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Texas BlogWire

The Trouble With Tidwell

by: SmartyPants

Mon Jan 15, 2007 at 03:55 PM CST
(This is definitely worth your time. - promoted by Sam Jones)

I saw this article "How Business Crushed the Trial Lawyers" in last week's issue of Business Week and didn't want to let it go unremarked. The article makes clear just how big a victory the big corporations have won over trial lawyers in various states around the country. Particularly in Texas:

Coming up with creative new lines of litigation-and doing it on the cheap-is imperative for plaintiffs' lawyers in Texas these days. No other state's trial bar has suffered a greater reversal of fortune.

To make a long story short, the Texas Trial Lawyers have gotten their asses kicked. Basically, their political enemies have used money to influence elections so effectively that trial law, as a profession is endangered. The trail lawyers have been defunded.  Their excess and lack of political smarts spurred the Big Insurance and other big money corporations to pour more and more money into Texas politics, tipping the balance to the GOP.

Even worse, the same genius who has driven the Texas Trial Lawyers Association into the ground has been running the strategy for the Texas Democratic Party. His name is Russ Tidwell.

He's the guy who advised wealthy trial lawyers like Walter Umphry, Joe Jamail, and John Eddie Williams to funnel millions into supporting the gubernatorial campaign of Republican-turned-Independent Carole Keeton Strayhorn. At the same time, Tidwell was exercising veto power over the Texas Democratic Party.  He vetoed candidates -- saying "no thanks" to candidates for state representative if he didn't like them or their chances.  He vetoed the likes of John Sharp and Pete Laney when they were urged by supporters to run statewide in 2006. He never even considered backing Chris Bell.  He personally threatened candidates who were already running if they didn't fire consultants he disapproves of to hire his favorite hacks.  Even though Democrats have steadily lost power under his reign, he is allowed to keep calling the shots - and losing.

But my blog isn't about politics. It's about political tactics, so bear with me as I pull more from the Business Week story.
Once Texas trial lawyers rode high:
Until well into the 1990s, Lone Star State plaintiffs' lawyers walked tall. They pioneered asbestos litigation in the U.S., racked up eye-popping verdicts in cases involving everything from business fraud to diet drugs, and perfected the art of "forum shopping." Companies dreaded getting sued in places like Eagle Pass, in the Rio Grande Valley, which has bucked the trend in Texas and remains a "hellhole" for business defendants, according to the American Tort Reform Assn.

Money poured in. Five firms, Umphrey's among them, shared $3.3 billion for representing Texas in its suit against the tobacco companies. Even putting aside the cigarette windfall, top plaintiffs' lawyers boasted eight-digit incomes. That was several times higher than blue-chip corporate attorneys in New York, Washington, and Houston, whose annual take topped out in the low seven digits. For Umphrey's 70th birthday bash this summer, organizers had to move three planes and a helicopter out of his firm's private hangar so 400-odd guests could rock out to live performances by Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry. Houston attorney John M. O'Quinn, who has cashed in on tobacco, breast implants, and diet drugs, has amassed a classic car collection worth $100 million.

Business spent a fortune to lobby in Washington but couldn't get much done:

Initially in the liability-reform wars, the plaintiffs' bar and their opponents pursued very different strategies. While trial lawyers poured considerable resources into electing plaintiff-friendly state judges and legislators, business groups aimed to win federal liability limitations in Washington, but repeatedly saw their efforts founder.

But then Bush's brain stepped in:
One player who realized that a different approach was needed: Karl Rove. Not only did the current White House deputy chief of staff help elect George W. Bush as governor of Texas in the 1990s, but he also was instrumental in judicial-election campaigns that, by 1998, had converted the makeup of the Texas Supreme Court from 100% Democratic to 100% Republican. He played a similar role in flipping Alabama's high court. Particularly during the Bush presidency, tort reform has become a major talking point for Republican candidates at both the state and federal levels.

...

The trial lawyers and the business community entered a campaign-spending arms race, but even for the well-heeled trial bar, it was no contest. In 2004, for example, business groups spent $21.5 million on state supreme court elections, eclipsing the amount spent by plaintiffs' attorneys and their allies ($13.3 million) for the first time, according to Justice at Stake Campaign, a Washington group that monitors judicial independence.

Much of the money, from both sides, was channeled through state-level organizations that played a critical role in reshaping the legal landscape. The most powerful force for change in Texas has been the home-grown Texans for Lawsuit Reform. Since 1996, tlr's political action committee has spent more than $13 million promoting liability limits, according to Texans for Public Justice, a not-for-profit organization that tracks campaign spending and opposes litigation curbs. Big donors to tlr's pac in 2006 included Bob Perry, a Houston homebuilder and funder of the Swift Boat group that attacked John Kerry ($601,000); financier and oilman T. Boone Pickens ($500,000); and real estate magnates Harlan and Trammell Crow ($220,000 together).

Sipping wine in his Houston home one afternoon in November, Hugh Rice Kelly, former general counsel of Reliant Energy Inc. (RRI ) and a leader of tlr, ticks off the changes his group has helped usher in. "We have covered most of the things we wanted to have corrected," he says, looking more than satisfied.

The changes came not all at once but in waves, starting in 1995 and crescendoing in 2003 with a far-ranging set of liability limitations.

I want to make it clear that I oppose so-called "tort reform." The changes in the law -- particularly those passed in 2003 -- strip ordinary Texans of their right to a day in court and allow Big Business to continue to be negligent and hurt people without any accountability.  Tidwell's bad political advice to his organization and its members has cost many of them their livelihoods.  It has cost Democrats their races.  It has cost Texas children their health insurance, Texas teachers their health benefits and Texas families their access to affordable college.  But Tidwell himself never seem to pay the cost.

It's up to the Trial Lawyers if they want to keep letting Tidwell run their political fortunes into the ground. But it's time for Texas Democrats to put Tidwell out to pasture.
Tags: TDP, TTLA, (All Tags)
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The Trouble With Tidwell | 128 comments
This is idiotic drivel. (3.00 / 3)
You say "Their greed, excess, and lack of political smarts spurred the Big Insurance and other big money corporations to pour more and more money into Texas politics, tipping the balance to the GOP" as if Big Insurance and other big money corporations had no political interest in Texas until the scary trial lawyers came around.

You offer this criticism of trial lawyers, but you could just as easily say this of unions, or environmentalists, or feminists, or gays, or progressive people who are not poor, or any of those who fight for equality and fairness and for the disempowered.

The Republican Party demonizes all those who dare exercise their power to resist them.  It has demonized every group that has tried to speak truth to power, calling them "FemiNazis" and "tree huggers" and "limousine liberals." 

You make a big issue about a tiny number of extremely wealthy trial lawyers, but you make no mention of extremely wealthy homebuilders and hospital bed makers. Have some trial lawyers made incredible money?  Yes.  Have some CEOs? Some athletes? Some homebuilders? Some musicians? Some hospital supply vendors? Some actors? Some writers? Some chefs? Some race car drivers? Yes, yes, yes. 

Why does the Republican Party demonize trial lawyers but not insanely overpaid golfers or NASCAR drivers?  Only because the trial lawyers dare to speak up in favor of the legal rights of the disenfranchised. 

Why does Rush Limbaugh get his panties twisted over George Clooney and the Dixie Chicks while he's got no beef with Patricia Heaton?  It's for the same reason he whines about trial lawyers but he has no beef with corporate lawyers.

I'm disappointed that you have bought into that bullshit.  You should surrender the name "SmartyPants" in exchange for the name "GulliblePants".

Thanks for apparently (0.00 / 0)
not reading a word I said.
Let me repeat -- I'm on the side of the trial lawyers.
I think they got a little excessive in their heyday, but for the most part they're critical to a functioning society as a break on the big corporate powers.
But my point isn't about the Trial Lawyers -- it's about their political tactics.
I think they use bad political strategy and poor tactics and it has hurt all Democrats -- Trial Lawyers most of all.
Business Week obviously has a major pro-business slant but they also have a point.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.
[ Parent ]
If you are "on the side of the trial lawyers" may I ask that you never (0.00 / 0)
show up in my defense?

If you are "on the side of the trial lawyers," you may want to find a better way to express your bond with them than by saying "their greed, excess, and lack of political smarts spurred the Big Insurance and other big money corporations to pour more and more money into Texas politics, tipping the balance to the GOP." (See, I DID read what you wrote).

Whose greed were you talking about?  Was that supposed to demonstrate your warm feelings for the trial lawyers whose side you are on?

Finally, you criticize the trial lawyers for a lack of political smarts.  You may be right or you may be wrong -- I can't say for sure -- but your examples show poor logic.  For example, you say their bad political judgment resulted in bad corporate responsibility laws passed in 2003 and you cite as an example of that bad judgment the fact that some (certainly not all or even most) trial lawyers supported Strayhorn.  The support for Strayhorn beginning in 2005 for her candidacy in the 2006 election may have been foolish (in which case many unions are as guilty as those few trial lawyers you mention), but it certainly did not result in bad legislation passed back in 2003.  Plus, assume -- as many did -- that Kinky would not run or at least would not make the ballot.  A Strayhorn candidacy as an independent creating a R versus R/I versus D three-way race certainly seems to give Bell a better chance of winning as compared to his chances in a straight-up Perry versus Bell race. I could never have supported Strayhorn because I find her (and her kids) abhorent, but I'm not 100% certain that anyone's decision to support Strayhorn was the factor which killed off Bell's chances of winning.

In sum, no matter how you profess to be on the side of the trial lawyers, your post shamelessly repeats inaccurate Republican talking points calculated to smear trial lawyer.

As an encore, you may as well tell us how unions are all corrupt and how FemiNazis all hate men and how tree huggers want to shut down all commerce because of some blind worm and how progressive actors and musicians should shut up because they are only "limosine liberals" and how if the gays would shut up about equal marriage rights we could better focus on your pet issues and how greedy trial lawyers ruined everything by their excesses in advocating for the disempowered. 

Oh wait, you already did that last one.  Nevermind.

[ Parent ]
If a single BOR reader (0.00 / 0)
becomes a Rush Limbaugh ditto-head from reading my post I'll buy you lunch.
This forum is for Democrats to talk Democratic politics.
The Business Week article already got the corporate spin into the hands of millions of readers, I'm just pointing out what the implications are for Texas Democrats.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.
[ Parent ]
WOW. (3.67 / 3)
STD, you read the post but you didn't understand it. He wasn't blaming trial lawyers support of Strayhorn in 2005-06 for the laws passed in 2003. He was using their support of Strayhorn as an example of exactly how politically inept they are.

That the TTLA in general and Tidwell in particular are politically inept was the gist of the article. Not that trial lawyers are evil.

Let up. You missed the point and you really need to let it go.

Texans for Treaty Oak: Senate, 2008. This time, why not a tree?

[ Parent ]
DOUBLE WOW (0.00 / 0)
Someone actually read one of my posts and got the point.
Thanks!
: )

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.
[ Parent ]
If this doesn't echo a talking point against part of the Democratic coalition (0.00 / 0)
(specifically, progressive lawyers) how do you explain this quote?

"For Umphrey's 70th birthday bash this summer, organizers had to move three planes and a helicopter out of his firm's private hangar so 400-odd guests could rock out to live performances by Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry. Houston attorney John M. O'Quinn, who has cashed in on tobacco, breast implants, and diet drugs, has amassed a classic car collection worth $100 million."

How exactly does that quote show "TTLA in general and Tidwell in particular are politically inept"?  If it stinks like a Republican talking point, distorts like a talking point, and slanders like a talking point, I call it a Republican talking point.

[ Parent ]
I believe that shows (0.00 / 0)
"excess"
which, whether it's a republican talking point or not, is true.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.
[ Parent ]
That excess has nothing to do with being a trial lawyer. It has everything (0.00 / 0)
to do with being exceedingly wealthy.  People who own pizza chains collect cars, people who play professional basketball have grossly expensive parties, movie stars have planes.  These things are excesses, but they have no bearing on the fact that Umphrey and O'Quinn are lawyers. Blaming trial lawyers for the excesses of two individuals (not for excesses related to the practice of law, mind you, but for excessive wealth and consumerism) is like blaming all football players for OJ stabbing his wife.

[ Parent ]
That was a quote from the article... (0.00 / 0)
... and it does show excess which can have a political price. Regardless, that was just a quote out of the article to show the spin placed on trial lawyers.

One point... how does it distort or slander? Was it not completely true?

Texans for Treaty Oak: Senate, 2008. This time, why not a tree?

[ Parent ]
You said the point of the article was "TTLA in general and Tidwell (0.00 / 0)
in particular are politically inept."

Tarring TTLA or any particular trial lawyer or Tidwell with the vulgar birthday party for Umphrey or with O'Quinn's excessive car collection is a distortion.

How is Tidwell in any way responsible for Umphrey's birthday party or for O'Quinn's car collection?

How is TTLA to blame for Umphrey's birthday party or for O'Quinn's car collection?

How are any trial lawyers other than Umphrey and O'Quinn responsible for Umphrey's birthday party or for O'Quinn's car collection?

That's like blaming the Screen Actors Guild and Dakota Fanning for Lindsey Lohan acting like a drunken tart. Sure Fanning and Lohan are both actresses and both are members of the SAG, but one certainly the SAG and Fanning cannot be fairly blamed for the excesses of Lohan. 

Likewise, how is it anyway remotely fair to blame the lawyer who represents children injured by dangerous toys for Umphrey's birthday party or for O'Quinn's car collection?  How is it fair to blame TTLA or Tidwell for O'Quinn's or Unphrey's conduct?

It is not fair.

Whenever you see someone using a specious and unfair argument to tar someone or some group, don't you ask yourself "what motivates that argument because it certainly isn't logic"?

Finally, you say that "it does show excess which can have a political price." How does it show that?  How does it come even remotely close to showing that Umphrey's birthday party or O'Quinn's car collection has a political price for Texas or for Tidwell or for TTLA? 

Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno both also have excessive car collections -- are you saying that all commedians will soon pay a heavy political price for Leno's and Seinfeld's vulgar consumerism?

Where is the logical connection?

[ Parent ]
What motivates me? (5.00 / 1)
I'm sick of Texas Democrats losing elections or not even taking the field.
Tidwell has been one of the captains of the team for as long as I've been around -- approx 15 years.
It's time for new leadership.
Obviously Tidwell isn't responsible for Umphrie's excesses. He is responsible for the bad political advice he gave him.
The 2003 Constitutional Amendment race was winnable -- in fact the Trials almost pulled it off -- but they lost it in SOUTH TEXAS. Surely we could've won the vote in South Texas, when we got 49% in places like Fort Bend, County.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.
[ Parent ]
Misdirection from South Texas (3.00 / 3)
SouthTexasDemocrat wants to talk (on an on) about excess and wealth, as if that was the point of SmartyPants's post.  It seems to me that the point is that TTLA has failed to protect its members interests for years while politicians who oppose those interests beat their candidates and than passed laws to hurt trial lawyers (and the rest of our right to civil justice).  Much of that failure should be laid at the feet of Russ Tidwell.  That is a simple fact, not a personal attack. 

[ Parent ]
OK. You've obviously gone round the bend... (2.00 / 1)
Comparing trial lawyers and comedians is a bit like comparing an apple to a Buick, don't you think?


Texans for Treaty Oak: Senate, 2008. This time, why not a tree?
[ Parent ]
Money doesn't buy elections anymore (4.00 / 2)
Please check out this post from MyDD.

Democrats Outspent in 21 of 30 House Seats They Took From GOP

by David Kowalski

With Federal Election Commission numbers mostly complete, tallies of candidate and independent expenditures in the 30 seats captured by House Democrats reveal something unusual.  In 70% of those races (21 of 30), Republicans outspent Democrats.  In most, they enjoyed the benefits of incumbency as well (name recognition, office mailings, services to constituents).  To put this in perspective, in 2004 IIRC, winning candidates were outspent in a grand total of three House races.

Read the whole thing.

I swear sometimes I feel like Texas missed out on what happened in 2006 while I was working for a PAC and volunteering for a lil' ol' Senate campaign.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.

[ Parent ]
Ugh. (5.00 / 1)
Smarty Pants:

Well, you're half right; and half very, very wrong.

Russ Tidwell has and does call the political shots at TTLA, and he is the person most to blame for CKMRS's ridiculous success raising money from the likes of Walter Umphrey (well, maybe the second most, after Barnes).

But the rest of your thesis shows just how out-of-state and out-of-touch you really are. The notion that Russ Tidwell has been calling the shots at TDP is insulting and just plain wrong.

Let's think this through...Russ Tidwell hates Jeff Hewitt and Kelly Fero.  He thinks they are crooks and liars.  With Soechting as Chairman, it was Fero/Hewitt that really called the shots at TDP.  So given Tidwell's disdain of them, the notion that he was in charge at the old TDP is a joke.

Now on to the current situation.  As you know, the TDP spent most of it's political money this cycle doing straight Democratic ticket GOTV mail in House districts around the state.  You also know damn well that straight ticket GOTV mail did absolutely nothing to help Strayhorn -- it could only have hurt her.  You think Russ Tidwell masterminded a GOTV mail program through the TDP to hurt his chosen gubenatorial candidate?  C'mon, you're smarter than that. 

Where's you proof that anybody at TDP has let Tidwell call any shots for the party anytime in recent memory?  Put up, or shut up.

Tidwell (0.00 / 0)
decides which candidates get funded and which don't.
The TDP per se is essentially irrelevant to my arguments.
I think they do what they do pretty well. What they do is put on the primaries and the convention. But they don't control the money that runs the campaigns. Angle's genius was in getting Fred Baron to put $1.5million into the trust and that money did make the TDP a bit of a factor -- at least got them the VAN which was a major step forward.
But please, let's not talk about the TDP anymore. I'm talking about real money here.
As long as Tidwell controls the TTLA he'll have more sway than any other single Democrat in the state.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.
[ Parent ]
Tidwell decides who you give your money to? Tidwell decides who (0.00 / 0)
MoveOn funds? Tidwell decides who gets labor's endorsement and financial support? Tidwell decides who the NAACP backs? Tidwell runs LULAC?

Who is this Tidwell who makes and breaks candidates and controls all this Democratic money, and how come Tidwell isn't dictating who I give my money to?

The Tidwell have read about is a just guy with sub-par polling data who gives advice to a fairly small group of lawyers who made a large fee when they won a record-setting settlement for Texas from the tobacco companies. You inflate his role to that of kingmaker when he's just a political consultant.  The political candidates I know and admire traveled across their whole district or even the whole state, met real people and not just campaign consultants, and they didn't run home crying because one consultant advised a small group of donors to concentrate on a different race.

Also, if you think Tidwell "controls" the trial lawyers and Tidwell advised support for Strayhorn instead of Bell, how do you explain John O'Quinn's seven figure contributions to Bell, or Fred Baron's hefty contributions to Bell and also Baron making fundraising calls to other lawyers on behalf of Bell, or Fred Nix and Mikal Watts giving six figure donations to Bell?  Sure, John Eddie Williams and Walter Umphrey gave big money to Strayhorn, but -- unless I'm mistaken -- O'Quinn, Baron, Nix, and Watts gave more money to Bell.  So how is it that Tidwell "controls" the trial lawyers (or don't O'Quinn, Baron, Nix, and Watts qualify as trial lawyers)?

[ Parent ]
Tidwell is a pipsqueak, you're right (0.00 / 0)
Unfortunately, he had too much power for too long because his association was the biggest donor to Ds.  Over that period, Ds lost and lost until they lost everything.  It was only when Tidwell wasn't part of the action in 2004 and TTLA bowed out temporarily that Ds began to turn it around again. 

[ Parent ]
How bout (0.00 / 0)
talking about the part where I'm half-right? SouthTexasDem rated it "utter drivel" -- I take it you think it's just semi-drivel?

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.
[ Parent ]
I said idiotic drivel, not utter drivel. (0.00 / 0)
To see how well your post works as a Rovian talking point, just try replacing "greedy trial lawyers" with "welfare queens" or whichever Rush Limbaugh slur you prefer:

"To make a long story short, the Texas welfare queens have gotten their asses kicked. Basically, their political enemies have used money to influence elections so effectively that welfare queenery, as a profession is endangered. The welfare queens have been defunded.  Their greed, excess and lack of political smarts spurred the big money corporations to pour more and more money into Texas politics, tipping the balance to the GOP."

You talk about the "greed" (which is a word you have now edited out of your screed) and "excesses" of the trial lawyers.  Other than the excesses of a handful of wealthy trial lawyers (who engaged in the excesses of wealthy people not any behavior that appears to have anything to do with their role as lawyers), what excesses are you taking about?  Please list a few of these excesses which spurred Big Insurance and other big money corporations to pour more and more money into Texas politics and which resulted in 2003 legislation.  Please list at least three excesses that are the conduct of trial lawyers generally and not the conduct of an individual person who happens to be a lawyer.

[ Parent ]
Good catch on the greed (0.00 / 0)
I took it out for a reason -- it wasn't what i meant to say.
Look, I don't care to debate the issue of whether or not trial lawyers are good or whatever.
If welfare queens poured millions and millions of dollars into influencing politics and still got their asses kicked, I'd recommend that they get a new lobbyist too.
I'm talking about Tidwell, not the trial lawyers as an industry.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.
[ Parent ]
For once I completely agree... (3.00 / 1)
Especially about the major stearing towards certain consultants... one has to wonder if he's getting a taste of the action!! And Tidwell has a certain friend that seems to be getting a LOT of love. 

A few questions... (5.00 / 1)
Nate Wilcox --

First off, I don't think you really supply much proof for your mixed thesis (is TTLA, trial lawyers in general, or Tidwell your target?), and it makes this a weak post.

Individual trial lawyers certainly gave a lot to Strayhorn -- no question. But what proof do you show that Tidwell urged them? I don't see any in the post, and I don't think, "well, this guy told me x, y, and z" can really hold water to this fairly large accusation you're launching.

The business article you link to is a dead link, also.

Finally, your second to last paragraph is really hard to follow. Again, where do you provide anything to show that "Tidwell's advice" has caused "them" their livelihoods. Technically, the "them" you are referring to would be the trial lawyers in that sentence, but I can't follow that.

Without any sort of hard information, hard data, hard facts, or even solid hearsay, your post doesn't have any legitimate legs to stand on. At least, not in my opinion.

If others think it does, then more power to you.

Now, a very great man once said that some people rob you with a fountain pen.

Thanks... (0.00 / 0)
For fixing the link...

Now, a very great man once said that some people rob you with a fountain pen.
[ Parent ]
Evidence of a losing political strategy (5.00 / 1)
The successful demonization of trial lawyers is a direct consequence of a losing political strategy - one that is evident in the Business Week article as well as widely known to anyone who actually works in politics.

Trial lawyers, used to having significant political power, continued to operate as if it were the heyday of the Democratic Party, back when Phil Gramm and everyone else sported donkey ties every four years.

Conservatives, led by the Chamber of Commerce, demonized trial lawyers (and Democrats along with them) over the past couple of decades, and the trial lawyers' political response was to continue to play inside ball and try to use money as influence.  That's nothing different from what wealthy home builders do, except for the popular political context - and to ignore the political context is to lose.

What the trial lawyers should have done, and still need to do (more so than abruptly changing their name), is the same thing the Democrats need to do - invest in a long-term strategy of building popular support and chipping away at the Republican PR machine by educating people about the reality of corporate accountability, cost externalization, consumer exploitation, and progressive values.

For Democrats, this means running in every race, churning out issue ads and educational material even when an issue is "dead", and building a strong, cohesive party infrastructure that engages people at the most local level.

I agree. But I'm not sure there is any obvious winning strategy (0.00 / 0)
that regularly leads to an underfunded progressive candidate beating a reactionary candidate with a huge funding advantage.  The main reason we are losing, I think, is we are being hugely outspent, and I think the Republican pay-for-play no-bid-contract-payback model gives them a huge corporate fund raising advantage that we cannot easily match. 

I understand that some Democrats have concluded we can more easily overcome the Republican pay-for-play fundraising advantage in regional elections instead of statewide races.  I understand this conclusion has spurred some Democrat fundraisers to put a higher priority on some regional races at the expense of some statewide races.  But I don't know any Democratic fundraisers who are discouraging statewide candidates from running (other than by saying they are focusing their funds on other races) or discouraging statewide candidates from seeking as much funding as the candidates can raise from whatever sources they can tap. 

I bet I am not the only one here who has had candidates call me for funds and I have had to say "sorry, I put everthing I've got into these other races and I cannot help you this election" so it would be hypocritical of me to deny that TTLA or Umphrey or Tidwell have the right to say that same thing to some statewide candidates who ask them for funding. I wish Umphrey gave his funds to Bell and not Strayhorn, but it is -- after all -- his money, and I'm just glad he gave most of it to much better candidates than Strayhorn.

I agree that Democrats and every group within the Democratic Party coalition (including trial lawyers but also including health care advocates, environmentalists, etc.) must invest in building popular support for our progressive agenda and educating people about the reality of corporate accountability, cost externalization, consumer exploitation, and other progressive values.

I have a plan I hope we can all agree with as "step one" in the process of educating people about the reality of corporate accountability, cost externalization, consumer exploitation, and progressive values.  First, whenever we hear someone denigrating a member of the Democratic coalition by calling feminists "FemiNazis" let's call them out!  Whenever we hear someone denigrating a member of the Democratic coalition by calling environmentalists "tree huggers" let's call them out!  Whenever we hear someone denigrating a member of the Democratic coalition by calling union organizers "corrupt thugs" let's call them out!  Whenever we hear someone denigrating a member of the Democratic coalition by calling progressive lawyers "greedy trial lawyers" let's call them out! 

[ Parent ]
Short-term v. Long-term thinking (0.00 / 0)
STD, with all due respect, I think you're missing the point.  You say that "[t]he main reason we are losing...is we are being hugely outspent."  While this may be true in a short-term, single-contest analysis, it fails to take into account the broad approach necessary to political success (see: Rove, et al.).  It's akin to suggesting that the way out of debt is "have more money."

The goal isn't to "overcome the Republican pay-for-play fundraising advantage in regional elections instead of statewide races", the goal is to build the foundation of a progressive political movement, rather than rely on top-down strategies employed by traditional party insiders - the strategies that continue to fail in both regional and statewide races.

The "pay-for-play no-bid-contract-payback model" may give Republicans a significant amount of corporate cash, but to suggest that this is a nearly insurmountable obstacle is to continue to think in a failing mindset - one that posits that God created GOP money in large corporate contributions and Dem money in large trial lawyer contributions, and whoever gets the most first wins.  While both of these make up a significant amount of funds for either party, they do not account for the all potentially available funds, nor all the potentially available educational and GOTV resources.

Furthermore, there's more to campaigning and party building than just money.  It used to be said of the leisure class that it took six generations to build a fortune, and one generation to squander it.  The Democratic party has a lot of money and resources available to it now. 

The fact is, whether or not the Republicans have a little more cash on hand, the Democratic consultants are squandering what's there - they are not maximizing party building, outreach, or fundraising.  If the Democrats are going to gain ground, that is what is going to have to change.  Doing a rain dance and praying that God gives the trial lawyers more money ain't gonna cut it.

[ Parent ]
I agree with you. (0.00 / 0)
I said, "I understand that some Democrats have concluded we can more easily overcome the Republican pay-for-play fundraising advantage in regional elections instead of statewide races."

I do not subscribe to this view.  I'm not the kind of person who says "some Democrats believe this" when I really mean "I believe this" - perhaps I should have said "some Democrats other than me."

The views I ascribed to "some Democrats" are the views of a good friend who I had a serious argument with when he decided against giving any support to Van Os, Bell, or Radnofsky, all of whom I raised funds for.  The views I expressed were his rationale. 

I disagree with his views, but I don't presume that I have the power to deny him his right to contribute only to local races nor do I believe I have the power to make him give his own money to a candidate I support but whom he believes has no realistic chance of winning.  In the end, I had to make peace with my friend's decision to abandon our statewide ticket and, in the end, he gave more money than I did to support local Democrats so I will just have to focus on that fact instead of focusing on our disagreement over the statewide races.

I believe we must build our party up from the grassroots, winning people to our cause one at a time. 

The main obstacle I see to building the party up from the grassroots is the unwillingness of some of us to stand together.  I get weary of gays who are great Democrats except that they have no use for environmentalists and they will not support an environmentalist for office unless he passes a litmus test.  I get wearly of environmentalists who are great Democrats except that they have no use for labor and they will not support a pro-labor candidate for office unless he passes an environmental litmus test. I get weary of union workers who are great Democrats except that they have no use for gays and they will not support a gay candidate for office unless he passes a union litmus test.

It absolutely breaks my heart when I hear Texas Democrats tearing down other Texas Democrats, and when I see Democrats blaming all of the Democrats' electoral defeats in Texas on the "excesses" of "greedy trial lawyers" it just makes me want to move to Vermont. 

I know that SmartyPants was just airing his professional differences with Tidwell, but I find it wholly unnecessary (and even a bit foolish) to argue that Democratic trial lawyers are the reason why Republicans were elected and passed bad legislation.  I also find the suggestion absurd that because Umphrey had an overly expensive birthday party and O'Quinn has a stupid car collection, those "excesses" were the cause of Democratic misfortunes at the polls. 

That has the whiff of scapegoating to me. 

I object to those who say that "gays hijacked the Democrat agenda" and cost us the election, I object to those who say "if those feminists would shut up about Roe v. Wade maybe we could focus on issues that matter to everyone else and win for a change," and so I also object when someone blames Democratic election set backs on the "excesses" of "greedy trial lawyers."

[ Parent ]
I think we have much common ground (0.00 / 0)
I'm not trying to attack the trial lawyers, just trying to air some of the dirty laundry that has been building up in the "inside" of Texas Democratic politics.
I want all of us on the same page and succeeding.
Thanks for your passion, sorry if I seemed to be blaming the trials.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.
[ Parent ]
It almost seems like you want the consulting contracts that Tidwell has. (1.00 / 1)


[ Parent ]
Tidwell (0.00 / 0)
only has one client, the TTLA.
I have lots of clients, mostly in DC, VA and PA. Fero Hewitt likewise has much business.
It's not a direct competition with Tidwell, I wouldn't want his one client.
I just want him to no longer be the gatekeeper to funding for Texas Democrats.
The other big gatekeepers are Fred Baron/Matt Angle and Ben Barnes.
I've dealt with them both in previous posts and will be interviewing Governor Barnes in February.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.
[ Parent ]
??? (0.00 / 0)
I think you and I read different posts.

[ Parent ]
I'm reading the posts under the heading "The Trouble With Trial Lawyers" (0.00 / 0)


[ Parent ]
How could anyone mistake that topic as anti-trial lawyer? (2.00 / 1)
It's not as if there is any direct criticism of greedy trial lawyers and their excesses in the title "The Trouble With Trial Lawyers." 

Clearly, this thread is nothing more than an innocent question of Russ Tidwell's strategy choices.

I'm going to bookmark this page to refer back to it next time I'm trying to raise money for statewide candidates.  I can just hear the fundraising calls now:  "Dear greedy trial lawyer, by your greed and your excesses, you have single-handedly ruined the Democratic Party of Texas. Will you please consider contributing a few hundred thousand dollars to our statewide Democratic candidates?"

My thought is that writing about "The Trouble with Trial Lawyers" and calling those lawyers "greedy" and blaming Republican gains on greedy trial lawyers' "excesses" might not be the honey I'd use if I was trying to encourage to those excess-prone greedy trial lawyers to participate more broadly in funding our statewide candidates. 

[ Parent ]
You play good cop (0.00 / 0)
I'm already playing bad cop.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.
[ Parent ]
Point taken (3.00 / 1)
Point taken in re the title.  Semantic miscalculations notwithstanding, I still don't read the original post as being quite as anti-trial lawyer as others are reading it, but  if the post is misunderstood, that is ultimately SmartyPants' problem, not mine.

I am encouraged, though, by the fact that there do seem to be a lot of good ideas bandied about, and people are engaging issues long overdue for a good critique.  I do hope people aren't taking things quite as personally as it seems.  Remember, in the end, we all have things to both learn and teach.  The first part of any winning strategy is the humility to recognize that this is a cooperative process.

[ Parent ]
who died and made you boss? (0.00 / 0)
you're not my daddy!

: P

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.

[ Parent ]
Looking to the future (2.50 / 2)
I have a fear that the Trials are going to try to micro-manage and orchestrate the '08 county-wide races in Harris County, to our detriment.  They seem to believe (or are talking like they believe) that Dallas County only flipped because of Barron's infusion of cash into the Lone Star Project. 

Granted that cash was important, but the efforts of the 40 or so candidates that rushed in to the judicial races cannot be ignored.  Those candidates ponied up their own money ($5k-$15k a piece), agreed to act in a united way and each brought to the polls a wedge of excited supporters.

I'd like to see that same groundswell of candidates emerge in Harris County starting NOW.  Unfortunately, the "powers that be" (read Trials) don't appear to want that sort of "come one, come all" strategy.  And further unfortunately, they won't be able to control it once it starts and the heavy handed tactics that SmartyPants accuses them of, will only serve to further divide us, drive down GOTV and cause us to lose, yet again.

Sigh......

Amen, godmother (5.00 / 1)
You get the point of SmartyPants's post, which is not a screed against what trial lawyers stand for but a call for them to change their losing approach if they want to protect themselves and the people they claim to care about.  Tidwell is the symbol of that losing approach and has been for too long.  Only when he isn't calling the shots and steering business to his circle of has-beens do Democratic candidates have a chance to win.

[ Parent ]
Consider this (0.00 / 0)
Our prizes in Harris County are the judicial races. We've got the DA's race, County Attorney, Sheriff and Tax-Assessor/Collector. We need the leadership and experience of attorneys who know the court system. Whomever makes the donation has the right to say how that money is used. It is, after all, their money. If any activist, netroots or otherwise, takes issue with this, I'm sure Harris County will take your $1 million donation. Or maybe we can get one million Democrats to donate a dollar and then vote in the 2008 Elections.

[ Parent ]
Donors certainly have that right (0.00 / 0)
However, Tidwell's advice has been awful for a long long time.

He keeps telling them how to lose, they keep giving him money.

I'm not criticizing the donors, God bless em!, I'm criticizing their advisor.

Do you see the difference?

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.

[ Parent ]
What are you referring to? (0.00 / 0)
Russ' advice keeps good people in office and helps to elect progressives to the Legislature. Then again, the trial lawyers are also friends with people like Robert Talton. The notion that Russ is some kind of kingmaker in the TDP makes no sense. As with any group, they are going to support people that are favorable to their legislative agenda. I'm happy to have Russ' help when it is offered but I also understand when he chooses not to offer resources or his assistance as an individual. It's a business call, plain and simple. If there are attorneys who are unhappy with his direction then I trust that the members of TTLA will let him know accordingly. And I think it's hilarious that he's getting the blame and being vilified on this blog for torpedoing candidacies. It's just not true.

[ Parent ]
Seems like you have an axe to grind. (0.00 / 0)
You keep going on-and-on about how "the trial lawyers got their asses kicked." 

I'm not sure how long you have lived in Texas, but here's a political update from the past several years: 

Texas school children and public school teachers got their asses kicked,

poor kids without health care coverage got their asses kicked,

the environmentalists got their asses kicked,

the unions got their asses kicked,

women who want to control their own reproductive destiny got their asses kicked,

anyone who believes in the constitutional separation of the Protestant Christian Church from the state got their asses kicked,

opponents of the death penalty got their asses kicked,

advocates of ethical and open government got their asses kicked,

advocates for minority rights got their asses kicked,

Texas college students got their asses kicked,

working class Texans got their asses kicked,

small businesses got their asses kicked,

sick Texans got their asses kicked, and

gays got their asses kicked.

Your skewed view of recent Texas political history singles out the trial lawyers as the main group which got its ass kicked, and that's just a plain whitewash of the wholesale ass kicking that every decent Texan and every progressive interest in Texas has endured under Bush and now Perry.

Do I like Tidwell? Not too much. In races where he recommends TTLA's participation, Tidwell advocates support for the same candidate I support about 90% of the time.  The funds Tidwell helps raise and direct to progressive Democrats outweighs by 10-to-1 the money he helps raise and direct to conservative Democrats and for quasi-Republicans like Strayhorn.  I regret every dollar for Strayhorn but I appreciate every dollar for every good Democrat, and I know that my appreciation far outweighs my regret.

Do I like Tidwell better than Karl Rove or any of the other Republican campaign consultants? Of course.  The Republican consultants hardly ever advocate for supporting any Democrats (DINOs like Patrick Rose on the statewide level and Henry Cuellar on the national level are typical exceptions).  Those guys advocate in favor of allocating 99% of their funds for candidates I completely disagree with.

So who's worse, Tidwell or Rove? It's not even close in my mind, but you seem to be on the fence. 

Let me suggest that anyone who calls himself a Democrat and yet he proudly posts Karl Rove's talking points about "greedy trial lawyers" validates Tidwell's view that he needs to pick and choose between supporting progressive Democrats who support the rights of ordinary Texans instead of Kool-Aid drinking Democrats who repeat right-wing talking points.

P.S.  To me, the most important issues are fair wages, universal (or at least improved) access to health care, and access to top quality free public education (or in the case of college, at least affordable top quality education).  Personally, I got my ass kicked a lot worse than TTLA over the past few years.  What are your political priorities?  I assume that your political interests must have faired pretty well over the past few years in Texas or else you wouldn't be singling out trial lawyers for getting their asses kicked.  I assume your ass must be pretty pristine or you wouldn't be throwing stones at anyone else's glass houses.

Very good points (5.00 / 1)
Obviously Tidwell is a good guy and Rove is a bad guy. But Rove is also an effective strategist/tactician for the other side.
My argument is that the Trial Lawyers need better advice than Tidwell is giving them.
I'm also saying that's up to them.
What needs to stop is Russ Tidwell being a gatekeeper who decides which candidates are "legitamate" and which ones aren't.
Ask Hank Gilbert, Richard Morrison, Valinda Bolton, Mark Strama, Chris Bell etc etc about how Tidwell tried to dampen support for their campaigns.
Some of them overcame Tidwell and won anyway. Some of them didn't.

FYI I've spent 37 years in Texas. Worked as a political pro since the 1990s -- see my bio here.

Do I have an axe to grind, sure I do.

Is Tidwell doing a good job? No he's not.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.

[ Parent ]
Also (0.00 / 0)
I posted the Business Week article because it makes it clear that the trial lawyers lost the political fight in Texas.
The pro-corporate talking points they use have already reached an audience of millions. Is it forbidden to quote from Business Week on Burnt Orange Report?
Also please note, I'm not talking about politics, I'm talking about political tactics.
I'm with the Trials on the political issues.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.
[ Parent ]
I didn't realize you were a direct business competitor of Tidwell's (0.00 / 0)
Thanks for the link to your bio; it puts things in context and I appreciate your candor.

Your bio says that you were a "strategist for Texas Democratic Gubernatorial Nominee Tony Sanchez."

Seems kind of odd that you'd make such a huge deal about a private citizen like Umphrey supporting Strayhorn when you had such a close relationship to the immediate past Democratic gubernatorial nominee who betrayed the Party by supporting Strayhorn.  From my perspective, Sanchez is a much broader target for such criticism than Umphrey because Umphrey is a private citizen who has no special loyalty to the Democratic Party where Sanchez had some duty of loyalty to the Party based on his past candidacy as the Democratic nominee.

How is Tidwell doing a worse job (or better job) than you consultants at Fero/Hewitt?  I don't mean that as a criticism, but it seems that Fero/Hewitt has a role as big or bigger than Tidwell's role in the unsuccessful Democratic political strategy.  I presume that both Tidwell and Fero/Hewitt are doing their best and you have both been unsuccessful due to the overwhelming fundraising advantage of the Republicans.

The fact that Hank Gilbert, Richard Morrison, Valinda Bolton, Mark Strama, and Chris Bell all won our party's nominations seems to be fairly conclusive proof that Tidwell isn't a kingmaker.

I think you are missing the point to say that Tidwell is ineffective and Rove is effective.  When Reagan invaded Grenada, we won because we had an overwhelming advantage.  I don't think you can look at the results of the Grenada invasion and conclude that our Generals were geniuses and the leaders of Grenada's forces (such as they were) were idiots.  We won that battle because we had insurmountable advantages.  I think Rove's success is similar - he may be a genius or maybe he's not, but it certainly doesn't take a genius to win political fights when you have huge advantages in funding, incumbency, and voter party identification.

I'm no great fan of Tidwell's, and I disagree with his strategy of focusing on regional races which he believes are easiest to win to the exclusion of funding good candidates with uphill fights.  Still, I respect his right to advocate in favor of that strategy.

[ Parent ]
I've spoken to Mr. Sanchez (0.00 / 0)
and let him know of my public criticisms of Ben Barnes and others for backing Strayhorn and hope to write up and publish the fruits of that interview soon.

The difference between Fero Hewitt and Tidwell -- who are not competitors FYI -- is that Fero Hewitt are consultants to candidates and Tidwell is a lobbyist for the biggest single donor group to Democratic candidates in Texas.

Tidwell doesn't control who wins primaries, Tidwell controlls which candidates get funded.

Consulting firms just handle communications for candidates.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.

[ Parent ]
Also (0.00 / 0)
please read the Texas Observer article I cited it gives much more information on the difference in approach.
The Donna Howard model is the ultimate Fero Hewitt case study -- I didn't work on that race FYI, was in Virginia where I still am today.
Howard was radically outspent but because she used a very cost-effective micro-targeted cable tv and internet/field heavy strategy she won despite the money advantages held by her opponents.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.
[ Parent ]
bad link (0.00 / 0)
my virginia link should've gone here.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.
[ Parent ]
Donna Howard won because she used a micro-targeted cable tv (0.00 / 0)
and internet/field heavy strategy? 

Really? 

I thought she won because Ben Bentzin is a douchebag with a nanny problem.

[ Parent ]
you're talking (0.00 / 0)
about the strategy.
i'm talking about the tactics.
if no one knows about your opponent's problems you can't win elections.
what communications consultants do is help candidates get the right message to the right people in the most efficient means possible.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.
[ Parent ]
That specific race... (0.00 / 0)
Actually, you're ignoring all the massive coordinated expenses spent on that race.  Plus the involvement of the University Dems.  Plus, and this is perhaps the most important part, the undeniable change in demographics in that district.  I would hardly say microtargeting is the sole reason she won and I would hardly use her race as a case study in how to win "tough" districts!

[ Parent ]
You got a better case study (0.00 / 0)
from your work with Rindy Miller Media?

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.
[ Parent ]
Howard won, Bentzin didn't lose (0.00 / 0)
David O. should check with Rep. Howard about what won her race.  She knows, unlike them.  This spin that a bad opponent was the reason for her victory has been pushed for the past year by the consultants and other TTLA apologists who mainly sat on the sidelines until it was time to try to claim credit AFTER she won.

[ Parent ]
to be fair (0.00 / 0)
bentzin is a douchebag

[ Parent ]
Are you saying that Tidwell controls TTLA? (0.00 / 0)
Do you control your clients or do your clients control you?

I had always assumed that the client controlled the consultant, but I'm politically naive.

Also, you make it sound like Tidwell or TTLA decide which Democratic candidates get funds and which don't.  My political contributions do not go through TTLA so neither my contributions nor the contributions of all other non-lawyer Democrats in Texas don't count? 

If TTLA runs the Democratic Party, how come some Democrats vote for legislation which lets irresponsible corporations off the hook?

[ Parent ]
It depends on the relationship (0.00 / 0)
Tidwell has one client to my knowledge, the TTLA. He's been there for years. They listen to him.
Believe me, he is a huge power broker in Texas Democratic politics.
My clients listen to me on specific matters of communications strategy and tactics. It's a different relationship. I have many clients and for a much shorter time -- one or two election cycles at most. I am a small fish at best.
Tidwell is not a consultant, he is a lobbyist and an insitution at the TTLA.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.
[ Parent ]
Tidwell and Rove (3.00 / 2)
First, comparing Tidwell and Rove is not useful.  Rove has had a phenomenal winning streak until recently.  Tidwell has had a remarkable losing streak over roughly the same period.  I wish that were not so, but it is.

Second, all the groups you list have gotten their asses kicked precisely because Democrats stopped winning.  And that's the point of my post - the mishandling of Democratic campaign strategy in the past 15 years or so has a very real consequence in people's lives.  So it is long past time for the people responsible for that long losing record to move on.

Tidwell is at the front of that line.  Personally and through the important association he represents, he has stubbornly pursued losing campaign tactics.  His resistance to change has been a disservice to that association and their favored candidates.  He and his association never learned new ways to win.  They never figured out how to fight back effectively against the organized GOP effort to demonize them and defund the Democratic Party.  They settled for second best.  They actively attacked anyone who thought he or she had a better way.  And in the end, the people who suffered were the people in your long list.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.

[ Parent ]
An Humble Observation. (3.67 / 3)
Lots of interest groups got their asses kicked lately, no question about it. Let's clarify cause and effect. The Democratic Party represents, at least in part, some of the interests of the aforementioned groups. The TDP has not been able to effectively represent their interests due to various reasons, including incompetence, organizational poverty, and poor advice. Why did this happen?

It's a multi-faceted problem, and one particularly prominent facet has been exposed in this topic. I must corroborate the incompetence that I have seen displayed by Mr. Tidwell. In my personal dealings with him over a period of a few years, I have seen few people with less intellectual curiosity than he. His actions seemed on multiple occasions to run in direct opposition to the best interests of the TDP and the interest groups it represents.

Specifically, I have worked with him on multiple occasions when new and creative solutions are offered to solve some of the Party's woes. I will not elaborate further out of my desire for anonymity. At almost every turn, I have seen him disregard several ideas progressive and innovative enough to actually help the Democrats gain an edge in Texas. He seemed happy to perpetuate the same inadequate status quo that has brought the effectiveness of the TDP to its nadir.

I was shocked and saddened to discover this. I explained the great good that might come from fresh ideas. Gentle reader, I was casting pearls before swine. There before me sat a man who, even after I slowly used monosyllabic words and diagrams written in crayon on a big chief tablet, would not understand that there is something wrong with supporting the same losing strategy over and over, expecting different results.

This is not to say that he is single-handedly responsible for the demise of the party; not by a long shot. However, The TTLA once held an influential position with respect to the TDP, and the many opportunities to maximize the collective good of both organizations were squandered in an orgy of cronyism, incompetence, and incurious disregard for innovation.

"I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts." -- Will Rogers

[ Parent ]
Is there an unofficial record for the thread with the most new usernames (1.00 / 1)
created specifically to post only in that one thread and where each one of the newly created single-purpose usernames coincidentally supports the same viewpoint?

I'm just wondering.

Question (0.00 / 0)
Why would it be out of the ordinary for people to be inspried to register and comment, rather than just read, if a particular post grabs them?

[ Parent ]
Nothing out of the ordinary at all. Not one bit. I was just noting how (1.00 / 1)
fantastically this discussion was inspiring new users.  There is no reason to think it odd that several new users would sign up to take sides (or take one side, really) in a discussion where one paid political consultant with experience in internet campaigns has leveled criticisms at another paid political consultant.  I don't find that odd at all.

[ Parent ]
Good (3.00 / 1)
I would hate to think that you've suddenly decided to level your insults in a more subtle style by implying an orchestrated campaign.  I assure you I'm new to these comments and not part of any such campaign, just happy to see a debate about one of the most dysfunctional and hurtful powerbrokers in Texas politics.

[ Parent ]
That's the furthest thing from my mind. (0.00 / 0)


[ Parent ]
I'm a real person (2.00 / 2)
Well, I'm a newly registered user and this is the first discussion that I've felt compelled to weigh-in on.  Why?  Because I work on public education and lobbying on civil justice issues (e.g. trial lawyers).  I deal with, on a day to day basis, the political strategies that both help and hurt progressives.  Lest anyone mistakenly think I'm trying to land any clients, know that I'm not a consultant.

I do, however, feel like the validity of my opinion has been called into question because of the double fault of (a) being a new poster and (b) being sympathetic to the intent (if not completely the delivery) of the original post.  I will be certain to show more reserve in the future, at least until my name has been duly cleared of suspicion.

[ Parent ]
Please do not refrain from expessing your opinion (3.00 / 1)
Because this is an important discussion, and it will be made more useful the more informed, thoughtful insights it yields.

One of the first attacks made is often to marginalize the speaker-as if credentials were required to assess every idea's worth.

Credentials do have their place, but too often they're used to dismiss instead of illuminate the basis of an idea.

Before you win, you have to fight. Come fight along with us at TexasKaos.

[ Parent ]
New usernames are legitimate (3.00 / 1)
Dear South Texas Democrat,

True, I created a new username to respond to this post. I have never posted under this or any other username before in the BOR. I don't exactly know who *you* are, either, but I bet we'd recognize each other if we met face to face, and might possibly have some common experiences. Maybe! You might even be in my contact list. Maybe.

I posted because I care about this topic. You want change? Then get rid of those who are most resistant to it. I would love to see the re-emergence of the Texas Democratic Party in my lifetime.

Anyway, glad to see Charles chime in there too.

Your truly,

The Standard Deviant

[ Parent ]
Smartypants (1.00 / 2)
Smartypants,

You drop names as if it matters. 
You aren't a reporter, why do we care if you talk to Sanchez or have an interview scheduled with Barnes?
You slam Democrats with your tidbits of insider information that any idiot could pick up from reading quorum report.
Burnt Orange Report likes this because it gets a lot of comments, so they bump your posts to the front.
You used to be live in Austin and work for corporate america--you have no real credentials with the causes that matter to Democrats.
Are you trying to move back to Austin?  Do you hope to compete with Fero--somebody with an actual record?  Do you think you are going to earn any Democrats as clients simply because of these posts filled with misinformation and ugliness?  Or are you just trying to create division now that the Democratic Party is back on the upswing in Texas, in hopes of furthering your own economic gains?
Fero, Tidwell--these people you criticize, or act as though you know more than, have worked in the trenches and know more than you do.  Much more--they actually do this for a living in Texas.
Why don't you do something good for the democrats instead of throwing anonymous bombs at those who really work here?  When is the last time you volunteered for a candidate in Texas?  Did you give Juan Garcia any money or sweat equity this time around?  How about Valinda Bolton?  Donna Howard?  How about any of the judges in Dallas County?  Or do you just want candidates like them, Sanchez and others to pay you for your "wisdom"?

Thank you for so thoroughly demonstrating (3.00 / 1)
This point:

One of the first attacks made is often to marginalize the speaker-as if credentials were required to assess every idea's worth.

Plus, it appears you missed where Smartypants mentioned he isn't living in Texas for the past (couple of?)years.

Before you win, you have to fight. Come fight along with us at TexasKaos.

[ Parent ]
I actually work with Fero (0.00 / 0)
read all about me here.
And I think SaveTexasReps.com and Richard Morrison's 2004 campaign speak for themselves.
Here's a paragraph from my bio. Match it or stfu.
In addition to his work as a political professional, Wilcox has been a committed activist. In 2003, he started SaveTexasReps.com to oppose Tom DeLay's mid-decade congressional redistricting. More than 35,000 Texas signed the petition and joined the STR email list. Wilcox was also active in the founding of Democracy for Texas, designing the group's first Texas web site, and in 2004 helped found DriveDemocracy.org, a Texas-based spin-off of MoveOn.org. In 2005, he founded the Civic Action Network and presented a new model of grassroots organizing at the national Democracy for America conference.

Get bent.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.
[ Parent ]
not impressed (1.00 / 2)
At last you reveal yourself...and your motivation of getting hired by candidates.  Did the trial lawyers decide not to hire you at some point?  Is that what this is about?

And I'm sorry, but did one of those things you did involve winning a race in Texas?  I don't see where you think you have standing to personally criticize folks using 20/20 hindsight.  Why don't you use all that wisdom of yours to win a race for a democrat in Texas, then come back to judge strategies.

By the way--correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Richard Morrison a pro-lifer?  And you were his manager?  Just what Texas needs...more pro-life democrats.

It smarts a little bit to be criticized, doesn't it?

[ Parent ]
Bring it (0.00 / 0)
Richard Morrison believes it's not the government's place to get involved in personal decisions between a woman and her doctor.

His personal religious beliefs are not relevant to this conversation.

You can criticize me all day but STFU about Richard Morrison. He took a stand against Tom DeLay when NO ONE else had the guts to do it.

I spent 2003 to 2006 bashing DeLay -- you can see some of my work here.

And to repeat, get bent.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.

[ Parent ]
Funny Observation (0.00 / 0)
Apparently SouthTexasDemocrat is the brilliant strategist in the room.

Note the time stamp on this first accusatory comment...


Is there an unofficial record for the thread with the most new usernames  (1.00 / 1)

created specifically to post only in that one thread and where each one of the newly created single-purpose usernames coincidentally supports the same viewpoint?

I'm just wondering.
by: SouthTexasDemocrat @ Tue Jan 16, 2007 at 17:26:41 PM CST

It seems like with only a couple hours difference between that comment and this one...


Smartypants  (1.00 / 2)

Smartypants,

You drop names as if it matters.
You aren't a reporter, why do we care if you talk to Sanchez or have an interview scheduled with Barnes?
You slam Democrats with your tidbits of insider information that any idiot could pick up from reading quorum report.
Burnt Orange Report likes this because it gets a lot of comments, so they bump your posts to the front.
You used to be live in Austin and work for corporate america--you have no real credentials with the causes that matter to Democrats.
Are you trying to move back to Austin?  Do you hope to compete with Fero--somebody with an actual record?  Do you think you are going to earn any Democrats as clients simply because of these posts filled with misinformation and ugliness?  Or are you just trying to create division now that the Democratic Party is back on the upswing in Texas, in hopes of furthering your own economic gains?
Fero, Tidwell--these people you criticize, or act as though you know more than, have worked in the trenches and know more than you do.  Much more--they actually do this for a living in Texas.
Why don't you do something good for the democrats instead of throwing anonymous bombs at those who really work here?  When is the last time you volunteered for a candidate in Texas?  Did you give Juan Garcia any money or sweat equity this time around?  How about Valinda Bolton?  Donna Howard?  How about any of the judges in Dallas County?  Or do you just want candidates like them, Sanchez and others to pay you for your "wisdom"?

by: Trying to get clients? @ Tue Jan 16, 2007 at 19:39:55 PM CST

...paired with the obvious attempt to cover up a writing style..with a username that references another comment made earlier by STD...(and hey, the two get rated the same way..)perhaps STD (that's kinda funny and ironic) was just really projecting onto SmartyPants.

I also always love when someone "calls out" someone for a resume, then says they are not impressed but never responds with their own. As Nate said, match it or stfu. Pssshhhh...

[ Parent ]
thanks Nick (0.00 / 0)
it's good to have friends like you in this hard ol' world!
: P

Keep Fighting!

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.

[ Parent ]
For what it's worth, I'm not the one who posted as "Trying to get clients?" (0.00 / 0)
and I don't know who did.

I did note a post from David Van Os over at TexasKos which included this thought:

"Big Insurance and the other robber barons were and are spurred by three things: greed, greed, and greed. Not anybody else's greed, but their greed. I must confess that in my concentration on the consultantocracy I overlooked the odiousness of the diary's implication that trial lawyers were to blame for Rove's concerted attack on Texas Supreme Court jurisprudence, the 1989 injured workers destruction bill a/k/a "workers comp reform," the Republican Party's 20-year long campaign of lies against the civil justice system and plaintiffs' lawyers, and any other part of the tort reform hoax. I accept your correction gladly. Blaming trial lawyer "excesses" or "greed" is like blaming the New York City fire department for 9/11. The trial lawyers were society's first line of defense against the assault of the Robber Barons and their political minions."

More at http://www.texaskaos...

[ Parent ]
when you start out by attacking someone... (0.00 / 0)
...you're gonna' get attacked in turn. It's the nature of the beast.

Shame of it is this could have been a decent discussion. But there's a helluva basketball game on instead - UT vs, Okla. St. Tune fir the second half.


I don't mind the attacks (0.00 / 0)
The discussion is just starting.

If I get attacked, I'll respond. Fun's fun.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.

[ Parent ]
Why wait? (0.00 / 0)
You've called me out when in the start of this thread I actually AGREED with you.  You make enemies seemingly for the fun of it.  The one thing I have said publically about Fero/Hewitt is simply that perhaps the Howard race had many other factors at play beyond merely the consulting firm's "brilliance".  Reread my comment if you so chose.  I will NOT chose to indulge in childish mud throwing and bringing down your firm.  If asked, I will give my personal opinion PRIVATELY.  And then I will give a list of other people they should talk with to get a balanced opinion.

We agree on TTLA.  That should be the focus of this thread.  It really DOES seem like you all are desperate for clients...  we certainly are not, 90% of our business is out of state working for major caucuses/statewide candidates.

[ Parent ]
This isn't advertising (0.00 / 0)
this is activism.

I'm busy working in Philadelphia, Wisconsin, DC and Virginia right now.

I didn't mean to personally offend you, I just asked what in your mind might be a good case study. Capitol Inside and the Texas Observer both thought the Donna Howard race was a good one.

Drop me a note to my gmail, you got it, if you want to vent to me.

Phillip already did.

I'm not trying to make enemies, just stirring the pot and trying to make a stronger, more open party.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.

[ Parent ]
What is everyone fighting over---Do you even know? (5.00 / 2)
This is Charles Soechting, member of TTLA and Past Chair of the Texas Democratic Party (2003-2006). I have been reading the posts here for the better part of the day while iced in at the house.  First, I called a couple of people that I really like and respect and asked should I comment.  The answer was "No", but as those that know me best know, I usually end up doing what I think is right.  With that said, let me start by telling you that I am no apologist for Russ Tidwell.  In the world of Austin Democratic politics it was well known that Russ and I could not stand to be in the same room with each other.  Nothing  since I left as Chair of the Texas Democratic Party in April 06 has happened to change that.  Like many others, I think Russ has made some terrible boneheaded calls---ignored good candidates -treated good candidates terribly because he didn't like their consultant--
bad mouthed other political consultants for no good reason--but at the end of the day he is TTLA's asset or liability.  Understand, nothing I have said here is actionable because it is true.  The money spent at Russ'direction is TTLA's money to spend.  TTLA has it's membership to answer to and that's how it works.  As for pushing donors toward Strayhorn, in my mind it was worse than wrong--it was dumb and in a million years I will never understand his motives but  it was those donor's money to do with as they pleased.  Don't give Tidwell too much credit, these were smart donors who gave money to who they wanted to.  Like every organization TTLA has adjustments in the way they do business and that is an internal matter for membership.  As best I can tell, none of the posters except me is a dues paying member of TTLA so a little deference is due.  Now, back to some of the things I really wanted to address.  When I was elected Chair in October 03 I was asked by many reporters why I would want to be Chair of the TDP at this time.  I said then and I still believe that the Democratic Party in Texas is coming back.  It's not going to happen all at once, but it is happening right in front of us.  The sad thing is that there are so many good candidates that I wish could be adequately funded but short of acting like the Republicans act, which is for the most part, illegal, you cannot make people donate money.  This combined with the changes in law brougt on by McCain-Feingold and it is a different world that it was in the 80's and 90's.  Someone posted that Hewitt-Fero called the shots when I was Chair.  That person/poster needs to be drug tested.  I barely knew/know Hewitt and as for Fero, Kelly and I have been friends for a long time and happen to agree on a lot.  I believe to this day that he is one of the best political consultants around even if we do disagree on some things. As Chair, I prided myself that I would listen well to a lot of people and then make decisions based on the best information available.  What I regret is that now that D's are starting to win, the inevitable infighting has started.  Why not take pride in the wins that were won together.  For instance, Russ Tidwell and Charles Soechting/Kelly Fero do not like each other--period.  Yet, we all worked to beat Ron Wilson along with a lot of other people like Sue Schechter.  Our strength is in working together.  Now, onto another subject.  There has been a fair amount of discussion about the Texas Trust, mostly by people who know know very little about it and how it actually works.  I speak with some direct knowledge because I was there at the time of formation.  Not once did I ever receive a call from anyone suggesting how things ought to be done.  That is not to say that I didn't meet with a lot of people concerning the Trust.  SDEC members met with me and Trust principals and were fully informed about what it was and wasn't.  It is one thing to disagree with strategy but quite another to attack the motives of good people.  The Trust is an effort to rebuild the Party that had to change to accomodate the times.  In closing, I just want to say how much I appreciate what all of you are doing to further the cause of the Democratic Party.  It's early in '07 and I might even try to learn to like Russ-----stranger things have happened.  Democratically yours, Charles Soechting  ces@oqlaw.com  PS As always, I did not spell check or proof read.

Charles chimes in! (0.00 / 0)
Charles, your points are very well-taken.  Your efforts as TDP chair in 2004 are what showed Texas Democrats the possibility of victory again.  Your reluctance to show up your more low-profile successor are classy, but it's great to hear you sound off here.  Welcome back!

[ Parent ]
Thanks for the insight. (0.00 / 0)


[ Parent ]
Charles (0.00 / 0)
Charles,

Thank you for posting--very thoughtful.  I especially like the part about not starting to in-fight.  Nathan, take note, and think of some Republicans you can criticize with all your spare time--there is still a lot of work to be done in Texas, we haven't won the state back yet.  Nathan, you started this mud fling, and you can end it.

[ Parent ]
I'm just getting started (0.00 / 0)
Until Texas Democrats adopt a modern 21st century approach to campaigning and big donors stop pressuring "targeted" candidate to use consultants chosen based on cronyism rather than merit, I'm going to be pointing things out.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.
[ Parent ]
Nathan. (3.00 / 1)
I'd have to agree with Phillip's assessment here.

I am having a hard time reconciling this posting with what I know of your talents and experience.  Not to say that one may only write diaries on subjects that fall within their primary talents and experience.  :)

One little thing; you imply that Tidwell got the big money guys to support Strayhorn.  I have no idea what role he played in that, but since he works for those guys, essentially, if they were unhappy with his advice I would think they would get rid of him.

Ok, one more thing.  You quote several-paragraph section of the article you reference that talks about how the tort reform advocates out-gunned the Trials with money and such.

You might go back and check some of the drafts of the legislation that ultimately became the tort reform legislation that passed.  Tidwell and others in his organization worked with Democratic and Republican legislators to successfully alter the original in ways that were quite difficult considering the political atmosphere at the time.

I haven't read all these comments, so sorry if i'm repeating others.

It's good to have you back in town.  You are back in town, right?  I haven't seen you in a long time.

Thanks for the feedback David (0.00 / 0)
I'm actually in Virginia still. Will be hopping back to Texas as needed but am living on the coast.

Thanks for the kind words about me personally, I recognize that there are many sides to the story and that not even the "terrible" Tidwell is wrong all the time.

I'm just trying to get people to own up for the terrible 2006 we had. I'm not sparing anyone, especially myself.



Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.

[ Parent ]
wasn't that a great triple overtime basket ball game? (5.00 / 1)
...even though UT lost on a freaky three by OSU's center?

At halftime, I was so anxious to get back to that game that I couldn't even spell or comment. But you all kept going, so here are a few thoughts.

Charles makes an important point. There are many people trying their best to rebuild the Party in Texas, and we better learn how to play as a team - and that means play on the same team.

For starters, let's put an end to calling 2006 a disaster. That is pure crap. Could we do things better? Sure, we all make mistakes and have to own up to them and learn from them. But a lot of good was done in 2006, and it's better to build on it than to tear it down.

On TTLA, they are a trade association. And neither TTLA nor their staff have ever controlled the TDP. Not ever. Many of their members and TTLA itself have been good to the Democratic Party and individual Dem's in many elections, but they haven't been good to every Dem or TDP in every race or in every election year. I've seen them work with TDP (agreeably and less agreeably at times) when they had mutual strategic goals and when the players got along, and there have been times when they went their own way when they didn't. And that's as it should be, because a political party can't be dependent on any one group or association.

Likewise, no single consultant has ever controlled TDP - and rarely could one say a consultant elected a candidate single handedly. One of the worst things about this thread is all the credit being given to consultants and advisers. Give us all a break, businessfolk.

For example, the Donna Howard race was mentioned as it related to consultants. I know who won that race - Donna Howard. She was the right candidate at the right time. Her face on TV was believable. Her consultants ran a smart race. The County Party's mail program linking Bentzin to DeLay's TRMPAC consultant(thanks, Ben) was masterful. And a lot of people busted their butts to turn out the vote. Yes, it was a team working for a good candidate - and that's true in most wins.

Back to 2006 quickly. TTLA did not support, fund or recruit several of our winning Dem House candidates - like Hightower Pierson, Hopson and a few others. And it's been said that they pulled the plug on Joe Heflin's race before E-Day. But TDP and the HDCC and other groups like the teachers (in Tx House races) stuck with those candidates and made a winning difference. At the same time, TTLA backed and funded targeted Dem's like Vaught, Cohen and others from the get go to the end. The point is, everyone played their part and no one group or operative was in control.

The Governor's race was another story and it frustrated the hell out of me. And how it got that way was a curious mess. As was noted in a previous comment, many major individual trial lawyers like O'Quinn and Watts and Nix and Baron ended up supporting Bell. And none of us really knows if backing Grandma was Russ Tidwell's mistake or if he was simply working for key TTLA players who had been convinced already by others. Around Austin, there were a lot of insiders who never understood Grandma's limited potential as an "independent."  Remember, in those early days when those donors were forming their opinions, Bell wasn't even a favorite of many of the BOR crowd who were Bob Gammage fans, and look where Gammage ended up on the race.

Hell, just weeks before filing opened in the Governor's race, the twisted logic of those who backed Grandma was an Austin parlor game that was going on at about the same time John Sharp helped out Perry by taking the Tax Commission appointment in late 2005. I know some folks who vilify Sharp for that, but who are any of us to say Sharp wasn't sincere when he said he did it because he wanted to help his state solve a problem? And attacking him then would have done no more to defeat Perry than attacking Russ Tidwell will do to help us win in 2008 and 2010.

If the purpose of this post was to go after Russ Tidwell, as SmartyPants suggested he would in another post a while back, that's been done. Big Whoop. There's a point where vilification serves no constructive purpose, and this thread may have reached that point, because what Russ does is TTLA's business.

We have our own business to do, and carrying out personal vendettas for whatever reason is a bad use of our time. Disagreement and constructive criticism within the Democratic family is fine, but it has to result in a consistent, pragmatic plan to win - and that takes a lot more work, a lot more money and a lot more strategic planning than will be delivered by this blog post.
 

I agree with every word of this post but I couldn't have said it as well (0.00 / 0)
Vilifying our Democratic brothers and sisters is a cancer we should rid ourselves of because we cannot stand divided against a better funded and less principled foe who will resort to every low tactic to keep us down.

[ Parent ]
An Interesting Business Strategy (0.00 / 0)
I'm anxious to see how Mr. Wilcox's Bite-The-Hand-That-Feeds-You Business Strategy works for Fero-Hewitt.  In recent weeks, he has insulted in public numerous major Democratic donors and players.  I'm sure others assume their turn in the barrel comes up soon.  I'm guessing that some of these folks may have a hard time giving money to candidates who hire Fero-Hewitt.

Hopson's campaign (0.00 / 0)
I've noticed that Fero-Hewitt has been taking credit for winning Chuck Hopson's race.  I'd be interested in knowing what paid work they did on that campaign, because I know another Austin firm did all the paid media.

[ Parent ]
Research (3.00 / 1)
I know it's not nearly as fun to look up the answer as it is to ask an open-ended question intended to imply that your enemy is lying, but Rep. Hopson paid them $4,750 this election for "consulting and production services," according to campaign reports on public file at the Texas Ethics Commission.

http://txprod.ethics...

[ Parent ]
Less than 2% (0.00 / 0)
So Fero has been going around taking credit for the Hopson race, and his cost was less than 2% of the total cost of the entire race.  I didn't know their firm's contributions were such a bargain.

[ Parent ]
Who knows? (0.00 / 0)
I have no idea if Fero is taking credit for that race or not.  I don't know him and couldn't find anything public to indicate that he took credit for anything.  My point was just that Hopson reported gving his firm money and that WAS publicly available.

[ Parent ]
For the Record... (0.00 / 0)
Since I was on all the conference calls in this race, I hopefully can clear this up.  Rindy Miller Media did ALL direct mail/TV for this race.  Every commercial that was aired and every mail piece that was done came from our office.  All polling was done by Jim Kitchens, whose work is simply amazing... he's a real class act.  All mailing lists came from Jeff Smith and all phones were done by Tyson.  There was no use of "microtargeting" in this race (I can write an entire diary about the false promise of micro targeting and how it's overhyped... I was hoping the Republicans DISMAL failure in this past election would have discredited it as a magic potion and given it its proper place as one of many ways to target SPECIFIC mail pieces to SPECIFIC audiences).

Fero/Hewitt did not participate in any conference calls and did not craft any stategic or tactical decisions for the campaign.  They were brought on solely to do press releases/blast emails. 

Fero/Hewitt, in the past, has claimed credit for races they did not do much for.  Some examples: Rep. Kegan in WI (a media firm out of California did that race), Rep. Cuellar (before it became unpopular to claim credit for that), and Rep. David Leibowitz's 2004 race (which, for the record, WE did). 

Personally, I feel that no single consultant can claim all of the credit nor should be assigned all of the blame for a campaign.  MANY factors are at work, only some of which the consultants control.  Furthermore, without a great consulting team/candidate/campaign staff/volunteer base/etc NOTHING happens.  You need it all.  For them to claim sole credit for Rep. Howard is HIGHLY disenginuous! 

[ Parent ]
that's funny David (0.00 / 0)
I didn't see you at Congressman Kagen's office on swearing in day in D.C. but I did see Kelly Fero, and I did see the Congressman personally thank Kelly for his help.
Get your head out of your ass, no one cares about which consultants did what races except us consultants.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.
[ Parent ]
I've pretty much reached the end (0.00 / 0)
of my venting list. I criticized the good team players, and then myself and then turned on the traitors who supported Strayhorn in 2006.

I like the thinly veiled threat to my livlihood. Very classy coming from an "anonymous" Jeff Crosby.

Don't don't make me have to do something I'll have to apologize to you for again.

We've already been through this once.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.

[ Parent ]
Hardly a threat... (0.00 / 0)
If you keep committing professional hari kari on the internet, the only threat to your livelihood is yourself -- which is also something you obviously need to get over.

Rather than threatening you, I'll give you some advice: you're gonna have to make a choice.  You're either a political consultant or a "netroots activist."  You can't be both.

You can't criticize folks for their lack of political virtue while taking money to do politics.  You forfeited your virtue when you went pro.

And one other thing: one can attract more flies with honey than vinegar.  You will grow in this business by building relationships and trust, not by building a list of people who either intensely dislike you or have some reason to mistrust you.  Stoking your ego with long threads on BOR won't pay the bills.

[ Parent ]
is this really what you believe? (0.00 / 0)
You can't criticize folks for their lack of political virtue while taking money to do politics.  You forfeited your virtue when you went pro.

Emphasis added.

Because if you do actually believe virtue is forfeited, it explains a lot about the current state of politics.

Before you win, you have to fight. Come fight along with us at TexasKaos.

[ Parent ]
In the context of this debate, yes. (0.00 / 0)
To attack another's virtue means you're virtuous yourself, right?  Otherwise, you'd be a hypocrite.  And when you start doing politics as a business instead of as an avocation, then you can no longer hold yourself out as virtuous.

Please don't take that to mean that it frees a consultant to be an amoral, unethical, incompetent thief.  Instead, see it as a recognition that life is no longer black and white.  Shades of gray are now in the picture.  There are other responsibilities to consider, and they often conflict.  It's kind of like growing up.


[ Parent ]
Except you just painted it in black and white. (0.00 / 0)
and shades of gray come in long before any money changes hands in the exchange.

Volunteering does not automatically constitute unquestionable virtue, either.

Before you win, you have to fight. Come fight along with us at TexasKaos.

[ Parent ]
Agreed (0.00 / 0)
But, in this case, being a paid political consultant probably does forfeit virtue.  I really can't see an exception.

It's not such a horrible thing.  In the end, everyone has conflicts, which may be why it's dangerous stuff to attack the virtues of others.

[ Parent ]
If you forfeited your own virtue (0.00 / 0)
for being a political consultant, you made a bad bargain.

I expect more from people, and while that means I'm regularly disappointed that will continue to be my expectation.

Before you win, you have to fight. Come fight along with us at TexasKaos.

[ Parent ]
Trying again... (0.00 / 0)
Clearly, I'm not doing a good job of wording this.  My apologies.  I'll try again.

What I'm trying to say is that a paid political consultant very often has an inherent conflict of interest that undermines his or her position to judge others.  It's rocks and glass houses thing.

For example, Nate works with Fero-Hewitt.  One of Fero-Hewitt's clients is the Texas Medical Association, an arch enemy of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association.

Did Nate attack Tidwell and TTLA to change the party in a positive way?  Or was it an attempt to turn Democrats against trial lawyers on behalf of this largely Republican group?

Frankly, I think it's the former.  While I don't agree with a lot of what he says, I don't think Nathan's doing this on TMA's behalf.  It just doesn't smell like a professional hit.

Which is why I gave him the advice.

[ Parent ]
Jeff when I want advice from you (0.00 / 0)
I'll drop by the Star Bar.

thanks very much.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.

[ Parent ]
I did not know that Kelly Fero and his crowd lobbied for TMA. (0.00 / 0)
That would seem to place this whole discussion in a very significant context.

I think TMA was a great villian in 2003 because the Texas Medical Association really threw doctors under the bus by blowing it on fast-pay, etc., which really benefitted doctors, to focus everything on damage caps which mainly benefitted nursing homes and hospital corporations.

Nate, did you do any work for TMA? That seems very, very anti-Democratic in terms of elevating corporate irresponsibility over people's right to justice.

[ Parent ]
Never have (0.00 / 0)
I don't get a salary from FHG, I just work with them on a client by client basis.
Haven't been brought in on any of the TMA work but I don't think Doctors are inherently evil and I'd have to look at the work that they wanted done before I decided whether to do it or not.
I've got no problem with trial lawyers or even the TTLA per se, I've just got a number of strategic and tactical differences with Tidwell.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.
[ Parent ]
Also (0.00 / 0)
Kelly isn't a lobbyist. He is a communications consultant.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.
[ Parent ]
Speak for yourself (5.00 / 1)
Unlike you, I didn't forfeited my virtue when I went pro.
With the exception of my two tenures as a full-time staffer (2002 and 2006) I have worked as an activist and an outspoken agitator at all times since I became a full-time partisan professional in late 2001.
Loudly advocating via SaveTexasReps didn't seem to hurt my business in 2003, 2004 and 2005 -- despite the fact that I got myself vocally involved in primaries against Ron Wilson, Al Edwards, attacked Vilma Luna, etc etc.
My personal mission is to change the system. Your personal mission seems to be to feed at the trough of the system as it is.
I have made a calculated risk in an attempt to expose the person who is most responsible for the bad decision making that led dozens of the most prominent traditionally Democratic donors to throw their money away on Strayhorn.
My business is doing just fine -- it seems like the clients I've got elsewhere in the country don't really care much about goings on here in the fetid little backwater pond that is the business side of Texas insider politics.
I'll be back working again in Texas soon Jeff.
And don't call me young again dude, I'm almost 40 and have worked at high levels in politics and corporate America for 15 years.


My comments reflect my own personal opinion and not those of any client or colleague, current, former or future.
[ Parent ]
Where did I call you "young"? (0.00 / 0)
Nowhere, dude.

[ Parent ]
Right here "dude" (0.00 / 0)
Implied if not stated in this comment right here.
Apology Gladly Accepted  (0.00 / 0)
Hell, it was just another nick to go with the many scars and calluses from my own escapades.  You'll have your own soon enough.

Hang in and good luck.
by: Jeff Crosby @ Fri Jan 05, 2007 at 10:21:49 AM CST



Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.
[ Parent ]
Jeeeeeeeeeeee-zus! (0.00 / 0)
You're pretty damned sensitive if you can read youth-baiting into this acceptance of a freakin' apology.  Did you, for just a moment, see that I was acknowledging what an old fart I am?  Jeeeeeeeeeeeee-zus again, Nathan.  Get a grip.

[ Parent ]
Tidwell... (3.00 / 1)
sure does run the show.  He stands in front of TTLA members and says "now I can't tell you who to vote for, but our polls show (insert his bull$#!+ here)".  Oddly enough though, he touted candidates (i.e. "Grandma") that John Eddie Williams, former TTLA President, gave lots of money too.  Is Tidwell pushing John Eddie's candidate to ensure John Eddie gets a return on his investment?  Who knows.

One thing that I do know is that there are lots of TTLA members (me included) who will never give another dime to TTLA's PAC after they knowingly backed the wrong horse for Gov. last year.  Tidwell may as well have worked for Perry.

Lastly, good for Walter.  Good for John - O'Quinn and Williams.  I hope that, at the end of the day, I have been 1/10th the trial lawyer that those guys are.  If they want to have big parties and lots of cars and yachts and jets and ranches and whatever else, they've earned it with their brains, talents, and hard work.  Having those things doesn't make them bad guys, but it obviously makes some folks jealous of their success.

Feathers Ruffled (3.67 / 3)
I am a trial lawyer.  I don't beleive Smarty Pants intended to dis' trial lawyers, but was merely raising some issues about TTLA and its political strategy which I, myself, admit to doing. 

Whether his opinions are correct or not I do not know.  My observations for what they're worth:
Trial lawyers have been demonized successfully by Rove and corporate America for years.  It is what he is good at, whether it be trial lawyers, homosexuals, Arabs, liberals, etc.  It is no different that what Goebels did in Germany.  A lie repeated often enough becomes the truth when it goes unchallenged.  The trial lawyers, failed to challenge this demonization until recently because a decision was made at the top that our resources would be better spent in lobbying than a sustained p.r. campaign and many of the initial tort reforms in Texas only hurt the small fish and not the whales,  so they didn't give a sh*t.

It is easy to pass tort reform because the overwhelming majority of the public does not understand it, doesn't care about it and has no experience with the legal system. 

Although the trial lawyers have been the largest source of money for the Democratic Party, not only in Texas, but nationally, it has not prevented Democrats from stabbing us in the back every time we have needed their help at the leg.  See, e.g., 1989, 1995, and 2003. Maybe the venue rules and some mass tort needed fixing, but the vast majority of "reforms" were bullsh*t.  Without Democratic help, Prop 12 would never have been able to get on the ballot in the first place. 

Why the Democrats would kill the Golden Goose is incomprehensible to me. Selling us out every session certainly did not help the Democrats retain control of Texas.  Furthermore, if Russ Tidwell really had so much power over the TDP, I doubt there would be so many Democrats willing to sell us out.  Moreover, the TTLA itself is strictly bi-partisan.

I am not surprised that you would feel stabbed in the back, but hold on. (0.00 / 0)
The trial lawyers in Georgia and Florida and many other red states are closer to 50% Democrat and 50% Republican in their support for candidates. In Texas, the trial lawyers have been predominantly (not exclusively) Democratic in their support.

I completely understand how the attitude displayed by some here seems like an invitation for the Texas trial lawyers to consider switching to the model of Georgia or Florida.  That saddens me just like it saddened me that many gay Democrats dropped out of Texas politics after so many Democrats failed to rally behind the opposition to the homophobic and discriminatory Constitutional amendment.

Please don't do that.  Please don't drop out.

Please stay and fight for the sake of your clients (past, current, and future) and for the model of justice you believe in. 

I am frankly ashamed of those Democrats who, on the one hand, talk about how they want trial lawyers to fund their preferred candidates but then, on the other hand, call trial lawyers "greedy" and bitch about of the "excesses" of trial lawyers which caused the weakening of corporate responsibility laws (so far, only a birthday party for Walter Umphrey and the car collection of John O'Quinn are the only "excesses" anyone has identified in response to my request for a list of which "excesses" resulted in the bad laws). My disgust at that hypocrisy was such that I contemplated just walking away from posting here anymore.

Please stay within the Democratic Party coalition and work together with the majority of us because, for each hypocrite who would demand trial lawyer money to fund their pet candidate but then stupidly ape Karl Rove's caricature of "greedy trial lawyers," the Texas Democratic Party has ten more who are not hypocritical and who share your view of social justice.  Stay, not for those hypocrites, but for that great majority who share a vision of a more just and equal society.

[ Parent ]
Once you get that bit in your teeth (0.00 / 0)
you just can't let go, can you?

Determined as you are to believe the worst of your opponents in this discussion, let me remind you of your own advice:

Vilifying our Democratic brothers and sisters is a cancer we should rid ourselves of because we cannot stand divided against a better funded and less principled foe who will resort to every low tactic to keep us down.

That should be a reflexive principle, don't you think?

Before you win, you have to fight. Come fight along with us at TexasKaos.

[ Parent ]
I would defend you and the progressive cause you are devoted to with equal tenacity. (0.00 / 0)
I am not vilifying any Democrats, I am questioning the hypocritical views expressed by a few Democrats.

I have not, for example, suggested that the greedy nature of Democratic political consultants and their excesses have led to the downfal of the Democratic Party nor have I made any similar argument about traditionally Democratic constituency.

But I am wholly offended by the jist of this thread, not so much because I learned halfway through the discussion that it was one paid political consultant criticizing another, but because I find the use of phrases like "greedy trial lawyers" (which has now been edited out) and the wholly specious claim that trial lawyer "excesses" (which are apparently the finincial extravagance of two men who happen to be trial lawyers) somehow poisoned the well for the Democratic party in Texas.

Maybe you don't recognize it as such but that is a talking point straight out of Karl Rove's play book.

I have heard more than one Democrat say that "the gays hijacked our agenda and cost us votes" - I called that argument bullshit just as I call the argument in this thread bullshit.

I have heard more than one Democrat make similar arguments about our advocacy of abortion rights as "the downfall" of the Democratic Party and advocacy of a social safety net as the "cause of our electorial woes" - I wholly and unreservedly rejected those arguments and the argument in this thread is equally wrong.

If you think I am reading the arguments incorrectly, perhaps that's true, but my wife has a friend who is a lawyer and her friend told us over dinner that she has received three emails from colleagues pointing out the wrong-headed and offensive nature of posts in this thread.  I assure you that I am not the only one who finds this argument more than merely incorrect but socially corrosive.

[ Parent ]
I think your offended sensibilities have come through (0.00 / 0)
loud and clear.

And I'm of two minds about the "greed" argument-which I believe smartypants did step back from in another comment anyway. (I've read a lot of these comments, so I might be in error on that. I don't know the players involved).

However, I'm less concerned about motivations than effectiveness.

And I don't believe an argument has effectively been made that the TTLA's money  has yielded the desired results.

That makes me think that an examination is in order.  You and your wife's friends may think it's none of our business, and offensive, and any number of things.  But the fact is we ordinary Texans also pay the price for the disappointing results.

Before you win, you have to fight. Come fight along with us at TexasKaos.

[ Parent ]
This is an excellent comment (0.00 / 0)
And "Democrats" like Patrick Rose have certainly been little help to the larger cause.

Obviously the problems with Texas politics are bigger and deeper than the problems with our Democratic campaign tactics and strategy -- which is my sole focus.

I just want to win races.

Tidwell has enormous power -- the power of the pursestrings -- to influence candidates -- especially to influence them not to run.

In fairness to Mr. Tidwell, the man and his organization have been pestered non-stop to fund losing campaign after losing campaign for so long I understand why they are tired of being asked.

Especially in the 1990's when a close but no cigar campaign left you with nothing but bills for TV advertising.

But I'm arguing that we've entered a new era -- one in which candidates making savvy use of the Internet and targeted media like Deval Patrick, Jon Tester and Jim Webb can win races despite being outspent.

Also thanks to the Internet, any campaign should help built the TDP's state-wide list of donors, activists and voters. Over time that will have a cumulative postitive effect.

Sorry if my post was taken out of context -- I'm not attacking the trial laywers, just pointing out they got whupped in the big political war of the last decade.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.

[ Parent ]
Pissing on Our Friends and Allies (3.67 / 3)
I walked into this thing late, but let me say that I have high praise for the accuracy and persuasiveness of the posts of Get Real, South Texas Democrat and former Party Chair Charles Soechting, my friend and fellow trial lawyer.

As a trial lawyer (who happens to be highly offended by the tenor of this post), I know that many in our ranks have give countless hours and untold dollars to the cause.  For edification purposes, trial lawyers were one of the groups responsible for our victory in Dallas County.  You might also note that five  trial lawyers were elected to judicial posts.  Counteless DTLA and TTLA members rallied to the cause with time and money.  Were there some who did not?  Yes, but that is beside the point in the bigger picture and, besides, trial lawyer interests have never been 100 percent aligned with the Democratic Party, although mostly they are, fortunately.  I headed the legal team for the Dallas County Party, fending off nine lawsuits the R's brought against us and filing one in  which we were victorious.  During the early vote and on election day, our legal team consisted of 10 other lawyers--all trial lawyers from DTLA, TTLA and TELA (Texas Employment Lawyers Association).

While I and other good Democrats had our hands full up here in the local races and were virtually single-minded about them, please note that Chris Bell filmed his first commercials at this law office.  (No they weren't that great, but everybody here (trial lawyers) supported Chris, and when he called for assistance, the answer was immediately "yes.")  When the rallies occurred for the statewides, many "trial lawyers" were in attendance.

I guess it's also easy to bash Russ Tidwell, particularly when there's an unstated economic angle to doing so.  Unlike Charles, I like Russ.  He is a friend.  Have I had significant differences with him over targeting?  Absolutely.  But then again, he does not work for or control the Party.  He is a loyalist for TTLA, and that is as it should be.  I will tell you, however, that you need to stop the personalization.  Russ has been responsible in significant respects  for some real positive benefits.  HD 107 is certainly one of those that is most notable to me.  Helping block draconian legislation on countless occasions is another.

We all cuss "consultants," and I certainly have.  (Ask some of those that I kept out of Dallas in the 1990 campaign when we carried the county for Ann Richards in a home-grown campaign.)  But let's not forget that many of these folks are valuable players in the overall scheme of things--even though we must remind them constantly that we cannot ingnore the clearly untapped value of our grass roots.  If you want to go after Russ, then get specific and do it in a way that is constructive.  And when you diss consultants, please also give them credit for their successes.

I want to thank all the trial lawyers in this state who have helped the Party over many years, not only with funding but by running for office, holding precinct and county Party positions, working your butts off, trying to steer policy in this state in a direction that protects the little folks and not corporate interests, and on and on.  Most everyone of you is a committed Democrat.  I wish all of you were.  However, most of you are like me--the type of person who is best described by the epitaph on former Rep. Bill Kugle's tombstone in the State Cemetary:  "Never voted for a Republican and had little to do with them."

I'm all for Trial Lawyers (0.00 / 0)
I'm just pissed that the TTLA backed Strayhorn last year at the same time that Russ was playing kingmaker with Democratic candidates in downballot races.
If the TTLA made smarter political choices we'd all be better off.

My comments reflect my own personal opinion and not those of any client or colleague, current, former or future.
[ Parent ]
Thanks for the insight. (0.00 / 0)


[ Parent ]
A Few Corrections and A Few Comments (5.00 / 3)
I am a member of TTLA, a member of it's Board of Directors, and an ex officio member of it's Executive Committee and know Russ Tidwell very well and have worked very closely with him on political matters during the last two or three election cycles.  I'd like to make a few points and correct a few misimpressions.

First, TTLA is not a partisan organization.  It is a group of lawyers that has come together to protect the rights of those who are injured or killed by the conduct of others, and indirectly, their own economic livelihood.  And while I known that there are many who will not believe this next statement, the former goal is far more important to most members than the latter.  Most of our members are Democrats, but not all.  But more importantly, if we are to meet  our obligation of protecting our client's, who are among the most vulnerable in society, we must in Texas current political climate be bipartisan. 

Second, I think the is a lot of supposition, all without factual basis, going on as to TTLA and Russ Tidwell encouraging members to contribute money to Strayhorn.  I'll not reveal any of the internal advice that was given, but some of it is public (http://blogs.chron.c...) and it should be obvious that telling folk to "keep their powder dry" isn't consistent with what is being assumed here.  But TTLA did not"back Strayhorn."  In 2006, legislative races were our priority.

Third, TTLA did an excellent job in those races that it targeted.  Some of them were Democratic primary races where we defeated incumbents, including a sitting Senator, who had consistently voted against our clients rights (and voted to cut CHIPs funding, etc.).  Russ Tidwell and his team made the call on each one of those races.  And they were excellent calls. 

Finally, I would like to echo the comments of  those trial lawyers who have posted and pointed out how frustrating it is to see good Democrats in a thread like this bashing trial lawyers.  In Texas, and in every state that I know anything about, most trial laywers are Democrats.  We give heavily to Democratic causes.  I gave over $50,000 last cycle to democratic candidates and PACs.  I've already been to Austin once already this session to lobby.  But to see the rank and file of the part bitch and whine about my group, that frankly without whom ya'll would be so far up a creek with out a paddle, get's my goat.  And that of a lot of other trial lawyers, too.  And this tension is aggravated by the fact that Democrats in Name Only like Chuck Hopson vote for horrible bills like HB 3.  We've taken out 8 of the 14 Democrats who voted for HB3, but the lack of gratitude in the rank and file for our contributions, financial and otherwise, is very grating to many trial lawyers. 

I'm not going anywhere.  I'm going to fight with the Democratic party till hell freezes over, and then I'm going to fight on the ice.  But make no mistake.  There are some trial lawyers who are not so ideologically as pure as I am and who will not.  So the next time you bash one, think carefully.

There's plenty more where that came from (0.00 / 0)
I have no problem with the Trial Lawyers, just their political advisor.

They've been the sole big donors to Texas Democrats so long they've got donor fatigue.

There is not a finite amount of money. Texans raised over $15 million for John Kerry in 2004.

MoveOn.org has almost 200,000 Texas members. They give money to races all over the country.

We've got to do three things to ease the pressure on the trial lawyers:

1) Build our small donor base

2) Keep our money in Texas

3) Cultivate new large donor circles, such as tech executives, etc.

I'll be there on the ice with you my friend. The trial lawyers who jump ship because I said a few sassy things about them on a blog are pretty foolish. Karl Rove and company destroyed their livlihoods, not me.

Any comments I make are my own personal opinion and do not reflect the opinions of any client or consulting firm I may be associated with.

[ Parent ]
I don't think that many trial lawyers would jump ship just because of (0.00 / 0)
"a few sassy things about them on a blog".

But I saw a similar problem arise in conservative segments of the gay community after the wide margin passage of the homophobic constitutional amendment.

If my guess is right, there is probably a vital debate among trial lawyers.  One side probably holds the view that Democrats generally better reflect the values of the lawyers.  The other side probably holds that civil justice is a non-partisan issue and the trial lawyers should support those Republicans who favor a fair and balanced civil justice system against Democrats who don't understand the importance of protecting the rights of fair access to the court system.

I don't think too many trial lawyers will leave the party because of your statements, but I do think your statements give much ammunition to those trial lawyers who argue in favor of eschewing the Democratic model and adopting a more bi-partisan model which encourages stronger support for pro-civil justice Republicans. 

I bet those trial lawyers who want TTLA to support more Republicans have forwarded your comments to their allies in that debate and have used your comments as an "I told you so" to those trial lawyers who advocate that TTLA should increase its support for Democrats. Your comments set back the cause of those who would encourage TTLA to fund statewide Democratic candidates.

[ Parent ]
The Trouble With Tidwell | 128 comments

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