With a former president coming down to Texas to support a local race; you know the candidate has a decent shot at winning.
Today the Chris Bell for Texas Senate campaign announced that Pres. Bill Clinton will come to Houston on Monday, Oct. 13 to headline a fundraising event for Chris Bell, candidate in the special election for State Senate District 17.
"I am honored to have President Clinton come to Houston to help my campaign," said Chris Bell. "It's unusual to have a former President of the United States of America help raise money for a state legislative race, but he knows that this is an incredible opportunity to make real progress for the people of Texas."
Ambassador Arthur Schechter will host the fundraiser at his home Monday evening. Democratic Party stalwart Bernard Rapoport will serve as "Honorary Chair" of the event. Details on getting tickets will be posted on ChrisBell.com.
With Bell consistently polling in the 40s, a strong push in this final win could allow a Democrat to take over a state Senate seat outright. Bell clearly would have to implode in order to miss a runoff, but he also has to finish in a high-churning mode in order to avoid a runoff.
On another note, Bell will also be in Austin for a fundraiser tomorrow at the Four Seasons Hotel from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Besides that day and the Clinton fundraiser, hopefully most of his time will finish up on GOTV.
The general meme in the press has questioned whether the Democrats were truly unified. Senator Hillary Clinton and President Bill Clinton told delegates and American's watching the convention at home that it was time to unite behind Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama. They didn't do it once or twice, but every night of the convention.
On the other hand, the libertarian side of the Republican Party has not unified behind John McCain yet.
A few hours before his Campaign for Liberty rally got under way here today, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, or St. Paul to many of the 9,000-plus people at the gathering, bashed his Republican Party for what he said was avoidance of important issues such as deficit spending and civil liberties.
[...]
In an interview with CNN, Paul also said there was "not a heck of a lot to like" about presidential candidates John McCain [...] partly because he considers them flip-floppers.
"John McCain used to be for taxes, now he's against taxes," Paul said.
This lack of unity in the Republican Party extends beyond Congressman Paul and his parties nominee. Republican delegation alternate Alan Smith went on record with the Chronicle saying that he is among a dozen delegates from Texas who will not be voting for John McCain.
"By calling the GOP back to its roots, we will re-invigorate positive excitement in our candidates," he said in a letter to delegates.
Smith said that as an alternate, he took an oath to vote for nominate McCain but will cast his personal presidential vote Nov. 4 for Libertarian Bob Barr of Georgia.
This is what real intraparty problems look like, not just a false media narrative.
Reports from last night's rallies at major Texas universities by the presidential campaigns have come in.
Bill Clinton at UT (Austin): ~5,000
Barack Obama at Texas State (San Marcos): ~12,000
Having attended the Clinton appearance on the mail mall at UT, I continue to not understand why, like Ron Paul, the campaigns do little to actually get their crowds to go vote in the on campus polling location that is less than 150 feet away. Today's on campus vote was around 840, just 200 higher than yesterday, which is typically how much turnout increases in the final days of early vote.
There were lines, one over 1,000 long, wrapping right in front of the FAC early vote site for over an hour while voting was still going on. Oh well. As the two Clinton staffers said while walking by me on the West Mall- "Bill's not going to be here until after voting closes today. No one's going to be able to vote. What a colossal failure."
* sigh *
To note, Hays County only had one early vote site today at the county elections administration office which is not near the Texas State campus. We really should work to get counties to assign more voting sites near campuses...
Not that this comes as a shock or a surprise, but Texas is on the verge of not mattering in the presidential primary March 4th... at least according to Bill Clinton in his interview with ABC News.
"If you vote early or you vote on March the 4th in the popular election, 65 percent of the delegates will be selected to the national convention. But 35 percent of the delegates for the national convention will be selected Tuesday night, March 4, at 8000 Percent Convention all across this state," Clinton told the crowd in Killeen this morning.
"The doors open at 7 and they close at 7:15. It would be tragic if Hillary were to win this election in the daytime and somebody were to come in at night and take it away."
Yes, believe it or not, Texas could simultaneously matter... and not matter. Aren't we special!
Of course, the Clintons are well on the way to not mattering in the Texas caucuses if Bill Clinton keeps informing people that "the door open at 7:00 and close at 7:15". This is mainly because the doors actually open at 7:15 and have no specific set time to close.
Bill Clinton's argument is that Texas is unfair because it has a caucus in addition to a primary, and, as the Clintons have been arguing, caucuses are less democratic than primaries. It's certainly true, caucuses give disproportionate weight to well-organized party activists over ordinary voters. But you know what gives even more weight to well-organized party activists over ordinary voters than the caucus system? Superdelegates. And the Clintons obviously have no objection to that.
Personally, I'm all for both the primary and caucus playing their respective and equally important roles for both Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama. We're Texas and were not going to let this opportunity pass us by.
Chris Bell, former US Congressman and 2004 Democratic gubernatorial candidate was at the University of Houston tonight to announce his endorsement of Hillary Clinton. We caught up with him after the rally and asked him about his future plans. He says that he will not be running for TX Governor again. When asked if he'd be running for Hutchinson's Senate seat, he grinned and claimed that it was one of several possibilities they were looking at.
The winds of change are blowing, and if things go well, there's no reason why we couldn't see a Noriega/Bell Senate delegation from Texas in 2010. Here's hoping.
(More info and pictures from tonight's rally can be found on Turning Texas Blue)
I read in the Rio Grande Guardian where Henry Cuellar accompanied, and introduced, former President Bill Clinton on his swing through east Texas yesterday. This in spite of the fact that Cuellar's Laredo-based district is hundreds of miles from the Piney Woods.
“I don't know why they asked me to go, but I'll be happy to support the Hillary campaign whether it's in South Texas or whether it's in East Texas,” said Cuellar. “It's an honor that they've asked me to do this."
Maybe they wanted to use Cuellar there because nobody in east Texas would know or remember that ... well, to put it kindly, Henry Cuellar is not exactly from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party. He's like Joe Lieberman, with less charisma.
I mean, seriously, are the Clinton people aware of this? Paying attention? I'm a little mystified.
While we can all agree that young girls will benefit greatly from this vaccine, there is also the oh so obvious connection between Perry and Merck, the maker of the drug. But maybe Governor 39% actually did something worthwhile this time. This is the same man who signed an abortion bill and a same sex marriage amendment in a church, so he is no saint in my eyes. But requiring school children to be vaccinated to prevent diseaseis a good thing. Considering HPV affects 20 million people of both sexes in this country, it is a problem that goes unnoticed but not unwatched. With 80% of women acquiring the virus by age 50, the chance of getting cervical cancer is there.
This is actually not the first time that Rick Perry has signed an order regarding vaccination.
I attended the GOTV rally at Palo Alto College on the south side of San Antonio this afternoon and got a number of pictures of the event. I've posted them at my blog, B and B.
Clinton gave a great speech, emphasizing the need to turn out the vote. It is all up to us, he said. Do we want to join the 29 districts that voted out the GOP and sent Democrats to Congress, or will we join the dozen or so districts that came up just short?
Prior to Clinton's arrival, former San Antonio mayor Henry Cisneros brought down the house. "I do not understand a man like Henry Bonilla, who grew up in this area, and yet has voted time and again and again against the interests of the people of this area. It's time to tell him, Ya basta! Ya acabo'! Ya vete!" (Video here)
It's all up to us to send Bonilla home in favor of Ciro Rodriguez.
Update: I finally figured out how to embed the YouTube videos into my blog posts, so I've added a post with the Cisneros video and also one of Clinton remarking on Bonilla's expressed happiness that Clinton was coming to town to campaign for Ciro.
On Sunday, December 10th President Bill Clinton will be in San Antonio for a Get-Out-The-Vote Rally with Ciro D. Rodriguez, Democratic Candidate for Texas' 23rd Congressional District.
Tickets will be available after 3pm on Saturday, December 9th by calling the Rodriguez Campaign Headquarters at 210-928-CIRO.
What: GOTV Rally for the December 12th Special Election Run-Off
When: Sunday, December 10th, 12:30 PM
Where: Palo Alto College Gymnasium 1400 W. Villaret San Antonio, TX 78224
While not firmly confirmed, both the Chris Bell campaign as well as the Democratic heavy-hitters are doing all they can to make sure the stars align this week.
Bell's campaign has said that President Clinton, a Democrat, wants to come to Texas for its man.
"Schedules permitting, he's coming," said Jason Stanford, Bell's campaign manager. "It's all just a matter of calendars now. The demands on (Clinton's) time right now are astronomical."
Clinton has stepped up national appearances for Democrats amid speculation that the U.S. House could flip to a Democratic majority.
Bell plans to host U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democrats' 2004 presidential nominee, at a Friday fundraiser in Austin.
Also on deck, are President Bush coming in for Tricky Rick Perry on November 6th. Carole Strayhorn, and I had to laugh at this, "campaigned Monday with Reform Party members, including Ross Perot's 1996 running mate, Pat Choate". What... who?
