The funny part of the whole ordeal is that I feel like I wasnt actually a target, just an innocent bystander that the Republicans didnt quite think about. Granted, Im a progressive and a minority, but I make good money and am usually kept out of the firing lines of the Repubs, but this time I dont think they thought all the way through this tactic (sure, they dont think through most of their tactics, but this could bite them in the ass).
You see, I am part of the new younger generation that grew up with computers and I rarely ever check my regular snail mail. The only reason I checked it today was to get my allergy medication. Awaiting me with my medicine was a nice letter from Nelda Wells Spears that stated that I have been put in Suspended status because "2 consecutive mailings have neen returned to our office..". The best part was this line: "The registration deadline date for the November 2, 2010 election is Monday, October 4th", today is Oct 9. Wonderful, now I cant vote. I dont know how many of you have lived in an apt, but if you have ever received any registered mail to it you know that the Post Office wont deliver it to your door and they wont leave it at the Apartment Office, so you are forced to drive down to the Post Office to pick it up. If you are like me and work constantly, you usually dont have time to do this. This leads me to the backfiring part of the tactic. I happen to be a progressive, but my apt is in Mccaul's district and I am quite sure I am not the only out here trying to be fully paperless, so what I am wondering is, how many Republicans just got their records purged also?
Most of my friends rarely check their mail because they are also trying to be paperless and since most new housing developments have community mailboxes, it's even more difficult to check the mail on a regular basis and missing some of this voter reg paperwork is quite easy.
Exactly how many of Rick Perry's followers on Twitter are make believe?
On Friday, the Rick Perry campaign was outed for astroturfing on Twitter. Astroturfing is creating a fake account to lie about who you are. For example, imagine I created an account and called myself "RachelGriffin85" when clearly, my name is Phillip Martin, then I used this fake account "RachelGriffin85" to spread lies and have my friends help me spread lies about a political opponent. That practice is known as "astroturfing."
Noam Krig, a Texas State University alumnus who was a social media intern for the Texans for Rick Perry campaign, has been posting a heavy stream of pro-Perry and anti-White links on a Twitter account at twitter.com/weRaustin, an account he's run for at least a year. He also appears to be behind other Texas city accounts like weRhouston and weRsanantonio.
But it's not so easy to figure out; the accounts list no name and offer no link to an affiliated website that would identify Krig as their owner.
Krig worked for the Perry campaign when he made the accounts. He also, for what it's worth, The offending accounts -- weRaustin, weRhouston, weRelpaso, weRdallas, and weRsanantonio -- all have the exact same branding and identical bio information, changed only by what city the account is purportedly representing. Each of these accounts were used to spread Rick Perry's messages, and the messages of numerous other accounts the Perry campaign is (most likely) astroturfing. The end result is the creation of a fake grassroots presence that does not exist.
It is clear that Rick Perry has nearly 30,000 followers on Twitter. But how many of those people are real, and how many are make believe? When you use platforms like TweetDeck, HootSuite, or even a simple search on Twitter, most of the people writing about Rick Perry are his own astroturf accounts. Every now and then, Dave Carney -- writing from what I am 99% certain is his own fake Twitter account, @freeusfromthem -- goes through and RTs a whole bunch of people to pretend there's buzz, but that's it.
Over the weekend, I'll be highlighting other numerous accounts the Rick Perry campaign is (likely) astroturfing. Rick Perry's claim to social media fame is that he has a lot of make believe friends that support him. I think it's time we started calling him out for being the liar that he is. Consider it my small effort to help restore sanity.
The political advertisements from have become a regular feature on televisions across Texas Congressional District 17, as both Democrat Congressman Chet Edwards and Republican Bill Flores flood the airwaves with advertising. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, over $1.8 million has been spent already by both campaigns, and while Flores has already spent $1.2 million Edwards has over $2.1 million cash on hand that he will likely spend in the an advertising blitz during the last month of the campaign. However, there is not just money being spent by the two campaigns trying to influence the election in District 17. A conservative advocacy group, American Future Fund, is also spending money in the district. The AFF has released two advertisements attacking Edwards:
We wrote earlier about how Stefani Carter, a Republican running for the State House in TX-HD 102, was caught red-handed in her blatant plagiarism of President Obama's speech.
That's not the only outrageous thing she's done. You see, Stefani Carter just can't stop lying about her record. For instance, she actually claimed an endorsement by the mayor of Garland, Ronald Jones. That endorsement actually never happened, and the mayor had to publicly deny that fake endorsement.
In my role as the Mayor of Garland, I strongly believe it is not appropriate to get involved in partisan campaigns. My job is to advocate for the people of Garland, and not distract our mission with partisan rhetoric. I am not endorsing Stefani Carter in this race as reported in several media outlets, and will not make any endorsement in this, or any other partisan races. I regret that my earlier communication with Ms. Carter has created this distraction.
The culture wars have been largely absent from the national debate over the last few years. However, over the course of the last several months the culture wars have begun to heat up over the debates over immigration, religion, and gay rights. Among the issues that has been absent from the national debate has been reproductive rights, although abortion has been a secondary issue in some of the debates. In the campaign for Congressional District 17 there are several differences between the candidates, and the differences between the candidates on reproductive rights might be the most stark.
While Congressman Chet Edwards has a moderate voting record on several issues, Edwards has been reliably progressive in supporting reproductive rights and protecting a woman's right to choose. According to Project Vote Smart, Edwards has received high marks on legislative report cards released by pro-choice organizations for his voting record on reproductive rights. NARAL Pro-Choice America resented rated Edwards' voting record as supporting reproductive rights 100% in 2009, and Edwards supported the interests of Planned Parenthood 85% of the time in 2008. From 2007-2008 the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association rated Edwards has supporting reproductive rights 100%. Edwards has vote for protecting women's reproductive rights on several key pieces of legislation.
Edwards voted against the so-called Stupak Amendment (H.AMDT.509) in the health care reform legislation that not only prevents federal fund from being used to provide women with reproductive health care through federally funded programs, but also prevented women from receiving reproductive health care in private insurance plans if they used tax credits or federal subsidies. In 2006 Edwards vote against the so called "Abortion Pain Bill" (HR 6099) which would have mandated that a physician provide a woman seeking to terminate a pregnancy medically questionable and medically inaccurate information. In 2005 Edwards vote for an amendment (H.AMDT.209) that would have lifted the ban on privately funded abortions at US military facilities overseas, a ban that prevents women from having the choice to terminate a pregnancy who are serving their country in uniform.
For months, Stefani Carter has presented herself as an aggressive and competent former prosecutor and has touted her experience in the Collin County DA’s office as a qualification to serve in the Texas Legislature. Once again, Carter’s claims are simply untrue.
Employee records obtained by the Lone Star Project show that Stefani Carter’s performance was so weak that she “Did Not Meet” the minimum standards required by the Collin County DA’s office. While Carter continuously portrays herself as “tough on crime,” she actually convicted criminals in less than 62% of the misdemeanor cases she tried - the minimum threshold for a misdemeanor prosecutor in Collin County. This rate is determined in part by the regional average of convictions in Dallas, Tarrant and Denton counties. She also left her job as a assistant prosecutor after just a year to take a higher paying job.
Garland Mayor Ronald Jones has endorsed Republican challenger Stefani Carter in the election for Texas House District 102 in Dallas County.
The Mayor of Garland then had his own e-mail in responce which he sent to Quorum Report:
“In my role as the Mayor of Garland, I strongly believe it is not appropriate to get involved in partisan campaigns. My job is to advocate for the people of Garland, and not distract our mission with partisan rhetoric. I am not endorsing Stefani Carter in this race as reported in several media outlets, and will not make any endorsement in this, or any other partisan races. I regret that my earlier communication with Ms. Carter has created this distraction.”
And, finally, Rep. Carol Kent's campaign released their statement on this ridiculous lie from Carter:
“This episode is yet another example where Ms. Carter is simply unable to or refuses to get the most basic of facts straight,” said Kent Campaign manager Phil Lovegren. “The fact that she is falsely using the good name of one of our esteemed public officials is not surprising.”
I want to start with something simple: an iPhone app. The Gonzales campaign made KEYE-TV in Austin for the launch of their campaign's iPhone app. While I applaude the technology and think the tool is interesting, I wish the story had pointed out the fact that Maldonado actually has more friends on Facebook and more followers on Twitter than Gonzales does. Sometimes, in the wave of new technology and expanding practices of social media, we lose track of what's important. A new iPhone app is cool; a stronger online social network, like the one Rep. Maldonado has, is much, much more important.
Three other pieces of news on the race:
The race has been and will continue to be among the hottest races to watch this cycle. But this week, Texas Weekly's Hot List -- the only news organization that ranks the competitiveness of State House races on a weekly basis -- downgraded the race from "red" to "orange." The rating change is apparently due to nothing more than what consultants say, which suggests there are some real poll numbers (not just wishful ones) that show Maldonado leading Gonzales in the race.
And then they ate their crow. Well, if they had integrity, that is. News 8 soon posted an update to their story, reporting that a room "has been reserved" for a debate at Southwestern University. As it turns out, Gonzales' campaign manufactured a lie, and when they were called out for it, when to the press with incomplete information to generate a hit story that had to be updated/corrected almost immediately after it aired.
The integrity of the Gonzales campaign remains in serious question, especailly with this...
Republican house district 52 nominee Larry Gonzales has resorted to lying about his opponent in order to get his campaign out of the ditch. In one single press release, Gonzales makes no less than six false or deceptive statements.
Gonzales implies that Maldonado employs a consultant in Virginia. To disprove this statement, simply look at the campaign finance reports. There are no payees or donors from the state of Virginia.
Gonzales claims that Maldonado “has ducked and run from any attempt at a public debate”. Maldonado will appear at the GAHCC forum on Oct. 5, and a second bi-partisan forum is being planned at Southwestern University.
Gonzales claims that Maldonado declined a debate at the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (GAHCC). This lie falls flat when you check the calendar and find that Maldonado has been booked for the GAHCC’s Oct. 5 forum for several weeks.
Gonzales claims that Maldonado requested questions 7 days in advance of the GAHCC forum. Maldonado campaign spokesperson Mitra Salassel said, “The only request we made was a standard inquiry as to the format of the forum.”
Gonzales claims that Maldonado represents Austin instead of Williamson County. Maldonado’s record of securing funding for critical projects in district 52 speaks for itself. Maldonado secured funding for the Renewable Energy Training Institute of Williamson County, $16 million for the Texas A&M Health Science Center in Round Rock and $350,000 for the Texas State University’s Round Rock Higher Education Center. Maldonado also secured $10 million in funding for the expansion of FM 1460. These projects directly improve the economy and quality of life in Williamson county, and represents a total change in direction from the former Republican representative from that district, Mike Krusee, whose singular focus was on converting agricultural land into toll roads.
Gonzales uses “Texas P2″ to refer to the “Texas Prosperity Project”, a Koch Industries-funded fake-grassroots organization that is part of a nationwide effort, active in 35 states, to undermine President Obama, prevent access to health care, avoid regulation of clean air and stop financial regulation. Gonzales states that Texas Prosperity Project “is comprised of business and industry”, which is true if what you mean by “business and industry” is a sampling of oil and gas companies, banks and insurance companies.
A race we'll keep our eye very closely in the coming weeks...
Let's try something different: Which legislative races do you care about?
Out of over 6,000 state legislative districts up for grabs this year, we've chosen 40 key races to highlight on our 2010 "Essential Races" list. These are 40 critical races that we anticipate will show which way the political tide is turning this fall.
But we recognize our own limitations. There are plenty of other key races all across the country -- so we're asking for your help in identifying them.
MoveOn members in Texas's 21st District have voted to endorse Lainey Melnick for Congress. It's up to all of us to stop the corporate takeover of Congress-you can volunteer with the campaign here:
This post is an attempt at analysis, explanation, and an appeal for help. The complexion of the country's leadership may well depend on the elections in Texas. I ask your indulgence to follow my perhaps incomplete research, my not-all-filled-out logic and the conlusions I draw from them. Perhaps I can make the case to help head off a real disaster. We here in Texas may understand this, but this is as much for visitors from elsewhere.
The thesis
Texas elections for US congress seats, and for State House and Senate seats, matter not just to Texans, but the whole country, perhaps for a decade or more. One of the major actors, Rick Perry, and his larger aspirations, are of concern. It's his power base, donors, and where he wants to take us that we need to pay attention to.
Some corollaries The Texas Governor's race sets the tone in our state for an off-year election, and voters are tuned in to this race. Folks are generally not paying as much attention to the state House and Senate races, nor to the US Congressional races. But the governor's race may greatly influence the down-ballot races. Turnout of loyal supporters is the key.
After the 2010 Census, Texas will add 3 US Congressional seats, possibly 4, depending on how the math comes out. The outcomes of these state races will matter because of redistricting which will be done by the Texas Legislature in the 2011-2012 session.
Let me share some thoughts, and see if you agree, or challenge my point of view.
Let us take Texas back from these GOP "leaders" who will take us to ruin, perhaps even more than W did, if given the chance. Let's not give them the chance.
