Two weeks after his loss to Gov. Rick Perry, the former Houston Mayor said he will not run for the U.S. Senate in 2012. Prior to entering the gubernatorial race last year, White had sought the senate seat many had expected Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to vacate. White additionally said he had no plans to run for office in 2014 either and was evaluating future business plans.
The announcement can hardly be described as surprising, though the timing of it may be earlier than many had expected. Former Texas Comptroller John Sharp has said he plans to run for the Senate in 2012 (although his website currently offers advice on how to find "the best male enhancement pills").
The Republican side will likely be crowded, as Railroad Commissioners Elizabeth Ames Jones and Michael Williams along with former Secretary of State Roger Williams and State Sen. Florence Shapiro were all planning on running in what they thought would be a special election. Whether they all ultimately run is unknown, but it seems unlikely.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst could be the Republican frontrunner, but his decision will not come until after the upcoming legislative session. Depending on the political climate, Democrats could see a legislator, or perhaps someone we have not even heard of yet, jump in after the legislature adjourns in May.
Update: As Robert points out in the comments, Hutchison has become well known for saying one thing and doing another when it comes to her future in the Senate. While I still expect her not to run again, Robert is right that given her history it is far from a sure thing. However, if she does choose to run again, Hutchison could find herself as a target for a challenge from the right in the Republican Primary.
Rick Perry has made two announcements of national significance this weekend: he is going on a national book tour and he won't commit to a full term as Governor.
Speaking on a campaign plane between Lubbock and Midland, Perry said he would keep up the pressure by staging a book tour soon after the election. He said he's putting himself on the national stage to promote states' rights, not his own career. Asked if he might run for president in 2012, the governor said, "No. I've answered that about as many times and as many ways as I can."
If his message propels him to another term as governor, however, Perry is not guaranteeing he will serve the full four years.
"I'm guaranteeing people that I'll get in there and do the best job I can for 'em as governor," Perry told reporters on a flight from Lubbock to Midland during Friday's West Texas campaign swing. "I just think it's always very premature to be making a statement about what you're going to be doing two, four, six or eight years from now - I don't ever take anything off the table."
"Staging a self-promoting book tour in the face of a crisis? We deserve a real leader, not a yell leader. I will tackle the budget crisis by squeezing efficiency out of Texans' tax dollars, while Perry's going to be squeezing dollars out of his book tour," said Bill White.
"Only a relentlessly self-promoting, 25-year career politician could dream of launching a book tour three months before what will be the most important legislative session in decades as Texas faces down a $25 billion budget deficit. Texans are 'Fed Up!' with a governor who's only in it for himself and will be firing him on Tuesday. So he'll have a lot of time for those Barnes and Nobles in Iowa and New Hampshire," said Katy Bacon, campaign spokesperson.
Perry's national ambitions have been in question for some time. Jim Henson with the University of Texas thinks he'll run for President:
“I don’t think anybody should expect Rick Perry to announce any plans he has when he’s concluding a campaign that was hinged on defining Washington, D.C., as toxic,” said James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project and a lecturer in the government department at the University of Texas at Austin.
Henson predicted Perry’s debut in the race for presidential nominee: His supporters will draft him as a successful governor who must come albeit reluctantly — to Washington to clean it up.
For six years, Rick Perry let as many as 2,000 sex offenders roam free -- and we know full well that at least one of those sex offenders returned to Texas.
The hammer has dropped. No more puppies and kittens. From Bill White himself:
"Rick Perry cleaned the records of thousands of convicted sex offenders who were deported and kept this policy until we confronted him about it," said White. "Perry even let deported criminals keep valid drivers licenses."
"Because of Perry's failure to secure the border, local police spend their time arresting illegal immigrants who commit crimes every day, as they did when I was Houston's mayor," said White.
The facts are absolutely damning. Here's what happened:
From the time Rick Perry took office until the time Rick Perry took office until October of 2006, he maintained a policy at the Texas Department of Public Safety that allowed sex offenders to be removed from the registry once they were deported. It wasn't until Bill White himself directed Rick Perry to change the policy that any policy was changed.
More than 2,000 illegal immigrant sex offenders, whose names were absent from a public statewide database because they were deported, have been restored to the Texas Department of Public Safety public Internet site after a Houston police officer's slaying a month ago.
Andy Kahan, director of the crime victim's office for Houston Mayor Bill White, said today he asked the Texas DPS to review its policy to not include deported offenders in the public database after an illegal immigrant, Juan Leonardo Quintero, was arrested Sept. 26 in the shooting death of Officer Rodney Johnson.
[...]
The decision puts 2,084 names of deported offenders back on the list that's accessible to the public, DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange said.
Yes -- that same Officer Johnson Rick Perry is lying about was killed by a sex offender who was deported -- then removed from the sex offender database and proceded to return to Texas across a border Rick Perry has failed to protect for ten years.
More from the Bill White campaign:
The Crime Victims Office of Houston Mayor Bill White confronted Rick Perry's Department of Public Safety about why it had a policy of dropping sex offenders from the sex offender registry once deported.
Within weeks of receiving the letter, Perry's DPS changed the policy, restoring 2,084 criminals to the sex offender list.
Houston Mayor Bill White's Chief of Staff called Steve McCraw, head of the Department of Public Safety, and alerted him to the fact that a criminal drug trafficker who had been deported was able to keep a Texas driver's license.
All municipal and county law enforcement depend on DPS databases to check driver's licenses and criminal backgrounds.
Governor +11 | Perry 48% White 37% Undecided 11% (AJP)
+10 | Perry 50% White 40% Glass 08% Shafto 02% (UT/TT)
+09 | Perry 51% White 42% Undecided 05% Other 02% (RAS)
I won't get into methodology other than to say AJP was essentially a lobby issue poll with horse-race questions tacked on, the UT/TT poll finally pushed leaners but is still a YouGov Internet Poll, and Rasmussen is, well, Rasmussen. For a state as big as Texas with a hot race, it's been entirely disappointing how little quality polling is done here. I don't say that because all the polls show Perry and GOP candidates ahead- they are, but I'm about 100% positive that next cycle, I'm going to have Burnt Orange Report partner with a non-partisan polling firm and help fix this.
Thoughts- I've never seen 3rd Party candidates poll this high in Texas. Up to 15% of the vote in the Railroad Commissioner race is potentially tied up between the Libertarian and Green party. The GOP sponsored Green Party appears to be well on its way to getting the 5% needed to get automatic "fuck with the Democrats" ballot access in 2012. This could be due to a lack of oxygen and awareness of downballot races. It's also an expression of a very angry electorate that without other information, is willing to vote against both the Republican & Democratic parties.
While White is closing the gap in the Governor's race, it's marginal- not to mention there are a week's worth of votes already cast. It's not a question of just winning all the undecideds, it's forcing some of Perry's voters to switch to White (or Libertarian Kathie Glass). There is some hope there as the UT/TT poll notes...
While 72 percent of White's voters support him "very strongly," only 53 percent of Perry's voters say the same. Glass has very strong support from 40 percent. All of Shafto's voters say they only "somewhat strongly" support her.
According to the UT/TT poll, the GOP has an +18 generic congressional ballot lead and a +15 generic state legislative ballot lead. Governor Perry's job approval is 45/37 compared to President Obama's job approval of 35/59 of which only 14% strongly approve and 53% strong disapprove. When 9 out of 10 voters who disapprove of Obama, stongly disapprove, and that makes up a majority of the electorate... that says it all.
Little surprise that Rick Perry has worked to nationalize the Governor's race. Now he just has to decide if he wants to run for President in 2012 or for an unprecedented 4th term as Governor in 2014... if he wins re-election eight days from now.
Texas faces a budget crisis of truly daunting proportions, with lawmakers likely to cut sacrosanct programs such as education for the first time in memory and to lay off hundreds if not thousands of state workers and public university employees.
Texas' GOPleaders, their eyes on the Nov. 2 election, have played down the problem's size, even as the hole in the next two-year cycle has grown in recent weeks to as much as $24 billion to $25 billion. That's about 25 percent of current spending.
The gap is now proportionately larger than the deficit California recently closed with cuts and fee increases, its fourth dose of budget misery since September 2008.
The next legislative session is going to be an absolute disaster.
8:00pm - Back soon with wrap-up and final thoughts.
7:58pm - Bill White closing argument: "While Rick Perry and his friends can run the state over the last several years, during times when polls are open you can decide the direciton of this state. Get out the vote, get others to do so."
7:56pm - Shafto wants to construct the kind of world where we can care for each other, and what car you drive isn't as important as how close you are to your neighbor. Says many of our green values are human values.
7:54pm - Glass' closing argument: Says she will be a fighter, and she's heard the top two people spend $50 million to tell everyone why each other is wrong, and says they are both right. You can vote for Rick Perry on November 2, but the next morning he still won't respect you.
7:53pm - Missed that last lightning round question. I was shooting whiskey. Closing statement!
7:52pm - "Beer, wine, whiskey or green tea?" Shafto: Green Tea. Glass: wine. White: coffee.
7:51pm - Favorite philosopher? Glass: Ayn Rand. Shafto: Pass. White: St. Augustine. "Socrates had his moments."
7:50pm - How would you rate Barack Obama's performance as President? White: won't give running commentary, but will give him respect and call him President. Glass calls Obama, "the worst President ever." Glass says, "6.5-7" and is constrained by forces that aren't always obvious.
7:49pm - Lightning round! What law do you want to repeal? Shafto wants to end the death penalty. White wants to end unfunded mandates -- for example, the one that doesn't give local school districts setting school calendars. Glass: property tax.
Three of the candidates for Governor of Texas will face off this evening in a debate sponsored by the Austin American-Statesman; The Dallas Morning News; the Fort Worth Star-Telegram; The Houston Chronicle; The San Antonio Express-News; KLRU-TV, Austin PBS; and KUT-FM, Public Radio for Central Texas.
For the few people (and fewer undecideds) that will be tuning in tonight as a result of Rick Perry's continued stonewalling of any debates, we're posting where and when you can watch the debate. Due to Perry's absence, most non-public TV stations will not carry the debate out of concern for 'equal time' provisions.
The debate begins at 7PM Central Time tonight and will feature Democrat Bill White, Libertarian Kathie Glass, and Green Party nominee Deb Shafto. The debate will be held in the KLRU-TV Studios in Austin, 2504-B Whitis (The University of Texas Campus, Communications Building B), 6th Floor.
The debate will be broadcast live or on a delayed basis on many PBS stations and will be streamed live by many of the participating media outlets, including:
BasinPBS (KPBT-TV), Midland, Channel 36, 7 PM Central
HoustonPBS (KUHT), Houston, Channel 18.2, 7 PM Central
KACV-TV, Amarillo, Channel 2.1, 7 PM Central
KAMU-TV, College Station, Channel 12.1, 7 PM Central
KCOS-TV, El Paso, Channels 13 and 13.1, 7PM Mountain Time
KEDT-TV, Corpus Christi, Channel 16, 7 PM Central
KTXT-TV, Lubbock, Channel 5, 7 PM Central
KLRN-TV, San Antonio, Channel 9.1, 10 PM Central
KLRU-TV, Austin, Channel 18.1, 7 PM Central
KMBH-TV, Harlingen, Channel 38.1, Thursday, October 21st, 8PM Central
In Central Texas, the debate will also be carried live on KUT-FM, 90.5. You can also watch a live stream of the debate at Bill White's website.
A government whistleblower memo White's campaign released Tuesday describes a series of ethical lapses and insider deals at the $100 billion Teacher Retirement System of Texas, where private investment managers that made huge contributions to Perry allegedly got special treatment.
The leaked memo was written by a former TRS director of private market investments. Executives associated with the companies have given thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to Perry, records show.
White is treating the memo as an October surprise in the 2010 governor's race, and he plans a news conference Tuesday. Neither the Perry campaign nor TRS immediately responded to calls for comment.
You can read the full 14-page whistleblower memo, released by the Bill White campaign, here. We'll have much, much more on this as it develops.
Just wanted to share a new web video by the John Lingenfelder campaign where we went out and spoke to republicans about the job Sam Johnson is doing for them.
Look, I know I don’t have the polish of career politicians. But as an experienced businessman and Mayor I know how to bring people together to get things done. Isn’t that what Texas needs right now?
Texas Democrats have not had a candidate like Bill White run statewide since the days of Ann Richards. Bill White is a public servant. In their first endorsement of a Democrat for governor in at least a quarter century, the Dallas Morning News wrote that Bill White represents "the best Texas tradition of the businessman governor." He is exactly who we need right now, and the stakes are too high for Bill White to not get elected.
After all, it is Bill White versus what the Texas Observer called, "The New Nixon." Consider the following:
The list goes on and on. Republicans like Rick Perry will see that list and say that I am "trying to tear down Texas." Nothing could be further from the truth. As a lifelong Texan, I want our state to succeed. But I know, as many of you know, that Texas will not succeed -- in the short-term or the long-term -- until we seriously address the long list of challenges facing our state. And that will never happen with Rick Perry.
There are as many criticisms of the campaign as there are factions in our party. There are Democrats who wish Bill White talked more about issues, and others who want him to get more negative against Perry. There is concern that White hasn't done enough to reach out to the Hispanic community, and the persistant desire for him to be more exciting and engaging. Every day since he announced, I've heard Democrats talk about why Bill White won't be governor, or why his strategy is not the right one to win.
What often goes unsaid, though, is what Bill White, his campaign, the Texas Democratic Party and volutneers across the state have done. The field program is an impressive attempt to overcome the Everest-like challenge of defeating our 10-year incumbent Governor who many presume to be unstoppable. As a result, many Democrats don't get involved because of apathy, inertia, concern of Rick Perry's natural advantage, or the national mood. No one has fully understood the massive field program Bill White, the Texas Democratic Party, and county coordinated campaigns across the state have developed and executed with unprecedented committment this cycle.
Since Bill White announced for governor on December 4, Bill White's campaign and Democratic allies have called 2.4 million voters and knocked on 1.9 million voters' doors
In October alone, 572,862 voters have been called and 565,290 voters' doors have been knocked
Over 18,000 Bill White volunteers are signed up to knock on doors and make calls
Bill White's field organization has more than 70 field organizers, regional directors, and political directors
There are multiple coordinated campaigns driving out the democratic base, with hundreds of canvassers who have been working every single day for months
Victory is truly within our reach if we go out and work for it.You can make phone calls all day. With just two weeks to go, it is absolutely imperative that each of us does everything within our power to play a role in making history in Texas. On any political campaign, strategy decisions are going to be made that people don't agree with, don't understand, or don't support. At this stage of the game, though, all the chips are on the table. All that matters today, for those who understand the stakes of what it will mean if Rick Perry wins re-election for another four years, is that we take advantage of what we can control, and not worry about what we can't.
