Anyone else notice a significant uptick in the number of Sadler bumper stickers and yard signs? I have. Maybe it's because Sadler is working his tail off to introduce himself to Texans.
On Monday, the Houston Chronicle profiled Sadler's campaign and his decision to forego the DNC to keep campaigning:
In Victoria on a recent Saturday afternoon, the candidate for the U.S. Senate had the crowd on its feet, the shouts and applause washing over the meeting room like waves on the nearby Gulf. As he wrapped up his 15-minute jeremiad warning of the havoc his opponent would wreak on the Lone Star State and, as he began making his way to the back of the room, shaking hands and posing for photos along the way, an older woman in a red pantsuit sought to recapture the crowd's attention.
"This campaign costs money," she shouted into the microphone several times, but only those within a few feet of her were listening. One of them eventually doffed his straw hat, which became a makeshift collection basket for a statewide campaign tossing nickels and dimes at an opponent awash in money and nationwide ardor.
The Victoria experience represents the Paul Sadler campaign in miniature. Little-known statewide and underfunded, the lawyer and former state representative from Henderson is a capable campaigner, an experienced lawmaker and a credible candidate for a party desperately in need of new faces and arresting ideas.
Sadler is actually a pretty good candidate - he is likable if boring, and has a vision he clearly believes in and one the silent majority of Texans wants executed. But American politics is all about $$$ right now.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is not even returning Sadler's calls. Cruz has an undeniable aura of undeniable inevitability and is so flush with cash, that national Democrats don't think this race is worth investing in.
But what if they did? Would Sadler's chances really be so improved as to put him in real contention? The Chronicle continues:
Sadler's problem, in addition to money, is that his political accomplishments are more than a decade old. He had to remind listeners that he was co-sponsor in the Texas Legislature of the Ratliff-Sadler Act, a comprehensive rewrite of the Texas Education Code in 1995.
Well, promoting Sadler alone might not do it. But how spending millions on ads telling everyone about Cruz's crazy conspiracy theories and questioning his mental eligibility for office? The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur riffed recently on how Sadler could effectively attack Cruz:
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Ted Cruz
Ted Cruz is what everyone hates about lawyers. He's constantly telling you how bad you think something is, he's dishonest, he has dubious allegiances and he even has the grating voice to go along with it.
So, of course, he was on attack during the DNC. At a news conference yesterday in front of the NASCAR Hall of Fame Plaza adjacent to the Charlotte convention center, Cruz said, "I expect [President Obama] to speak lyrically, poetically, to speak movingly. But then the speeches will be over. There's going to be a lot not said that will reveal just how much the Obama policies are not working and how much this nation needs to change and return to a path that trusts the people." Cruz then attacked Democrats for (this is not true) excluding "God" from their party platform. "Are those your values?" Cruz said. "Does that reflect your values?"
The liar Ted Cruz doesn't reflect anyone's values. He's going to be an awful senator.
