential contenders in 2012.
Burka: “Who among the contenders has a better conservative record? Who better expresses the anger of the average Republican voter? Who has a more robust fundraising base? Of the governors commonly mentioned—Tim Pawlenty, of Minnesota; Haley Barbour, of Mississippi; Bobby Jindal, of Louisiana; Mitch Daniels, of Indiana—whose state has weathered the recession more successfully?”
I’m not going to try to recap the article here. You should read it for yourself. What I will say is that Burka very deftly describes how Perry’s actions over the past year have fundamentally changed his race against Hutchison and left him in perfect position to ride the anti-government fervor of tea-partiers and others to the top of the national GOP field. Burka doesn’t assure that Perry will win in March or November of this year, but he does demonstrate why Perry is an extremely confident politician right now.
It’s worth noting that every time I’ve ever heard Perry asked about a national ticket, he gives some variation of this line: “I have no interest in going to Washington, D.C.” But if there’s one thing we have learned in this state over the last year, it’s not to believe politicians when they talk about their own plans and ambitions.
It’s also worth saying that this kind of publicity can work against Perry. Perhaps the Texas Monthly cover catches the eye of someone who doesn’t like Perry but wasn’t planning to vote in the primary (or general election). Suddenly they feel an obligation to stop the guy. On the other hand, this could make Perry supporters that much more motivated. Hard to tell how it all washes out.
• This probably won’t slow Perry down much, but it’s significant: State sales tax collections continue to lag. December collections were down 11.6 percent from a year earlier, Comptroller Susan Combs reported Friday.
Last January, Combs predicted flat revenue for the 2010 budget year. In the first four months, we’ve seen drops of 12.5 percent in September, 12.8 percent in October, 14.4 percent in November and 11.6 percent in December. So there is some catching up to do, albeit plenty of time in which to do it.
It was the March 2009 report (sales made in January, taxes collected in February) where the state started to see a drop-off a year ago. So if in two months things haven’t turned around some, totals for the year could be ugly.
As Bob Garrett of the Dallas Morning News notes, sales tax collections have decreased by 12.9 percent in the first four months of the year.
(Of course, these things are done in two-year cycles, and a worse-than-expected 2010 could be washed out by a better-than-expected 2011).
• Hutchison quietly put up a new ad over the weekend, and it’s again about transportation, property rights and the Trans-Texas Corridor. You can watch it here.
Hutchison says in the spot, “A toll is a tax. If a highway is already built, and you toll that highway, you are taxing people twice and that’s not right.”
What she doesn’t say is that state law already says that a free road cannot be converted to a toll road without the consent of local voters.
• Pitching great Nolan Ryan will star at a Hutchison fundraiser today.
• A couple of significant stories from the weekend that are worth revisiting, and the first is from the Statesman’s Mike Ward. You may remember the video posted here last week that showed Perry repeatedly telling our Ken Herman that he didn’t have a position on the proposed expansion of the Governor’s Mansion.
Writes Ward, “The executive director of the agency that is overseeing the project — an agency over which Perry presides as chairman of its governing board — says Perry and other top state leaders or their staffs have privately signed off on an addition and have been briefed at every step.”
I think my favorite nugget from the story is that the State Preservation Board last week voted in public to approve the renovation of the House members’ lounge. The renovation was completed more than a year ago.
• And the Houston Chronicle’s Mike Snyder reported Saturday that the state’s distribution of Hurricane Ike relief dollars has drawn criticism from the federal government. “A Texas plan for distributing hurricane recovery funds provided less than half the money needed for housing and business recovery in Galveston and Orange counties while giving too much to inland counties that sustained little damage, a top federal housing official has told Gov. Rick Perry,” Snyder reported. The state’s distribution plan has been a source of controversy for months.
• I’m not exactly sure where to begin with regards to “Game Change,” the new book from Mark Halperin and John Heilemann about the 2008 presidential campaign. Information in the book has Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in even deeper political trouble than he was already in (thanks to some racially insensitive private comments about President Barack Obama), it reveals that Chelsea Clinton advised her mother not to run for president in 2004 and it explains a rocky relationship during the campaign between Obama and Joe Biden. The New York Times has a nice little summary of the highlights, including the allegation that Sarah Palin believed Saddam Hussein attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.
Stat of the day
From that hurricane story in the Houston Chronicle: In a Dec. 18 letter to Perry, Mercedes Marquez, a HUD assistant secretary, said the federal agency estimated that Galveston County’s unmet housing and business damage needs — damages not covered by insurance or other federal programs — totaled $1.087 billion, 41 percent of the federal funds available, while Orange County’s needs amounted to $340 million, or 13 percent. The Texas approach, Marquez wrote, led to allocations of 18 percent, or $468 million, to Galveston County and 3 percent, or $78 million, to Orange County.
Countdown
21 days until the last day to register to vote.
36 days until early voting begins.
50 days until the March 2 primary.
In the news
Texas officials called it blackmail and coercion and resented “the federal government pointing a loaded gun at the Legislature.” Those words could have been uttered recently by Gov. Rick Perry , who has repeatedly charged over the past year that the federal government has shortchanged, hamstrung or tread upon Texas. But it was a young Democratic state senator named Chet Edwards, now a U.S. congressman, who decried the federal gun-pointing — back in 1985. Austin American-Statesman
The nation’s first black president forgave Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yesterday for racially insensitive comments. But today, Texas Sen. John Cornyn demanded that Reid resign from his leadership post for saying in 2008 that Barack Obama could win the presidency because he is “light skinned” and “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.” Dallas Morning News
Gov. Rick Perry must be worried that the citizens of Texas are going to lose their minds and turn state government over to the Democrats. This week on the campaign stump, he proposed two state constitutional amendments based on the notion that we can’t afford democracy. Rick Casey
As the March Republican primary showdown nears, Perry’s campaign has ramped up efforts to point out controversial Hutchison votes, including a holiday-themed “12 Days of Flip-Flops.” Even if some attempts to find contradictory votes fall short, they still achieve Perry’s goal of painting Hutchison as part of Washington’s political culture. Dallas Morning News
They’ll probably be sure they know the name of the president of Mexico. But Thursday’s debate among Gov. Rick Perry, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and activist Debra Medina is going to be fun because of what we don’t know yet. Peggy Fikac
Fiery GOP activist and gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina, who has strong libertarian views and does not rule out seceding from the union, could affect the contest, even if she loses, as experts anticipate. Associated Press
Elected officials — Democrats and Republicans — have been routinely and loudly booed at Tea Party rallies and other conservative events over the past year. But as area activists try to turn that anger into action, they are setting their sights on fellow Republicans more than Democrats. Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Everything else
Spurs (22-13) beat New Jersey on Sunday, 97-85.
Texas men beat Colorado in their Big 12 opener Saturday. And with Kansas’ loss over the weekend, the Longhorns are poised to take the top spot in the AP poll.
NBC has confirmed that Jay Leno is moving back to 10:30 p.m. (our time), according to the New York Times. The network hopes to keep Conan O’Brien as host of “The Tonight Show,” which would follow Leno’s half-hour show. This is all scheduled to kick in after the winter Olympics in February.
The New York Post reports that Yankee Derek Jeter and Minka Kelly of “Friday Night Lights” are getting married in November.
Weekend box office: 1. Avatar 2. Sherlock Holmes 3. Alvin and the Chipmunks 4. Daybreakers 5. It’s Complicated.
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Perry’s account of stimulus worth questioning
Podcast
Revisiting those stimulus dollars … A new Political Parlor podcast … A comeback falls short
Happy birthday to Rep. Joe Crabb and Texas Republican Party Chair Cathie Adams (today) and Charley Wilkison of the Combined Law Enforcement Association of Texas (Saturday).
Austin weather from News 8 Austin’s Maureen McCann: Bitter cold and blustery. High of only 35, but wind chill values will make it feel like the teens.
(Send me an e-mail at jembry@statesman.com if you want a link to First Reading as soon as I post it. Also, you can follow me on Twitter for news updates around the clock.)
Thursday highlights and the day ahead
Let’s go back to 2009. Congress approved the federal stimulus package, Gov. Rick Perry said the state would seek to use the dollars for one-time expenses, Texas accepted most of the money and it was used for more than one-time expenses. We can all agree on that, right?
Apparently not.
In Houston yesterday, Perry was talking about his desire to see a balanced-budget amendment in the U.S. Constitution. Then, talking about Texas, he said, “The argument … you took stimulus dollars so therefore you were part of this problem — no, we took dollars, put them into place, one-time expenditures,” Perry said. “We said we would not create any new programs with these dollars that were ongoing costs,” according to the Associated Press.
Whether new programs were created could be a matter of interpretation. For example, some of the most knowledgeable staffers in the Legislature have told me that the $2 billion bill updating the school finance formulas would not have been possible without the stimulus dollars. Do you call a reworking of school finance programs a new ongoing program? Seems like that argument could certainly been made.
Meanwhile, a number of experts have made clear that stimulus dollars were not just used for one-time expenses.
From Bob Garrett of the Dallas Morning News in August: “About one-third of the federal stimulus money Texas accepted this year will probably translate into ongoing obligations, the Legislature’s top budget-writing adviser said today. Despite state leaders’ pleas that all stimulus dollars be spent on one-time, non-recurring items, “there are a couple of areas where that’s just not going to be possible,” said Legislative Budget Board director John O’Brien.”
And Dale Craymer of the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association told the Texas Tribune, “directly very little of the stimulus money was really spent on any one-time items.”
• Here’s a sign that Perry likes the poll numbers he’s seeing: His new ad does not mention Kay Bailey Hutchison at all. Watch it here.
• There’s a new highway in the Midland area: The Nadine and Tom Craddick Highway, the Midland Reporter-Telegram reports.
• Rolling Stone put U.S. Rep. Joe Barton on its list of the Climate Killers, “the 17 polluters and deniers who are derailing efforts to curb global warming.” Also on the list are Dick Gephardt, John McCain, George Will and Warren Buffett.
• Remember that bill last year that aimed to crack down on cockfighting? The folks with the Humane Society Legislative Fund haven’t forgotten about it, and they’re blaming Rep. Terri Hodge, D-Dallas, for its demise: “It was, unfortunately, no surprise to animal advocates that Rep. Hodge would do the bidding of criminal cockfighters. In a meeting of the Subcommittee on Violent Crimes this past March, Rep. Hodge opined that ‘cockfighting is a way of life’ and ‘we all have different tastes and should respect that.’ Apparently she believes that ‘taste’ is an excuse to engage in a form of animal cruelty that is a felony offense in her state.”
• Ken Herman and I joined KUT’s Ian Crawford in the Texas Political Parlor on Thursday. We discussed the parties’ 2010 slates of candidates, the upcoming GOP debate and 2011 redistricting. You can listen here. Or you can download up in the top right corner of this page.
Stat of the day
Three years after a sexual abuse scandal rocked the Texas Youth Commission, one in five juvenile offenders in Texas youth lock-ups report being forced into sexual acts with staff or other inmates, according to a federal report. Source: Texas Tribune.
Poll watch
From Gallup: People identifying conservatives (40 percent) outnumbered both moderates (36 percent) and liberals (21 percent) across the nation in 2009. More broadly, the percentage of Americans calling themselves either conservative or liberal has increased over the last decade, while the percentage of moderates has declined.
A poll of 109 Republican leaders and political pros says Mitt Romney is most likely to be the party’s presidential nominee in 2012, followed by Tim Pawlenty and John Thune. Sarah Palin finished sixth. Source: Hotline
Countdown
24 days until the last day to register to vote.
39 days until early voting begins.
53 days until the March 2 primary.
In the news
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed Thursday stricter smog standards, putting the Austin area in jeopardy of violating clean air rules. If Travis and surrounding counties fail the new standard, they could face federal penalties that hamper business growth and delay transportation projects. Austin American-Statesman
Former SMU football star and ESPN Analyst Craig James has made news recently regarding his role with his son and former Texas Tech Football Coach Mike Leach. But James could be making news this year in politics, too. His name is being tossed around as a possible candidate to run for Kay Bailey Hutchison’s seat when she resigns. WFAA
Texas needs more money - hundreds of billions of dollars more - to maintain its roads and bridges and build the new ones needed to serve the state’s growing population, the Texas Department of Transportation’s executive director said Thursday. Amadeo Saenz, opening a conference on transportation, said no amount of technological innovations or other improvements will be enough if Texas can’t find more money to spend on roads. Dallas Morning News
Gov. Rick Perry announced Thursday he would pardon Timothy Cole, a Fort Worth man who died while serving time in prison for a rape he did not commit, as soon as he receives a recommendation from the state Board of Pardons and Paroles. Houston Chronicle
Legalizing the status of the roughly 12 million unauthorized immigrants living in this country would create jobs, increase wages and boost the sagging U.S. economy, an academic study released Thursday says. San Antonio Express-News
Well almost everybody who’s been there knows you leave a little money in Las Vegas, but they say you can come back and visit it anytime. Texas taxpayers left a little green there in October, as it turns out. Gov. Rick Perry’s went to Vegas on Oct. 24 to attend a bachelor party dinner for his son - oh yes, and to also meet with Brian Sandoval, a Republican candidate for Nevada’s governor. The cost for his security detail for the overnight trip - overtime, hotel, airfare, rental cars - was $12,321, according to documents just released by the Department of Public Safety. Dallas Morning News
Everything else
The Longhorns put up a mighty fight and never gave up, but in the end, it was Alabama 37, Texas 21. Colt McCoy was injured early in the game, forcing freshman backup Garrett Gilbert into the game. After a rocky start, Gilbert threw two touchdown passes in the second half and almost led the Longhorns to a historic combeback.
Kirk Bohls: “Saviors usually don’t come in the form of freshman quarterbacks who hadn’t thrown a touchdown pass in 13 games, but he threw two in the last 17 minutes of the season against arguably the best defense in the country. He came up short. But he’s been in this position before and will be again. Of course, the last time he lost a game, he won the next 30 straight.”
Richard Justice: “They displayed the heart of a champion even while another team was being crowned. They endured their worst nightmare. They had weaknesses exposed. But they almost won because they have heart and toughness and resolve. They did themselves proud in defeat.”
Bill Carter of the New York Times reports that NBC is planning to put Jay Leno back in late night with a half-hour show to air at 10:30 our time, followed by Conan O’Brien at 11 p.m.
Elvis Presley would turn 75 today.
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Latest comments
SAD…how much did they pay her to show up?
... read the full comment by burke wasson | Comment on Crowd goes wild for Palin Read Crowd goes wild for Palin
She said it best when we first met her: “Thanks, but no thanks, Sarah!”
CE
... read the full comment by Crazy Eddie | Comment on Crowd goes wild for Palin Read Crowd goes wild for Palin
I WATCHED THE TEA PARTY CONVENTION ON C-SPAN AND HEARD WHAT I ALWAYS THOUGHT. THEY ARE JUST REPUBLICANS THAT ARE UNHAPPY WITH THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND TRYING TO SELL THEMSELVES AS SOMETHING OTHER THAN REPUBLICANS. TRICKERY TRYING TO GET PEOPLE TO DONATE
... read the full comment by vetco | Comment on Here comes Sarah Palin Read Here comes Sarah Palin
She needs to be learning, not talking if she wants to run for political office again. Why isn’t she getting some government or political job to get experience in those areas she is weak in? Seeing Russia from your doorstep only goes so far.
... read the full comment by Antonious | Comment on Here comes Sarah Palin Read Here comes Sarah Palin
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