The following U.S. House members endorsed Rep. Noriega in the U.S. Senate race: Reps. Al Green, Ruben Hinojosa, Silvestre Reyes, Chet Edwards, Sheila Jackson-Lee, Charlie Gonzalez, Nick Lampson, Ciro Rodriguez, Lloyd Doggett, Solomon P. Ortiz, Gene Green, and Eddie Bernice Johnson.
"Rick Noriega is the candidate in this race whose entire life represents his commitment to profound service to our nation ... military service and public service," said the members of the Texas Delegation. "From the halls of the University of Houston under an ROTC scholarship, to the halls of Harvard, to the Texas National Guard, to the halls of the State Capitol, to the mountains of Afghanistan after 9-11, and to the Texas border with Operation Jumpstart - we know that Rick Noriega is the candidate to best serve Texans in the United States Senate."
"On the defining issues of the day - national security, border security, health insurance for our children, and fiscal responsibility - Rick is uniquely positioned, by virtue of his life experience, to best serve Texas interests in the U.S. Senate," the members agreed. "U.S. military policy will long command the attention of future Congresses. Rick's understanding of on-the-ground logistics - as well as abilities and limitations - of our military will be a fresh and important voice in the Senate on military issues."
Charles Kuffner adds some insight as to why this is really pretty awesome and a success for Team Noriega.
Excellent. It may not seem like a big deal for a bunch of Democratic members of Congress to endorse a Democrat running for Senate, but 1) it's never a trivial thing to get a bunch of Democrats to agree on anything; 2) the more unified Noriega's support is here, the more likely he'll get support from the national folks; and 3) this is still a contested primary, however loosely that's being defined.
You may be wondering about that thirteenth member of Congress. That would be Rep. Henry Cuellar, and as usual, he's doing his own thing.
Various members of Congress also taped video statements of support which the campaign will be distributing over the coming days.
This is great news and really speaks to how important it was to win back TX-23 last year in the special rather than waiting around til 2008.
Rep. Ciro Rodriguez has nearly $600,000 available for his re-election campaign, almost twice as much as his nearest potential 2008 challenger, Federal Election Commission records show.
San Antonio lawyer Francisco "Quico" Canseco, a Republican, has $303,553 in cash-on-hand. He raised $78,000 during the three-month period ending Sept. 30 and loaned his campaign $140,000.
The campaign spent $350,000 on TV and radio advertising.
Jim McGrody, a businessman seeking the Republican nomination, raised $11,000 and ended the period with $5,500 in cash-on-hand.
One other interesting note from the SAEN story...
Canseco's decision to spend his personal funds have earned him support from Republicans in Washington, said David Wasserman, an analyst with the non-partisan Cook Political Report.
I wish the Republicans (as well as Democrats) would move past the idea that spending your own personal funds is the only way to be taken seriously by insiders in Washington. Self-funders track record isn't all that great. Here's what the Wall Street Journal pointed out about self-funding earlier this year.
Indeed, the majority of self-funded campaigns fail. The Center for Responsive Politics says only one of the 30 congressional candidates who spent at least $500,000 of their own money in 2004 got elected. (That one was Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican.)
Acording to Jennuifer Steen, a professor at Boston College who wrote a book on self-financed candidates for Congress, such candidates won only about 30 percent of their elections between 1990 and 2000.
Granted, Steen says that spending millions of your own money on a race can blunt the opposition. But for the most part, money doesn't guarantee victory. What matters more is the experience of a candidate and his or her appeal to voters. While money helps, it can't rescue a bad candidate.
Ciro may not have always had the best track record in raising money but he's been steadily building up his campaign coffers and should be well placed in 2008 as an incumbent.
This is an old story I'm just getting around to writing. Sorry for the delay -- I've been doing orientation up at the KSG school. -- Phillip
Congressman Ciro Rodriguez defeated Republican Henry Bonilla last December to regain his seat to the Texas 23'rd CD. At the time, the San Antonio Express-News described the win as follows:
The soundness with which Rep. Henry Bonilla, the one-time Hispanic poster boy of the Republican Party, was beaten Tuesday night was the equivalent of a political earthquake.
Congressman Rodriguez already has a formal challenger, however -- and the challenger, named Jim McGrody has launched such a comprehensive website that it gained the attention of the paper. In Bruce Davidson's column titled, "'Nerdy' game plan for candidate" he writes:
He has addressed the entire Texas Republican Party platform line by line, agreeing with most of it. And he has unveiled Compact 23, a list of key positions and principles.
McGrody also has detailed how his voting record would differ from incumbent Rep. Ciro Rodriguez's with his Vote Count Database.
[...]
But McGrody, a 67-year-old retiree, is betting that he can use his Web site, Internet marketing skills and a fast-growing e-mail list to communicate with voters repeatedly for only a small amount of money and better than his well-funded foes.
To be certain, McGrody's website is quite impressive. Granted, his policies and positions are terribly out of line and leave much to be desired for the people in his district. But he has certainly capitalized on the benefits of the internet in terms of establishing your presence and communicating to your audience.
It is so much harder to write on the road. I am back now until YearlyKos, and a story had to be told.
Francisco Canseco – a Republican running against Ciro Rodriguez in TX-23 – claimed that he raised an astounding $550,000 in the second quarter. To have that much support in a 55% Democratic district is impressive. So impressive a reporter from the Dallas Morning News even wrote a piece on Canseco’s early success.
San Antonio lawyer Francisco "Quico" Canseco says he's raised more than $550,000. That would make him one of the country's best-financed GOP challengers, and others may join the race.
What Canseco failed to mentioned was that all but $30,400 came from his own bank account. Talk about grassroots support! To put that in perspective, Dan Grant and Larry Joe Dougherty have both raised over $70,000 each in the Texas 10th congressional district!
The reporter, understandably pissed, wrote a second article blasting Canseco for his misleading press release which read, “Fundraising will not be a problem for Canseco, due mainly to the supporters who have rallied around his campaign.”
…a federal campaign report filed Monday showed that nearly all of that money came from Mr. Canseco himself, bringing the amount he has lent his campaign to $1.03 million.
Just 22 other donors have pitched in, yielding $30,400 – a far cry from the boast the Republican's aides issued last week, which read: "Fundraising will not be a problem for Canseco, due mainly to the supporters who have rallied around his campaign."
The Canseco campaign has spent more than a quarter-million, but thanks to the candidate's largess, it has more than $315,000 in the bank. By contrast, Mr. Rodriguez raised nearly $250,000 in the last three months, putting his total for the campaign above $1.06 million. He owes just $2,139 and has about $550,000 in cash.
Typically we appreciate our candidates and elected officials to be honest and avoid deceiving voters. That whole ethical government thing seems to be good. Instead Canseco has already proven he wants to, at best, mislead voters and, at worst, straight up lie to them. That should make the decision come next November pretty easy.
So the first quarter of fundraising is over and while the focus was mostly on the presidential candidates, let's not forget about our incumbent members of Congress. In order to do that, I've compiled data for all 32 members in Texas and sorted them in four categories: 1Q Raised, 1Q Spent, Cash on Hand, and their Burn rate (calculated as spent/raised so the higher the number the more spent).
Click on the different tabs below to see the totals. Democrats in bold but all are marked by party. Al Green has not yet filed (not uncommon). If it's not displaying below, click here.
Glad to see Chet (D), Lampson (D), and Ciro (D) high on that list, though I'm sure Lampson would like a bit more knowing that he will have the toughest re-election fight in Texas. Six of the seven worst fundraisers were Republicans.
But what is up with Ron Paul (R) and Ralph Hall (R)? I know Paul is running for President (as a Republican, not Libertarian) but Hall pulled in a meager $2000. Hall is old (84) but hasn't announced any plans to retire. Could this be a sign? He also used to be a Democrat until he switched parties after the DeLay redistricting forced him into a more Republican district. Might be be convinced to switch back? Under House rules he'd retain his seniority and seeing as he's been in congress since 1981, that's a lot of rank he could pull.
In terms of Cash on Hand, Austin's Lloyd Doggett (D) is #1 with $1.95 million. But after that it's mostly Republican, though some notably lower than 2 years ago like Lamar Smith (R) and Pete Sessions (R). That's one nice side effect of the campaigns of John Courage and Will Pryor.
As to the burn rate- anything over 1 indicates more money being spent than raised. Texas Democrats did very well in this category holding 10 of the 14 best spots, holding on to their cash and building up their warchests. Paul (R) is the worst burner but his attention is elsewhere so no surprise. Hall (R) takes the number 2 spot- further hints at potential retirement?
Anything else of note? Add your thoughts and analysis in the comments.
There is currently legislation in the U.S. Congress to establish a public financing system for national congressional elections. Such a system would allow candidates to spend less time fundraising and more time communicating with their constituents. A public financing system would effectively make politicians more responsive and accountable to their constituents than special interests and wealthy campaign contributors.
A fellow Common Cause member recently spoke with Congressman Ciro Rodriguez (D-TX) from the 23rd District. When she asked him how he felt about public financing he voiced his support by saying "of course I'd support it." He also pointed out that with the current system politicians must devote so much time fundraising that they have very little time to talk with constituents.
It certainly is nice to hear that Congressman Rodriguez is in support of establishing such a system. Hopefully more of the Texas delegation will join with Congressman Rodriguez in support of establishing a public financing system for national congressional elections. Let's show the country that we have moved beyond the DeLay campaign finance scandals and support real reform.
The Hill reports that newly elected Congressman Ciro Rodriguez has been selected by Speaker to be Pelosi to serve on the coveted House Appropriations Committee.
She also named Nick Lampson to serve on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Not only did Ciro's win in TX-23 make for a very nice Christmas gift to Democrats, it also is an investment. As many in Texas know, Bonilla (the only Mexican-American Republican in Congress) was the poster boy for the Republican Party's 'outreach' to Latino voters. Meaning of course, the photo-shopped version of someone who looks like you but sells you out and screws you over in reality.
Not only that, but it's an open secret that Bonilla had his eyes on becoming a US Senator for Texas. For now, we've taken away his launching pad and platform to run for statewide office. As Paul Burka said today...
Bonilla may have stayed at the party too long. He has always wanted to move up to the Senate, and it seemed a possibility four years ago when Phil Gramm announced that he would not seek reelection. But Gramm and Rick Perry could not agree on a scenario that would have led to Gramm's early resignation and Bonilla's appointment, and the moment passed. Since then, Bonilla has had a run of bad luck: the U.S. Supreme Court said that his safe district violated the Voting Rights Act last spring--the only district on Tom DeLay's map that didn't pass muster--and a three-judge panel drew him a 61% Hispanic district in which he had no long-term (and, as it turned out, no short-term) future.
In addition, Ciro should be able to hold this seat, becoming a Democratic Progressive Hispanic Representative in the majority party. That takes a load off the DCCC in 2008 when they will be fighting all over the country letting us focus in Texas on holding Lampson and taking out the like of McCaul and others instead.
The soundness with which Rep. Henry Bonilla, the one-time Hispanic poster boy of the Republican Party, was beaten Tuesday night was the equivalent of a political earthquake.
The seven-term incumbent, who as late as Tuesday harbored dreams of becoming a U.S. Senator, was essentially fired from office and replaced by Ciro Rodriguez, a former congressman known more for being a good man than a good campaigner.
Defying every political truism of Bexar County politics, Bonilla started the night by becoming the rare well-known Republican to not only lose early voting, but to lose it badly.
Last night's victory in TX-23 was a huge one, the majority of the credit for which must be placed at the hands of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The DCCC spent over a million dollars in the last month helping build out Ciro's campaign and the hard work of Adrian Saenz, Meghan Gaffney, and Vanessa Gonzalez put him over the top. Their work as well as that of others that went unseen, was critical in making this a winning race.
The TDP, while constrained by the McCain-Feingold laws, did its part and devoted voter information, a secondary field program in 6 counties, some fundraising, and a few statewide e-mails (though woefully inept in that department as usual). Still, it's more than I'd ever have expected out of the TDP prior to Boyd Richie and should be congratulated.
And of course, there are thanks to be made to LULAC & MALDEF who fought ongoing legal battles to keep early voting going, True Blue Action, the TexRoots, Labor, and many other players.
But the one group that would have you believe they did it all and were the first out of the gate and into bloggers inboxes with their "look what we won" e-mail, would be the Lone Star Project. While they have done plenty of good stuff in the past, their release last night and this falling-over-themselves piece is best summed up by McBlogger.
I wasn't going to write anything about this, but goddamn if there wasn't an email last night, mere hours after Ciro Rodriguez won, from LSP taking credit for the damn thing. Matt [Angle], I'm going to terminate my address on your f***ing list if you don't stop with the auto-fe****io. Seriously, how much did LSP raise for Ciro? From my perspective, this was the candidate, DCCC, LULAC and MALDEF. LSP didn't even like the LULAC map that produced this district; now you're the ones responsible?
The winners are never going to call bullshit, so it falls to us. Matt you do a hell of lot and there is no need to take credit for everything. It distracts from the real work ahead and breeds resentment among people who work really hard, cycle after cycle. People you're going to need at some point in the future.
Sometimes, modesty is an asset.
Indeed. Now on to the rest of the analysis and impact of this race as that's off the blogs' collective chest.
Great stuff- I've added the videos into the extended text. -KT
Ciro Rodriguez, the voters of the 23rd congressional district of Texas, and everyone who helped out won a great victory yesterday. And with that win, Democrats knock off Henry Bonilla, who went in one week from labelling Rodriguez as a terrorist-supporter, to reportedly making a gracious concession call, where he offered to work with Rodriguez during the transition.
We went down to Ciro's victory rally at the packed Harlandale Civic Center on the south side last night,and posted a video segment of Ciro's victory speech. Earlier in the day, we got short video interviews of Rep. Joe Baca of California and John Courage explaining why they were out supporting the GOTV effort for Ciro. The videos are at my blog, B and B.
Thanks again to everyone who helped make this victory a reality!
