Round-Up

by: Karl-Thomas Musselman

Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 01:02 AM CST

• Ditto to PinkDome's statement of Dullsville x10 on the race for Texas Railroad Commissioner.  Heck, I doubt we'll even have much of a chance at listening to the candidates spend half their stump speeches joking about how the Railroad Commission has little to do with railroads anymore.


• Read the Leininger for State Rep press release.  Funny stuff.


• Speaking of Leininger, he's running Nathan Macias against our Texan of the Year, Carter Casteel.  4 years ago when Casteel was elected, she won her home county of Comal and Gilliespie while losing Bandera and Kendall.  This time, Casteel has locked up a ton of institutional support and major players in Gillespie County as can be seen in her ad in the Fredericksburg paper. 

  She's got the support of all 4 County Commissioners & the County Judge, all 4 members of the city council including my father as well as the mayor, the county Republican party chair, the FISD Superintendent, a number of the school board members, the former mayor, former council members, and the county clerk.  What's been fun to watch is this ad is running each week, and the new names that get added; it lirerally reads as a who's who in the county and I would expect that Casteel will move her margain from the small 53% range she had back in 2002.



• Read Rip Avery's HD-50 Update on the Republicans who are looking to challenge Mark Strama, and by challenge, I mean get beaten in November.
  


• There was a candidate forum for HD-47 candidates of both parties this weekend. Casual Soapblox has a good rundown.  Here's a clip...

  Jason Earle is likely the front runner by virtue of his name alone. But to me, he seemed a little like a sharply dressed 13-year-old at his bar mitzvah, reading his Torah portion, occasionally stuttering in such a way as to reveal that he, like everyone else, has actually memorized his portion so as not to have to try and decipher the vowel-less scripture on the fly. He managed to treat the forum like a stump speech, saying little beyond grand platitudes. It may not matter. He is the son of District Attorney Ronnie Earle, who is prosecuting Tom DeLay. That may take him all the way through the general election for all I know.

  Valinda Bolton impressed me. She spoke passionately about being a Democrat, using the word "Democrat" over and over. Her background of advocacy for the victims of domestic abuse also struck me as a positive quality for a state representative. In fact, I think she is exactly the kind of candidate who will do well in Travis County in November 2006 if the election is nationalized to the extent I think it will be. Travis County Democrats are angry and active right now. They want someone who will fight for them and proudly say "I'm a Democrat." I also like that she worked on No Nonsense in November, and that she, like all the other Democrats in the race, is pro-choice...

  If there were a candidate that caused me to think twice about that, it would be Eric Beverly. He was so steeped in policy, that I became shocked and confused. He has worked as a bill editor in the legislature and as a policy research specialist. I came away with the impression that he clearly knew what he would be doing in the legislature like no other candidate.

  An interesting point on the Republicans...

  If I were a different sort of Democrat I would lie and say Rich Phillips was pathetic. In fact he was not. He is the candidate Democrats should prepare for. He comes across and sincere and eloquent and not at all like a marketing consultant (which he is).