Tag Archives: 2014 Texas election

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Hoping Stockman flames out

My fond hope is that Paul Burka is right that Steve Stockman’s candidacy will vaporize after the March Republican primary.

http://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/steve-stockman-non-story

It’s not that I’m terribly fond of Sen. John Cornyn.

Here’s my concern.

A victory by Stockman, a congressman who has become a GOP tea party golden boy, could spell doom if he manages to win this fall against whomever the Democrats nominate. You see, Texas is so solidly Republican — even with strong Democratic candidates running for governor and lieutenant governor this year — that Stockman could win this fall even with his loony record in Congress.

Burka is betting on Cornyn “wiping the floor” with Stockman.

I hope that’s true. Given what I know about both of these guys, Cornyn is the far superior Republican nominee.

As they say, though, stranger things can — and do — happen.

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Let the Abbott v. Davis polling commence

The polling has begun and it shows a competitive race for Texas governor next year.

You know what they say, though, about politics: A week, or month, let alone a year, can be a lifetime or two … or three.

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/10/02/abbott-leads-davis-eight-points-poll/

A Texas Lyceum poll shows Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott leading Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis of Fort Worth by 8 percent in a theoretical matchup. Davis is expected Thursday to announce her candidacy for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, infusing enthusiasm into a state Democratic Party that has been in a virtual coma for two decades.

Abbott is the prohibitive favorite to be nominated by the Republicans next spring, although I’m not yet willing to count out my old pal Tom Pauken, a Dallas lawyer and commercial real estate developer (with interests in Amarillo), who’s also running for the GOP governor’s nomination.

Abbott has lots of money, lots of support among mainstream Republicans and lots of name identification.

Davis is no slouch in name ID or support among mainstream Democrats. Her problem, though, is that Republicans outnumber Democrats in Texas by a large margin. Therein lies the obstacle she faces.

The Lyceum poll says Davis does much better among women; she’s in a statistical tie with Abbott. She does better among minorities. Abbott, though, does better among independents.

I’ve noted before that the governor’s race needs some excitement. Wendy Davis is going to provide it.

Whether excitement translates to votes, though, will be the operative question going forward.

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Democrats waiting on Wendy

The Texas Democratic Party seems to be in a state of suspended animation.

Nothing is happening in preparation for the 2014 elections until a certain Democratic state senator announces whether she’s running for Texas governor next year.

Well, Ms. Wendy Davis? What’s it gonna be?

That’s the crux of a Texas Tribune report that notes how other Texas Democrats — what’s left of them — are too “chicken” to declare their intentions until state Sen. Davis decides her next course of action.

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/08/27/texas-democrats-wait-davis-/

Davis, D-Fort Worth, has become the state’s newest Democratic superstar. I’m thinking she could be the next Ann Richards, the colorful and articulate former state treasurer who ran for governor in 1990, defeating Midland oil mogul Claytie Williams in one of the more rip-roarin’ campaigns in recent years.

Davis’s superstar credentials came as she led a filibuster in June that stopped temporarily a strict bill banning abortions in Texas after the 20th week of pregnancy. Davis talked for more than 13 hours before the clock ran out on the Texas Legislature, whose Republican majority wanted the bill to pass.

They brought it back in the second special session and it sailed through to Gov. Rick Perry desk.

Davis, however, now is acting very much as though she wants to run for governor. She’d be a shoo-in for the Democratic nomination. A fall campaign, though, remains highly problematic in this heavily Republican state. Attorney General Greg Abbott is the GOP favorite; he faces former GOP chairman Tom Pauken in the upcoming Republican primary. There can be zero doubt that either Abbott or Pauken would be difficult for any Democrat to beat in the fall.

Decision day is coming soon for Wendy Davis. Whatever she decides about a governor’s race is sure to spring open the gates for other Democrats to decide what they’ll do. The question for the Texas Democratic Party well might be whether they’ll be able to field a slate of candidates up and down the ballot.

Someone such as Sen. Davis at the top of the ballot could go a long way toward luring other strong Democrats into the arena.

Let’s all stay tuned.