Even with the withdrawl of Tom Schieffer and the pending official decision of Bill White on entering the Texas Gubernatorial primary, there remains other candidates in the race for Texas Governor. Of those, we've received the following statement from Hank Gilbert's campaign.
DALLAS--Vince Leibowitz, spokesperson for Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Hank Gilbert (D-Whitehouse) issued the following statement today in response to developments in the race for Governor:
"Hank thanks Ambassador Schieffer for his service to our country and for running. Hank appreciates the Ambassador's continued desire to serve our state and wishes him well in future endeavours.
However, a call to leave the Governor's race and endorse another unannounced candidate fails to resonate with Hank. He got in this race because he believed no one in the filed could both win and energize Democrats in order to help elect Democrats to downballot offices at all levels. That remains the case today. Hank is fully committed to this race and will see it through to an honorable conclusion."
Given the suddenness of today's developments, I don't expect Gilbert, Friedman, Alvarado, or Shami to come out today or anytime this holiday week with anything other than a "we are still in the race and evaluating all developments" until Bill White makes an official statement that he is in. So I'm not going to read too much into this statement from the Gilbert campaign as it would look weak to say anything different at this point.
Everyone is going to take the holiday week and weekend to have a lot of conversations- conversations with other campaigns, with donors, with staff, and with the party. Those will largely drive when and where existing candidates end up and if as of yet unannounced candidates will step forward to fill in the ticket .
I don't expect that Hank Gilbert will end up filing to run for Governor if Bill White files to run for Governor- it would be a waste of his talents and he wouldn't win the primary. Alternatively, if White successfully becomes the nominee, he could head a ticket that also elects Bill Moody to the Supreme Court, Jeff Weems to the Railroad Commission, and Hank Gilbert to either the Land or Ag Commission if he was the nominee for one of those offices.
If we think that a Democratic nominee can become Governor, then we should be acknowledging the fact that they are going to push along some of those downticket and historically better performing candidates. Gilbert should remember that, as he and Moody know this first hand when they led the ticket as the lead vote-getters in 2006 for statewide executive and judicial offices.
I doubt that the field will clear entirely for Bill White- that's asking a bit too much consensus and organization from Texas Democrats. But I do expect that with time and thoughtful evaluation, we will have a ticket we can be proud of in 2010. |
