Strayhorn raises $1.5 million in 10 days

[crispini]

From the press release today:

STRAYHORN RAIES $1.5 MILLION IN 10 DAYS
HAS MORE THAN $7 MILLION CASH ON HAND

(AUSTIN)-- Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, a Republican candidate for Governor in 2006, today said she raised an unprecedent -- in her many years of public service -- $1.5 million during 10 days in June, giving her over $7 million cash on hand as of June 20.

"Texans are looking for leaderhship, not special session after special session where the largest tax increase in Texas history is recommended and promoted by their Governor," Strayhorn said. "The support I am receiving is based on the leadership I know I can provide."...

Entire press release found at Quorum Report:
http://www.quorumreport.com/

[napi21]

1. Is Perry running again or is she just challenging him?

I've been gone from Tx for too many years to remember if they are term limited or not.

[davidinalameda]

2. she's running against Perry

and it looks like he's going to be toast before too much longer

unless the Bushies give him some good appointment to "reward" him

[acmejack]

3. *'s administration already has an idiot from Texas!

Why in the world would they possibly wish for another?

[asjr]

4. Isn't she Scott McLellan's mother?

[tammywammy]

5. Yes she is. n/t

[sonias]

6. Good news

I hope they both spend millions attacking each other in the repuke primary and leave their donors broke by the Nov. election. Go ahead start sucking up that cash baby! How much you want to bet that SOB, Bob Perry is putting his money on Adios, MoFo. Bob Perry (no relation to ricky boy) has pretty much bought and paid for ricky, so he doesn't want to have to buy him again. But if Tough Grandma is going to be a threat to his purchase, expect to see a swift boat type of campaign against the Tough Grandma. She's going to need her millions.

The primary fight is going to be extra juicy. It's also a sign that some people in the repuke party really want to tell Perry "Adios, MoFo!"

Sonia

[PDittie]

7. That's right; she'll have to spend every single dollar

because she's already polling far behind:

Texas Republican primary voters would support incumbent Governor Rick Perry over State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn by a two-to-one margin, according to a recent poll.

Since the summer of 2001, Montgomery and Associates, an independent research firm based in Austin, Texas, has been running surveys tracking statewide political issues and elected officials. This survey was conducted from June 27 – July 1, 2005 and tested 905 Texans who had voted in at least one out of the past two Republican primaries. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.3%. Montgomery & Associates conducted the survey independently, and has not been paid by any candidate or party. In partisan political races, the firm works for Democratic candidates.

http://www.quorumreport.com/buzz/buzz.cfm

(scroll down to July 11, 4:39 pm posting)

[sonias]

19. It ain't over til the fat lady sings

Wait til the real fight begins. Carole isn't even spending money right now like Perry is. Perry also has the advantage of being the incumbent right now. But when he screws up school finance this special session like we know he will, Carole can hang that on him.

And let's not forget those independent voters who will jump in and screw things up for Perry in the primary. Something like 30% of Texas voters identify themselves as independents. Sometimes they vote in Republican primary and sometimes they vote in the Democratic primary. Since the real fight is going to happen in the repuke primary, I think they will vote there. Carole is going to target that group strongly.

By the way in trying to find the percentage of Independent voters in Texas I came across this website which is a very interesting read.
http://texaspolitics.laits.utexas.edu/ (Texas Politics)

7.2 Trends in Party Identification
"the percentage of Texans that identify with one party or another from 1978 to 1990. The percentage of those who identified themselves as Democratic declined from 48 to 34 percent, while those who identified themselves as Republican rose dramatically from 19 to 33 percent. The number of independents, meanwhile, stayed consistent at about 33 percent."

The site is slightly outdated but there is quite a bit of good information on the site. Must have been someone's thesis work or something like that.

Sonia

[ThJ]

8. Democrats would have to do the same

Especially a candidate who is not known statewide, such as Chris Bell, who will definitely not have deep pockets as the Republican candidates certainly will.

[PDittie]

9. That's always been the case

Republicans outraising and and outspending Democrats.

Really, I wish you'd stop running down Chris Bell here. You've made your point; you don't support him. That's fine.

Bell will still whip John Sharp's ass in the primary, and if Sharp knows what's good for him he'll run for Lite Gov or Comptroller. (Sharp is a lousy candidate and has proven so too many times recently, but if he'll run for something beside Governor or Senator, I'll support him.)

[merci_me]

10. Aren't we talking about the primary?

Strayhorn will have to spend every dime bloodying Perry and he'll be spending fighting back, slash for slash.

In the end, the traditional primary voter, the rightwing ultra conservatives will carry the day for Perry and "the lord", but he'll stink like a corpse.

IF the Democrats have a primary in the governor's race, as of now it looks like Bell and Sharp. I don't see that being at all rough and tumble. They are both hard fighting, but honorable guys.

As for name recognition. If Bell is running through 2006, so will Delay be running and believe me, people will notice Bell for filing the ethics complaint against Delay.

In the meantime, if John Sharp enters the race, a LOT of people I know like him as a person, but are not too happy with his much more "moderate views". Also, he's blamed by many for orchestrating the 2002 "Dream Team" fiasco. I don't think those concerns would come into play, if he was in the running for Lt Gov or controller, but top of the ticket (even though Lt Gov is actually the top of the ticket) isn't the best place for him/us, IMHO.

Whoever the Dem for governor is, they'll be facing a battered Perry. As Chris said the other night, in a Q&A when someone asked him what he thought of Strayhorn entering the race, he smiled and said, "Well, I consider her just a little gift from God."

Mary

[ThJ]

11. primary and general elections

It doesn't matter how much they beat each other up, in the end, they will still be supported financially, and the yella-dog Republicans will support the primary candidate, regardless of who it is.

To be honest, Bell hasn't been noticed yet (I've talked to many Democrats, even here is Austin, who do not know who he is - anecdotal evidence, I know, but I don't think members of this site are representative of average voters), I think it is going to take a lot for him to be noticed, especially among Republican voters, whom he'll need to crossover. Sharp, regardless of what PDittie thinks of him, already has the name recognition, which does help greatly. And, honestly, any Democrat who runs for statewide office is going to have "moderate" views.

Sharp probably wouldn't stand a chance in another run for Lt. Gov, at least, not against Dewhurst. He'd definitely do better against Perry.

[merci_me]

12. So people in Austin know who Sharp is............

well DUH!!

Frankly, I was at the Democratic State Convention in Houston a year ago and John Sharp sponsored a very nice party. Interestingly, a large number of delegates, under the age of 40, wandering around didn't know who John Sharp, their host, was and these are primary voters, not people who pay attention sometime after mid-October. Some knew the name, but didn't know why they knew the name. This is nothing against Sharp, but many people don't recognize the name of the person who was the Controller or Ag Commissioner 8 years ago, unless maybe they live in Austin.


Mary

[ThJ]

15. People across the state know Sharp

And I'm not talking about people under 40. Unfortunately, people of my generation are either not interested in politics, or not interested enough to vote.

Regardless of what he was 8 years ago, he has run for statewide office recently, so his name is more readily recognisable. This is the hurdle Chris Bell has to leap and where most of his funds will be spent, especially in the need to attract crossover - Republicans and independents who are fed up with Perry.

[PDittie]

13. "average voters" don't vote in primaries

I think you already know this, but you're ignoring it to beat your Sharp drum.

Sharp's name recognition among Texas Democratic primary voters is mud.

He ought to be smart enough as well to understand that his political career ended about four years ago, but he's also apparently pretty stubborn.

Listen, he did a fine job as Comptroller; maybe the best the state has seen in decades, but his time has passed.

If he takes the right advice, he won't run for anything. He'll be a drag on the ticket -- which is just what we need :eyes:

[ThJ]

17. I don't think...

the members of this site are representative of the average primary voter either.

[sonias]

14. ThJ, I'm going to jump in on Chris Bell's side on this one too

The Democratic Party of Texas has changed, even from just two years ago. At the last state convention in Houston in '04, 70-80 percent of the delegates to the convention were 1st time attendees. The party is in a move back to the grassroots base. A lot of that was due to anger at bush and a lot we can credit the Dean, Clark and Kucinich campaigns. In order to keep this base growing and active we can not continue business as usual. We need the people in our party who are willing to take a stand and grow spines. We like the Howard Deans who speak their minds and make no apologies. Chris Bell is that kind of person. And he's not so much of a leftie either that he can't win a statewide race. I like John Sharp, but I do think that a lot of his base of support is in the "old guard" of the party. The new guard is off and running and Sharp is already behind in the running.

You speak for yourself when you say Bell hasn't been noticed. And I'm not just talking about the membership of this board. I travel a lot and while his campaign isn't "official" yet, he will be our nominee. I'm doing my part right now everywhere I can to let people know that Chris Bell is running and that he'd make an excellent governor. You pick your horse and I've got mine.

Sonia

[ThJ]

16. Total lack spine by many in state politics

and across party lines.

Bell is a new face (on the state level at least) and his freshness will be an asset to him.

I'm not slamming Bell (as someone suggested earlier), but I'm looking at the trends and at what hurdles he must overcome, and name recognition is one of those - fundraising is another. Sharp, should he decide to run (and that's still not apparent), would have an advantage there. Even should Sharp decide to stay out of the primary race, Bell still has the hurdle of name recognition and fundraising against a well-financed incumbent (Strayhorn may be new to the governor's race, but she is a state official). This will be important in gathering in the crossover votes which will be necessary to win the gubenatorial campaign.

[crispini]

18. I just don't see John Sharp as having that much name recognition.

Speaking as someone who not all that long ago was blissfully unaware of Texas politics, I didn't know who he was at all. I'll ask my completely apolitical coworkers about Sharp and Bell. My money is that nobody's ever heard of either one of 'em. I think either one of 'em is going to have that burden to overcome in the general. Strayhorn definitely has more name reco.

One thing I find interesting re: Sharp is that those rumors came out on BOR, what, weeks ago? and still no announcement ... very interesting.

[ThJ]

20. If they're apolitical...

they certainly won't know, but you're right about Strayhorn. Whoever is the Democratic nominee, they will have to run against a well-financed incumbent, regardless of who wins the Republican primary, and that's always a hurdle, but not an impossible one.

[mcd1982]

21. well...

my family hasn't lived in Texas until up around 1999 (we moved away from Texas in the early 80s) and my staunchly Republican father voted for John Sharp -- b/c he knew of his family's political past (my dad also voted for Kirk).

The fact is, Sharp does have name recognition -- that's why he was our top vote getter in 2002 and almost our top voter getter in 1998 (Paul Hobby edged him out).

So, those of you who say Sharp is just as unknown as Bell are crazy...

[bluestateguy]

22. Perry has never lost an election

He reminds me a lot of Pete Wilson of California, my native state. Wilson was never a very well liked individual, and had a rather rusty personality, but come November people sure voted for him. He just had a certain mojo that made him win elections. I think Perry is very similar.

[PDittie]

23. not mojo

MoFo.

BIG difference. B-)