Bell-Metereau raises >$10K, her primary opponents nada

She is the best qualified (3.00 / 1)

Very good to hear that Alfred.

We need to get behind a solid candidate in this race.  In case some aren't reading the tags - it's State Board of Education (SBOE) District 5.

This district includes these counties:
Bell, Northern Bexar, Blanco, Burnet, Caldwell, Comal, Gillespie, Guadalupe, Hays, Kendall, Llano and Southern Travis.

The current incumbent is Ken Mercer.  He's crazy.

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by: sonia @ Wed Feb 03, 2010 at 16:48:25 PM UTC

Thanks, Sonia, for catching the omission ... (0.00 / 0)

I've fixed it. 'Twas late when I wrote this, and it started out as a reply to Charles Kuffner at Off-the-Kuff, in which he said (in a post about the Republican primary between Tim Tuggey and Ken Mercer):

[M]y preferred outcome is for a Democrat to win this seat, and from what I have seen it looks like Rebecca Bell-Metereau is the best candidate for that.

I rearranged some paragraphs, wrote some new stuff, and a rare diary entry was born. We appreciate Kuff's vote of confidence.

If there are any of my clients who need help this primary season, surely Rebecca is the one who needs it most. While she's raised a lot of money for an SBOE race (the record being the $100,000 raised by Democrat Laura Ewing in District 7 in 2008 with Rebecca at $30,000 to date), we need more funds for our mail budget, and every bit helps.

We've got a great campaign team with veteran campaign manager and activist Mary Ann Neely in charge and a dedicated young fellow named Adam Colligan, who returned to the US after studying abroad and has thrown himself into the SBOE fight. My goal is to have two great SBOE candidates on the ballot in Travis County: Judy Jennings in the north (done) and Rebecca in the south (almost there).

Please help spread the word to all your Democratic friends in Travis County south of the Colorado River (aka Lake Travis, Lake Austin, Lady Bird Lake for the hydrologically-challenged) and ask them to please make sure to cast a ballot for Rebecca in the State Board of Education race.

Same goes for Hays, Caldwell, Guadalupe, Comal, Bexar north of 410 (roughly), Blanco, Kendall, Gillespie, Burnet, Llano and Bell. (Any district with southern Travis and Bell in it, but not northern Travis or WIlliamson is obviously seriously gerrymandered. Wonder how that happened?)


"The eyes of the people are fast opening! Fight on!"--Andrew Jackson

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by: Al Stanley @ Wed Feb 03, 2010 at 17:39:32 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Addition question (0.00 / 0)

Rebecca raised about $10K in 2009, she raised $10K in the first 3 weeks of January, and you say that she's at about $30K total. Are you saying that she's raised another $10K in the last 10 days? Wow!

As you know, I've endorsed Rebecca in SBOE5. She's extremely well versed in SBOE matters, and would bring a much-needed seriousness and academic focus to the board. She's also a great speaker and works extremely hard at running. She definitely gives us the best chance of winning in November.

That said, Dan Boone shouldn't be dismissed as another Gene Kelly. He's a serious and intelligent man (one of the many PhDs running for SBOE this year), and his being the famous frontiersman's descendant shouldn't be held against him.

The other two candidates don't have much to offer.  

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by: LSadun @ Wed Feb 03, 2010 at 20:17:14 PM UTC

Here's the math, professor ... (0.00 / 0)

Rebecca showed $17,800 on her first report, $10,600 on her second, and she's raised several thousand more since then putting her over $30,000.

Rebecca's only been a candidate for five months. Daniel Boone has been a candidate for at least 10 months. He's reported less that $4,200 raised on his first report and nothing on his second. If you read the report, all of Daniel's itemized contributions (i.e., the larger ones) came in in November and December, which means that whatever he was doing between April and October of last year, it didn't involve fund-raising appropriate to taking on a Republican incumbent in a Republican-leaning district. And he seems to have not made any effort to raise money this month.

I will concede that Dr. Boone is "serious and intelligent" in that one can have an interesting conversation with him about serious topics. I liked him when I met him, which is why I went to hear him speak back in April at a candidate forum. In front of audiences, however, I've found him to be rather scattered and that audiences usually lose interest quickly.

I don't consider Dr. Boone to be serious as a candidate. If his name wasn't Daniel Boone, there would be no contest. That's what I mean by "this year's version of Gene Kelly"--Kelly being the best known example among Democrats of someone enjoying strong support in the primary based almost entirely on his name.

I am certainly not dismissing him. I'm rather worried about his chances. His name could carry him through a primary; but once in the general, it takes a lot of work, persuasion and communication to sway enough independents and moderate Republicans to cast a vote for a Democrat, and I don't think Daniel Boone is remotely close to being up to the task.

"The eyes of the people are fast opening! Fight on!"--Andrew Jackson

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by: Al Stanley @ Wed Feb 03, 2010 at 21:07:26 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Thanks (0.00 / 0)

I misremembered the earlier data.  

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by: LSadun @ Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 03:06:39 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

I hope... (3.00 / 1)

All the Democrats in town realize how important this race is to our community. If I can kick in a little cash, you can too!!

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by: Jim Wick @ Wed Feb 03, 2010 at 21:06:40 PM UTC

Thanks, Jim ... (0.00 / 0)

Donation noted and appreciated!

"The eyes of the people are fast opening! Fight on!"--Andrew Jackson

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by: Al Stanley @ Wed Feb 03, 2010 at 21:11:04 PM UTC

[ Parent ]